Customer Reviews

Denon DCM-380 Five-Disc Auto CD Changer

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have been completely satisfied with the sound and build quality of Denon's products for twenty years. Since I've had such good experiences, I decided to ignore the negative reviews I read on the DCM 380 and give it a chance.

Out of the box, the DCM 380 seemed relatively solid and fit in well with my other Denon components. I became concerned as soon as I opened the disc drawer for the first time. The disc tray barely came out and then reluctantly stopped in the disc 3 position. I put in a disc and was immediately impressed with the sound quality of the DCM 380. The Burr-Brown converters and HDCD processor live up to their well-deserved reputation... simply beautiful sound.

However, its excellent sound quality could not make up for its shoddy build and unreliablity. The DCM 380 hesitates for unduly long periods of time when reading a new disc. Worse yet, it won't even play several of the standard, mint condition, commercially recorded discs in my collection. What is the point of fantastic sound quality if you cannot load a CD changer with discs and have it play reliably?

Sadly, my impression of Denon has changed through my experience with this CD player. Fortunately, I was able to return this player for a full refund and purchased a Rotel changer.

Nice player, but... a) doesn't play some disks. Just doesn't detect them. These disks play well on 10 years old Sony player and $20 CD walkman, b) CD-RW recoreded on Sony CD recorder don't play. They play on $20 CD walkman. Each time I insert CD I pray that it will be recognized. If plays, plays well. By the way, it is 6 month old...

I don't know whether it is just defective, of this is the "feature". Have to find the service...

More: ergonomics questionable. Cannot program sequence of CD playing, can do this only on track level. My 10 years old Sony has no problems with this.

My unit (the replacement for the first unit with the same problem) "sort of works" like the previous reviewer. Some discs are not recognized, discs that work in all sorts of other players. Sometimes if I open the tray and close it again the player recognizes the disc. The digital track calendar sometimes fails to light up the 17 and or 18. The disc 5 indicator and disc 1 disk loaded indicator also fail to light on occasion.

Unlike my Denon AVR-3300 receiver and DVD-2900 universal player, the DCM-380 is a piece of junk and given the sticker price it is quite a disappointment. I hate this player.

I ordered this CD Changer with some hesitation due to the other reviews. But, I have had nothing but great experience with Denon (0 failures in 17 years of components).
Mine has arrived and installed beautifully. My only "complaint" is that it's very wide and just barely clears the opening in my system rack.

great cd-changer and price...no problems what-so-ever and it's been about two years that i've owned this unit...