Denon DP 300F Belt Driven Turntable

[jleon92f]

I still have mine, and it sounds great with the AT440MLa cartridge.

Thanks
John

 

[luckybaer]

Is there a wide variety of cartridge/stylus upgrades for this TT? I've been looking at entry-level turntables, and I definitely assign extra points for having the ability to be upgraded easily.

 

[tomrich22]

Thought I would stick my 2cents in on this. I have had this turtable for over a year now and can say it is great. I upgraded to the Denon DL-160 cartridge and wow what a difference from the standard cart. Much more highs and lows. Love them both.

 

[Sam Cogley]

Right, no ground wire and no hum. Go for it! We're right behind you!

My Denon doesn't hum. I've had other record players without ground wires; they didn't hum either.

Those tables have ground wires, they're simply not separate ground wires. You'll find that grounding is accomplished through the non-hot side of one RCA cable. I have a couple of tables like that.

 

[tony3d]

You mentioned that the are is not well damped. Can you elaborate on this? Is it not damped at all?

 

[Bramc]

I finally broke down and ordered the DP 300f for $286 including shipping. This my third turntable in a year, because I kept trying to strike gold with vintage automatic turntables. The fact is, there always seems to be "something" slightly wrong with them – speed issues, crossed wires, whatever. The Denon was the only logical new choice (their lower priced units look really, really cheap, BTW) for a fully automatic turntable with a changeable cartridge that wasn't USB based. I had an A-T 95e that I put on it immediately and everything sounds great in a $300 kind-of-way. I looked hard at Pro-Ject and Rega (frankly, they look and feel substantially nicer), but fully manual is a deal breaker for me. The two sets of cartridge wires included with the table were a nice surprise, considering how tough those are to find. The profile of this table is not as clean as the 3/4 photos suggest. There's another couple of inches of extra height with a beveled bottom and inset feet. Not horrible, but for me this unit has very little wow-factor, visually speaking. For the record, I'm not a super-critical listener (I used to be), I just enjoy the routine and this is just a great way to get back to vinyl.

 

[Mr. Lin]

My cousin got one of these turntables last Christmas with an Ortofon 2M Red cartridge and he really likes it. I think it looks pretty nice for the price, compared to models from other companies in the same price range, although I still haven't heard his yet.

It's been a while since the OP posted in here, so not sure if he's still around, but when he noted he was thinking about getting a tube amp, my immediate counter suggestion would be: get a really good standalone phono preamp, solid state or tube (but good tube phono preamps aren't cheap).

 

[tensleep]

I really enjoyed this thread. I have a couple of vintage turntables, Denon and Kenwood, that are working just fine. However, recording vinyl to a cd via a good sound card is very intriguing.

 

[leicamaster]

I enjoyed this review as well. This forum is soo great. Nobody fusses about bringing back old topics.

 

[jrtrent]

This my third turntable in a year, because I kept trying to strike gold with vintage automatic turntables. The fact is, there always seems to be "something" slightly wrong with them – speed issues, crossed wires, whatever.

I had thought about going vintage to find an automatic turntable also, but Johnda's detailed review and the other positive comments in this thread, along with Bramc's experience with vintage models, induced me to make the 280 mile round-trip drive to my nearest stocking dealer and pick up the Denon.

I had an A-T 95e that I put on it immediately . . .

I had purchased a new M97xE and thought about mounting it up, but the stock cartridge is working so well, even with the records I keep around to test warp-handling issues, that I feel no need to make an immediate change. The dealer had no original headshells in stock, but I might order one to make cartridge swapping faster and easier. I haven't had a turntable with a removable headshell for several years, so I'm thinking I just have to play around with that a bit!

I looked hard at Pro-Ject and Rega (frankly, they look and feel substantially nicer) . . . The profile of this table is not as clean as the 3/4 photos suggest. There's another couple of inches of extra height with a beveled bottom and inset feet. Not horrible, but for me this unit has very little wow-factor, visually speaking.

The height at which I place my turntable puts the bottom of the unit at eye level when I'm seated in "the chair." Rega turntables have a distracting, untidy look underneath due to foot placement and the visible motor unit. Just a subjective opinion, of course, but the DP-300F has a clean, attractive, symmetrical look that I find very satisfying.

Everything seems to work fine. I can use the cueing lever, the stop button, and open and close the dustcover without upsetting tracking and without any thumps or other sounds coming through the speakers. I have had no issues with feedback, footfalls, or hum. Alignment of the premounted cartridge was accurate according to my Geo-Disc (so apparently they use Baerwald alignment rather than Stevenson or some other scheme), and a Shure gauge confirmed the accuracy of the counterweight dial's tracking force setting. A person could set up and use this turntable with confidence even without alignment tools or tracking force gauges.

Looks good, sounds good, and doesn't cost much . . . well worth the drive.

 

[marly421]

I've had the Denon DP-300F for some time now and feel I can now offer some insight.

The original cartridge/stylus is not very high quality. It seems too be based on the Audio-Technica AT-3600 cartridge (211 style type). The numbers are:

SPECIFICATIONS
Frequency Response 20-20,000 Hz
Channel Separation 20/15 (dB at 1 kHz/10 kHz)
Vertical Tracking Force 2.0-3.0 grams
Stylus Construction Bonded round shank
Recommended Load Impedance 47,000 ohms
Output 4.2 (mV at 1 kHz, 5 cm/sec)
Channel Balance 1.5 dB
Stylus Shape 0.4 mil. x 0.7 mil. Elliptical
Cantilever Alloy tube
Mount Half-inch

As you can see, not very impressive at all. Also this cartridge is the only one I have without gold output pins. E-gads!

