Review ... Denon DCS-A110 Anniversary Edition

Note ... The title should read "DCD-A110".

Today, I put the Denon DCD-A110 Anniversary Edition into my system. "Mr. Denon" replaces a 20 year old Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 3D CD player. Right out of the box, there is a gravitas and tremendous detail to the Denon. As great as the Nu-Vista is (and it uses tubes in the output stage), I can tell that the Denon is way, way better. Incredible micro-detail and far greater depth in soundstage than in the MF

The sound leans to the warm side ever so slightly, and is highly detailed without being thin or clinical. SACD playback is excellent, but it’s with Redbook that this baby shines. The CD sound is hi-res in every sense, and the player certainly brings older CDs from the pleistocine era into the modern world. That may be atrributable to the quad DAC set-up.

Build quality is off the charts ... it’s a heavy beast with a beautiful, gun metal finish. The internals are chock full of high quality parts, so you can see that Denon focused heavily on sound quality. There simply is no empty real estate inside. If I had to nitpick, it would be: (a) no balanced outputs; and (b) lack of an "open tray" function on the remote. I don’t stream, so the lack of digital inputs is irrelevant to me ... this is a purist, old-school design in many ways, and is a statement piece.

Plainly, the Denon will open up as it breaks in, but wow ... first track out of the box and the sound is just awesome. I’m really flabbergasted.