DENON PMA2500NE - Review of sorts

[Kumar442244]

Hello All,

This review was pending from sometimes now but have reasons to explain the delay.

Long post alert


Review of the Amp:-

The fresh unit arrived on 4th of January and this time, it didnt take a long time to unbox, experience u know

Plugged it in and let it run for almost 10 hrs everyday for a week and now after more than 100 hrs of usage, the amp has started to show its real color.

Specs:-
Rated at 80 WPC at 8 ohms and 160 WPC at 4, these are highly understated numbers.
Weighs astonishing 25 Kgs and built like a tank which seems to last a lifetime.
Even at this kinda weight and the figure, it looks absolutely gorgeous, an eye candy for sure.

Associated gear:- Totem rainmaker on soundfoundation stands, IFI DAC and denon inbuilt DAC, Foobar running on windows 10 Laptop, Gotham Speaker cables, Supra LoRad power cables, QED RCA and QED USB cable.

Day 1:- 4th Jan

Apologies to start on a random note, but the whole attention was towards the issues that I was facing in the previous amp, and Phew, all my apprehension was rested to peace the moment I fired this amp.
The imaging without a proper positioning of speaker, was right at the center with wide and deep stage. The shrillness right from the word go, was not there. The sound was exactly what I was looking for. The totems are relatively a tough speakers to drive, at this amp drove it at utmost ease and didnt allow me to turn the vol know upwards to 9 till now, indicating the power this amp possesses. Found the bass to be a bit more pronounced and it at times diluted the mid range, At least this was the only thing concerning at this point in time, however I though to give it its fair share of burn-in and the process begun. That SCENT (not foul smell) of burning was like a room freshener which is still diffused by the amp, although my wife hates it for all practical reasons.
Day 1 impression was more of a self assurance that this unit it OK and that their is no issues like the previous one. And the day ended on a high and night with peaceful sleep.

Day10 - 14th Jan

Seems like the amp has now burnt in and has now started to show the league it belongs to. The SCENT of burn-in has also reduced and so has my wife's cover-the-nose-with-dupatta face back to normal.
By this time, my new year vacation had got over and I am back at my desk presenting PPTs to the leaders but with a great pride of what I own and how it sounds.
The amp after burn in has matured a lot, the bass has become tighter, faster and crispier, which on day 1 was muddied and disturbing the mid range. All the frequencies have come to life. The highs are crisp and revealing but never bright, mids seems to have developed animosity with bass and none of them interfere on each others business. The whole spectrum is just quite a few notches above its nearest competitor which happens to be Yamaha AS2100 and Hegal H160. Have heard both at different occasions with different setup.
The Payal swing in initial 30 seconds of the song "Payaliya" from Dev-D was astonishing. Had never heard that degree of clarity with any of the amps I have owned. The shoe crushing the cig bud sound at 3:42 minutes in "The private investigation" song from Dire Straights was simply amazing and almost gave me a feeling that I had never noticed that.
The wide and deep staging provided a pinpoint imaging and I could easily point out the position of the instruments on the stage. Inbuilt DAC is of superb grade which beats IFI nano one hands down. Some online reviews says that its in the range of Chord cute, cant assure this as I have not got the opportunity to listed to chord DACs till now.
Seems like the totem rainmakers have found a great partner.

Caveat - Although I could not find much of a concerns but the remote has a dual identity. From top it has a same brushed aluminum used in the front panel of the amp which looks ultra premium and luxurious but the back is plastic which pulls it down from the premium looking remote. Although this is not at all a concern as it does its job fairly well, but one can expect slight bit of attention to this small caveat.

Next steps :- Improve source. Looking to get a good streamer in due course. Suggestions welcome.

Hope you enjoyed reading the experience till now and will keep the thread posted with 1 month review after a fortnight from now. If anyone wants to get a glimpse of how it sounds, you are most welcome and I will be delighted to host you, but only over weekends

Special mention @balavignesh002 @MaSh @chandu2106 @csd508868306kant

Kumar

 

[Prodigy]

Congratulations on your acquisition Nice write brother @Kumar442244. Enzoy listening. Would love to listen to it sometime. Will buzz you when I come towards that part of town.

Regards,
Som

 

[MaSh]

Super buy man. After all the emotional torture of deciding, receiving, returning again receiving, I guess the amp pushed it all under the carpet.

Extremely eager to listen to it. Hopefully soon.

MaSh

 

[pks.k]

Congratulations for your new entertainer!

 

[Kumar442244]

Congratulations on your acquisition Nice write brother @Kumar442244. Enzoy listening. Would love to listen to it sometime. Will buzz you when I come towards that part of town.

Regards,
Som

Thanks Som,

Most welcome,
Beers on me

 

[Smadhu]

Congratulations! Glad it all worked out at the end. That's some serious accolade to the amp. Excellent write up!

Enjoy the music and the gear!

 

[balavignesh002]

Congratulations @Kumar442244 on the new amp.

