There’s an old saying about choosing the right tool for the job, and that’s as true in the production room as anywhere else. We’re all doing more production work on tighter schedules than ever before, and our equipment has to be able to handle the abuse. As do we, but we aren’t always, and besides, that’s a topic for another article.
Denon’s flagship product for the production arena is its DN-C680 Professional CD Player. The DN-C680 is not only a robust player, but it includes all the features, functions and interfaces needed for the broadcast production environment.
The Front Panel
The front panel of the Denon DN-C680 packs a lot of controls into a clean and concise interface. The panel itself is done in a classy black anodized finish with white legends that are easy to read at a distance. This is most helpful to those of use with less than perfect vision.
The right side of the front panel is occupied by the large and bright display window, which provides lots of information — everything from track number and elapsed time to a graphic display showing the current play position within a track. All of this is quite legible even from across the room.
Below the display are the Search and Scan dials. The Search dial is a detented inner wheel that scrubs through the audio directly as you turn the wheel, with each click corresponding to one CD frame. The spring-loaded outer ring is the Scan dial, which plays audio forward or backward at increasing speed, depending on which direction and how far you turn the ring.
Also below the display are a collection of no less than 17 buttons that control the behavior of the CD player. These buttons allow you to define how the player responds at the end of a track, to set loop points, and even preview the last 5 to 35 seconds of a track in advance of playing it.
The left side of the front panel contains the power switch, the headphone jack and headphone level control. Next to those are the CD tray with its associated OPEN/CLOSE button, and the transport controls, which consist of large rubber buttons for STOP, STANDBY/CUE, and PLAY/PAUSE. To the right of the transport buttons is the Program Play buttons and the multifunction Select Knob.
The Back Panel
Since the DN-C680 is a playback-only product, its rear panel is unencumbered by unnecessary gozintas. However, there are all the gozoutas one could ever ask for. Analog outputs are provided on balanced XLR jacks and on unbalanced RCA jacks. Recessed level controls let you fine-tune the analog output levels between -20 dBs and +20 dBs. The analog outputs use 18-bit 8x oversampling digital-to-analog converters. Stereo digital output is available on either an XLR connector (for the AES/EBU format) or on an RCA connector (for the S/PDIF format).
There are both serial and parallel interfaces on the back panel as well. There are two serial connectors. One is on a female 9-pin D-sub connector for connecting a hard-wired remote, and the other is a male 9-pin D-sub designed for connecting the player to a computer or automation system. This input includes a switch to select between RS323C and RS422A protocols. The parallel connector is a 25-pin D-sub connector, and it allows you to use dry external contact closures to control every important function of the DN-C680, with tallies for each. You can access Play, Pause, Standby/Cue, Next Track, Previous Track, Search Forward, Search Reverse, and Fader Start via the parallel interface.
The DN-C680 is available with a couple of broadcast-friendly options. My evaluation unit came equipped with the sync option, which consists of an XLR input for SMPTE time code, and BNC connectors for video sync and 44.1 kHz word clock. It also came equipped with a built-in sample rate converter, described below.
In Use
This is a nice player. The build quality and finish is excellent, and it feels like it will deliver years of service. The CD tray slides in and out noiselessly and smoothly. All the rubber buttons have a nice, solid feel to them — you’re unlikely to hit the wrong one or have your finger slip off and strike some other button by mistake. Over half of the buttons are backlit, including the important ones like STANDBY/CUE, PLAY/PAUSE, and the various editing buttons. They either light up solidly or blink to indicate their current state, and provide clearly visible feedback to tell you what’s going on.
Operating the player is straightforward, even with the wealth of options available. Turning the Select Knob scrolls through the tracks, and can be used while playing to make the player play a track other than the next one in line. In this case the display shows which track will play next by number, under the NEXT NO. legend.
The three transport buttons are self-explanatory, except perhaps for the STANDBY/CUE button. When you press it while the player is stopped, it will cue to whichever track you’ve chosen with the Select Knob. If you press it during continuous playback, it will return to the point where playback began (this is also referred to as Back Cueing). Finally, if you’ve chosen a different next track using the Select Knob, then pressing STANDBY/CUE will cause the player to stop and cue to that specific next track.
The DN-C680 will play CD tracks in one of three modes, which can be selected by repeatedly pressing the PLAY MODE button. In SINGLE mode, the player will play the current track until the end and then stop. In CONTINUOUS mode, it will play the current track and continue to the next without stopping. The A-B mode allows you to play just a part of a CD.
Setting the A and B points is a simple matter of cueing to your desired start point, pressing the A button which then lights, cueing to your desired stop point, and pressing the B button which also lights. If you want to play the part repeatedly, you simply press the REPEAT button. To clear the A and B points you just eject the CD or you can press “-” when the buttons are flashing.
There are three “finish modes” on the player — STOP, NEXT, and RECUE — which are most useful when you’ve selected the SINGLE play mode. Pressing the STOP button causes it to light, and the player will simply stop at the end of the current track or disc. Pressing the NEXT button causes the player to finish playing the current track, then cue to the next track and enter STANDBY mode. When the last track is played it will cue to the first track. The third finish mode is RECUE, in which the player will finish the current track, recue to the position where playback began, and enter STANDBY mode.
Real Time Editing
Like most searchable CD players, the DN-C680 switches into a “stutter” mode when using either the Search or the Scan dials. About a second of audio at the current location loops over and over, allowing you to find an exact point for cueing. It’s not an effect I like listening to, but it was most effective in helping me locate an exact start point for recording.
