CD Player/Transport Reviews

Denon DCD-2560 CD player Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Just about the only change I've made to my system has been replacing VTL's Compact 160 monoblocks with their larger KT90-version Deluxe 225s; I need more juice than the 160s were able to swing, and the triode-wired Deluxe 225s are just the ticket. The new 225s extend the virtues of the Compact 160s (triode mode only for these amps) further in nearly every direction, with even clearer midrange textures and Amazing Space. And as the new VTLs are too big to fit on the books I had the 160s sitting on, I've got the 225s up on sky-blue plastic milk crates courtesy of the local Safeway one night when I went to steal them (footnote 1).

Other gear used to evaluate the CD players under review included my own buffered passive preamp, Spica Angelus speakers in cahoots with the Muse Model 18 subwoofer, and the Theta DS Pro Basic and Audio Alchemy DDE v1.0 digital processors for comparison.

Interconnects included Straight Wire Maestro, AudioQuest Lapis, and XLO type 1, while speaker cable remained the Straight Wire Maestro. All gear was plugged into the Audio Express NoiseTrapper Plus and NoiseTrapper 2000 AC line conditioners. The book most often read while listening in order to avert my attention and thus achieve the highest right-brain sensitivity was Greil Marcus's Dead Elvis (Doubleday).—Corey Greenberg

Footnote 1: I'm pretty confident none of our readers are audiophile grocers; if you had to listen to Muzak underlaid with subliminal "Don't Eat Those Ding Dongs And Then Shove The Empty Wrapper Behind Those Cans Of Cling Peaches" messages all day long, the last thing you'd want to hear at quitting time would be music.
COMPANY INFO
Denon America Inc.
Parsippanny, NJ 07054 (1992)
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
Bogolu Haranath's picture
Submitted by Bogolu Haranath on March 13, 2020 - 11:34am

Well, DCD-2560 is no longer available but, DCD-1600NE CD/SACD player is available ($1,200) :-) ........

count.de.monet's picture
Submitted by count.de.monet on March 13, 2020 - 7:06pm

is something more important going on than a 28yo cd player? why is no one talking about this gem?!?! did i miss something?

Whatever happened to Corey Greenberg, anyway?

Poor Audiophile's picture
Submitted by Poor Audiophile on March 14, 2020 - 5:56am

https://www.stereophile.com/content/whatever-happened-gordon-holt-1
I don't recall why he left Stereophile.

tonykaz's picture
Submitted by tonykaz on March 14, 2020 - 9:57pm

He left Audio writing for TV.

I left for Automotive a little earlier.

Now, those 1990s seems like a lifetime ago.

This Denon review is just a sad memory of a wonderful life.

Tony in Venice

jimtavegia's picture
Submitted by jimtavegia on March 14, 2020 - 5:28pm

Tomorrow some tests on my old 3 head cassette deck with adjustable bias. I had my old high school give me about 80 TDK and Maxell new tapes that they were going to disgard. Whoa! Not so fast their, Cowboy. I have a use for those.

I will do some recording at -20db ; -10db and at 0db and we'll see how the frequency response comes out. I pretty much know as I was a big fan of Julian Hirsch/Stereo Review fame and his tape deck measurements.

Poor Audiophile's picture
Submitted by Poor Audiophile on March 15, 2020 - 8:13am

Hey Jim. I started reading S.R. around 1977 when I found a copy in the public library near my H.S. I used to stop in sometimes as I was walking home from school. Do you remember those cards that they inserted in the mag that you would fill out for more info from the advertisers? After filling out a few of those & getting more info in the mail, S.R. sent me a letter asking me if I wanted to subscribe. I did & I continued for several years. I still have my collection in my parents basement! I know they had their problems(like all equipment sounds the same),but I learned a lot about audio from them. Julian, Craig Stark, Larry Klein, Ralph Hodges. Amazing I can remember all those names! I sent a question to Larry once & he sent it back with hand written answers on it. Considering how busy he must have been, it was very kind of him! Also,he & I share the same first name!

jimtavegia's picture
Submitted by jimtavegia on March 15, 2020 - 9:37am

I loved how they tested everything, especially turntables with rumble measurements and then cartridges with their frequency responses. Old school stuff, but still great reading. It was sad when Ziff-Davis closed it down. They had great writers who started many of us down the path to hifi and then Stereophile took it to a new level.