The SCENT

Love that smell. It lasted for 6 months.

remote has a dual identity

The remote is same for DCD and PMA 2500NE. I have 2 of them . Majority of buttons belong to DCD though.

denon inbuilt DAC

The integration of DAC on the amp chassis is very well done I believe. I couldn't spot much audible difference when I use the amp dac with DCD 2500NE as a transport by Glass Fiber cable. Didn't try the coiax and usb though.

 

[Imtiyaz Ahmad]

Congratulations @Kumar442244 for choosing the fantastic amplifier.I also own the same amp and the matching DCD 2500 NE cd player .This combination is really heavenly matched .

 

[dinesh1201]

A huge Congratulations for the new possession, Sir!!

 

[arunkvivek]

Lovely write up! Gorgeous they are! you get RCA caps for the inputs that you are not going to use.

 

[Kumar442244]

Lovely write up! Gorgeous they are! you get RCA caps for the inputs that you are not going to use.

Sure arun
Planning to get few soon

 

[SatMumbai]

Congratulations !! The write-up is very nice and informative. I am glad that you love the amp. My first amp was a Denon and since then I always have bias towards denon Stero Amps. I was considering a 1600 NE before my move in a different direction but these amps, I believe are true under dogs in the hifi world. Hopefully will get the listen to your system some time

 

[Vivek Batra]

Very nice write up @Kumar442244. Congratulations for the acquisition and glad to know that Mr Anil was of great help. Actually that should be the norm but unfortunately it's not in our country. But Mr Anil would surely benefit from this act of customer satisfaction in terms of more customers .

Enjoy.

 

[sanj]

Hello All,

This review was pending from sometimes now but have reasons to explain the delay.

Long post alert

One can jump to the review section if not interested in the precursor part, but u know what, the precursor has an interesting story to tell.

Precursor :

Purchased this amp on 7th December 2020 with a great help from few of are forum members and ever helpful Mr. Anil from hifimart. The amp arrived on 14th December in a heavy wooden crate which took almost 2 hrs to unpack and connect.
The first fire from the amp was a great with some degree of back-of-mind thought that something is not right. 1st thought came that it might need some burn in to sound its best and I let it run for 7-8 hrs that day and almost 15 hrs next day and overall thing seems to improve but something was still bugging as I was not able to get the staging right. Everything seems to be shifted on the left side of the amp.
Unplugged and re-plugged everything, still the same. Positioned the speakers, no change. Changed cables but no good. Changed speakers but that didnt improve things. Took the whole system out to a different room, damn, still the same. I tried to move the balance knob to 1 o'clock position and the imaging came right at the center, exactly what I wanted, but still the shrillness didnt agree to go away. After much rejig, realized that the output balance from the amp was not proper.

Called Mr Anil immediately and informed the same. He advised me to carry the amp to the service center and that they will check the issue. I was adamant that I will not let the amp open as this has reached to me in this state and would urge for a replacement rather than a repair.
The technician who happened to be a thorough gentleman, inspected the unit and almost immediately confirmed my apprehensions.

Would really want to give a great shout out to Mr Anil who without any delay ordered a fresh unit at his expense whereas the importer has clearly declined that they cant offer a new piece and that the unit need to be repaired.

Mr Anil, has travelled extra mile to safeguard his customers' interest and made sure that I am kept aware of the progress at each point in time. He also offered me if I wanted a refund which I politely declined as I wanted an amp and not the money back which would have initiated another cycle of research.

I am finding it hard to express my gratitude in words towards the kind of customer grievance attention that Mr Anil has vested and for sure he has earned a customer for lifetime. Hats Off Sir.. Keep this up.

Review of the Amp:-

The fresh unit arrived on 4th of January and this time, it didnt take a long time to unbox, experience u know

Plugged it in and let it run for almost 10 hrs everyday for a week and now after more than 100 hrs of usage, the amp has started to show its real color.

Specs:-
Rated at 80 WPC at 8 ohms and 160 WPC at 4, these are highly understated numbers.
Weighs astonishing 25 Kgs and built like a tank which seems to last a lifetime.
Even at this kinda weight and the figure, it looks absolutely gorgeous, an eye candy for sure.

Associated gear:- Totem rainmaker on soundfoundation stands, IFI DAC and denon inbuilt DAC, Foobar running on windows 10 Laptop, Gotham Speaker cables, Supra LoRad power cables, QED RCA and QED USB cable.

Day 1:- 4th Jan

Apologies to start on a random note, but the whole attention was towards the issues that I was facing in the previous amp, and Phew, all my apprehension was rested to peace the moment I fired this amp.
The imaging without a proper positioning of speaker, was right at the center with wide and deep stage. The shrillness right from the word go, was not there. The sound was exactly what I was looking for. The totems are relatively a tough speakers to drive, at this amp drove it at utmost ease and didnt allow me to turn the vol know upwards to 9 till now, indicating the power this amp possesses. Found the bass to be a bit more pronounced and it at times diluted the mid range, At least this was the only thing concerning at this point in time, however I though to give it its fair share of burn-in and the process begun. That SCENT (not foul smell) of burning was like a room freshener which is still diffused by the amp, although my wife hates it for all practical reasons.
Day 1 impression was more of a self assurance that this unit it OK and that their is no issues like the previous one. And the day ended on a high and night with peaceful sleep.

