Hello Everyone,
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Denon DCD-900NE stereo CD Player and Transport.
I previously reviewed the Marantz CD6007 which is in the same category. So much so that the packaging is identical, as well as the remote control, as well as the user guide. All look to be sourced from the same third party company.
I like testing CD Players, especially older ones, but I'm still in search of a modern one which I could use as kind of reference. So far the Onkyo C-733 has this role, but it's extremely difficult to source since it's 20 years old. So let's see what this Denon has to tell us.
Denon DCD-900NE - Presentation
This is the latest iteration from Denon (as of August 2024) of this player, replacing the previous DCD-800NE. As you can see on the above picture, the look has not changed and has been the same for a long time. Similar to Marantz, I like it a lot.
On the front face no phones output, which is too bad. I guess this explains the lower price when compared to the Marantz. Also, no selection of different filters but we get the now famous Denon specific filtering in an advanced version called "Advance AL32 Processing Plus". We'll deep dive into that.
As with the Marantz, there is also a USB input which will accept a USB drive and higher resolution files (up to PCM 24bits/192kHz and DSD 5.6MHz).
Back panel shows the essential:
We have RCA out and digital (Otpi + Coax).
Here is a picture of the inside:
We find two power boards, one for the digital section with servo control, decoding and the Denon AL filtering, and one for the analog section with the ESS DAC. Everything seems well organized and looks qualitative.
As opposed to the Marantz, no refined output stage (HDAM) of course, but the audio board is nice with the ESS9018S and OP1692 in the output stage (for I/V and LPF, I guess), to make us happy:
In terms of usage, first impression was rather good. But again similar to the Marantz, I was annoyed by the slowness of the drive. Indeed, if going forward is relatively fast (but no where near older players), going backwards was a little nightmare. less so than with the Marantz though.
It took 9sec to read the TOC of my 40 tracks CD, which is a bit slow, but common with modern drives. And like a friend told me, none of this is of importance if you like to listen to album in full.
Denon DCD-900NE - Measurements (Analog out - From CD)
All measurements performed with an E1DA Cosmos ADCiso (grade 0), and the Cosmos Scaler (100kohms from unbalanced input) for analog outputs, and a Motu UltraLite Mk5 for digital.
From now on, I will be consistent with my measurements as I described them in the post “More than we hear”, and as I reported them for the Onkyo C-733 review. Over time, this will help comparing the devices I reviewed.
The Denon DC-900NE outputs 2.402Vrms, that is 1.6dB above the standard 2Vrsm. The two channels were perfectly matched, this is rare. The single-ended outputs respect absolute polarity. Phase is dead flat.
Let's start with the standard 999.91Hz sine @0dBFS (without dither) from my test CD (RCA out):
Left and right channels are shown but only one gets evaluated in that view. The distortion is extremely low and the calculated SNR in presence of this highest level test tone is best in class. The trace is very neat, and is the best I got so far from the internal DAC of a CD player.
THD+N is limited (and so is the SINAD/ENOB) by the resolution of CD Audio. It's the best we can get.
Same view but at -6dBFS now:
Again, this is the best trace I have to report!
I guess you saw the Denon is a silent CD player, doing even better than the Marantz:
We can't see any power supply–related spuria in its output. This is what I like to see.
----
Bandwidth measurement (now measured from periodic white noise) shows a significant roll-off at 20kHz (-2dB) starting very early (at 4kHz):
Of course, this is due to the oversampling filter which we will analyze soon. The two channels are perfectly matched, well done.
----
Before talking filter, multitone test showed no issue:
CD Audio content is safe from distortion, no surprise considering the previous results.
----
Jitter is absent too, exhibiting a beautiful trace:
Red trace is what is on the test CD (digital output), it can’t be better. The Denon (blue trace) can barely be seen because it does not add any jitter and the noise floor is very low. I did not change the scale of that view, since I always use the same, but I usually can see the noise floor, but not with the conversion of this Denon. I suspect the ALPHA processing for very low level signals to have a positive impact here too (bit-depth increase).
I invite you to check the same view with the equally recent Yamaha CD-S303, as one more proof that the Denon is really at ease on this test.
