Customer Reviews

Denon DCM-390 5 Disc CD Carousel w/ Built in HDCD Decoding

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I've had 3 of these machines over the past couple of years. The first one, bought brand new, sounded great. After a few months, it started acting up - would not read discs at all or would skip, etc. Then I began to clean it regularly using a lens cleaner. That helped, but about a week after the each cleaning the machine would once again begin to function defectively.

After about 6 months, the tray (which is all plastic and not very substantial) would simply not open at times for no apparent reason. Turning the player off and back on helped alleviate this situation for a while. But eventually the tray just would not open at all. The machine was history.

I phoned Denon at the number on its website, but the phone went unanswered. It was a regular weekday so I was pretty amazed. The phone rang and rang - no voicemail, no machine...? This is supposed to be a high tech audio company, after all. Of course I tried a few more calls over the following couple of weeks, but always got the same result - A phone that rang and rang with no answer whatsoever. Since no one answered the phone, I assumed that if I sent the unit to Denon for repair no one would open the box.

Well, because the DCM-390 sounded so good - big, three dimensional soundstage; excellent detail and timbral balance - I bought another. This one was refurbished. It too sounded great, and worked flawlessly for about 8 months or so. Then it began to skip. I cleaned the lens and the machine worked fine - for about a week. Then it began skipping again.

I found myself cleaning the lens once a week - and also spraying the back of the tray (into the machine) with compressed air. This really helped, but was too much maintenance as far as I was concerned.

One day, after about a year or so, I was listening and suddenly the sound became distorted. Cleaned the lens; it helped somewhat but the distortion remained. Long story short - the machine had given up the ghost. Distorted sound regardless of the CD. Soon the machine ceased to read any CD at all. Denon DCM-390 (number two) was history.

Denon DCM-390 (number three) - also refurbished - was defective right out of the box. It emitted a horrendous grinding noise while playing any CD. I took the machine apart in an attempt to fix it, but the grinding noise appeared to be coming from the play motor itself. I lubed the motor and did some other work on it, but it soon became clear that this machine was history as well. Number three went into the trash.

When and if any Denon DCM-390 will operate properly is apparently a very dicey proposition, based on my experience. I won't be buying another.

FEATURES:

Deceptive "Denon" Name. Not your father's Denon, let me assure you.

Weight. If it were any lighter it would be made of balsa wood.

Remote Control. The remote does not light up when used and does not have a power on/off button.

5-CD carousel, reads multiple formats, digital output: I have been unable to verify if these features exist because I haven't owned a Denon DCM-390 that works, and I've been through two of them.

EXPERIENCE:
I bought the Denon DCM-390 because it offered a lot of decoding features (mp3, wma, wav, HDCD decoding) and, well, it's a Denon. My last Denon CD player lasted over 20 years.

The DCM-390 didn't work out of the box. It would only sporadically read CD's -- and I'm talking about REAL CD's purchased from Amazon, not discs I burned on my computer. The problem was incredibly aggravating because it was nearly impossible to get the carousel to stop spinning as it searched through all the CDs, unable to read any of them.

So I received a second CD player. This one was worse -- it would lift a CD out of the carousel and never return it. Tapping and jostling the player didn't help. In fact, it made the problem worse because the CD dropped while the carousel drawer was out. When I pushed the button to close the drawer, CRUNCH! There went my CD -- eaten. No way to get it out, no way to either close or open the carousel.

Support from Denon? NON-EXISTANT, as others have pointed out in their reviews.

CONCLUSION: Denon is not the company it once was. The DCM-390 is light-weight, poorly manufactured, and unsupported by Denon. I wouldn't recommend buying this product for any price -- I wouldn't even accept one for free, considering the damage it did to my CD's.

The higher bit digital-to-analog conversion and the propriatory Denon signal processing really work here. The sound is bold, clear and natural at the same time. This device made me start to enjoy my collection of classical music CDs, as well as music in other genres. It revealed the potential o my AKG-240 monitor-class headphones as well. I recommend this player as a base for your future audiosystem if you want to upgrade from a general $200 stereo system. The good news is you don't need to spend a lot right away for other components to start enjoying the upgrade: believe it or not but simple plugging of this player to your existing system as an external signal source will make a noticeable difference! Yes, technically speaking, your $200 all-in-one system may have one or two orders of magnitude more harmonic distortions and you probably think it will ruine all the advantages of the clear signal from this player? Not at all! The right low-level signal processing will be immediately noticeable as much more clear sound with extended frequency range. And if you use the hi-end headphones (as my AKG mentioned above), the audiophile-class system will be already complete. I also added a $240 headphone amplifier from Xenos Audio Systems as a final touch. Also, if you think your demands for the audio quality does not fit into the modern MP3 world, this player is the answer: I never heard such fine MP3 conversion! So, if your music exists as MP3 files originally, DO NOT convert them on your computer! Burn a disc with MP3s and let this device reveal the full potential of your audio files. You will be surprised by the sound quality. The downside of this is inability of this player to browse file folders, so prepare to spend some time rearranging MP3 files to have all of them in the root folder of the disc, however your ears will thank you for the trouble.

