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Review: Denon APl 3910 CD Player

Category: Digital

Musical tastes : Patricia Barber , Deep Forest , Sting , Banco de Gaia , Seal , Steely Dan and anything from the FIM label . Recordings I use for testing are Chesky s Ultimate Demonstration Disc , Chesky s Women of Song , Patricia Barbers Modern Cool , Dean Peer s Its All Good , Diana Krall Love Scenes and all Burrmester discs . Most important aspect of sound reproduction to me is transparency , timbral accuracy and soundstaging properties. Turn offs are a bass heavy balance. This unit has been with me for 3 months. It replaced a Bat Vk D5 SE and marantz SA 1 . The sound changed by becoming more focused with a much larger soundstage .The players within a given ensemble seperated dramatically and it was much easier to look into the soundfield and place the space between the instruments. A favorite disc for this test is Deep Forest s "Music Detected". Each track is brilliantly recorded and is a fantastic disc for evaluating spacial characteristics of your speakers and how they react within your system . With the Denon , the sound wrapped around both sides of the room and enveloped me in a faux surround sound enviroment that no other player in my system had done. It was deeper as well as wider than any player I have ever auditioned .The Sacd version of Diana Krall "Love Scenes" is breathtaking in its imaging properties and the Denon was spot on . The acoustical envelope was clearer and more holographic with an extended top octave which added immediacy and air to percussive instruments and cymbols.A good example is Johnny Frigos "I Love Paris ". Stregnths were an obviously huge soundstage and quick midbass percussive attack. The arrangement is fast and taunt and the Denon seemed to place acoustical air around the musicians. It comes alive on the Denon. Lower bass was extended deeper and discs like the DVD-A version of Blue Man Groups " Audio " showcase the stregnths of the Denon by delivering a far superior percussive assault than the Bat , Marantz Sa 1 or the Meridian G 98 . Female vocals became natural and engaging. Rebecca Pidgeon s famous " Spanish Harlem " was so lifelike I felt like it was the first time I had heard the track. Instrumental " character " was better defined as cymbals became more easily deleniated from one another within a given song. Dean Peers " Its All Good" has a wealth of cymbal diversity on it and the decay and individual caracter of the various unique cymbals used are beautifully recreated through Alex Peychevs Denon 3910. I am no relation to nor affiliated to Alex or APl Hi Fi . I have also heard no better player regardless of price.
brainwater

Showing 2 responses by petewatt

petewatt
9 posts
 
My APL Denon 3910 has well over 200 hours on it, and without question it continues to improve. I have auditioned it in direct connect mode, as well as playing through my modified Conrad Johnson PV-12 tube preamp, and much prefer the direct connect. There may be slightly more "bloom" with the CJ in the loop, but when directly connected to my Spectron amp, the improvement in soundstage, imaging, transparency, ambience and overall musicality is dramatic.

I recently installed the new Spectron Musician III Class D amp (600 wpc)in my system, and all of the above improvements wratched up another notch, plus adding a much more life-like tonality. I will be doing a review of the Spectron digital amp shortly. It is a superb match for direct connecting the APL Denon.
petewatt
9 posts
 
Hi Brainwater. I agree with you assessment of the sonic advantages of the Philips SACD 1000. Over the past year I have owned two of them -- the first custom modified by Dan Wright and the second the APL SACD 1000 complete with Alex's new digital board, tubed output stage, etc. While I thought the APL 1000 and APL 3910 were very similar in tonality, detail, base extension and warmth, I found the APL Denon to be in a different class when it comes to soundstage depth and width, deminsionality, air, transparancy and overall musicality. This, plus some of the new improvements Alex is working on for addition to the Denon platform, makes it the clear winner in my opinion.
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