denon dcm-280



This is a warm-up project done just to have fun and to help a friend. I would not touch the changer normally, but what attracted my attention was the fact that it reads MP3 files and also it has Burr-Brown PCM dac. That means that if we squeeze 100 songs on one CD, this machine will play 500 songs. Thats in shuffle mode - 2000 minutes of entertainment. Great for pubs and clubs. 30 hours untill a song repeats. And no Windows required to do this.
Of course a simple  flash player can do even better today, so lets consider it an ode to the changer. Goodbye dinosaurs of the era of MECHANICAL SOLUTION.



dcm-280

 








Despite being merely a changer, I think that DCM-280 looks really good. Its cool.

The level ofmechanical  sophistication is amazing. Watching the carousel working with the hood removed is fascinating. I love clever mechanics.  On the other hand - if something breaks ....











All the electronics are on one green PCB. Nothing terribly exciting but it WORKS. And the DAC as I already mentioned is a BurrBrown. The PCM line is very very long, the list starts at PCM1700 and ends at 1796. This one is an unknown little sucker called PCM1748E. Jamais couche avec.  It is very very small and has the smallest leg count on the planet of DACs. This can be a good sign - a sign of SIMPLICITY.

The DAC is a voltage typw Uout and so it was treated by lampizator consisting of two SRPP 6H6P tubes. Between DAC outputs and the grids first there is a cap for filtering out the DC and then there is a Lpad - 10K series, 2k7 parallel.






Tubes fit nicely in the free space on the side.




Red marks show two capacitors which filter the noise from power supplies to the DAC. One supply is 3V3, another is 5V0. We can solder to these points an oscon or tantalum or blackgate cap, say - 100 uF / 6V3.
These caps can also be completely replaced by mentioned premium ones. (pins 5 and 6) .













Ze Sound:

This article would not have made it to the net if the sound wasnt worth writing about. I must say that this player with lampizator sounds exceptionally good. I love this sound.
Blindfolded listener would give his hand that the sound comes from a 2000 Euro machine.
Sound is open, lively, dynamic, spacious - in a word - amazing. It is not in the league of I out DACS but it is damn good, especially for a 50 Euro ebay roadkill.

Nov 11 2009