----
And I forgot to add one of my favorite measurements, and that is the THD (excluding noise) vs Frequency at @-12dBFS:
The Denon achieved the best results I've seen on this test. I overlaid with the Yamaha CD-S303, for comparison. Appreciate that the two channels have really identical performances, which is what I've seen all along my testing.
----
Started with the Teac VRDS-20 review, and on your request + support to get it done (more here), I'm adding now an "intersample-overs" test which intends to identify the behavior of the digital filtering and DAC when it come to process near clipping signals. Because of the oversampling, there might be interpolated data that go above 0dBFS and would saturate (clip) the DAC and therefore the output. And this effect shows through distorsion (THD+N measurement up to 96kHz):
I kept some references and will keep the same for other reviews, so you can quickly compare. The results of the Denon DCD-900NE mean the oversampling filter does not have headroom to prevent intersample-overs. The Yamaha CD-1 shines here because it's old enough not to have an oversampling filter.
----
Let's continue with the good old 3DC measurement that Stereophile was often using as a proof of low noise DAC. It is from an undithered 997Hz sine at -90.31dBFS. With 16bits, the signal should appear (on a scope) as the 3DC levels of the smallest symmetrical sign magnitude digital signal:
HaHa! We don't get the standard 3DC view but a very nice sine. This is unusual and is the benefit of the Denon AL32 processing (ALPHA). It indeed increases the bit-depth in real time to extend the resolution beyond 16bits. This means that better representation of very low level signals is achieved by the Denon. This has been one of the benefits and key feature of the ALPHA filtering.
Of course it will not create data that does not exist (below 16bits) but it will refine the existing signal by extending the resolution. That implies a processing of the digital stream before conversion. This is well engineered because I could not spot mathematical errors (via additional distortion or noise) in that processing.
----
Other measurements (not shown):
The clock is a the limit of my measurement interface.
The crosstalk is calculated with a low level signal going to the opposite channel too, to prevent the unsolicited DAC to shut down. And even with that, I was unable to calculate crosstalk at 100Hz and 1kHz because it is below -137dBr. Only at 10kHz I was able to see a crazy low -120dBr.
----
As I did with the Sony CDP-597, I add a "max DAC resolution" measurement test. It is performed from a 999.91Hz sine @-12dBFS with shape dither (from Audacity). I restrict the THD+N span to 20Hz - 6kHz in REW not to account for the noise of the shape dither beyond 6kHz. I take the calculated ENOB and simply add 2bits to it (due to the -12dB attenuation, as 1bits=6dB). The potential maximum, when calculated from the digital WAV file, is 18.7bits under this test. A "transparent" DAC should achieve 18.7bits, ie 100% in this test.
Here are the results compared to others:
The Denon nearly achieves the best possible score on this test.
Denon DCD-900NE - AL32 measurements
I think the Denon proprietary oversampling filter deserves a specific section, as it finds its roots back 3 decades ago.
Besides the bit-depth increase that I already mentioned, and as @bolserst wrote some time ago ago about Denon filtering, the first iteration of ALPHA processing by Denon featured an automatic filter selection based on LSB toggling, and which I could replicate too. Subsequent version of ALPHA processing included further intelligence in terms of filter selection.
I'll try to keep this section as simple as I can, but it's a challenge.
First, this is the filter response (from periodic white noise) overlaid with the standard AES IMD test (18kHz + 20kHz) which a lot of reviewers like to use:
For the moment, please forget about the filter response (in red) between 60k and 72kHz (it's because the filter is slow, in nature).
Those of you used to perform and look at these tests will see an impossibility here. It is an obviously slow filter, and so it's not logical to see total absence of aliases of 18kHz and 20kHz (which would be at 26.1kHt and 24.1kHz respectively). That is because the Denon (its AL32 filter) recognizes the typical test tones and switches to a sharp filter in that case, which would make people like me theoretically happy. Fail
To counter the test detection by the AL32 filter, it is enough to add a third test tone with this standard AES test. So adding a 80Hz test tone defeats the detection of the filter, and here below we get what we should:
And tadaa, this time we see what's logical with a slow filter response, aliases of 18kHz and 20kHz replicate around 22.05kHz. So you find them 26.1k and 24.1k respectively. I tested all standard AES, DIN, etc..., and when necessary, the AL32 filter switches to a sharper mode to exhibit what testers like to see : absence of aliases out of band. But the standard filter, when playing music, is a slow one.
