Hello Everyone,
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Denon DCD-3560 stereo CD player.
I already mentioned multiple times that I’m into older CD players (like the Marantz CD-73), this is one more proof.
Denon DCD-3560 - Presentation
This CD player is a member of the "over-engineered" league, its weight alone is a statement (17kg - 37.4lbs). It was released in 1990 at a very high price.
Most of the functions are hidden behind a small hatch:
The elements of interest are:
Headphones can be switch off and on from the back (what an idea!) and digital out can be deactivated from the front panel.
Let's go quickly inside:
This player is divided in 4 sections:
I did not mention the copper chassis, but you see it
To me, at the time, these players were some kind of abnormal devices, as I was really unsure of what the Japanese wanted to demonstrate with these. Also, I wondered if, really, a big brand into consumer products could compete with other “true” the high-end players. Naive, I was.
Denon DCD-3560 - Measurements (Analog out)
From now on, I will be consistent with my measurements as I described them on the Onkyo C-733 review. So over time, this will help comparing the devices I reviewed.
The Denon DCD-3560 outputs a high 2.5Vrsm from its RCA outputs and 1.3dB less from XLR. There was a slight channel imbalance of around 0.1dB. The balanced outputs are noninverting; the single-ended outputs invert absolute polarity.
RCA and XLR showed the same performances, RCA outputs doing a little better from time to time. For the rest of the presentation, I will show results from XLR outputs, so you get the worse of that player
Here you go with the standard 1kHz sine @0dBFS (dithered) from my test CD (XLR out):
Both channels are represented but only one gets evaluated in that window. Right channel is a little less performing (THD loses 2dB). That kind of difference happens especially when two different DACs (actually 2 per channel in that player) running in mono mode are used.
THD is at -103dB and so will clear CD Audio content. SINAD and ENOB are limited by the dithered noise of the test CD (roughly -93dB).
RCA does a little better (by 1dB only).
It is to note that distortion stays very low even when digital signal goes down, which was not always the case R2R DACs, because of their linearity issue. As seen below, THD is still at -100dB at -6dBFS which is excellent:
That's the proof BurrBrown had a very precise manufacturing process to get there (laser trim). I simply have never seen such a good performance with old R2R architectures.
You probably already noticed, power supply is very quiet, and so the attention from Denon to that section paid off (1kHz @0dBFS, XLR out, left and right channels):
Now, let's have a look at the bandwidth:
There is a 0.1dB deviation from 10kHz (RCA too), else the two channels match by less than 0.1dB.
Let's have a look at the 8x oversampling filter, which was new at the time (Overlay of White Noise and 18k+20Hz dual tones):
This is not the ALPHA filtering, so there's no filter selection, as opposed to the Denon DCD-SA1 for instance.
The attenuation is good for the era with nearly 90dB. The filter is relatively sharp.
Let's continue with the multitone test (starting with this review it is now 1/10 decade):
It is free from distorsion way below the CD Audio format.
Jitter was nailed 34 years ago:
The red trace is what is recorded on the test CD (From the digital outputs), it can't be better. The blue trace is from the XLR ouput. We see nearly 0 jitter, perfect.
Let’s have a look at an undithered 1kHz sine at -90.31dBFS. With 16bits, the signal should appear (on a scope) as the 3DC levels of the sign magnitude smallest digital signal:
This is a relatively good trace, and it’s disturbed by the low-level noise. Seeing an R2R conversion achieving this level of precision is good.
On your request and support (more information here), I am adding an "intersample-overs" test. It intends to identify if the oversampling filter has sufficient headroom to process near clipping signals. Indeed, and because of the oversampling, there might be interpolated data that go above 0dBFS and would saturate (clip) the DAC and therefore the output. This effect is highlighted with the measurements below, and revealed through THD+N measurements up to 96kHz:
I left several other references for you to compare with. The oversampling filter to the Denon DCD-3560 does not have headroom to process near clipling data.
