Price Paid:  $300.00 from Bad Ass Music Supply

Summary:
A very nice sounding deck: neutral, transparent and detailed. It sounds better than my Tascam CD150. It is fairly heavy duty in construction and contains more metal parts--including a metal face plate--than most $300 decks. Its a handsome unit and the sliver color makes it easier to see in a dark rack.
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I find the programming features useful for making tapes and studying individual tracks. The transport is a little slow responding to track commands. However, the tray pops out quickly.
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I don't need a remote for studio use since I normally sit right in front of it. However, a real remote would be nice sometimes. The wristwatch remote is dorky, dorky for studio dudes. I guess a dance or yoga teacher might groove on it. I wouldn't mind XLR outputs but I guess that's why they make a more expensive model. Great gear for da bucks. Rip 'em brah.

Strengths:
Sounds very good; solid build (lots of metal parts)

Weaknesses:
No remote unless you want a wristwatch remote (for dance teachers)

Similar Products Used:
Tascam CD deck

Price Paid:  $300.00 from guitar center

Summary:
Hello out there!!! This cd play is designed for musicians and dj's. That' why you really don't care about the remote. This is not like your home cd player. I use this cd player in my studio where I teach and it has always performed excellent! My sony also sounds excellent. If you really need a headphone volume control go to radio shaak and pay 5.95 and use that.

Strengths:
excellent sound Pitch control for musicians A-B looping Digital output

Weaknesses:
none

Similar Products Used:
sony xa3es

Summary:
The Denon DN-600F is a lower priced CD player in the company's professional line. This is a classic example of what most recording engineers call "semi-professional" equipment. It is a single disc unit with analog and digital outputs.
The analog outs are unbalanced RCA (or "cinch") connectors... the key item that keeps this unit from being a fully professional model. The digital is also RCA, implementing the typical S/PDIF or IEC type II bitsream. Although the manual suggests the use of a 75 ohm coaxial cable to carry the digital signal, a less burly, premolded cable is supplied. If you want to cut your own digital cables to exact lengths, I recommend Belden 8241 with the Kings BNC crimp connectors and an RG-59 crimper. BNC to RCA barrel converters finish the wiring job. The typical premolded waif cable pair is also supplied for the analog outs. A stereo 1/4" headphone jack is also found on the lower right of the front face.

The unit is intended to mount in a standard 19" rack, and that's perfect for our studio. It is only two rack units high -- pretty good on space. The rack ears seem to be part of the chassis, so it's probably not a good desktop or shelf unit. Now my gripe: I hate it when manufacturers make rack mountable gear with molded power cords -- strike two against a truely professional unit. The molded power chord makes it harder to strain relief, and pull the unit for service.

The disc drawer is kind of flimsy, but it seems to work fine. There are ten dedicated buttons for track numbers, and the "+10" button. Other standard controls include track forward/backward, scan forward/backward, play, pause, stop, eject and time display. There is a program button, and an "edit" button which allows you to split playtime into two halves, as if the CD were a vinyl LP. I don't know why this is useful... maybe for home taping?

Not so ordinary are the pitch control buttons -- very handy for DJs and all of you music looping folks. Pitch and speed are tied however, just like an analog tape machine or record player. You can adjust the speed/pitch +/- 12% in 1% increments. Also, there is an auto space button to automatically insert four seconds between tracks on playback. Again, probably useful for home taping when the playback is on a cassette deck with auto music search. All buttons are grey plastic, except pitch which is white plastic. The buttons give it a consumer grade look against the silver paint finish.

The display is pretty basic. It shows the usual track/time information: current track elapsed time, current track remaining time and total disc remaining time. There is no volume/peak level display.

The stupidest idea of all is the remote. According to my supplier, the only remote they make for this unit is a WATCH. So what am I, Dick Tracy? Luckily I don't need a remote, but if you do, be prepared to wear it. I'll bet they never tried to give a CD player remote control watch to James Bond.

In use, the unit sounds pretty good. I like being able to play it through my external D/A, which sounds noticably better than the onboard electronics. Not that the built in D/A is shabby, in fact it kicks butt against the average consumer unit. On the other hand, it still leaves room for improvement. You've got to smack the unit pretty hard to make the disc skip... perfect for your rack mounted auto sound system in your lowered show car.

With my petty complaints aside, this unit is pretty groovy for only $350 list. The next model up, the DN-630, includes balanced outputs and lists for about $150 more. Check the Denon website for details (www.denon.com).

-Randy Coppinger

Summary:
I just got one of these (I need to get another one). A professional CD player with a great price (I paid 329.00).It sounds great and has digital coax out and pitch control among other features.

Awesome for the price. Very refined finish/quality.

Summary:
The Denon DF-600F is a professional CD player for DJ applications. Don't be fooled by this marketing positioning. This is one great sounding machine. In a blind test you can compare this machine with others costing 4X as much. The specs are amazing: Frequency Response 2 - 20,000Hz, Dynamic Range 98db, Signal-to-noise Ratio 107dB, Harmonic Distortion .003%, Separation 103dB (1kHz), Wow & Flutter: Below measurable limit: (+/-0.001% W.peak). Listen to this machine, you will not be dissapointed. The price/value/sound relationship is the best I have ever come accross. This is a rugged machine, nice finish and sound really great. Lots of air, detail, good bass response and I just can't rave about this too much. Anyone who wants a great sounding CD player with a real-world price should but this product immediately before the company changes either the engineering or the price! I believe in this player. I own three of them! Let me know what you think after you buy one. I think this is one of the previously best kept secret on the Net! Other equipment includes an Antique Audio Model 102, 50 Watt Tube Amp, NHT Super 1's, two/Crown Power One amps run in mono, Phase Tech sub woofer.