Denon DM31's quality shines (Denon DM-31)

Member Name: bowdeni

Product:	Denon DM-31
Date:	02/04/05 (3238 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic audio performance, small, stylish

Disadvantages: Lacks DAB tuner

Denon have an excellant reputation of producing home entertainment components of an awesome standard. They have produced over the years some fantastic benchmark products, and the Denon DM30 is no exception. Voted as the best micro hifi for atleast three years, Denon DM30 is an excellant product.

With micro systems available from just £50, some people may find it hard to justify spending about £220, but for those who desire good audio perfomance this is an essential product. I can provide three good fundamental reasons to spend more money when purchising a micro hifi, they are

1) Sound. A more expensive micro system, such as the Denon DM31 will provide MUCH better audio performance. You will be more enganged in the music and will want to listen to more music.

2) Durability. The lifetime of cheaper micro hifis under £150 is litte more than a few years frequently. Plus at the end of the three years, the micro system is outdated, usually not fashionable anymore and is desired to be replaced. The Denon DM31 is very durable, and the excellance of Denon's products means that the Denon DM31 is very likely to last over 10 years. At the end of the 10 years, there would have been advancements in technology, but the Denon DM31 will still perform very well compared to cheaper products. During those 10 years, you may have bought many cheaper systems.

3) Design. I personally can not stand those systems that you'll find in the highstreet that are large, grey and bulky, featuring many lights. They are not stylish and consume a lot of room. The Denon DM31 is small, compact but does not comprimise on quality. The build of the Denon DM31 is solid, and built to last.

Hopefully now you will see the advantages to spending more on a micro system. So why chose the Denon DM31?

Well firstly, as i've already stated, the Denon DM31is an award winning product. There are no competiting products that come close to matching the performance for the price. The system features an analogue tuner with RDS (provides the names of radio stations and competitions for example on the display), and cd player, plus speakers of course.

First impressions out of the box are good. The speakers are packaged seperatly to the unit, allowing you to buy better speakers if you desire. The unit is simple to set up with good instructions. Sound quality of the Denon DM31is unrilvaved, producing a sound with good clarity, deep bass and tight trebble. Instead of Denon manufacturing speakers themselves, which they have little experience in, they've used Mission who are one of the market leaders in producing top quality speakers. The wires that come with the Denon DM31are satisfactory, but could be upgraded if desired.

With more and more users buying portable audio products, a feature that they want to see is compability. By buying a 3.5mm jack interconnect, you could connect any mp3 player, any minidisc player, or any tape player and connect it to the Denon DM31, and play it through the speakers with excellant quality. The connection wire required cost is minimal, available for under £10 and allows users to play music out loud.

There are however limitations of this product. The radio is not DAB, but this criticism is reduced since the quality of the analogue tuner is excellant, and will be broadcasted well beyong the life cycle of this product. Another criticism (scrapping the barrel) is that it does not feature a built in MD player, but this can be added at a price.

To conclude, I would thoroughly recommend the Denon DM31 to anyone who is considering buy a micro hifi system. Definatly research it further and remember that you can go to your local retailer and listen to the system before buyign it if you wish. The Denon DM31features unrivalled sound, design and durability at a good price. I would not recommend this product to those who don't particually care how their music sounds, or have a larger budget to spend then about over £220.

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