And here are some other measurements:
Last but not least, one of my favorite measurements, the THD vs Frequency at -12dBFS (THD only, over the first 5 harmonics). I already commented that I use it especially to test older R2R architectures as it shows their difficulty to be linear below full scale. Below are measurements of the right channel, overlaid with the previously tested (and near best-in-class) Onkyo C-733 CD Player:
To be honest, this is an incredibly good trace for the tech and the time. I was impressed.
Denon DCD-3560 - Measurements (Digital out)
Are you surprised if I tell you that I did not find any flaws in its digital output? I’ll keep it simple, with what I believe to be the most representative measurement of the digital output quality, and that is a 1kHz sine at -90.31dBFS which shows the 3DC levels of the smallest digital signal in 16bits sign magnitude representation:
Because this signal forces a regular change of all bits (due to 2’s complement representation around 0), any deviation from the binary content would immediately show here, with such a “fragile” signal. But if you think there are better ways to check the digital output, let me know.
Conclusion
This CD player was absolutely incredible. This is R2R conversion at its top, amazing! It’d be good to see if someone achieved better results from the BurrBrown R2R PCM family.
I wanted to know if these "crazy" players delivered, well, now I know
I might give it an additional challenge later on, just to see where we can push grandad
I hope you enjoyed the review as much as I enjoyed writing it. Let me know how to improve and if you have questions. I have recorded all the 46 measurements for both XLR and RCA outputs. If you want me to publish others or run one of your choice, feel free to ask.
Thank you.
————
Flo
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Denon DCD-3560 stereo CD player.
I already mentioned multiple times that I’m into older CD players (like the Marantz CD-73), this is one more proof.
Denon DCD-3560 - Presentation
This CD player is a member of the "over-engineered" league, its weight alone is a statement (17kg - 37.4lbs). It was released in 1990 at a very high price.
Most of the functions are hidden behind a small hatch:
The elements of interest are:
- R2R conversion using 4 BurrBrown PCM58 in their most linear version "K".
- 8x oversampling filter via a Nippon Precision Circuits SM5803AP.
- Pre-ALPHA filtering player
Headphones can be switch off and on from the back (what an idea!) and digital out can be deactivated from the front panel.
Let's go quickly inside:
This player is divided in 4 sections:
- On the bottom left, a full metal drive with the famous magnetic Sony KSS-151A head (ultra fast) below it.
- Top left, a double power supply for digital and analog sections (we'll see what it's worth too when measuring).
- Right side hosts the servo and digital our card.
- Below it, there is the D/A conversion card with the 4 BB PCM58K, and so they are hidden.
I did not mention the copper chassis, but you see it
To me, at the time, these players were some kind of abnormal devices, as I was really unsure of what the Japanese wanted to demonstrate with these. Also, I wondered if, really, a big brand into consumer products could compete with other “true” the high-end players. Naive, I was.
Denon DCD-3560 - Measurements (Analog out)
From now on, I will be consistent with my measurements as I described them on the Onkyo C-733 review. So over time, this will help comparing the devices I reviewed.
The Denon DCD-3560 outputs a high 2.5Vrsm from its RCA outputs and 1.3dB less from XLR. There was a slight channel imbalance of around 0.1dB. The balanced outputs are noninverting; the single-ended outputs invert absolute polarity.
RCA and XLR showed the same performances, RCA outputs doing a little better from time to time. For the rest of the presentation, I will show results from XLR outputs, so you get the worse of that player
Here you go with the standard 1kHz sine @0dBFS (dithered) from my test CD (XLR out):
Both channels are represented but only one gets evaluated in that window. Right channel is a little less performing (THD loses 2dB). That kind of difference happens especially when two different DACs (actually 2 per channel in that player) running in mono mode are used.
THD is at -103dB and so will clear CD Audio content. SINAD and ENOB are limited by the dithered noise of the test CD (roughly -93dB).
RCA does a little better (by 1dB only).
It is to note that distortion stays very low even when digital signal goes down, which was not always the case R2R DACs, because of their linearity issue. As seen below, THD is still at -100dB at -6dBFS which is excellent:
That's the proof BurrBrown had a very precise manufacturing process to get there (laser trim). I simply have never seen such a good performance with old R2R architectures.