Also, as with the first iteration of ALPHA processing, it detects square signals and switches to NOS (Non Oversampling) mode in that case. This allows Denon to show perfect square waves. When looking at the same in frequency domain, we get this:
This is beautiful and could be used by a teacher at the university to talk about D/A conversion and its effect on creating aliases, enveloped into a sinc function. This garbage is on purpose, again to show perfect square waves, when requested, on a scope. This does not help to play music, of course, but is just a trick to shine on a specific test.
So we see that the Denon has three filters with automatic selection:
Proof? Yes of course, my pleasure:
Same slow filter, and same action switching to sharp filter when detection an AES IMD test, haha.
By the way, good to see that the son (DCD-900NE) improves the filter attenuation overall (see the green spikes of the SA1 going higher), even if keeping that strange bump between 62k and 72kHz. On one side it is good to see high end technology of 20 years ago, sold at a crazy price at the time, making its way to budget CD player, thanks Denon. And if you think the DCD-SA1 was a killing machine (I do), go grab a DCD-900NE and enjoy!
Oh, I almost forgot the essential, with music as well as with white or pink noise, the Denon uses the standard slow filter, there's no switching between filters when playing music. Below is an overlay of long term capture (peaks) of the song "Fast Car" from Tracy Chapman and pink noise:
This shows what happens in real life, with real music content (dark green). The remaining energy of aliases at 62k-72kHz are at -100dBr, basically not of any concerns.
I think it closes this chapter.
Demon DCD-900NE - Testing the drive
What would be good measurements if the drive would not properly read a slightly scratched CD, or one that was created at the limits of the norm? The below tests reply to these questions.
The Denon took 9sec to read the TOC of my 40 tracks test CD, this is relatively slow. Other resistance tests shown below:
The drive of the Denon DCD-900NE was able to consistently continue playing, and without generating typical digital clicks, with dropouts of up to 2.4mm. The interpolation effect remained hidden to my hears when it kicked-off and the Denon did not fail to maintain a constant flow with up to 3mm dropouts (with lots of clicks). The DCD-900NE had no issue with variable linear velocity and/or track pitch, as well as with HF detection. This is a very good drive.
Denon DCD-900NE - Measurements (Optical Out - From CD)
I've seen several of you reviewing CD players using their digital outputs, in case the results could be improved from an external DAC.
So let's go with the 999.91Hz @0dBFS:
No issue here, as well as with the 3DC view (997Hz @-90.31dBFBS):
You can clearly see the three DC levels -1, 0, +1 repeating. Indeed, at such a low digital level, there's only one bit to represent the signal, and so it's either negative, positive or 0. So the system cannot reproduce a sine wave, because there's just one bit on and off for a period of time. It therefore creates a square wave, which we see "suffering" from the Gibbs Phenomenon due to the band limited (22.05kHz max) representation of the Audio CD.
You can appreciate the difference when the above is processed by the ALPHA filtering of the Denon.
But I think that from now on, I will just use the intersample overs test at 5512.50Hz, with a phase shift of 67.5°, like I did for the TASCAM CD-200 review. This signal generates an overshoot of +0.69dB and so if the signal would be modified before being sent, it would show either a reduction of amplitude or we'd see some sort of saturation/increase noise/distorsion. So here we go, the below is a comparison between the WAV File directly processed by the PC, and when played by the Denon via the optical out:
The traces are identical. The Denon DCD-900NE is a "perfect" transport.
Conclusion
To keep it simple, this is, as of today (August 2025), the best results I've measured from a CD player. All measurements are very close to what's on the test CD, so it can't really get better.
The Denon DCD-900NE is also flawless as a transport, only the slowness of the drive could be annoying.
When compared to my older Denon DCD-SA1, the little DCD-900NE did better absolutely everywhere (from CDA), wow! It is really nice to see older mega expensive technology becoming available at a much lower price.
The behavior of the AL32 filtering is funny, designed to shine under measurements. It's been ongoing for a long time, the DCD-S10 was already including some tricks. But I have to admit that the bit-depth increase is obviously increasing the precision of the conversion without drawbacks. This is the true value proposition of the Denon AL filter.
