General Asylum: REVIEW: Denon DVD 3300 DVD Players by Brian Cheney

This is a recently released (12/00) DVD player dedicated to DVD Audio playback. It decodes DTS and Dolby Digital as well as 2 and 6 channel DVD audio at 24/96 and 24/192. It plays standard DVD discs through its video outputs and has six analog audio outputs for mains, center, rears, and subwoofer. The orientation is, however, towards audio playback rather than video, although many digital audio DVD's I've tried feature video images as well.

I decided to get this player for our CES demo but found it difficult to locate DVD audio titles. I ended up with six, three Delos classical and three pop/rock/big band from Silverline which are original 24/96 six channel music recordings. The Delos titles were done in 1995 by John Eargle and show up on the TOC as 24/96 encodings.

I understand SACD and DVD-A have engaged in a war of the marketing giants recently. I also know there are few titles in either genre to be had, currently more SACD than DVD-A. Both formats have promised large numbers of new releases, but we shall see. My Sony 777ES was no longer available for comparison (my wife disliked its sound intensely and I took it out of my system, but I am quite familiar with SACD as played by the Sony with about 300-400 hours on it.)

I burned in the Denon with 400hrs playing DVD-A with the analog outputs terminated with dummy 10 kOhm loads, ditto the CD section. After all this burnin I discovered the CD playback was midfi at best and no joy to listen to, being 2 dimensional and bright with a decided edge. So skip redbook CD on this one. By the way, the 777ES did not acquit itself well on redbook CD in my system. I realize others have liked it better than I did.

So, given the six titles I own, how did the 3300 sound on DVD-A at 24/96? In a word: excellent, at least on the Delos titles. Star of the show was the Dallas Symphony/Litton playing, of all things, the "1812" Overture, with a chorus singing the Czar's hymn. The Denon did an about-face here, with deep, extended, impactful bass, depth galore in all planes, and a naturalness and lack of edge that handily beat my best redbook CD's played back on my $12,000 Krell/Audio Alchemy rig. Very impressive, and very musically satisfying. Next best were the two other Delos titles (Holst Planets et al). The Silverline big band album was good but overproduced and somewhat thick and gummy sounding.

I'll leave it to the audio press to fight the format wars, but mine is a big thumbs up for DVD Audio at this time, with promise of good things to come. I recommend this unit to you, and am glad I own it.

Big B

REVIEW: Denon DVD 3300 DVD Players Review by Brian Cheney at Audio Asylum