| Product: |
Denon PMA-250SE |
| Date: |
05/03/01 (1792 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Powerful bass and articulate sound
Disadvantages: Not overladed with gizmos
A good amp is the centre of any separate system, and choosing the right amp for your needs is vital to your enjoyment of music. I mainly listen to guitar based indie and alternative rock, but I also wanted a system that could double to provide music for parties, so I needed a system that can deliver a broad range of sounds as well as thumping bass. About two years ago I went to get my first system with this in mind, I had about £500 to spend on amps speakers and a CD player, I used the thirds rule, where each component should cost a third of your budget, and so was looking for an amp for around £180.
Having spent a long afternoon in my local hi-fi store, it was the Denon PMA 250se that really stood out. Whereas other amps sounded flat or base heavy, the Denon seemed to bring the best out of all the CD?s I ran through it. Beyond that it appealed aesthetically, had a good selection of features and was recommended as a supertest winner by What Hi-Fi.
Aesthetics
The front of the Denon is very simple, a flat black with only a central volume control, bass and treble controls, power and mute switches then an input selector, all in black. There is no digital display or spectral analyser, this appealed to me as a nice plain look that would fit in with almost any standard hi-fi component well.
Features
The Denon is not feature heavy, it has a mike output, basic controls. The best feature however, is the selection of inputs, there are four standard hi-fi inputs, with one having a corresponding output for tape deck or other recording. There is also a fifth terminal which has an earthing point to allow you to plug in a record deck which needs extra amplification.
Sound
The most important aspect is of course what the amp sounds like. This depends mainly on what speakers you have, I have a nice pair of Jamo Cornet 75 floor standing speakers because I have quite a large room to fill. If you hook the amp up to some barga
in basement speakers then you can expect terrible sound, however anything costing around £150-£180 should let the amp really shine.
The sound is powerful, with baselines coming across strong and clear, there is easily enough power to annoy the neighbours ( as I have done occasionally ;-) ) usually however I leave the volume at about a quarter of it?s maximum. However even turned up to near full volume there is very little distortion making this a great amp to get a party moving.
The range and clarity it provides is also impressive, it is possible to hear each instrument, and the full range of vocals (e.g. Thom Yorke, PJ Harvey) without the sound seeming too disjointed. Playing classical or orchestral music this is most noticeable, with the room virtually filled with a beautiful collection of individual performers, however it also comes across in most forms of music.
Hi-Fi enthusiasts would no doubt say that the sound reproduction is less than perfect, however if you accept that the amp will not perform like one worth a couple of thousand pounds, you would be hard pressed to find a more versatile and engaging base for a separates system for anywhere near the £200 pound price range. For parties and sheer musical enjoyment it out performs anything in it?s class!!
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