To me, this DCD-900NE has been a keeper for quite some times now. And it remains the low cost reference CD Player, awaiting for the one that will beat it. Good luck to the contenders, because besides the too slow digital filter (on my perspective, feel free to disagree), it's already flawless.
I hope you enjoyed the long review!
--------
Flo
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Denon DCD-900NE stereo CD Player and Transport.
I previously reviewed the Marantz CD6007 which is in the same category. So much so that the packaging is identical, as well as the remote control, as well as the user guide. All look to be sourced from the same third party company.
I like testing CD Players, especially older ones, but I'm still in search of a modern one which I could use as kind of reference. So far the Onkyo C-733 has this role, but it's extremely difficult to source since it's 20 years old. So let's see what this Denon has to tell us.
Denon DCD-900NE - Presentation
This is the latest iteration from Denon (as of August 2024) of this player, replacing the previous DCD-800NE. As you can see on the above picture, the look has not changed and has been the same for a long time. Similar to Marantz, I like it a lot.
On the front face no phones output, which is too bad. I guess this explains the lower price when compared to the Marantz. Also, no selection of different filters but we get the now famous Denon specific filtering in an advanced version called "Advance AL32 Processing Plus". We'll deep dive into that.
As with the Marantz, there is also a USB input which will accept a USB drive and higher resolution files (up to PCM 24bits/192kHz and DSD 5.6MHz).
Back panel shows the essential:
We have RCA out and digital (Otpi + Coax).
Here is a picture of the inside:
We find two power boards, one for the digital section with servo control, decoding and the Denon AL filtering, and one for the analog section with the ESS DAC. Everything seems well organized and looks qualitative.
As opposed to the Marantz, no refined output stage (HDAM) of course, but the audio board is nice with the ESS9018S and OP1692 in the output stage (for I/V and LPF, I guess), to make us happy:
In terms of usage, first impression was rather good. But again similar to the Marantz, I was annoyed by the slowness of the drive. Indeed, if going forward is relatively fast (but no where near older players), going backwards was a little nightmare. less so than with the Marantz though.
It took 9sec to read the TOC of my 40 tracks CD, which is a bit slow, but common with modern drives. And like a friend told me, none of this is of importance if you like to listen to album in full.
Denon DCD-900NE - Measurements (Analog out - From CD)
All measurements performed with an E1DA Cosmos ADCiso (grade 0), and the Cosmos Scaler (100kohms from unbalanced input) for analog outputs, and a Motu UltraLite Mk5 for digital.
From now on, I will be consistent with my measurements as I described them in the post “More than we hear”, and as I reported them for the Onkyo C-733 review. Over time, this will help comparing the devices I reviewed.
The Denon DC-900NE outputs 2.402Vrms, that is 1.6dB above the standard 2Vrsm. The two channels were perfectly matched, this is rare. The single-ended outputs respect absolute polarity. Phase is dead flat.
Let's start with the standard 999.91Hz sine @0dBFS (without dither) from my test CD (RCA out):
Left and right channels are shown but only one gets evaluated in that view. The distortion is extremely low and the calculated SNR in presence of this highest level test tone is best in class. The trace is very neat, and is the best I got so far from the internal DAC of a CD player.
THD+N is limited (and so is the SINAD/ENOB) by the resolution of CD Audio. It's the best we can get.
Same view but at -6dBFS now:
Again, this is the best trace I have to report!
I guess you saw the Denon is a silent CD player, doing even better than the Marantz:
We can't see any power supply–related spuria in its output. This is what I like to see.
----
Bandwidth measurement (now measured from periodic white noise) shows a significant roll-off at 20kHz (-2dB) starting very early (at 4kHz):
Of course, this is due to the oversampling filter which we will analyze soon. The two channels are perfectly matched, well done.
----
Before talking filter, multitone test showed no issue:
CD Audio content is safe from distortion, no surprise considering the previous results.
----
Jitter is absent too, exhibiting a beautiful trace:
Red trace is what is on the test CD (digital output), it can’t be better. The Denon (blue trace) can barely be seen because it does not add any jitter and the noise floor is very low. I did not change the scale of that view, since I always use the same, but I usually can see the noise floor, but not with the conversion of this Denon. I suspect the ALPHA processing for very low level signals to have a positive impact here too (bit-depth increase).
