Presence and Power
Ian from QUEENS, NY on 11/1/2024
I recently purchased this, almost on a whim, to replace a Yamaha A-S1200 which I unfortunately fried and was out of warranty. I didn't know what to expect with this Denon since there aren't a ton of reviews about it. As soon as I hit play I was stunned by the vividness, alive-ness, and almost brutal power of the music coming from this amp. The Yamaha is a beautiful amp and it also sounds great (and I miss it!), but I just can't believe the powerful, controlled bass this amp gets from my KLH Model 5's. On hip hop and electronic music, the Denon is completely in control of those woofers in a way that my old amp never was. I'm not sure what electrical characteristics this amp has that would cause that, I know the damping factor is very high at about 375 but I think the Yamaha also has a high damping factor? Anyway, the most amazing part is that it has power like that, but on softer music like jazz, classical, indie rock, singer-songwriter stuff, it is delicate and imbues the music with a presence and aliveness that makes my hair stand up. These are the exact qualities I had been searching for for many years in audio. Plus the internal DAC and phono stages seem quite good. In fact I sold my external DAC. The Yamaha was wonderful and beautiful but the Denon has me in reverie.
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29 of 29 found this helpful
Denon PMA-1700NE
Richard from Tipp City, Ohio on 2/4/2024
Jan/Feb 2024. WOW !. I now have some real muscle for Quad S2 speakers. The amp makes my cds shine. My stored music from my APPLE computer sound even better. Love the cosmetics/controls on the front panel with the aluminum color front face on the unit. You can see the quality. Reminds me of the "old days" of audio equipment design. This int. amp is "very heavy". The amp is built in Japan. I'm using an old Marantz cd player for now. I'm planning to buy a new cd player soon.
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43 of 48 found this helpful
