I've had a 3910 for three days and have let it run 24 hours a day playing various media types since then. In all honesty and to my surprise the Denon is sounding quite respectable even when the stock power cord is in use.
This player surprised me in how it has a seemingly realistic tone/timbre - whereas instruments, vocals, etc. seem closer to natural vs. heavy/weighted or thin/transparent.
Perhaps my semi-delight is due to the fact that I was expecting the hollow & mechanical sound of earlier vintage Sony DVD/SACD players. And I didn't get that with the Denon.
I usually base the performance of a CDP on how it makes me feel (emotionally) vs. how much it lets me hear (in some respects). The highest end CDP's convey a sense of presence, sensuality, and degree of soul to music which is as difficult to describe in words as it is to find in cheap(er) sub-2000 players.
That said (wrote), the Denon does not make me feel all that great. It does not completely convey the soul of music like higher end players - and does not draw me in...
BUT it DOES scratch the surface... there is potential.
There are a lot of areas where the Denon could be considered quite good - bass, tonality, soundstage, texture, pace, etc. However, for me the number one audible shortcoming of this player and the #1 reason why it fails to convey the soul of music is its lack of dimensional tangibility. Musical images are there but they just don't have the sensuality or lust to be mistaken as real - and therefore draw a listener into the music.
*I* am hopeful that (when available), modifications to this unit will take it to another (much higher) level.
Not sure what gear you're familiar with so I'll use some common units to compare to:
SACD performance is not as good as Marantz SA-1 or Sony SCD-1, better than Marantz SA-14, XA-777ES.
Redbook is good but not great on this unit. My guess is that ANY player you can get for over 2K used will destroy this player.
DVD Video Performance is as good as it gets or as good as you are.... What I mean is, there are so many adjustments to the picture that you can make it look however you want. It has brightness, contrast, mid-sharpness, high-sharpness, CRC (whatever that is), chroma enhancing, chroma-delay, white level, black level, vertical digital enhancement, horizontal digital enhancement, digital correction, and about 20 levels of Gamma correction. There are most likely more settings. Those are the ones I could remember off the top of my head.
For component video output, I imagine this is as good as any top level DVD player is or will be. I do not have HDMI or DVI on my TV but guess that the upconversion to 780p and 1080p through those connections would allow the Denon to show its TRUE colors.
DVD sound is pretty good too. It made my HT system with cheap Sony digital amp sound much better.
Haven't tried DVD-A or MP3 or JPG
hope this helps
This player surprised me in how it has a seemingly realistic tone/timbre - whereas instruments, vocals, etc. seem closer to natural vs. heavy/weighted or thin/transparent.
Perhaps my semi-delight is due to the fact that I was expecting the hollow & mechanical sound of earlier vintage Sony DVD/SACD players. And I didn't get that with the Denon.
I usually base the performance of a CDP on how it makes me feel (emotionally) vs. how much it lets me hear (in some respects). The highest end CDP's convey a sense of presence, sensuality, and degree of soul to music which is as difficult to describe in words as it is to find in cheap(er) sub-2000 players.
That said (wrote), the Denon does not make me feel all that great. It does not completely convey the soul of music like higher end players - and does not draw me in...
BUT it DOES scratch the surface... there is potential.
There are a lot of areas where the Denon could be considered quite good - bass, tonality, soundstage, texture, pace, etc. However, for me the number one audible shortcoming of this player and the #1 reason why it fails to convey the soul of music is its lack of dimensional tangibility. Musical images are there but they just don't have the sensuality or lust to be mistaken as real - and therefore draw a listener into the music.
*I* am hopeful that (when available), modifications to this unit will take it to another (much higher) level.
Not sure what gear you're familiar with so I'll use some common units to compare to:
SACD performance is not as good as Marantz SA-1 or Sony SCD-1, better than Marantz SA-14, XA-777ES.
Redbook is good but not great on this unit. My guess is that ANY player you can get for over 2K used will destroy this player.
DVD Video Performance is as good as it gets or as good as you are.... What I mean is, there are so many adjustments to the picture that you can make it look however you want. It has brightness, contrast, mid-sharpness, high-sharpness, CRC (whatever that is), chroma enhancing, chroma-delay, white level, black level, vertical digital enhancement, horizontal digital enhancement, digital correction, and about 20 levels of Gamma correction. There are most likely more settings. Those are the ones I could remember off the top of my head.
For component video output, I imagine this is as good as any top level DVD player is or will be. I do not have HDMI or DVI on my TV but guess that the upconversion to 780p and 1080p through those connections would allow the Denon to show its TRUE colors.
DVD sound is pretty good too. It made my HT system with cheap Sony digital amp sound much better.
Haven't tried DVD-A or MP3 or JPG
hope this helps