You probably already noticed, power supply is very quiet, and so the attention from Denon to that section paid off (1kHz @0dBFS, XLR out, left and right channels):
Now, let's have a look at the bandwidth:
There is a 0.1dB deviation from 10kHz (RCA too), else the two channels match by less than 0.1dB.
Let's have a look at the 8x oversampling filter, which was new at the time (Overlay of White Noise and 18k+20Hz dual tones):
This is not the ALPHA filtering, so there's no filter selection, as opposed to the Denon DCD-SA1 for instance.
The attenuation is good for the era with nearly 90dB. The filter is relatively sharp.
Let's continue with the multitone test (starting with this review it is now 1/10 decade):
It is free from distorsion way below the CD Audio format.
Jitter was nailed 34 years ago:
The red trace is what is recorded on the test CD (From the digital outputs), it can't be better. The blue trace is from the XLR ouput. We see nearly 0 jitter, perfect.
Let’s have a look at an undithered 1kHz sine at -90.31dBFS. With 16bits, the signal should appear (on a scope) as the 3DC levels of the sign magnitude smallest digital signal:
This is a relatively good trace, and it’s disturbed by the low-level noise. Seeing an R2R conversion achieving this level of precision is good.
On your request and support (more information here), I am adding an "intersample-overs" test. It intends to identify if the oversampling filter has sufficient headroom to process near clipping signals. Indeed, and because of the oversampling, there might be interpolated data that go above 0dBFS and would saturate (clip) the DAC and therefore the output. This effect is highlighted with the measurements below, and revealed through THD+N measurements up to 96kHz:
| Intersample-overs tests Bandwidth of the THD+N measurements is 20Hz - 96kHz | 5512.5 Hz sine, Peak = +0.69dBFS | 7350 Hz sine, Peak = +1.25dBFS | 11025 Hz sine, Peak = +3.0dBFS |
| Teac VRDS-20 | -30.7dB | -26.6dB | -17.6dB |
| Yamaha CD-1 | -79.6dB | -35.3dB | -78.1dB |
| Denon DCD-900NE | -34.2dB | -30.4dB | -19.1dB |
| Denon DCD-SA1 | -33.6dB | -27.6dB | -18.3dB |
| Onkyo C-733 | -79.8dB | -29.4dB | -21.2dB |
| Denon DCD-3560 | -30.1dB | -26.2dB | -17.4dB |
I left several other references for you to compare with. The oversampling filter to the Denon DCD-3560 does not have headroom to process near clipling data.
And here are some other measurements:
- SNR : 97.1dB (1kHz @-60dBFS without dither)
- Crosstalk : -118dB (@1kHz)
- IMD AES : -79.7dB (18kHz+20kHz 1:1 @-5dBFS)
Last but not least, one of my favorite measurements, the THD vs Frequency at -12dBFS (THD only, over the first 5 harmonics). I already commented that I use it especially to test older R2R architectures as it shows their difficulty to be linear below full scale. Below are measurements of the right channel, overlaid with the previously tested (and near best-in-class) Onkyo C-733 CD Player:
To be honest, this is an incredibly good trace for the tech and the time. I was impressed.
Denon DCD-3560 - Measurements (Digital out)
Are you surprised if I tell you that I did not find any flaws in its digital output? I’ll keep it simple, with what I believe to be the most representative measurement of the digital output quality, and that is a 1kHz sine at -90.31dBFS which shows the 3DC levels of the smallest digital signal in 16bits sign magnitude representation:
Because this signal forces a regular change of all bits (due to 2’s complement representation around 0), any deviation from the binary content would immediately show here, with such a “fragile” signal. But if you think there are better ways to check the digital output, let me know.
Conclusion
This CD player was absolutely incredible. This is R2R conversion at its top, amazing! It’d be good to see if someone achieved better results from the BurrBrown R2R PCM family.
I wanted to know if these "crazy" players delivered, well, now I know
I might give it an additional challenge later on, just to see where we can push grandad
I hope you enjoyed the review as much as I enjoyed writing it. Let me know how to improve and if you have questions. I have recorded all the 46 measurements for both XLR and RCA outputs. If you want me to publish others or run one of your choice, feel free to ask.
Thank you.
————
Flo
Last edited:
