Denon PMA-600NE Integrated Amplifier Review

[TonyJZX]

looking at the results you can see that a lot of this amp is actually poor performing bordering on broken in some respects

again i would look at the yamaha 501 given its about the same price or cheaper

it looks like to me there's a hole in the market (yet again)

is there an integrated in this price range with remote, just line stage, no dac no bluetooth, no phono with say 75w and also pre-outs? why bother with a dogshit SBC bluetooth routed to a 10yr old dac?

also maybe main-in or ht loop for some of you? maybe not?

maybe tone controls? maybe not?

 

[pma]

I was measuring an old Yamaha AX-396 here

Review and Measurements of vintage Yamaha AX-396 integrated amplifier

Review and Measurements of vintage Yamaha AX-396 integrated amplifier This review shows measurements of Yamaha AX-396 integrated amplifier, ser. no. Y399871TV, made in Malaysia. I bought this amplifier in the year 2002 and have been using it shortly. Then it was sleeping in my stock and 5...

www.audiosciencereview.com

and it was performing much better than this new Denon.

 

[Hammeredklavier]

and it was performing much better than this new Denon.

Under the hood, I suspect this 'new' Denon is the same ageing amplifier found in the PMA520, and no doubt other products I don't know about, with a cheap DAC of similar vintage shoehorned in.

It's perhaps a bit on the expensive side for what's on offer - it's worth £250 isn't it - but it's nicely made, no doubt very reliable, has a comprehensive feature set, and let's not forget, it's probably not audibly distinguishable from a state of the art amplifier.

 

[jbattman1016]

I guess this could be relegated to casual listening/background duty with a pair of sensibly-priced bookshelf speakers. For that task, not too awfully bad.

Yeah, but for this price, you can get anything else for a few hundred less and push your budget to better speakers.

 

[jbattman1016]

is there an integrated in this price range with remote, just line stage, no dac no bluetooth, no phono with say 75w and also pre-outs? why bother with a dogshit SBC bluetooth routed to a 10yr old dac?

Maybe this? https://www.smsl-audio.com/portal/product/detail/id/792.html Yeah, it still has bluetooth and no preouts, but what do you need those for ?

 

[RoyRoyRoy]

There is good information on the 900HNE here. Be sure to translate Japanese to English

【レビュー】 ミドルクラス最強!? ネットワークアンプが中核、デノン「900NE」

いきなり個人的な話だが、「自分がオーディオ始める時に、こんな単品コンポシリーズあったら最高だったろうなぁ」と思う製品が存在した。デノンが2018年に発売した「800NE」シリーズだ。

av.watch.impress.co.jp

Thanks for the links. The youtube webinar is very good. I looked at the 900HNE vs 600NE, and it looks like a different power transformer and much more shielding. Looks like they did more work on the 900HNE to eliminate noise, and they of course classified the 600NE as midrange, and 900HNE as "upper" midrange. So basically, they put a bit more effort into the 900HNE. I would love to see measurements on this to see if their shielding and their different transformer actually make a measurable difference.

 

[natna]

Well, I'd like to see some measurements on the Yamaha A-S501 and (especially) A-S701...
They're not cheap now since their prices were increased 20% since the pandemic, but I have my eye on them. Mainly on the 701.

 

[Overseas]

Under the hood, I suspect this 'new' Denon is the same ageing amplifier found in the PMA520, and no doubt other products I don't know about, with a cheap DAC of similar vintage shoehorned in.

It's perhaps a bit on the expensive side for what's on offer - it's worth £250 isn't it - but it's nicely made, no doubt very reliable, has a comprehensive feature set, and let's not forget, it's probably not audibly distinguishable from a state of the art amplifier.

We just said we had it and sounds bad, kind of 3 of us around here.
Otherwise, it does not burn or bite you, so it must be Hifi, isn't it.

 

[abdo123]

I owned this for years. The SINAD is not as problematic as one might think it would be.

But yeah this is a relic of the past.

 

[dmilller]

Well, the DAC is in the same poor range as the popular Bluesound Node and older Node 2i. So not much for Denon to be uncomfortable with here.

 

[Overseas]

I guess Node was one of the very few solutions for HDMI ARC input plus streaming. Anyway, I never looked at it because of ASR.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

I'm currently saving up for a PMA-900HNE, specifically, for the H (HEOS) part, as I enjoy the multi-room audio, and I have a turntable that I rarely use and some CDs, but Amazon music streaming is the King in our house. I really can't be bothered to change records or CDs anymore. However, in Canada, it's 1250+tax, or $1412 all in. It's an expensive proposition.

