[electricworry]

I was looking on the forums the last couple of days for info on this system, no-one seems to be posting much about it (it's not long out). I bit the bullet today and bought one (first "proper" hifi system), and so far I'm very impressed.

Sound quality is great from CD's and the iPod integration is excellent (no dock needed, unlike the previous model). I thought it was useless to begin with, as the remote controlled what was on the iPod screen, in a pretty useless manner (strange menu depth problems). Then I hit the Remote/Browse key on the remote and this allows access to menus on the display screen of the hi-fi, and is easy to see and use. Scrolling track and artist names are cool.

The DAB tuner gets much better reception than my previous DAB set, and has a much better depth of sound (I mostly listen to radio 4 and such).

Sound quality is much better than the iPod connected to AUX, as the on-board DAC's are used instead of the iPod, In all I am very pleased with it so far.


Here's the setup :

To help anyone else that was looking into this model, I can answer any questions anyone has.

[Bass junky]

Hi

I have a few questions if that’s ok?

1 Does the volume still have huge increments between numbers?

2 Has the problem of “hiss” still there when bass and treble are used (I had to use mine in direct stereo)

Cheers

[electricworry]

Originally Posted by Bass junky

Hi

I have a few questions if that’s ok?

1 Does the volume still have huge increments between numbers?

Emm, well I wouldn't say huge increments, it's not the finest control ever, but its not terrible.

I haven't struggled to find a comfortable listening level. Although the volume goes up to 50, I find that in my flat it would be "too loud" after about 15 -16.

2 Has the problem of “hiss” still there when bass and treble are used (I had to use mine in direct stereo).

I don't think so, I can't hear any when playing with the Eq settings. Was this a common problem before?

Cheers

Congrats, not sure what the comparison will be like with the DM37, I was about to but the DM37 at richer sounds for about 70 less than the DM38, but the only one they had left was a display model. In all I'm glad I got the 38 for the iPod integration.

[Bass junky]

Has anyone else got this and can they provide their thoughts

Cheers

[NickD2544]

Hey Bass Junky i have used the DM38 where i used to work and didn't notice any jump in the volume when turning it up / down. I didn't try using the Bass / Treble on it but the Volume seemed fine.

[Bass junky]

Thank you

This is good news as you can't find the right listening volume at nigh it's either too low or too high with just one press of the volume up/down buttons

Cheers

[NickD2544]

No worries, Cant say i noticed that problem with the DM37 when demonstrating and using it but its always different once you get it home and live with it for a bit.

Glad i could help

Cheers

Nick

[Bass junky]

2 friends also have it and they have the same issues

Cheers

[Skymoo]

I have a question that i cannot find the answer to in any reviews.....

Can you plug in a portable Hard Drive into the USB port and play back music from the HD?

If so, is there a limit on the size of the HD? Are there any limitations to this?

Thanks!

[KJ Palmer]

Originally Posted by Skymoo

I have a question that i cannot find the answer to in any reviews.....

Can you plug in a portable Hard Drive into the USB port and play back music from the HD?

If so, is there a limit on the size of the HD? Are there any limitations to this?

Thanks!

Yes you can use an external HDD drive with the DM38 (or 37). However the drive must be formatted to FAT32, which (for drives over 32GB) can't be done directly under Windows - you need to use an application such as SwissKnife.

I don't think there are any specific HD size limits (apart from 2TB which can be formatted with Swissknife), but the DM38 can only acccces 255 files in up to 255 folders (ie. 65025 files), so you may need to merge some folders to play all your files.

[Jay J]

The only question I've got is can you receive DAB plus? Also is this the only difference between the DM37 and DM38?

I have a DM37 and love it, I don't seam to get the "hum" or "Hiss", however I know what people mean about the volume increments especially at low volumes (under #10).

[davebbb]

Headphone output has constant low level mains hum. Tried all sorts to correct this but it is really annoying. Interestingly when I switch source to USB for a few seconds the hum vanishes then a relay clicks and the hum is back again. There's no hum if I connect a separate headphone amp to the AUX out sockets. I've reported this to Denon today and they are going to try and replicate the problem - I was promised a call back next week with the answer.

[Skymoo]

Thanks for your answer Barock. I have one more question.....

When you are playing music from your external HDD, are you able to use the random/shuffle playback function?

I have read that some systems dont allow this.

Cheers

[KJ Palmer]

Originally Posted by Skymoo

Thanks for your answer Barock. I have one more question.....

When you are playing music from your external HDD, are you able to use the random/shuffle playback function?

I have read that some systems dont allow this.

Cheers

You're very welcome Skymoo!

Yes indeed you can use the shuffle function with an external HDD or USB pen drive with the DM38. In fact it works very well as it will shuffle all the tracks - some systems will only shuffle the first 1000-2000 tracks, or even worse in the case of the Onkyo I had, only the first 2 albums! I'm a big fan of shuffle all for a large collection, and so far only the Denon has met this criteria in a micro system.

