Page 59 - Hi-Fi_News_-_December_2020 video

LEFT: DCD-A110 [top]
keeps its fascia simple,
and not because it’s
‘just’ a disc player,
albeit one built on
grand scale. PMA-A110
offers defeatable tone
controls, and both the
digital inputs and the
small display can be
switched off

power amp sections,
with two large
capacitors mounted
to the rear of the
chassis and the
power amp being
of symmetrical dual
mono construction.
It follows Denon’s
familiar Ultra-High
Current design,
using just a pair of
push/pull devices

quad-DAC configuration, though here it socket. Tone/balance controls are also in place of the multiple power transistors
supports digital inputs running to three provided, with a novel two-stage system to more common in amps of this kind, and is
optical and one coaxial, plus a galvanically- deliver the shortest possible signal paths derived from the SX-series amplifi ers.
isolated USB-B port through which it can and reduce interference. ‘Source Direct’ The power output here is quoted as
handle data at up to 384kHz/32-bit PCM, bypasses the tone and balance settings, 80W/8ohm, rising to 160W/4ohm, which
or DSD256/11.2MHz. There’s a MM/MC while ‘Analogue Mode’ allows the digital may not seem massive in the great scheme
phono input too plus three sets of line-ins, section to be powered down, as well as the of things, but it certainly proves more than
and a direct connection to the power amp small front-panel display if required. adequate in use. Meanwhile the design
for an external preamp or AV processor. avoids running audio signals through the
Outputs run to just a single set of DUAL MONO front panel control circuitboard. Rather,
speaker sockets and a line output for – The interior of the amplifier is dominated the PMA-A110’s preamp section is located

well, whatever ‘record out’ is for these by two transformers [see pic, p61], also down the righthand side of the chassis,
days – plus a front-panel headphone feeding separate PSUs for the preamp and directly behind the input sockets on the
rear panel, with control signals sent to it
110 YEARS AND COUNTING remotely from the fascia.
In common with other recent products
Denon’s 110-year history began in 1910, when American entrepreneur Frederick released by Sound United stable, the
Whitney Horn, in association with Japanese partners, founded Nippon Denki Denon PMA-A110 also uses a two-stage
Onkyō Kabushikigaisha (the Japan Electric Sound Company) to make single-sided preamp design, with the volume control
discs and gramophones for voice recording. Disc recorders were the mainstay of directionally governing the gain of the
Denon, as the company became known in the 1930s, for several decades, and its first stage instead of merely attenuating

first professional recorder, the transportable twin-deck DR-148, was delivered to the signal. The result is a huge reduction
Japanese broadcaster NHK in 1939 in time for the ill-fated 1940 Tokyo Olympics. in noise and a boost to the S/N ratio when

But a Denon recorder made a very different kind of history when its DP-17K the amplifier is compared to the company’s
was used to capture Emperor Hirohito’s speech ending WWII. After two takes – PMA-2500NE [see PM’s Lab Report, p63].
the Emperor initially spoke too softly, to the consternation of NHK’s technicians
– the discs were smuggled out of the Imperial Palace, in the face of army PERFECT PAIR

opposition. They were broadcast the next day, the first time the Japanese people Completing the set-up is a system remote
had heard the Emperor’s voice. supplied with both units, giving one-
By the late 1950s, as the tape and LP era dawned, Denon started making tape handset operation of the two together.
recorders, and in 1964 delivered its DL-103 cartridge to NHK. At that stage the And they are clearly designed to be used

focus was still on professional equipment, and the first Denon turntables – and together, not least because the 110th
later its inaugural CD player – were designed for studio use. Only in 1970 did Anniversary finish is going to stick out in a

Denon begin to make consumer products, and its first integrated amplifi er, the rack of either black or silver components.

PMA-500, arrived two years later. In the same era, it heralded the digital audio Fortunately, the two components here
age with the world’s first eight-track digital recorder. The size of several fi ling are not just impressive in their own right,

cabinets the machine was, of course, delivered to long-term client NHK. but make a very convincing pairing. What
they’re not is another ‘me too’ of the

DECEMBER 2020 | www.hifi news.co.uk | 59