540D on the way, 1920 gone; how did that happen?

[corysmith01]

Just sold my Denon 1920. Some remember I was having some noise issues. I checked with Denon by calling them and they told me it was normal, everything was fine and that it was probably, as I had suspected, my closeness/proximity to my player. Oddly enough, once I got the reassurance from Denon, I noticed it less and less. Power of suggestion?

Anywho. So, along came an opportunity to upgrade I couldn't pass up . With that in mind, I put my 1920 on ebay. Days passed with only a few bids. Finally, it was purchased. Finally, I thought, I could use that money to fund my upgrade from a friend cutting me a deal. Well, guess what? The deal fell through. The sale would not happen. However, my player was already spoken for. So I was left with nothing. My deal fell through, and the 1920 I was so enamored with was gone. So, I went back to the drawing board. Initially, when this all started, I was torn bt. the 1920 and the CA Azur 540D. I went and looked, and holy cow, they were on sale for less than the price I was considering paying for one a few weeks ago. Now they're letting them go for $259 over at AAdvisor. So, I snagged one up, quick snap. It's scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Glad I could get it squeezed in before the weekend got here. A weekend with no player? Yikes. After I've played with it a bit, I'll let folks know how I like it.

I'm not bummed that it's not a universal player. The 1920 was a solid performer, one that I was quite happy with. But, truth be told, very, very little of what I listen to is even available on either SACD or DVD-A, so I guess it's not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. My collection isn't gigantic, at ~400+ discs. And of those, I'd guess that roughly 20-25 of them (no kidding) could be found on SACD/DVD-A...unless I'm looking in the wrong places. It's the curse of listening to small-label music I guess.

It's a long and twisting tale, but one I found kinda funny. Hey, I guess I get a new toy to play with anyhow. I'll post thoughts later.

 

[j_garcia]

The reason they are on sale is because Cambridge just released two new universal models, both relatively reasonably priced at AA ...The DVD 87 and 89. So do you have the 540 yet? Let me know when you've had some time with it, how it sounds.

Most of the stuff I listen to isn't on DVD-A/SACD either, but that doesn't mean there aren't things I'll buy

 

[corysmith01]

Well, I wish I had good news to report...boy, do I. However, that is not the case.

Right out of the box, the player was awesome. I was surpised by the weight. Felt really heavy, really sturdy. The packaging was also top notch. The whole presentation makes you think you've bought a much higher-end product. Got it hooked up. Popped LOTR/FOTR in. Looked great. Sounded great. No problems.

Then, put a cd in. Fine at first. But then, after about 2 or 3 seconds of the disc playing I heard a distinct ticking. Put my ear near the player and it was coming from the transport/tray. It was in perfect time, like a metronome, so I'm guessing it's attributed to the spinning of the disk. This is a store-bought, standard redbook cd...not a cd-r, or something i burned. So, I skipped to the next track. Same thing. Tick, tick, tick, tick. So, I figured I better swap cd's just to make sure. Tried 5 different cd's, all with the exact same result...ticking about 2 or 3 seconds in. Very annoying.

I did a quick search and have found a few posts in other forums/reviews of people reporting this problem, albeit with CD-R's, so it would appear it's not just mine. I'm very let down. A problem with the player is one thing. However, it's the replacing it that is a huge bummer. I only have one player, so, that means if this one has to go out, I'm without a player for who knows how long while it's being replaced. This is BS. I'm actually pretty mad. I've e-maild both AA and CA to figure out what I should do. I'm assuming they're going to say to ship it back, which is a huge drag. Bt. shipping out and waiting for a new one to arrive, I'm looking at approx. a week or so with no player...no movies, no cd's. That sucks.

 

[j_garcia]

Wow man, that sucks. Sorry to hear it. Have them exchange it for an 87 then....