The only good thing about the Denon 390 changer is the sound... when it works. My third one just began exhibiting the same failure as the other two: somewhere between 3 to 8 months in service the unit will suddenly refuse to recognize any disk has been inserted. Some lens cleaning methods may extend operations for a few weeks, but eventually they all die ignominiously.

The multiple failures I and others have experienced indicate a flawed design rather than random parts quality issues. There are less aggravating choices available in the CD changer market.

Really enjoyed the sound from this changer until it totally failed after only 7 months of very moderate use. For the price of this deck, I would expect better. The player will play a disk for 37 to 40 seconds before stopping, regardless of the disk or carousel position.

This was purchased as an upgrade to a Kenwood magazine-type 6-disc changer. Well, the Denon sounds a lot better! The most noticeable difference is that it's a LOT louder. Bass is more powerful as well. I also like the fact that you can swap CDS out while playing.

One thing you should know is that the player is very deep (front to back) because of the 5-CD tray. In case you have a narrow shelf or something.

This is my first review of any kind. I cannot help but now complain about the tray
design of Denon cd players., I have now purchased two dcm 390 units (not cheap) and the same design flaw has appeared in both units, i.e. discs get stuck in tray!!! The sound quality is good and other features are also good: however this is the secound unit I will have to return and as such I will NEVER but DENON CD equipment!!! I am now trying a YAMAHA CDC-697 CD PLAYER concerning which reviews on AMAZON as well as other electronic sites, seem to be very high on overall performance.

The thing cost 300 dollars and quit after less than a year of light use, will only play a minute of music regardless of the cd.

I ordered this player after much deliberation. I should have gone with a cheaper model from another company. It completly malfunctioned after a month. Denon is impossible to find, let alone deal with and you will not be able to talk to a person. Just the worst service in the world. Etronics, their front was no better. Beware, you have been warned. Stay away, and I'll never buy another Denon again.

I bought a Denon DCM 390 to replace my 15-year old Sony player. We built a house 5 years ago and, while I wasn't paying close attention, we ended up with Denon gear. Except I kept my Sony, which I loved but which eventually died. And so I decided on a 390 as a replacement, which might be more compatible with my Denon amplifier (also a dog).

The good news is that the DCM 390 works, after a fashion and at least for now. Practically everything else is the bad news. Features supported by my elderly Sony, things I took for granted, either aren't available in the DCM 390 or can only be executed in the most clunky, time-consuming and counter-intuitive manner. To give two examples, I usually play all the disks on the carousel in the "repeat all" mode. The Denon will do that, but every time you turn on the gear you must remember to punch "repeat" three times, i.e., your preference is not "saved." Otherwise it will play one disk and stop. And the front panel display for repeating all disks doesn't say "Repeat All" or something logical; it says "Repeat Disk" (singular). Also, there is no efficient way to exchange non-playing disks during playback of the current disk. You have to stop playback and do your exchanges individually, then start everything again. Oh, and when you do this you've also turned off Repeat. It must (again) be set to your preference, even though the player has remained "on" throughout.

The DCM 390 has a programming function, something I didn't have with the Sony (but did have with my 1985 Teac). The problem is it only works for tracks on the disk currently being played. (This is according to the manual; I haven't tried using it yet.) If you want to program playback of all of disks 1, 3 and 4, but not disks 2 and 5 - too bad. You have to go to the unit and physically remove disks 2 and 5.

As for compatibility with the amp, there's little of that. Only a few things (basically play and stop) can be executed with the amplifier remote. For most features you must use the dedicated CD remote or try to locate the necessary (and tiny) buttons on the vision-unfriendly flat black front panel.

Then there's the noise. The prominent, distracting Kur-KLUNK as the disks change doesn't inspire confidence. It brings to mind what must have been the sound of one's great-grandfather using a hand-crank to start his Model-T on a cold morning.