But this DSN-85 (aka atn-3600) has several upgrades that will make the table sing.

The first quality replacement I got was a stylus from turntableneedles.com

http://www.turntableneedles.com/AT3600-Needle-211-DHE_p_3818.html

It's a Hyperelliptical cut diamond tip for this body style (02x07mil) and really sounds excellent. $80 and cuts the tracking weight to 1 gram.

I dug a little deeper and found maybe the best upgrade yet. It's from Jico through turntableneedles.com (or Jico directly) and it's got a Shibata tip! The 211-D-shibata comes in two favors: a $90 version with no flip-guard and colored white and a model with a flip-guard and dark blue in color, $105. It also cuts the tracking weight to .75 grams.

Super nice and the best I came up with for the DSN-85 by way of the 211 style type i.e. Audio-Technica AT3600.

http://www.turntableneedles.com/Needle-211-D-shibata_p_3718.html

Links are for reference only and help in the search for musical bliss.

 

[marly421]

BTW I purchased extra headshell to be able to enjoy different makes and model of cartridges and stylus types easily and quickly. I'll share:

1. Shure M97xE with the Jico SAS upgrade.
2. Ortofon OM-40
3. DSN-85 with the Jico Shibata upgrade, and the Hyperelliptical model as standby.
4. Grado Prestige Gold1
5. Audio-Technica 'Precept' PC550ML
6. Sony MC XL-MC2

As my ears are over 30, like a bunch of you guys I bet...I find it impossible to pick out a favorite. Even with my Sennheiser 650's I hear pretty much beautiful music at all the bases. My Dual 5000 has a Audio-Technica AT150MLX on it and it sounds grand too.

I was listening to Elvis's King Creole album last night and change out every cartridge for immediate comparison (just for fun of course) and there isn't a one I would leave behind. The Precept PC550ML may be my favorite though. Looks, feel, sound, a nice package all around.

The Ortofon OM40 is the easiest to work with though. For cleaning the stylus there is none better and I've heard the nude Fritz Gyger 70 stylus is pretty gentle to the vinyl too. To clean the others, I must remove the headshell completely.

Cleaning is important as I've had to resort to auctions sites (-; for new material to listen to and I have to clean the album, then clean again play some and clean again. Man-o-man what a pain.

 

[GPJeff]

So you guys still like the sound of the table?

I'm leaning on getting one as well, the vintage stuff that I can afford has good specs but you don't know what's actually wrong when purchasing on ebay and you are playing a game of chance with shipping mishaps.

 

[jhoak]

I don't know if it was a pricing mistake or a short term sale or just a fluke but amazon.com had the DP-300F earlier this week at $165. Sold by amazon and fulfilled by Tiger Direct.

At this moment the UPS site says that it's out for delivery so I'm waiting for the big brown truck to pull up in front of my house.

The scary part is that UPS also says the package is 1 pound. I'm curious to see what actually arrives.

 

[GPJeff]

I don't know if it was a pricing mistake or a short term sale or just a fluke but amazon.com had the DP-300F earlier this week at $165. Sold by amazon and fulfilled by Tiger Direct.

I saw that, too! What scared me was the photo of that adapter(?) instead of the turntable.

 

[jhoak]

I saw that, too! What scared me was the photo of that adapter(?) instead of the turntable.

The picture I saw was the Denon turntable.

It was a total scam by Tiger Direct. What I received was some kind of display port to DVI adapter.

CRUD!!! Based on past experience with Tiger Direct it looks like I'm out $190.

I'll be taking this up with my CC company first thing in the morning. :tears:

 

[Glen B]

In the past six years I've purchased five laptops, two desktop PCs, two LCDTVs and a bunch of accessories from Tiger Direct and never had a problem with them. My most recent was just last month.

 

[jrtrent]

So you guys still like the sound of the table?

I've only had mine for a few weeks, but yes, I still like the sound. There are no annoyances: no footfall issues, no feedback, no hum, no audible wow or flutter. I also like the front-mounted controls, the hinged dustcover, and the convenience of fully automatic operation. After 26 years of manual turntables, sometimes ones without even the convenience of a cueing lever, it's nice to be able to push a button and have time to return to my chair and get settled with drink in hand before the music starts. I'm better able to attend to and appreciate the opening bars of a piece of music.

edit: I will disagree a bit with Marly421 about the stock cartridge. He may be right that it's some form of AT variant, but the only specifications Denon offers is that it tracks at 2 grams and has an output of 2.5mV. It's giving me clean, natural sound with good dynamics and no issues related to mistracking, inner groove distortion, or over-emphasis of sibilants. It's easy handling of warped records and resistance to footfalls and the gentle handling of its controls and dustcover would seem to indicate a good match between the stylus suspension and the effective mass of the arm. The OP had posted a couple of times early on about possibly trying different cartridges, but as of his last posts in this thread, after a year and a half of ownership, he wrote that he hadn't tried anything else because he was very happy with the performance of the stock cartridge. I had originally thought about taking advantage of the easy cartridge swapping that the removable headshell design allows; in fact, that feature was one reason I chose this model, but I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever bother--the stock cartridge has proven to be highly satisfying with every record I've played so far.

 

[Mr. Lin]

The picture I saw was the Denon turntable.

It was a total scam by Tiger Direct. What I received was some kind of display port to DVI adapter.

CRUD!!! Based on past experience with Tiger Direct it looks like I'm out $190.

I'll be taking this up with my CC company first thing in the morning. :tears:

Oh screw that. Did you notify Amazon? They should help you out here too.

 

[skeetdaddy]

Denon 300

I installed an Ortofon blue and now I do not even play my Rega 3........I can't imagine any TT, taking into account it is fully auto, better than this setup for the money.........