I invite you to check the same view with the equally recent Yamaha CD-S303, as one more proof that the Denon is really at ease on this test.
----
And I forgot to add one of my favorite measurements, and that is the THD (excluding noise) vs Frequency at @-12dBFS:
The Denon achieved the best results I've seen on this test. I overlaid with the Yamaha CD-S303, for comparison. Appreciate that the two channels have really identical performances, which is what I've seen all along my testing.
----
Started with the Teac VRDS-20 review, and on your request + support to get it done (more here), I'm adding now an "intersample-overs" test which intends to identify the behavior of the digital filtering and DAC when it come to process near clipping signals. Because of the oversampling, there might be interpolated data that go above 0dBFS and would saturate (clip) the DAC and therefore the output. And this effect shows through distorsion (THD+N measurement 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 (Non-Oversampling CD Player) | -79.6dB | -35.3dB | -78.1dB |
| Onkyo C-733 | -79.8dB | -29.4dB | -21.2dB |
| Denon DCD-900NE | -34.2dB | -27.1dB | -19.1dB |
I kept some references and will keep the same for other reviews, so you can quickly compare. The results of the Denon DCD-900NE mean the oversampling filter does not have headroom to prevent intersample-overs. The Yamaha CD-1 shines here because it's old enough not to have an oversampling filter.
----
Let's continue with the good old 3DC measurement that Stereophile was often using as a proof of low noise DAC. It is from an undithered 997Hz sine at -90.31dBFS. With 16bits, the signal should appear (on a scope) as the 3DC levels of the smallest symmetrical sign magnitude digital signal:
HaHa! We don't get the standard 3DC view but a very nice sine. This is unusual and is the benefit of the Denon AL32 processing (ALPHA). It indeed increases the bit-depth in real time to extend the resolution beyond 16bits. This means that better representation of very low level signals is achieved by the Denon. This has been one of the benefits and key feature of the ALPHA filtering.
Of course it will not create data that does not exist (below 16bits) but it will refine the existing signal by extending the resolution. That implies a processing of the digital stream before conversion. This is well engineered because I could not spot mathematical errors (via additional distortion or noise) in that processing.
----
Other measurements (not shown):
- IMD AES-17 DFD "Analog" (18kHz & 20kHz 1:1) : -102.5dB
- IMD AES-17 DFD "Digital" (17'987Hz & 19'997Hz 1:1) : -105.9dB
- IMD AES-17 MD (41Hz & 7993Hz 4:1): -118.5dB
- IMD DIN (250Hz & 8kHz 4:1) : -105.6dB
- IMD CCIF (19kHz & 20kHz 1:1) : -105.4dB
- IMD SMPTE (60Hz & 7kHz 1:4) : -108.3B
- IMD TDFD Bass (41Hz & 89Hz 1:1) : -124.1dB
- IMD TDFD (13'58Hz & 19841Hz 1:1) : -122.1dB
- Dynamic Range : 98dB (without dither @-60dBFS)
- Crosstalk: <-137dBr (100Hz & 1kHz), -120dBr (10kHz)
- Pitch Error : 19'997.01Hz (19'997Hz requested) ie 0.5ppm
- Gapless playback : Yes
The clock is a the limit of my measurement interface.
The crosstalk is calculated with a low level signal going to the opposite channel too, to prevent the unsolicited DAC to shut down. And even with that, I was unable to calculate crosstalk at 100Hz and 1kHz because it is below -137dBr. Only at 10kHz I was able to see a crazy low -120dBr.
----
As I did with the Sony CDP-597, I add a "max DAC resolution" measurement test. It is performed from a 999.91Hz sine @-12dBFS with shape dither (from Audacity). I restrict the THD+N span to 20Hz - 6kHz in REW not to account for the noise of the shape dither beyond 6kHz. I take the calculated ENOB and simply add 2bits to it (due to the -12dB attenuation, as 1bits=6dB). The potential maximum, when calculated from the digital WAV file, is 18.7bits under this test. A "transparent" DAC should achieve 18.7bits, ie 100% in this test.
