My Review Denon Ceol N8 with Dali Zensor 1 Speakers

[Snooker]

I have just bought a Denon Ceol N8 with Dali Zensor 1 Speakers, and this is my review

Looking at the speakers first of all, the sound quality is “significantly” better than my old Denon DM37 with its own speakers (not muddy or bass heavy and no mains hum on phono out or jump in volume increments), and for those people unsure, for my tastes these Dali Zensor 1 speakers have enough bass, and the mid range and highs are excellent, it actually feels exiting listening to the music, especially Jazz fm, and spoken word on radio 5 live etc, the sound is full bodied with very good clarity and punchy bass, and you can hear guitar strings twang and singers taking in a breath of air etc, yes they really are this good, the sound is short of being harsh whilst still maintaining excellent clarity, but as we all hear differently it is best to hear them first

Now looking at the main unit, you get no noise from the headphone out socket when using wired headphones and the quality of the sound is very good, this will also depend of course on what headphones you use, I am using my Sennheiser HD480 II headphones, it has fm but no dab but instead has internet radio, and I can assure you that you do not need dab once you get use to internet radio, and the sound quality from internet radio is very good, as is playing a cd, not tried usb stick but have confidence it should sound fine

Summing up, what I really noticed with this system is the excellent sound quality you get from this unit connected to the Dali Zensor 1 Speakers, it will take your breath away, and again the sound is very exiting just like if you go to a hi-fi exhibition and find something that makes you stand back and take note, the radio and cd sound quality is very good and what you hear from the headphones socket output, I have no doubt in classing this whole system as a real proper Hi-Fi in the true sense of the word, and you know you have a good system when it can sound really good at moderate to lower volumes

 

[NHL]

Hi,

can it compete with more expensive equipement, say 1000 pounds?

 

[Snooker]

I would say that there would not be much difference on most systems costing £1000 and would sound better than some systems at this price point, but you would need to listen to different systems yourself

Also I have been to hi-fi exibitions and this system is better than some which are much more expensive, but again you would need to listen to different systems yourself

Also you can try many speakers with this system to change the sound quality if required, and can drive really expensive speakers I believe etc

 

[Snooker]

I have just read my review again, and after trying my system out for a little longer just need to point out that it is excellent with some music but not all music, but presume this is the case for any hi-fi at any price as it also depends on the source material

The Dali Zensor 1's are very good, but wondered if the Boston A26 OR Q2020i may give a better more fuller body and warmer sound, as with some music it can at times sound too high end/trebly

 

[matthewpiano]

Hi Snooker.

Glad you are, on the whole, enjoying your new system. I would be careful about jumping to change the speakers without auditioning the alternatives first. If you are not careful you will end up in the never-ending box shifting cycle.

 

[Snooker]

Mathewpiano, I have since decided to keep what I have as I very happy with it, when you just receive something new you can be a little to over particular about things, and as again it does not matter what system you have as I think it mainly comes down to the recording and mixing quality of the source material, some tracks are going to sound much better than others, especially listening to lots of different music on the radio