JerryFn

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $15.00 from EBay

Summary:
I too have this CD Player the DCD 695. I rate it very highly. The sound is bright, crisp and once you are bedded in it appears to be very transparent. I think it benefits from use and is certainly better after ½ and hours use. I am running mine through a Quad 34 and 303 and then Kef Q35 speakers. The result is excellent.
I have also A-B’d it on my other system comparing it with my Technics SL PS 700 through a big Technics SU V450 Amp and some hoofing great ‘old but wonderful’ Kef Concerto speakers. Whilst at first I thought the Technics has more bass, in the end (blindfold and with a helper to flip from one to the other ) I could not honestly tell which was which.

Maybe the build quality could be better, when you take the lid off there is not much in the box, but it has Lambda A.S.L.C ( DAC’s?) and it uses a standard Sony Transport.
The DCD 695 also has pitch contol, which could be useful. In the end the sound is what counts and well, it was only £30 inc postage on Ebay.
I also owned a Denon DCD 625, I loved that one too, but it started skipping and I tweaked the Laser pot as recommended on a ‘fix it’ website and bust it!

Strengths:
The strenghts are the sound, which is crisp and clear.The vocal and central instumentation really jumps. The bass vibrations are tight and it really can purr like a cat.

It can play CD-R without any problem.

Weaknesses:
The rather lightweight Sony transport and the boring black box.
Also no random selection or tape edit features, but then who uses tape now.

Similar Products Used:
Various Denon CD's DCD 820, 625 and various Technics CD players.

stitch6x6

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $240.00 from The Good Guys

Summary:
This review is for the Denon DCD-695. I love this little player. I've had it since I bought it new around 1992 or so, and never had a lick of trouble with it. I usually buy audio gear to play loud & hard, but I bought this one when my firt child was born to play quiet music as I rocked her to sleep. The remote control (rare in those days) let me slowly lower the volume as she dozed off. After the kids grew older I pressed this player into service in my playroom listening to rock music at high volume levels near a subwoofer. Some CD units skip around in these conditions, but not this one. As I said: never a lick of trouble. The sound is Excellent too. I've since picked up some newer Denon units on ebay, with fancy changers with Burr-Brown "audiophile" DACs. This old unit sounds as good as they do. I'm currently using it with PHL 1230 based speakers, NAD 1020 Preamp, and a Hafler DH-220 amp; and it's keeps up just fine.

Strengths:
- Excellent sound - Reliable - Remote volume control

Weaknesses:
- None whatsoever

Similar Products Used:
Denon DCM-360 (good), Denon DCM-280 (flakey) Denon DCD-450

Price Paid:  $240.00 from Smith Sound House

Summary:
For the money, does the job fine for me. Have matched it with a Denon-PMA1315R (~3 times the price) and it sounds cool to me. Certainly I will replace my speakers (Cerwin Vega VS-120) before the CD player.

The beep others talk of is extremely quiet, and on my machine only occurs when a disc is inserted. The lack of a random function annoyed me briefly, but the increase in sound quality (over previous mini system - urghhh...) quickly made me forget it.

Certainly worth the money.

Strengths:
Clear, crisp sound, Good separation

Weaknesses:
No random function

Summary:
I've had this great little CD player for about four years and it's been great to me. I replaced the much older, but similar in most respects DCD 810 with this one and have had no problems. Fortunately, I don't have the "annoying" beep after I press play that the other reviewers describe. It plays quickly, has convenient features, is very quiet as it accesses new tracks, very fast when going between tracks (great for recording), and has performed flawlessly for me. I will buy another DENON player when this one dies. A few things that I really like about this player: the digital volume control and the "Calendar Display" which displays up to 20 track numbers stacked on the right side of the display. It will program up to 20 tracks, but you can fool it into keeping track of more than that by simply FF up to the track you wish and hitting the program button there, you may also reprogram the same track within a set of selections by simply pressing the button more than once.

Summary:
The DCD-635 is for the price a good cd-player. However this player lacks a random-function. If this doesn't bother you, it's a very good buy. The beep you can hear just before the cd-player starts playing is nothing wrong.I've been told that little beeping sound is when the cd sets itsself in its optimal position to read the digital data from the disk.