What I liked about their tape deck reviews was that they were not afraid to let us know that to get extended HF response on the tapes that were available you had to record at levels at -10db and -20db and 1 7/8 ips and small tape just couldn't hold enough. Of course we all havd to get away from that darn high tape hiss noise floor, Ray Dolby really helped us out. Dobly B, C, and S were a great help, but Dolby A was just too pricey to put in a Cassette Deck, unless you bought a outboard unit, and they were not cheap.

https://www.mixonline.com/technology/1966-ray-dolby-dolby-type-noise-reduction-383598

I miss that magazine.

Poor Audiophile's picture
Submitted by Poor Audiophile on March 15, 2020 - 5:38pm

Mix magazine! Wow! I first heard about them at "The Recording Workshop" a school I attended for a 6 week course in 1989. I was young! I got a "B" average, but then I wanted to stay near my family here in Roch,NY & never followed through. Well, I tried, but I really should have tried NYC. I won't bore you with the details of my life. What should have been. Larry

jimtavegia's picture
Submitted by jimtavegia on March 15, 2020 - 10:18pm

Even in 1954 playing 78's for my sick father on an old RCA flip-top record player got me hooked. High Fidelity...NOT, but it sure was fun.

I think back to how nice I thought my first real stereo was: a Fisher 500TX, Dynaco A-25's, Dual 1209 with a Pickering XV-750; and then added a Teac 350 cassette deck. Later owned a Pioneer 707 R2R, then later a Sony DAT, Sony MiniDisc recorder and had a portable player (still do), The last Sony Walkman with Dolby B; played around with the Denon DRS-810 today and only at recording level of -20db could I get close to 15khz and the bias setting had to be right to get that on a new out of the box TDK-SA tape. The darn noise floor reared its ugly head. So hifi, yet I still love it.

I think back to all that grear that I loved and now arguments about whether redbook is enough, but I am in the 2496 camp for the long haul and about to do a recording project with an excellent soprano saxophone player/friend in formats from 128kbps MP3 to redbook, 16/96, 24/96. and 24/192 and will do no processing to any of the files, just listen to the 1st generation copies and not lie to myself about which is the best.

I have watched the YouTube view interview with esteemed engineer Tony Faulkner and he talked about the extended HF energy possibly causing problems with some amplifiers on playback. In all of my files most of this energy is -100db down, but with 24/192 and SACD the noise rises at the highest frequencies over 70KHZ. I don't know enough about amp design to know of the danger of this, but I have never heard any artifacts in the playback of my amps. That doesn't mean there isn't any.

Much to learn and I look forward to looking at all of the FFT of my recordings soon. I am hoping that the COVID-19 will not put the skids on it. My wife and I are not working for the next two weeks most likely. At 69 and 72 we are trying to be careful as we have been doing background acting here in ATL for the past year and most are shutting down. I have a movie to do over the next two weekends, 5 cameras so a fast shoot, with only a small cast, all in one house location and we are still on...for now. Just old folks trying to have fun. We just did a music video with Jordan Hawkins that was a Sat am shoot and great fun. "Thankful"|.

Poor Audiophile's picture
Submitted by Poor Audiophile on March 16, 2020 - 6:39am

Glad to hear your recording still. You sent me a CD of your work a few yrs ago that I was grateful for! Glad to hear your being careful.Caution is a good idea, but I think folks shouldn't panic. Here in Roch stores are out of toilet paper along with other items. Good grief!
I've yet to hear HI-Rez. I will sometime soon I hope. I don't have a player yet & I just lost my job Friday so... Larry

jimtavegia's picture
Submitted by jimtavegia on March 16, 2020 - 9:14am

I burn many of my 2496 files to DVD-Rs to give to friends, some of the players can also do DVD-As which I can also do. The DACs may not be the best, but I have yet not to hear a difference from normal CDs. Friend request me on FB and we can work it out.

There is no glamour in our end of the movie business, except you occasionally get to meet some great people. My wife was Kathy Bates body double in Jewel and she got to talk to clint Eastwood for a long time. Quite a gentleman. We have others we can't talk about yet, but most of the days are long 12 hours many, and last week we did days of 16, 14, 11, and 12 hours in a row. This can be tough at times and at our age it is. We choose the jobs we want. Take care.

jon_s's picture
Submitted by jon_s on March 22, 2020 - 12:18pm

So, the DCD-2560 is a bit of a black sheep, as it does not use the Burr-Brown DACs that Denon (and their listeners) generally preferred. If a DCD-3560 review is sitting around in the archives, I'd love to see that. Or, DCD-S1... Or, DP/DA-S1.

davemill's picture
Submitted by davemill on April 11, 2020 - 6:09pm

Being the fraternity DJ, I used my Technics SL-1200 Mk. 2 with a Stanton 680EL cartridge which was designed for back queuing. Still have them!

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