Jim Chestney

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I picked up a Denon DCM-460 5CD Changer at a second-hand store a week ago. I paid $9.95 for it. I had no idea if it even worked. But I own 2 Denon receiver/amps, and knowing what great quality they are, how could I miss for 10 bucks? I cleaned the CD Laser with a Maxell cleaning disc, put on DejaVu (CSN+Y), plugged in my SennHeimer headphones, and "Viola !!" The 10-buck Denon makes my $260 Onkyo sound like crud. I'm so thankful that the reviews say that the Denon DCM-460 is 'junk'. Otherwise, the thrift shop might have charged me $50 bucks (which YOU should pay gladly if you see one around).

tomgale2000

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.75 of 5, 4.00 votes

Price Paid:  $25.00 from eBay

Summary:
I want to personally thank all the reviewers who have made it possible for me to buy several of these units on eBay for less than $50. I agree this CD player is TERRIBLE. Unluss you like hearing every nuance of sound with detailed, unrelenting refinement, imaging, and clarity. Now I have to admit I haven't ever listened to a Rotel, or a Theta, the Beta or the Omega -- and indeed if these sound better, well damn! But seriously, you can hear the pick on the strings, the frogs in the singer's throats, you can darn near see the crystal in the sounds of bells. the wood in the guitar. This thing is awsome. Yes, the carousel is a little clunky, but here's the deal: never use the variable output feature, wear the unit in for severl weeks, plug a set of fine headphones into the front -- you will be AMAZED. You will find out how bad the rest of your system is, and how bad all the rest of the sub-$1000 CD players are, and you will never look back. Maybe forward to the Rotels, Beta, Thetas, and Omegas of the world, but never back. Unless I'm wrong in which case, there might a few idiots out there like me who will cough up 20-30 bucks for this mid-level, mass-marketed, clunky, chunky, bright, thin, hazy, grungy piece of junk.

Strengths:
None, unless you can hear well

Weaknesses:
Made personally for Rodney Dangerfield's golf bag

Similar Products Used:
Never heard any -- couldn't afford them

Price Paid:  $280.00

Summary:
This CD player has never given me any trouble at all and always sounds great. Besides a couple quirks (disc numbers only show when tray is rotated, for example) it is an excellent player. I also have a Denon cassette deck and the synchro function is wonderful.

Strengths:
Alpha DAC, Very reliable

Price Paid:  $275.00 from Ebay

Summary:
I bought the Denon DCM-460, a few years ago to replace a Denon DCM-420, which played flawlessly for five years with rich detailed sound. However, the DCM-420 noisy carousel transport was annoying and slow while rotating to the next CD in a single direction. That’s right, I load up the CD player hit random and repeat to have continuous music playing for hours. The ole DCM-420 was passed on to my oldest daughter, who continues to use and loves it. However, she connected the DCM-420 digital out to her Sherwood Newcastle 945. The DAC in the Newcastle 945 brought new life to the CD player. Without question, the Newcastle DAC’s were superior to the DAC’s in the DCM-420. Anyway, back to the purchased Denon DCM-460 a few years ago. When I first installed it, I set it to random and repeat and let it play for a few weeks without the amplifier. I learned that trick with the old DCM-420. The carousel transport noise was greatly reduced and the bi-directional rotation was more than twice as fast as the DCM-420. After the break in period, I played a few mixed CD’s and discovered midrange instruments never heard before with the DCM-420. It was incredible, I listened for hours and found the music more detailed, new background instruments, vocal artist breathing or hear other details like the vocal artist, while not singing lips meeting and mouth movement. Additionally, the music was much warmer, with improved imaging at the higher frequencies. All seems good and wonderful. A year later, after some pressure, I gave away the Denon DCM-460 CD player to my youngest daughter and I went out and bough another DCM-460. Rather than breaking the player in for a few weeks, I listened to it first. My first reaction was that the unit was defective and the Alpha DAC’s produced annoying digital sounding music. I powered down the amplifier and let the CD player run for a couple of week. After the bread in period, as before, I selected a few of my favorite CD’s and played them. I found that this Denon DCM-460 produced music both at the high and mid-range the same as the previous CD player. However, now there was base and lots of it. Base I never heard before and the base present and very detailed. Where did all this base come from? Nothing in the configuration changed, same amp, wires and speakers. My guess is that the Denon CD players may have revisions implemented over time as they are manufactured. What else could it be? Today, my Denon DCM-460 is over a year old, the carousel transport is very quite and you have to take notice and listen for it to hear the movement. The player has worked perfectly without any issues, not one skip and the music is just wonderful. I just sit there in amazement. When I close my eyes, I could swear that I am there live and in color with the artist and the band. I cannot believe that it could be any better. Recently, my daughter and I played the ELVIS 30 number one hits released around last Christmas. We played the album on both CD players. We both agreed that my DCM-460 player had more mid-base and base than her CD player produced. I know, your thinking different audio configurations, well yea, but just a bit. We both have the Denon DCM-460 CD player, with monster THX interconnects and speaker cables bi-wired to Infinity Delta 60. My amp is a Denon PMA 980R and hers is a Denon AVR 2802. By the way, we tested the DAC’s in the Denon AVR-2802 to Denon’s Alpha DAC’s and found that the DAC’s in the Denon AVR 2802 does not compare or come close to the Alpha DAC’s in the CD player. On the other hand the DAC’s in the Newcastle 945 were very good, a bit warmer than the Denon and as smooth, but some of the audio detail found with the Alpha processors are lacking. Final note, all three Denon CD players continue to work perfectly fine without any issues. Several CD-R’s poorly recorded and scratched CD that skip or stop playing, or just put the in car CD player into an audio frenzy, work perfectly with the Denon DCM-460.

Strengths:
The DAC's, Reliability, solid transport and random play.

Weaknesses:
nothing at this price

Similar Products Used:
DENON DCM-420, Toshiba SD-3109

Price Paid:  $360.00

Summary:
Well, I don't have the 460 model, but the 440 (if someone can explain me the differences, because I haven't found any information about the 440 model). After 6 years of use, I'm very happy with this CD changer. The sound is very equilibrated, almost perfect to me (I don't like the harsh sound of others players). I'm not an audiophile, but I think that this Denon is a very good entry point.