Both the Denon DCD-2500NE and PMA-2500NE are awarded with the Hi-Fi Choice RECOMMENDED logo and the DCD-2500NE is rated with 4 Stars and the PMA-2500NE with 5 Stars. The review also includes a very interesting Q&A with Denon Sound Manager, Shinichi Yamauchi.

HI-FI CHOICE SAID;

"So, you're a company that launched with records and gramophone players, and was responsible for much of the technology that's used in studios and CD players, yet you're best known for your AV receivers: what do you do to address the balance? Well, if you're Denon you kit yourself out with a substantial SACD/CD player and even heftier integrated amplifier, and label them with a new suffix on the model names, indicating that this is the start of a New Era...." 

DCD-2500NE

"There's that total lack of digital edginess that's the hallmark of Denon's AL32 Processing: instead, you get a rich, warm, liquid sound, yet one that doesn't stint on all the audio niceties that set fine hi-fi apart from the merely humdrum. Voices are close focused, soundstages have realistic width and depth to them, with excellent front-to-back layering and despite the powerful yet tightly controlled bass here, there's no shortage of insight into everything from the touch of a finger on string to the shimmer of cymbal..."

PMA-2500NE

"However, the big PMA-2500NE is the star turn in this partnership, from the way it handles multi-DSD formats via its computer interface to that very good phono stage, which is far from simply there to keep the amplifier on trend. Whether delivering large-scale orchestral music with its characteristic sense of 'plenty in reserve' or delineating every touch of finger on key in Christian Budu's recent set of Beethoven solo piano works..., the Denon amp is capable of eye-opening impact and musical involvement."

Conclusion

"With this new duo there may be the sense that Denon could be treading on Marantz's toes, but the fast, bright and hard-hitting sound here, underpinned as it is with finesse and substance, suggests D+M's 'other brand' still has something to bring to the hi-fi party."