About four years ago, Denon launched a new 800 series in the cautious mid-range, and it also featured a long-awaited streamer - the DNP-800NE . We reviewed it together with the other two components in the series, the amplifier PMA-800NE and the CD player DCD-800NE , and DNP-800NE received the characteristic "the gold nugget of the series".
DNP-2000NE
Now Denon is launching a new model in a much higher price range. The DNP-2000NE is basically far better equipped than the smaller model DNP-800NE, and has two optical and one coax digital input, in addition to a USB B input on the back. Perhaps at least as interesting is that the DNP-2000NE has an HDMI eARC input, which gives the possibility of receiving a signal from a TV set.
There is also a USB input on the front, a USB-A which can be used, among other things, to connect USB storage devices, such as a USB disk or memory stick.
The DNP-2000NE supports both WiFi and Bluetooth, where the Bluetooth specification is Version 5.0.
Digital preamplifier
With a relatively rich set of digital inputs and, in addition, the possibility to configure the analogue output as eiother "fixed" or "variable", the DNP-2000NE is just as natural to characterize as a complete digital preamplifier as a pure streamer. In addition, an extended functionality is integrated in the form of "Power On Link" when the DVP-2000NE is connected to a Denon amplifier via a "remote cable".
DAC
The DNP-2000NE uses a quad DAC configuration. We do not know which DAC chips are used, but suspect that Denon has not spared resources in this top model. What we do know, however, is that this model has the most advanced of Denon's own digital processing, in the form of Ultra AL32 Processing. This was first developed in the anniversary CD player Denon DCD-A110 , which came in 2020.
HEOS
The streaming engine in the DNP-2000NE is based on a well-known streaming platform. Heos is Denon's (and eventually Marantz's) streaming concept. And it comes as no surprise that it is Heos that is the flow concept in the DNP-2000NE as well, and it is a flow motor we have made acquaintance with in many contexts, and which the undersigned has in a couple of his own products.
Heos works well, and gives the opportunity to use a number of streaming services, with Spotify, TIDAL and Deezer being the most relevant for the Norwegian market. Unfortunately, Qobuz is still not available on Heos, and like most streaming platforms, this also applies to Apple Music.
Voice control
As befits a modern digital streamer, the DNP-2000NE is equipped with voice control capabilities. And all three of the most relevant candidates in Europe are supported – Google Assist, Alexa and our beloved Siri, who so often joins the conversation even if she is not asked.
The legacy of the DNP-2500NE?
It is tempting to highlight Denon's HighEnd streamer, which was launched in the middle of the last decade. We enthusiastically wrote about the DNP-2500NE in January 2016, but it eventually turned out that this model never reached Europe, let alone Norway. In the Japanese domestic market, on the other hand, it has had an existence for a period, although there has been limited information available about this model.
So whether the DNP-2000NE is a slightly scaled-down successor to the DNP-2500NE is speculation, but with a match weight of just under ten kilos it is in any case a weighty candidate as a complete digital preamplifier with streamer.
Based on international prices, it is tempting to guess that the price in Norway will end up somewhere between NOK 15-20,000 when it hopefully eventually becomes available in Norway.
Denon is imported to Norway by HiFi klubben
Read more about the DNP-2000NE at Denon.