Index marks on CDs are notoriously inaccurate, and it’s not uncommon to have a couple of seconds of dead air between the index mark for a track and where the sound actually begins. The DN-C680 deals with this problem by providing an AUTO CUE function, which cues the player to the onset of audio rather than just to the index mark. The CueDet. preset sets the audio detection level. There are seven choices between -72 and -36 dB, with -60 dB as the factory setting. AUTO CUE gives you really tight starts, so when you hit the PLAY button the music begins with no dead air.
The AUTO SPACE button inserts four seconds of silence between tracks during continuous playback.
The AUTO EDIT function is kind of a throwback to the days of vinyl. It divides the CD’s tracks in half, giving you a side A (the first half) and a side B (the second half). Pressing the AUTO EDIT button causes the display to show the playing time of side A. To see the playing time of side B you press the “B” button. Touching the PLAY/PAUSE button begins playing side A. When it’s finished, it will pause itself at the first track of side B.
The DN-C680 features varispeed, which allows you to speed up or slow down the playback by as much as 9.9% in either direction. You can engage varispeed in real time by pressing the PITCH button and using the “+” and “-” buttons to speed up or slow down. The PITCH % line in the display shows exactly how much speed change you’ve applied. However, when you change play speed, the sampling frequency of the digital output signal also changes, so you may not be able to use the digital outputs in varispeed mode.
You can program tracks to play in a certain order using the PROGRAM PLAY and PROGRAM buttons. Pressing the PROGRAM button prompts you to choose a track using the Select Knob, pressing the Knob in when you’ve found one. Pressing the Knob again lets you enter another track by turning it. You can enter up to twenty-five cuts in one program. In addition, the DN-C680 will store three separate programs for three different discs in its preset memory. It will then automatically load the correct program when you insert one of the three discs.
Presets
Pressing the STANDBY/CUE button while pressing the PLAY MODE button gets you to the preset menu. And man, this baby has preset functions, no less than thirty-one of them. Once you’re in that mode, you can scroll through your options using the Preset Select knob, and pressing the Preset Select knob cycles through your choices. The presets are stored in permanent memory, so they’ll survive a power cycle. Here are just a few of the more useful ones.
D.Out Pro(Cons) determines whether the digital outputs conform to the AES/EBU format, or to the Consumer format which can be either S/PDIF (which contains embedded subcode information) or IEC-958 Type II (which contains no embedded subcode information).
Next Stb.OFF(ON) regulates the operation of the STANDBY/CUE button. In the OFF position, pressing STANDBY/CUE during playback returns to the start of the track and enters standby mode. In the ON position, pressing STANDBY/CUE during playback goes to the next track and enters standby mode. Slick.
FadeIn and FadeOut are self-explanatory, and can be set to six different values ranging from 10 milliseconds to 2 seconds, or can be turned off altogether.
The Stereo (Mono) preset determines whether the left and right output connectors send discreet left and right audio or an identical mix of left and right audio.
One of my favorite presets is PlayLock ON(OFF). When turned ON, it disables all controls other than PLAY/PAUSE, TIME and PLAY MODE. You can think of this preset as the Dummy Preset, since it prevents other folks from changing the DN-C680’s setup and well, you know the rest.
There are also presets that allow you to play CDRs that have not been finalized and therefore have no Table of Contents, and several presets to set up the serial and parallel remote control parameters.
Clock Me All Night Long
In an all-digital production room, it’s important to have a single master word clock feeding all connected digital devices. Otherwise you’ll likely get clicks and pops, even when all devices run at the same sampling frequency. This is due to the fact that the digital audio data packets are being sent from one device in sync with its clock, and they are being received by another device in sync with its own clock. The exact timing of these send and receive cycles has to line up properly, or the occasional packet will be lost or delayed. This will cause clicks and pops in the audio, and is definitely Not A Good Thing. One digital device must act as master clock, and the other devices should act as slaves to the master. Alternatively, you can use a dedicated word clock generator and set all the digital devices to slave to that.
That’s why the optional sync module on the DN-C680 is a nice addition. After setting the SYNC preset to WORD, I was able to feed word clock from my Aardsync II digital word clock generator into the word clock input of the DN-C680 player, and feed its AES/EBU output to a digital input on my Yamaha 02R console that is also connected to the Aardsync. WORD SYNC lit up in the display, and there were no clicks, no pops, just good sound.
I also tested the video sync input in a similar fashion, using a Horita color sync generator. With the SYNC preset to VIDEO and the DN-C680 playing, turning the Horita box on caused the player to slow down and then come back to speed as it synchronized itself to the incoming video black signal. By the time VIDEO SYNC showed in the display, the player was fully up to speed.
My evaluation unit also came with a built in sample rate converter, which allows the DN-C680 to output digital audio at 48 and 32 kHz sampling frequencies. There is no change in speed when using this feature, as the sample rate converter does the work of changing the normal CD 44.1 kHz signal to the desired rate. I recorded music both at 44.1 and at 48 kHz and compared them. There was no audible difference in the two recordings, which tells me that this is a high quality sample rate converter.
Finalize This
The DN-C680’s ability to play CDRs that have not been finalized is especially handy. Normal CD players don’t recognize unfinalized CDRs, since the CD-burning process saves writing the Table of Contents for the very last step, and normal CD players won’t read a disc with no TOC. Being able to play unfinalized CDRs from a device other than my CD burner is hot.
The Denon DNC680 sounds great, has a ton of cool editing features, and connects to everything. What’s not to like? If you’re in the market for a pro CD player, you need to check this on out for yourself.
The Denon DN-C680 Professional CD Player has a suggested list price of $900, excluding the time code and sample rate conversion options. For more information in the US, contact Denon Electronics at (973) 396-0810. For more information worldwide, visit www.del.denon.com.
