lcseh

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $0.00 from an eBay retailer

Summary:
I agree with the reviews here. My Denon experiences (dating back to my DRA-1035) are that the sound is great, but the user interface ranges from weak to terrible. I love the sound quality of my DVM-2815, and would likely have suffered through the terrible user interface/usability except for 2 things: - I am sending mine back for the 4th repair for the same problem- inability to read discs gets steadily worse until it is just about unusable. In Denon's defense, I think I have narrowed down the problem to accidentally inserting a DVD data format disc which if you read the small print in the documentation, it says that there are 2 types of discs that "may damage the unit". - I frequently receive PAL format DVDs from others, and these cannot be played on this device

Strengths:
Sound quality when playing CDs and using the coax digital out is great.

Weaknesses:
Terrible user interface. Won't play PAL. Starts to have trouble reading discs which eventually deteriorates to the point that it is unusable.

Storm861triple

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $350.00 from Mac World

Summary:
The reason why I'm writing this review is to express my aggrivation w/this player, and help others from making a poor purchase. When shopping for this player I specifically spent extra time looking for a quality unit w/features I like and that was free of gimicks I dislike. I thought I did decent research and picked a quality unit that would meet my needs. I specifically wanted a 5 disk carousel for extended music play at parties and because a carousel generally chages disks fast and quietly. On w/the review now. I am just about 100% unhappy w/this player, and here is a bullet list of why: *Carousel and eject are excessivly noisy and SLOW! *You can't enter a comand ahead of time. If you place a disk in the tray, and hit "close", you have to sit there and wait for it to close, load, and get ready to play before you can hit "play". If you hit "play" before it's ready, you might as well have not hit it at all. Same goes for disk skip then play and pretty much any other command. One at a time please. Lame. *If you put 5 CD's in the machine, and hit "play" (when it's ready), it will only play one disk then stop. If you're having a party and want more music, you need to hit "disk skip", wait, wait, wait, then when it's all set and ready, you can hit "play", and it will play just one more disk. *If you select "Random play" either for one disk or all disks, it DOESN'T ELIMINATE A "PLAYED" TRACK!! It will play the same track multiple times...and NEVER play some other tracks! Junk! *The only way to get continuous music that appears "random" for dinner/party etc, is to program your own play list, which takes a long time. The On Screen Display is not great, so you neet to hadn write a play list first, and cross each one off as you enter it into the menu, so you don't miss a track or double up. *It skips way, WAY too easily. Brand new, blemish free disks even. It just can't deal w/some disks. The primary function of its existance...it can barely manage. *It's not even a year old yet, and it is already having a very hard time playing both CD's and DVD's (that are in fine conditon). Some times it won't play at all. Once (and IF) you get a CD or DVD to "load", you're good to go (except for the skipping issue), but sometimes it just plaine won't load a disk. Sometimes you can play a disk all the way through, issue free, then it stops (like I said above) so you go hit "play to hear it again....and it won't do it. Or mostly you just turn it on, throw a disk in wait, wait, wait, and it just won't ever play. Very annoying when you have a date over and can't get the move started. Or mood music for dinner. Unacceptable. I made a bad purchase. I hope no one else makes this mistake.

Strengths:
Sound quality (when it actually plays and doesn't skip Video quality (except for the previously mentioned "Zoom" feature)

Weaknesses:
Everything else. The player has ended up being little better then useless for me. Especially when I have guests and I can't get it to even play.

Similar Products Used:
Sony Single disk play (also junk) Samsung Single disk player, which worked great.

landoco

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Price Paid:  $346.00 from JandR

Summary:
I bought this player primarily because of the Farouda DCDi capability. I have not yet been able to check that feature out as I am still waiting for my HDTV. One of the things that strike me was its ability to improve the CD playback over my previous Sony. The audio on this unit is pretty good. Interlace Video is also good. My criticism is more with the interface and other features I think its zoom feature sucks as it looses detail when you zoom. The carousel is very slow. The display sucks as it is small requiring you to put your eyes right up to it to figure out information. This could have been a very good player if Denon had paid attention to some of these things. I had a Panasonic F87 multi player and it beat the Denon in almost every respect except CD playback and for $200.00 less. Denon players seem to have improved in audio and video but it still is behind in some of those features that make a good player great. I will be putting this player on Ebay in the near future.

Strengths:
Audio is good Video is also good

Weaknesses:
Zoom feature is very poor - looses details Carousel is too slow Front panel display is not readable from a normal six feet distance - Too small.

Similar Products Used:
Sony DVP-660: a wonderful DVD palyer. Greate feature Panasonic F87 - Geate palyer. Tremendous value Sony DVp-660- Older generation palyer (no progressive or CD-R or DVD-r palyback) but wonderfully made with greate features. This should be the base line for carousel type players

pocketchange

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Price Paid:  $249.00 from MacMall website

Summary:
I spent a good bit of time and energy locating a multyplay unit with advanced features to upgrade my CD/DVD audio/video. When I decided on the 2815 my reasoning fell back on my first CD player,the DENON 517, which continues playing with no issues after several years. I decided on DVD/A in lieu of 5 to 1 sales over a SACD and Sonys lack of support for the format they have lost their patent privileges on. Having delt with the BetaMax/VHS format war also did enter into my purchase decision. Denons quality with this player is excellent for the price paid and this unit is the top of their line auto changer. Reading the manual allows for easy operation and with my system the 2815 fell right into place with no problems.

Strengths:
DVD/A and CD sound is great with the proper high bit sample discs. This is a garbage in garbage out unit, if you get a maxed out disc this player will not correct for poorly produced software, which explains overly dynamic copys of CDs and my wondering why my system suddenly starts sounding bad. I have gotten to the point of returning many CDs for this reason. Plays CDs with repeatability which is great for late night listening and gatherings.

Weaknesses:
DVDs and DVD/As one at a time only.

Similar Products Used:
Toshiba SD1600 Denon517

Price Paid:  $449.00 from Crutchfield

Summary:
I purchased this to replace my old Toshiba dvd player. I wanted something that did DVD-Audio. I'd auditioned 2 other DVD-A players before, but had returned them both. There are some compatibility issues with some DVD-A discs and this model. I noticed that I was only able to get stereo(no surround sound) on Fleetwood Mac's "Say You Will" and Yes "Fragile" DVD-A's. I could select the surround tracks from the menu, but would only get stereo. I discovered that if in the player setup, you do not have a subwoofer, this player will not allow you to access the surround tracks on some dvd-a discs. This is a flaw that should be corrected by Denon. I have five full range speakers and no sub. If I tell the machine I have a sub, I can get surround sound on those discs, but shouldn't have to do it. One other found flaw: On Sting "Brand New Day" DVD-A, I could play surround sound, but had problems accessing the stereo tracks. Tracks 1-8 played correctly, tracks 9-11 would not play. The player would lock up and power itsefl off. I have not figured out the nature of this problem or any workaround. Contacted Denon regarding these issues, and they were clueless. I discovered these workarounds on my own, Denon was not aware of any problems, although from other reviews I see this no sub/no surround problem has cropped up on other models of theirs.

Strengths:
DVD-A sound quality, picture quality, ease of use.

Weaknesses:
DVD-A compatibility issues, support from Denon worthless.

Similar Products Used:
Kenwood Sovereign 5700