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The thing cost 300 dollars and quit after less than a year of light use, will only play a minute of music regardless of the cd.
And so I decided on a 390 as a replacement, which might be more compatible with my Denon amplifier (also a dog). The DCM 390 has a programming function, something I didn't have with the Sony (but did have with my 1985 Teac). For most features you must use the dedicated CD remote or try to locate the necessary (and tiny) buttons on the vision-unfriendly flat black front panel. And the front panel display for repeating all disks doesn't say "Repeat All" or something logical; it says "Repeat Disk" (singular). Oh, and when you do this you've also turned off Repeat. The good news is that the DCM 390 works, after a fashion and at least for now. The Denon will do that, but every time you turn on the gear you must remember to punch "repeat" three times, i.e., your preference is not "saved." Otherwise it will play one disk and stop. You have to go to the unit and physically remove disks 2 and 5.
We built a house 5 years ago and, while I wasn't paying close attention, we ended up with Denon gear. It must (again) be set to your preference, even though the player has remained "on" throughout. The problem is it only works for tracks on the disk currently being played. As for compatibility with the amp, there's little of that. Only a few things (basically play and stop) can be executed with the amplifier remote. (This is according to the manual; I haven't tried using it yet).
Features supported by my elderly Sony, things I took for granted, either aren't available in the DCM 390 or can only be executed in the most clunky, time-consuming and counter-intuitive manner. Then there's the noise. Also, there is no efficient way to exchange non-playing disks during playback of the current disk. Except I kept my Sony, which I loved but which eventually died. Practically everything else is the bad news.
You have to stop playback and do your exchanges individually, then start everything again. It brings to mind what must have been the sound of one's great-grandfather using a hand-crank to start his Model-T on a cold morning. The prominent, distracting Kur-KLUNK as the disks change doesn't inspire confidence. I bought a Denon DCM 390 to replace my 15-year old Sony player. To give two examples, I usually play all the disks on the carousel in the "repeat all" mode.
If you want to program playback of all of disks 1, 3 and 4, but not disks 2 and 5 - too bad.
I took the machine apart in an attempt to fix it, but the grinding noise appeared to be coming from the play motor itself. This is supposed to be a high tech audio company, after all. The first one, bought brand new, sounded great. Soon the machine ceased to read any CD at all. Denon DCM-390 (number two) was history. Since no one answered the phone, I assumed that if I sent the unit to Denon for repair no one would open the box.Well, because the DCM-390 sounded so good - big, three dimensional soundstage; excellent detail and timbral balance - I bought another.
Of course I tried a few more calls over the following couple of weeks, but always got the same result - A phone that rang and rang with no answer whatsoever. Turning the player off and back on helped alleviate this situation for a while. But eventually the tray just would not open at all. Then it began to skip.
This really helped, but was too much maintenance as far as I was concerned. This one was refurbished. One day, after about a year or so, I was listening and suddenly the sound became distorted. Cleaned the lens; it helped somewhat but the distortion remained. After a few months, it started acting up - would not read discs at all or would skip, etc.
I cleaned the lens and the machine worked fine - for about a week. It emitted a horrendous grinding noise while playing any CD. Then it began skipping again.I found myself cleaning the lens once a week - and also spraying the back of the tray (into the machine) with compressed air. That helped, but about a week after the each cleaning the machine would once again begin to function defectively.After about 6 months, the tray (which is all plastic and not very substantial) would simply not open at times for no apparent reason. Distorted sound regardless of the CD. It was a regular weekday so I was pretty amazed.
I lubed the motor and did some other work on it, but it soon became clear that this machine was history as well. Denon DCM-390 (number three) - also refurbished - was defective right out of the box. Then I began to clean it regularly using a lens cleaner. The machine was history.I phoned Denon at the number on its website, but the phone went unanswered. It too sounded great, and worked flawlessly for about 8 months or so.
I won't be buying another. Number three went into the trash.When and if any Denon DCM-390 will operate properly is apparently a very dicey proposition, based on my experience. I've had 3 of these machines over the past couple of years. The phone rang and rang - no voicemail, no machine. Long story short - the machine had given up the ghost.
This one was worse -- it would lift a CD out of the carousel and never return it. I wouldn't recommend buying this product for any price -- I wouldn't even accept one for free, considering the damage it did to my CD's. The problem was incredibly aggravating because it was nearly impossible to get the carousel to stop spinning as it searched through all the CDs, unable to read any of them.So I received a second CD player. There went my CD -- eaten.
Tapping and jostling the player didn't help. No way to get it out, no way to either close or open the carousel.Support from Denon. If it were any lighter it would be made of balsa wood.Remote Control. NON-EXISTANT, as others have pointed out in their reviews.CONCLUSION: Denon is not the company it once was. My last Denon CD player lasted over 20 years.The DCM-390 didn't work out of the box. Not your father's Denon, let me assure you.Weight.
The remote does not light up when used and does not have a power on/off button. It would only sporadically read CD's -- and I'm talking about REAL CD's purchased from Amazon, not discs I burned on my computer. In fact, it made the problem worse because the CD dropped while the carousel drawer was out. The DCM-390 is light-weight, poorly manufactured, and unsupported by Denon. FEATURES:Deceptive "Denon" Name. 5-CD carousel, reads multiple formats, digital output: I have been unable to verify if these features exist because I haven't owned a Denon DCM-390 that works, and I've been through two of them.EXPERIENCE:I bought the Denon DCM-390 because it offered a lot of decoding features (mp3, wma, wav, HDCD decoding) and, well, it's a Denon.
When I pushed the button to close the drawer, CRUNCH.
For the price of this deck, I would expect better. Really enjoyed the sound from this changer until it totally failed after only 7 months of very moderate use. The player will play a disk for 37 to 40 seconds before stopping, regardless of the disk or carousel position.
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