Hope that helps.

[Skymoo]

Thanks Barock. Thats exactly what i wanted to hear!

[Jarv77]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me the depth of the unit when all cables are plugged in at the back? Its listed as approx 300mm on the spec sheet but I think this excludes the connections.

This is critical for me as I want to put it on a particular bookshelf!

Thanks in advance...


David

[Jay J]

I'm sure the depth of the machine will depend on what speaker cables you buy.

[jimmy c]

Hi folks,

Was hoping you could help. This unit looks great though does it have phono inputs at the back. Call me old fashioned but want to play some old vinyl aswell as ipods etc.

Many thanks in advance

Jimmy

[KJ Palmer]

Originally Posted by jimmy c

Hi folks,

Was hoping you could help. This unit looks great though does it have phono inputs at the back. Call me old fashioned but want to play some old vinyl aswell as ipods etc.

Many thanks in advance

Jimmy

Yes, it has two RCA phono inputs round the back - a tape loop, and one single RCA input, plus a 3.5mm line in jack in front. Should be enough to cover your external device input needs, though obviously you'll need a phono pre-amp if your turntable doesn't have one built in.

[tennant]

Can it play FLAC files from a hard drive?

[KJ Palmer]

Originally Posted by tennant

Can it play FLAC files from a hard drive?

Nope, just mp3 and wma.

[donington]

Hi i was wondering if i could plug my laptop via usb in to the Denon D-M38DAB and then let the dac in the denon do the converting im useing windows 7 and use windows media player in stead of buying a seprate dac and amp the reason is this would save me alot of money ,i have a pair of monitor audio br2 will these be ok with the denon or will changeing to another pair of speakers be better for use with the denon, i also have a huge mix of music styles in different format mp3,wma,wma losses.flac so will it play them or will it not hope some one can help kind regards keith.

[Jay J]

Originally Posted by donington

Hi i was wondering if i could plug my laptop via usb in to the Denon D-M38DAB and then let the dac in the denon do the converting im useing windows 7 and use windows media player in stead of buying a seprate dac and amp the reason is this would save me alot of money ,i have a pair of monitor audio br2 will these be ok with the denon or will changeing to another pair of speakers be better for use with the denon, i also have a huge mix of music styles in different format mp3,wma,wma losses.flac so will it play them or will it not hope some one can help kind regards keith.

I don't think it will work. In the DM-37 manual it mentions that you can't plug a laptop into it, only a pen-drive or external hard drive. Also as mentioned above it will only play wma and mp3s not .flacs.

The only way would be to burn mp3/WMAs to CD and play through Denon's CD player or transfer them to a USB stick. You could buy a cable to connect the laptop and Denon and play through Media player, (3.5mm Headphone to Aux port on Denon).

[njm32]

Hi, will the mp3/wma playback (either CD or USB) resume playing from the point it was stopped after going into standby, but not removing the disc or USB stick?

[donington]

Hi, jj thanks for clearing that up looks like a dac and amp it is regards keith

[klossner]

Originally Posted by donington

Hi i was wondering if i could plug my laptop via usb in to the Denon D-M38DAB

Both the laptop and the MD-38 are host (master) devices. You cannot connect two host devices with a USB cable.

[Dunlistening]

Hi,

I've just bought a Denon DM38 and set up the FM stations to auto tune. The preset numbers correspond to each station as it is detected so that, for instance, BBC radio 2 has tuned into preset 1.

Can anyone tell me how to simply change the number of preset attached to the station so that I can number radio 1 as 1, radio 2, as 2 etc. The instruction book only tells you how to change the station names not the numbers and this method is very laborious.

Thanks,

Paul.

[kicks]

HI! Does anybody now if the Denon D-M38 can be connected to a TV? Many Thanks!

[Jay J]

Originally Posted by kicks

HI! Does anybody now if the Denon D-M38 can be connected to a TV? Many Thanks!

It depends on what ports you have got on the back of your TV. In my bedroom I have connected an old VCR using it's Audio Out, to the AUX in on the DM-37. It uses ordinary HiFi interconnects (Phono lead).

[Thingumybob]

Originally Posted by Barock

Yes, it has two RCA phono inputs round the back - a tape loop, and one single RCA input, plus a 3.5mm line in jack in front. Should be enough to cover your external device input needs, though obviously you'll need a phono pre-amp if your turntable doesn't have one built in.

Hello, another person here who wants to know about connecting a TT to this hi-fi - which I'm thinking of buying -just joined hope you can help me.... rang a specialist shop & the guy told methey have it in stock, but it had no phono input. I told him I'd looked at the spec for the DM38DAB on a couple of different websites & some said it had phono input, but the guy said was looking on the actual Denon one & no it didn't He told me I'd need a phono stage. Is he talking rubbish or what ? Must say I thought (after) why didn't he just go & look at the one they had ?

It's a lot of dosh to me & I don't know much about all this so hoping someone can help me !