If the USB on this Denon turntable’s mannequin quantity caught your eye, you’ve most likely been considering of digitizing your vinyl assortment. And you’ve most likely checked out a number of the—ahem—less-expensive USB turntables and located them missing.
Well, right here’s the excellent news: Denon’s DP-450USB turntable delivers nice sound and audiophile construct high quality, and it makes recording your vinyl tremendous straightforward—even with out a pc. The dangerous information? The Windows software program Denon selected to bundle with its product leaves a lot to be desired.
Audiophile construct and design
Denon is finest recognized within the U.S. for its exceptional line of AV receivers, however the firm has a wider portfolio, together with beautiful headphones (such because the Denon AH-D9200 TechHive reviewed just lately), a superb multi-room audio system generally known as HEOS, and, after all, a robust line of turntables. Many individuals don’t understand it, however Denon has been constructing turntables for greater than a century—its legacy dates again to 1910, with the event of Japan’s first gramophone.
Denon’s DP450-USB seems and seems like an audiophile turntable. The stable base is available in your alternative of lacquered black or white finishes. My evaluation pattern got here in black.
Four anti-vibration toes are mounted to the bottom. The outer shells of those are plastic and every foot’s internal circle is constituted of a dimpled rubber that pivots to soak up vibration. The toes aren’t as substantive as you’ll discover on some dearer turntables, however do you have to really feel the necessity, you possibly can all the time complement them with an IsoNode or Sorbothane-based product.
The DP-450USB comes with a metallic platter and a rubber mat, which isn’t uncommon at this value level. The platter has two rectangular openings by means of which you’ll be able to pull the belt onto the motor’s pulley.
This rectangular opening within the DP-450USB’s platter makes it straightforward to stretch the belt over the motor’s pully..
Setup is simple and simple. To get essentially the most out of the DP-450USB, you should reference the web proprietor’s guide. What comes within the field is only a quick-start information. Page 10 of the guide provides you a QR code so you possibly can rapidly obtain the complete person guide from the net.
But you gained’t want the person guide to find that the DP-450USB is a veritable Swiss Army knife: It will play information at 33-1/3-, 45-, and 78 rpm. Denon says the DP-450USB has an built-in sensor that robotically controls the platter to forestall undesirable pace fluctuations.
Appealing to each the novice and the audiophile, the DP-450USB comes with a shifting magnet (MM) cartridge, however may even settle for a MC (shifting coil) cartridge. The included stylus is sweet for about 400 hours of playback.
The onboard phono preamp permits you to join the DP-450USB to powered audio system, a multichannel A/V receiver, or an built-in amplifier. The solely factor lacking from this turntable’s bag of tips is the absence of assist for Denon’s aforementioned HEOS streaming platform. The means to stream your vinyl to any HEOS-compatible audio part could be a killer addition that will put Denon’s turntable on par with Yamaha’s MusicCast Vinyl 500.
If you wish to elevate the Denon’s efficiency, you possibly can flip the Equalizer setting in again to Off, which can defeat its inner preamp so you possibly can join an outboard phono preamp. If you’re critical about your vinyl expertise, you’ll wish to play by means of an exterior phono preamp.
I performed the Denon by means of each its inner phono stage and a Cambridge Audio Alva Duo phono preamp. I discovered the Denon’s inner phono stage to be fairly good for an out-of-the-box possibility, though it closely emphasizes the underside finish. You would possibly discover that increase interesting; in my view, I a lot most popular the Denon’s sound by means of the extra refined and impartial efficiency of the Alva Duo.
Theo Nicolakis / IDGThe Denon comes with an inner phono preamp. You can defeat the inner preamp and use an exterior one among your alternative by flipping the Equalizer change to Off.
Semi-automatic operation
Denon’s DP-450USB is a semi-automatic turntable, which suggests you don’t want to observe it like a hawk whilst you’re spinning information. When the tonearm reaches the tip of the document, the tonearm robotically lifts, the platter stops spinning, and the gadget turns itself off.
You will must return the tonearm to its relaxation, however the semi-automatic function labored flawlessly throughout my analysis. Once the tonearm reached the tip of the document, it made a couple of revolutions on the silent a part of the document, the tonearm lifted, and the platter stopped spinning.
Theo Nicolakis / IDGYou can flip the semi-automatic operation on/off with the button on the again.