Here are the results compared to others:
| CD Player model or DAC | Calculated ENOB (999.91Hz sine @-12dBFS with shape dither, THD+N span = 20Hz - 6kHz) | Percentage of max resolution achieved (higher is better) |
| OPPO BDP-95 | 18.7bits | 100% |
| SMSL PL-200 | 18.7bits | 100% |
| SMSL PS-200 (from CD player) | 18.6bits | 99.47% |
| Denon DCD-900NE | 18.5bits | 98.93% |
| Onkyo C-733 | 18bits | 96.26% |
| SMSL PL150 | 18bits | 96.26% |
| SMSL PL100 | 17.9bits | 95.72% |
| Sony CDP-597 | 17.5bits | 93.58% |
| Onkyo DX-7355 | 17.3bits | 92.51% |
| Denon DCD-3560 | 17.2bits | 91.98% |
| Yamaha CD-S303 | 16.8bits | 89.84% |
| Accuphase DP-70 | 16.6bits | 88.77% |
| Sony CDP-337ESD | 16.6bits | 88.77% |
| Teac VRDS-25x | 16.5bits | 88.24% |
| Marantz CD-73 | 14.9bits | 79.68% |
The Denon nearly achieves the best possible score on this test.
Denon DCD-900NE - AL32 measurements
I think the Denon proprietary oversampling filter deserves a specific section, as it finds its roots back 3 decades ago.
Besides the bit-depth increase that I already mentioned, and as @bolserst wrote some time ago ago about Denon filtering, the first iteration of ALPHA processing by Denon featured an automatic filter selection based on LSB toggling, and which I could replicate too. Subsequent version of ALPHA processing included further intelligence in terms of filter selection.
I'll try to keep this section as simple as I can, but it's a challenge.
First, this is the filter response (from periodic white noise) overlaid with the standard AES IMD test (18kHz + 20kHz) which a lot of reviewers like to use:
For the moment, please forget about the filter response (in red) between 60k and 72kHz (it's because the filter is slow, in nature).
Those of you used to perform and look at these tests will see an impossibility here. It is an obviously slow filter, and so it's not logical to see total absence of aliases of 18kHz and 20kHz (which would be at 26.1kHt and 24.1kHz respectively). That is because the Denon (its AL32 filter) recognizes the typical test tones and switches to a sharp filter in that case, which would make people like me theoretically happy. Fail
To counter the test detection by the AL32 filter, it is enough to add a third test tone with this standard AES test. So adding a 80Hz test tone defeats the detection of the filter, and here below we get what we should:
And tadaa, this time we see what's logical with a slow filter response, aliases of 18kHz and 20kHz replicate around 22.05kHz. So you find them 26.1k and 24.1k respectively. I tested all standard AES, DIN, etc..., and when necessary, the AL32 filter switches to a sharper mode to exhibit what testers like to see : absence of aliases out of band. But the standard filter, when playing music, is a slow one.
Also, as with the first iteration of ALPHA processing, it detects square signals and switches to NOS (Non Oversampling) mode in that case. This allows Denon to show perfect square waves. When looking at the same in frequency domain, we get this:
This is beautiful and could be used by a teacher at the university to talk about D/A conversion and its effect on creating aliases, enveloped into a sinc function. This garbage is on purpose, again to show perfect square waves, when requested, on a scope. This does not help to play music, of course, but is just a trick to shine on a specific test.
So we see that the Denon has three filters with automatic selection:
- A slow one, which is the standard one when playing music (attenuation -50dB, stop band: 30kHz)
- A sharp filter for typical AES or DIN high frequencies IMD tests .
- A NOS (Non-oversampling) mode when playing square tones.
Proof? Yes of course, my pleasure:
Same slow filter, and same action switching to sharp filter when detection an AES IMD test, haha.
By the way, good to see that the son (DCD-900NE) improves the filter attenuation overall (see the green spikes of the SA1 going higher), even if keeping that strange bump between 62k and 72kHz. On one side it is good to see high end technology of 20 years ago, sold at a crazy price at the time, making its way to budget CD player, thanks Denon. And if you think the DCD-SA1 was a killing machine (I do), go grab a DCD-900NE and enjoy!
