Review: Denon DCD-1560 CD Player

Well my big CD system has gone down and needs sevice. So from the closet I pulled out the venerable Denon DCD 1560. Cleaned it up a bit and cleaned the laser. Plugged it in and it immdeiately came to life and sound oh so good. For a unit released in 1991 who can complain, It does have a 20 bit chip in it. And it is really not a let down to switch to. Sure the Classe separates have it beat overall,but at a cost of several thousand dollars. I must admit this has been a very pleasant surprise. Very glad that I did not sell this unit. And by the posts to this thread it seems keeping it was a very good idea. Oh I will have the Classe gear repaired. But the sonic differences between the two are so close, I wondered why I made the jump to more expensive gear. Guess we have all been in that boat. Long live the Denon DCD 1560.

Boy, what a great "blast from the past". Also, couldn't agree more. Denon's top models from that era were always very musical beasts indeed.

Indeed, my first "real" CD player was the venerable Denon DCD1500II (two? generations prior to the 1560), back when the general, ignorant consensus was that "all good CD players sounded the same". It was hard to beat it, and then the subsequent models after, at anything NEAR the price back then.

I then upgraded to the DCD1520, then ultimately on to the 1560, before going totally insane from there...

The DCD1560 truly is a "classic" CD player.

Well my now primary CD Player has developed tracking problems and needs service. So the Denon DCD 1560 is pressed into service.

But before that I decided to trade in the 1560 for the new NAD 542 CD Player. So I packed up the 1560 went to the local NAD dealer to see what kind of deal I could make. New the NAD 542 is $499.95. Was offered $125.00 for the 1560 leaving a balance of $374.95. Okay I can swing that. But first let me audition the NAD 542. The NAD 542 is a marvelous player and has HDCD 24 bit chip and all. What was really surprising was the sonic signature between the 1560 and NAD 542 was surprisingly small. The NAD 542 has the 1560 beat in all areas, but by only the smallest of margins. The NAD should outperform this venerable 1560 as it has 14 years on the Denon. But to my amazement the 1560 was hanging right in there and could not be overall faulted for it is performance. The sales staff there also commented that the differences were small as well. One staffer commented that the build quality was better on the Denon 1560 than the NAD 542. The only major difference was that the NAD 542 has the HDCD chip and the Denon 1560 does not have HDCD, but does have a 20 bit chip. But I do have HDCD with the primary player. Decided not to do the deal as in my opinion there is not $375.00 worth of difference between the two. Most of the staffers also agreed that the difference was probably not worth it,unless I just had to have HDCD.

So yes the Denon DCD 1560 remains a keeper after 14 years since it was new. This is one of audios most enduring products that keeps delivering the promise and few products can make that statement years down the road. Pure value for the money.

Have since installed the Denon DCD 1560 into the main system, while my $2,000.00 CD player needs service after 6 years.

I had the DCD-1420 (circa 1989) from day 1 and was the strongest link in my low-fi system. It too had the 20bit lambda DAC. Never had problems with it in all the 15 years I used it, in fact the sound only got better as I upgraded other weak links in the system. The thing was built like a tank, certainly superior to all other Japanese CDPs of that era.

I only just traded it in for a Rotel RCD-1072 two weeks ago. And the improvement with the Rotel over the Denon is like day and night.

Which Rotel Model did you buy?