Denon, who has lagged behind the other major manufacturers in the CD "Turntable" market, is now very serious about being a contender. By coming to the very competitive CD Turntable market late, they have the advantage of addressing the major deficits of their rivals and capitalize on their shortcomings.
Built-in effects are a touchy issue, some manufacturers like Numark have put in considerable effort to give their flagship (CDX) player excellent, performance-based effects. Others, such as Technics, have provided surprisingly inane effects that make you wonder if barnyard animals were spearheading the development. Denon's DN-S3500 has seven built in effects including Flanger, Filter (High-Mid-Low), Echo, Echo Loop, as well as three platter effects, Brake (adjustable in real-time), Dump (reverse sound without losing true forward time) and Reverse. All effects can be tweaked in realtime, feature full parameter adjustment, and utilize a separate control for the wet/dry effects mix. These sound quite promising, but they will have to be tested before we can weigh in with a verdict.
The DN-S3500 features full MP3 playback support for constant bit rate (CBR) and variable bit rate (VBR) decoding up to 320 kbps. MP3 functions include Frame Search, MP3 Hot Starts and Seamless Looping with B point trim, ID3 tag display for Artist, Title, Album, and the world's first ID3 BPM tag, which automatically recalls the BPM metadata of a given MP3 file. A comprehensive MP3 File Search System that can quickly locate hundreds of files in various folders, as well as the aforementioned MP3 Memo system that saves the user's cue points and loops to internal memory.
The DN-S3500 also includes many powerful sample and loop functions for extended mixing capabilities. In conjunction with the 15 second on-board sampler, the Seamless Loop to Sampler Copy function allows a DJ to swap out the disc during sample playback and even overlay CD scratches using the sampler. Two Hot Starts and seamless loops with B point trim can be set on the fly, as can further Key Adjustments and Cue Stutter points. Nice! CD Text support provides scrolling display of track names when used with commercial releases or with the user's own CD-R/RW compilations. Full pitch control is available in increments of +/- 4%, +/- 10%, +/- 16%, +/- 24%, +/- 50% and +/- 100% for CDs, with MP3 pitch adjustment in the range of +/- 4%, +/- 10% and +/- 16%. Shockproof memory is provided for both CD (20 seconds) and MP3 (100 seconds).
The Denon DN-S3500 Professional Direct Drive CD/MP3 Player will be available in late September for $879.99 (approx)