Oh, I almost forgot the essential, with music as well as with white or pink noise, the Denon uses the standard slow filter, there's no switching between filters when playing music. Below is an overlay of long term capture (peaks) of the song "Fast Car" from Tracy Chapman and pink noise:
This shows what happens in real life, with real music content (dark green). The remaining energy of aliases at 62k-72kHz are at -100dBr, basically not of any concerns.
I think it closes this chapter.
Demon DCD-900NE - Testing the drive
What would be good measurements if the drive would not properly read a slightly scratched CD, or one that was created at the limits of the norm? The below tests reply to these questions.
The Denon took 9sec to read the TOC of my 40 tracks test CD, this is relatively slow. Other resistance tests shown below:
| Test type | Technical test | Results |
| Variation of linear cutting velocity | From 1.20m/s to 1.40m/s | Pass |
| Variation of track pitch | From 1.5µm to 1.7µm | Pass |
| Combined variations of track pitch and velocity | From 1.20m/s & 1.5µm to 1.40m/s & 1.7µm | Pass |
| HF detection (asymmetry pitch/flat ratio) | Variation from 2% to 18% | Pass |
| Dropouts resistance | From 0.05mm (0.038ms) to 4mm (3.080ms) | Up to 2.4mm. |
| Combined dropouts and smallest pitch | From 1.5µm & 1mm to 1.5µm & 2.4mm | Up to 2.4mm. |
| Successive dropouts | From 2x0.1mm to 2x3mm | Up to 2.4mm. |
The drive of the Denon DCD-900NE was able to consistently continue playing, and without generating typical digital clicks, with dropouts of up to 2.4mm. The interpolation effect remained hidden to my hears when it kicked-off and the Denon did not fail to maintain a constant flow with up to 3mm dropouts (with lots of clicks). The DCD-900NE had no issue with variable linear velocity and/or track pitch, as well as with HF detection. This is a very good drive.
Denon DCD-900NE - Measurements (Optical Out - From CD)
I've seen several of you reviewing CD players using their digital outputs, in case the results could be improved from an external DAC.
So let's go with the 999.91Hz @0dBFS:
No issue here, as well as with the 3DC view (997Hz @-90.31dBFBS):
You can clearly see the three DC levels -1, 0, +1 repeating. Indeed, at such a low digital level, there's only one bit to represent the signal, and so it's either negative, positive or 0. So the system cannot reproduce a sine wave, because there's just one bit on and off for a period of time. It therefore creates a square wave, which we see "suffering" from the Gibbs Phenomenon due to the band limited (22.05kHz max) representation of the Audio CD.
You can appreciate the difference when the above is processed by the ALPHA filtering of the Denon.
But I think that from now on, I will just use the intersample overs test at 5512.50Hz, with a phase shift of 67.5°, like I did for the TASCAM CD-200 review. This signal generates an overshoot of +0.69dB and so if the signal would be modified before being sent, it would show either a reduction of amplitude or we'd see some sort of saturation/increase noise/distorsion. So here we go, the below is a comparison between the WAV File directly processed by the PC, and when played by the Denon via the optical out:
The traces are identical. The Denon DCD-900NE is a "perfect" transport.
Conclusion
To keep it simple, this is, as of today (August 2025), the best results I've measured from a CD player. All measurements are very close to what's on the test CD, so it can't really get better.
The Denon DCD-900NE is also flawless as a transport, only the slowness of the drive could be annoying.
When compared to my older Denon DCD-SA1, the little DCD-900NE did better absolutely everywhere (from CDA), wow! It is really nice to see older mega expensive technology becoming available at a much lower price.
The behavior of the AL32 filtering is funny, designed to shine under measurements. It's been ongoing for a long time, the DCD-S10 was already including some tricks. But I have to admit that the bit-depth increase is obviously increasing the precision of the conversion without drawbacks. This is the true value proposition of the Denon AL filter.
To me, this DCD-900NE has been a keeper for quite some times now. And it remains the low cost reference CD Player, awaiting for the one that will beat it. Good luck to the contenders, because besides the too slow digital filter (on my perspective, feel free to disagree), it's already flawless.
I hope you enjoyed the long review!
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Flo
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And so the Denon DCD-900NE is a killer.
They've basically been gaming the system (i.e. cheating) for decades. What's the saying again - when a metric becomes a target, it ceases to be a good metric? Someone clearly wanted to have their cake and eat it, too.