I might put tonearm again on its relaxation, flip the aspect, or change the document; and as quickly as I returned the tonearm again over the document, the platter would robotically resume spinning. The turntable may even robotically energy down after being idle for 20 minutes.
An ingenious mud cowl
Most turntables include a hinged, plastic cowl. The apparent benefit of that design is you can shut it whereas a document is spinning to forestall mud from deciding on the document. The draw back is that it considerably will increase the vertical clearance wanted while you place the turntable. Denon got here up with an ingenious different that lays flat on the platter, with an igloo-like housing that protects the tonearm. While you’re spinning a document,the duvet serves as an easel for displaying the album cowl. Someone in Denon’s industrial design deserves a pat on the again for this, however tright here is one disadvantage: There’s nothing to forestall mud from deciding on the document whereas the document is on the turntable.
Theo Nicolakis / IDGThe mud cowl doubles as an easel to your album artwork.
The Denon DP-450USB is similar to the Denon DP-400 ($499 on Amazon) with one key distinction: The addition of USB output. If you’re intrigued by the DP-450USB and don’t really feel you want the USB performance, then it can save you your self $100 and decide up the DP-400.
Recording your vinyl
The DP-450USB’s recording function works by recording to a USB reminiscence stick or thumb drive by way of the USB-A socket on its entrance proper panel. To make a recording, merely pop in a thumb drive, begin enjoying a document, and press both the MP3 or WAV button on the turntable. A white gentle will blink above the thumb drive and a blue gentle will glow over the audio format (MP3 or WAV) you selected. To cease recording, merely press the identical audio format button.
Theo Nicolakis / IDGRecording a document is push-button easy. Insert a thumb drive and choose MP3 or WAV recording codecs.
Transferring music is simple: Pop the thumb drive into your PC and duplicate the recordsdata over. The Denon is wise sufficient to robotically serialize every recording: It will begin with REC00001 and go from there, so that you don’t want to fret about overwriting your recordings.
Bundled software program I might do with out
Denon bundles the DP-450USB with MusicCut software, which you’ll must obtain from Denon’s DP-450USB downloads page. Once downloaded, you’ll want your turntable’s serial quantity to put in the software program. You’ll then be prompted to register with Gracenote, which can deal with auto detection of the songs and albums you document.
Theo Nicolakis / IDGThe MusiCut software program robotically separates particular person tracks on an album basd on sequences of silence (which you’ll be able to regulate).
I have to take Denon to job right here on a number of fronts: First, the MusicCast software program is on the market just for Windows—there isn’t a MacOS model. If you’re a Mac person, I’d counsel you take a look at Audacity (which is free) or specialised options, equivalent to VinylStudio (which prices $29.99 by way of the App retailer). What Denon ought to do is accomplice with a developer that has software program accessible for each Windows and MacOS (VinylStudio developer AlpineSoft, for instance) and provide a reduction coupon that’s good for both model.
My second criticism is even larger: MusicCut’s web site says its software program acknowledges each MP3 and WAV recordsdata, however this system wouldn’t open the latter for me. I’m not about to digitize my vinyl to my Roon server as lossy MP3 recordsdata. I wish to digitize my vinyl in WAV after which convert to both FLAC or ALAC utilizing a software program bundle equivalent to XLD.
Third, music recognition proved to be a irritating expertise. I digitized Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms and the Eagles Live album for this evaluation. Brothers in Arms got here again as In the name of Freedom by the Sandviken Big Band. I needed to then go into MusicCut’s “Edit Tag Info” and manually tag every monitor with the right info.
Theo Nicolakis / IDGThe included MusicCut software program incorrectly recognized vinyl albums and tracks.
My recommendation: Avoid MusicCut and spend money on another software program. If you need free, attempt Audacity. If you need one thing extra person pleasant and automatic, there are many options, however you’ll must pay for them.
Conclusion
Aside from the software program, which Denon didn’t develop, I loved my time with Denon’s DP-450USB. I discovered it to be a stable turntable with nice sound and an easy-to-use vinyl digitization course of. The bundled MusicCut software program is that this bundle’s Achilles heel, however it’s not a deal breaker. If you’re in search of an audiophile-grade turntable that you should use for pure music enjoyment plus vinyl digitizing, you possibly can’t go incorrect with Denon’s DP-450USB.