I'm still debating if I get a Denon Link HS2 Pre-Amp $480 and add a lower cost amp (so many to choose nowadays from for my small dining room). In addition, I have a crazy thought of buying an X series Denon, one that was favorably reviewed and measured here, and using that for my Stereo set up, and it would give me extra zones, and all the features I want. It's bizarre that their X6700 is on sale for 53% off, for $1900+tax ($2147 all in) at https://www.denon.com/en-ca/product/av-receivers/avr-x6700h/300005.html. Yes it's overkill for a stereo set up with bookshelves, but Denon has not made price to value proposition that appealing for trying to get HEOS working.

For that budget I would look into an AVR already. Some from Denon measure better then this and the next higher integrated amp. And you get even streaming and TV handling also in the box.

 

[Velocipede_Acoustics]

I owned this for years. The SINAD is not as problematic as one might think it would be.

But yeah this is a relic of the past.

Yeah. I have a couple of Crown XLS amps connected via XLR and it was fine with the gain was not set so high that the hiss was audible. I still had plenty of power response. My old AVR, I can't remember the model, measured about 20DB better in distortion and it wasn't noticeable to me, at all. It probably has a lot to do with the speakers masking any artifacts that the amps presented.

So this amp is probably "fine" for most casual stereo applications. Though, I would appreciate it if it was better, if only for the sake of progress.

 

[Doodski]

This could have been a winner because it has all the features and option for the price range and looks nice too but it's a no-go now.

 

[TurtlePaul]

I had to replace a buzzing amp earlier this year. For about 90% of the price of this Denon I bought a MiniDSP 2x4 HD, UMIK-1, Fosi V3 and some Monoprice cables.

My setup is less attractive and less heavy but boy do the features and performance destroy this amp (unless you still need the additional four analog input pairs in 2023).

 

[Doodski]

I had to replace a buzzing amp earlier this year. For about 90% of the price of this Denon I bought a MiniDSP 2x4 HD, UMIK-1, Fosi V3 and some Monoprice cables.

My setup is less attractive and less heavy but boy do the features and performance destroy this amp (unless you still need the additional four analog input pairs in 2023).

That's some serious purchasing power buying the system you bought. Incredible actually.

 

[mk05]

This product has all the features a non-enthusiast newcomer or boomer could want, especially with those 2 TOSLINK inputs and bluetooth, plus the nostalgia design language of the 80-90s. ASR is not the target market for this item.

 

[Joe Smith]

It's a shame when these good traditional makers can't provide a level of performance that is up to the inexpensive Chinese amps... The feature set here is nice, if well implemented, it's a price point that would attract me. But for the moment, I'm fine with separates (phono pre, DAC, Class D mini amp, Wiim Mini for streaming) until someone comes out with a $500 integrated amp category killer...

My vintage fully restored Marantz 2216 receiver still works great in my workroom, only thing it's missing is one extra input, I use a switch box to toggle between DAC and CD player going into AUX. A small price to pay.

 

[JDS]

Neither can I, so agree... I was actually expecting this to perform a bit better on the test bench and am surprised with the lacklustre results. This is often recommended as a more stable integrated solution and brand compared to other less established brands, without good cause it seems. Seeing this I wouldn't expect the 800NE to show much improvement apart from more power. Thanks for posting these results.

Some pic's;

View attachment 326011

View attachment 326012

View attachment 326013

View attachment 326014

Published spec's;

Specifications

• Output power 8 Ohm (20 Hz - 20 kHz, T.H.D. 0.07%)45 W
• Output power 4 Ohm (1 kHz, T.H.D. 0.7%)70 W
• Total Harmonic Distortion0.02%
• Input Sensitivity: MM2.5 mV / 47 kohm
• Signal to Noise Ratio: MM/MC84 dB / No
• Input Sensitivity: High level110 mV / 30 kohms
• Signal to Noise Ratio: High level105dB
• Treble Control± 8 dB at 10 kHz
• Bass Control± 8 dB at 100 Hz

JSmith

The innards look a bit like what I remember seeing inside my old 1970s Pioneer receiver, especially the large number of jumpers. Maybe they just grafted a DAC onto one of their own old designs. Vintage sound!

 

[CleanSound]

If ever SMSL or Topping would have 10% of the knowledge of these brands regarding reliability...

Meaning, you don't feel SMSL and Topping are not reliable?