Day10 - 14th Jan

Seems like the amp has now burnt in and has now started to show the league it belongs to. The SCENT of burn-in has also reduced and so has my wife's cover-the-nose-with-dupatta face back to normal.
By this time, my new year vacation had got over and I am back at my desk presenting PPTs to the leaders but with a great pride of what I own and how it sounds.
The amp after burn in has matured a lot, the bass has become tighter, faster and crispier, which on day 1 was muddied and disturbing the mid range. All the frequencies have come to life. The highs are crisp and revealing but never bright, mids seems to have developed animosity with bass and none of them interfere on each others business. The whole spectrum is just quite a few notches above its nearest competitor which happens to be Yamaha AS2100 and Hegal H160. Have heard both at different occasions with different setup.
The Payal swing in initial 30 seconds of the song "Payaliya" from Dev-D was astonishing. Had never heard that degree of clarity with any of the amps I have owned. The shoe crushing the cig bud sound at 3:42 minutes in "The private investigation" song from Dire Straights was simply amazing and almost gave me a feeling that I had never noticed that.
The wide and deep staging provided a pinpoint imaging and I could easily point out the position of the instruments on the stage. Inbuilt DAC is of superb grade which beats IFI nano one hands down. Some online reviews says that its in the range of Chord cute, cant assure this as I have not got the opportunity to listed to chord DACs till now.
Seems like the totem rainmakers have found a great partner.

Caveat - Although I could not find much of a concerns but the remote has a dual identity. From top it has a same brushed aluminum used in the front panel of the amp which looks ultra premium and luxurious but the back is plastic which pulls it down from the premium looking remote. Although this is not at all a concern as it does its job fairly well, but one can expect slight bit of attention to this small caveat.

Next steps :- Improve source. Looking to get a good streamer in due course. Suggestions welcome.

Hope you enjoyed reading the experience till now and will keep the thread posted with 1 month review after a fortnight from now. If anyone wants to get a glimpse of how it sounds, you are most welcome and I will be delighted to host you, but only over weekends

Special mention @balavignesh002 @MaSh @chandu2106 @csd508868306kant

Kumar

Congratulations

 

[Imtiyaz Ahmad]

Congratulations @Kumar442244 for choosing the fantastic amplifier.I also own the same amp and the matching DCD 2500 NE cd player .This combination is really heavenly matched .

Some pics of my system.The speaker stands are made by a local carpenter and the design and the dimensions provided by me.The stands use spikes from Dayton Audio.The total cost involved in these stands is around Rs.8000.The weight of these solid wooden stands is nearly 7kg per piece.

 

[Kumar442244]

Some pics of my system.The speaker stands are made by a local carpenter and the design and the dimensions provided by me.The stands use spikes from Dayton Audio.The total cost involved in these stands is around Rs.8000.The weight of these solid wooden stands is nearly 7kg per piece.

Lovely setup @Imtiyaz Ahmad
How are those wharfys doing?
Looks like u have a bigger room, how are they in bass? Are u using any subwoofer as well?
Also, have u got any room treatment done?

 

[Kumar442244]

Very nice write up @Kumar442244. Congratulations for the acquisition and glad to know that Mr Anil was of great help. Actually that should be the norm but unfortunately it's not in our country. But Mr Anil would surely benefit from this act of customer satisfaction in terms of more customers .

Enjoy.

That’s the sad state @Vivek Batra we have in India that they don’t care about customers once a product is sold.
But then, we have ppl like mr Anil who doesn’t shy away from travelling that extra mile for your satisfaction.

 

[Kumar442244]

Congratulations !! The write-up is very nice and informative. I am glad that you love the amp. My first amp was a Denon and since then I always have bias towards denon Stero Amps. I was considering a 1600 NE before my move in a different direction but these amps, I believe are true under dogs in the hifi world. Hopefully will get the listen to your system some time

True that, very few know about this amp and what it can do to the experience at that price point.
How is devialet?

 

[fLUX]

Congratulations on the beast

 

[SatMumbai]

True that, very few know about this amp and what it can do to the experience at that price point.
How is devialet?

This might sound like exaggeration but to me Devialet amps are like Endgame.

It is a one box solution and it really works brilliant especially with SAM (and now EQ management) on various speakers and possibly room sizes.

I have them for almost three years and I stopped looking at amps since then.

Some times, I do get excited about changing speakers but given the smallish apartment we live in, I am almost sure than anything bigger will not work that good. So, as and when we shift to a different place, then I might change the speakers.