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$499 Denon DL Link Cable Is Just Cat5!

9K views 44 replies 24 participants last post by  granduncle 
#1 ·
We all know of a certain monstrous company that waaaaaaaay overprices its cables, but now Denon has taken the prize:
AK-DL1

$499.00

Denon's 1.5 meter (59 in.) ultra premium Denon Link cable was designed for the audio enthusiast. Made from high purity copper wire and high performance connection parts, the AK-DL1 will bring out all the nuances in digital audio reproduction from any of our Denon DVD players with the Denon Link feature. Attention to detail when building this cable was used by empoying high quality insulation, tin-bearing alloy shielding and woven jacketing to reduce vibration and to add durability. Additionally, signal directional markings are provided for optimum signal transfer. Rounded plug levers help prevent breakage.
http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3429.asp

I've been working in the LAN/WAN/Global networking field for years and I've never come across a technical parameter of data called "nuance"... :D Sadly I expect some fools to gladly part with their money for these LAN cables and even be proud of their purchase! :rolleyes:
 
#30 ·
I know we all talk about it from the consumer perspective, but I will flip the coin. From a retailer persepective, if they can find consumers to pay this price all the better! The more profit that they make, the longer they can continue to run their operations. Yes I agree that it will cause 'flair ups' and some consumer hate, but business is business.

As my economic prof used to say "gouge the consumer!" :)
 
#31 ·
I own 2 products from Denon. 1. PMR-2000IVR amplifier; 2. DVD-3910ci DVD player. They are very high quality. Since I am an "audiophile", I always compare some a/v products. I found the denon products are usually worth the money if you can afford. But $499 for a "network cable"? That is insane. There are big differences between high quality analog cable (such as component, s-video, audio interconnect and speaker cables) and cheap ones if you have right equipment to test them. But for digital cable, unless you have to run it for long distance, there is no difference between.
 
#34 ·
I have DL on my AVR, never used it. HDMI is newer than DL. I think continuing the DL is just so people who don't have HDMI AVR/source could get the equivalent benefit with their existing gear...backwards compatibility. DL isn't much needed anymore IMO...but *it did come first*. Before that we had to use analog outputs only for some of that stuff.

As I said before, this $500 cable is for people who don't care about cost. If some people think $500 for an "audio"/AV cable is expensive, I say look around and you will see this is definitely still in the "reasonable" price range! Denon was actually a bit restrained here compared to some...
 
#36 ·
The DL is just like HDMI: it is one of the many methods to tranfer the digital data. But it is only used by Denon. It will be eventually abandoned by Denon since no other company else wants to use it. Just like Sony's SACD or Toshiba's HD-DVD, both technologies are good, but there is no market for them. By the way, I would like to know how many people here use the DL.
 
#37 ·
DL solves the issue of connecting SACD and DVD Audio without analog cables. Since those formats appear to be failing in the marketplace, it no longer makes much sense. There are some potential digital audio replacements being used by BD but their adoption for music formats is unknown to me. I use analog cables for SACD and DVD Audio. It sounds great but what do I do when my Denon multidisc player dies. There are PC solutions but they only play back in PCM stereo or substandard analog. :(
 
#38 ·
Thats just what Im using DL for IWMHDTV, SACD and DVDA. My understanding is that DL is just audio, no video JJ. I do agree its niche but its working really well for me. I was hoping Denon would put out Bluray universal player but that didnt seem to happen. It seems that they consider SACD and DVDA dead then? OH well.
 
#39 ·
^ Yeah, it's too bad. SACD has very little I want, DVD-A is essentially dead. Though I still read about some musicians wanting to release in DVD-A... I am trying to consolidate sources, maintain backward compatibility with media via modern interfaces (HDMI). Is there a universal BD player that does BD/SACD/DVD-A/SD and is GOOD? The part I have issue with right now is the BD part, the stand-alone players are all just a tad lacking there, might have to separate the BD part out whereas the others are old hat and pretty much done as well as can be expected already. Anyway, you can get players for all this stuff over HDMI, what I meant when I said DL isn't really needed anymore, it's just for backward compatibility, at least Denon isn't screwing old customers (yet) by ditching it.
 
#40 ·
Denon still makes SACD and DVD Audio players. They just don't do Blu-ray. That means you need two players. That defeats my original purpose for buying the multidisc player. :confused: I am abandoning Denon solutions in favour of HTPC solutions, at least for playing video and audio. That proprietary hardware is just too expensive to upgrade every time a new disc format is created.
 
#42 ·
I love SACD. IMO the SACD is much better than the CD. I have over 50 SACDs and I really enjoy them. In the most of cases, SACD is used by the audiophiles. I think they are still donig well in Asia. DVD-A is gone. I have some DVD-As but I hate to turn on TV in order to listen to the music. And I do not like the multi-channel music. All I want is pure 2-channel sound.
 
#45 ·
I_Want_My_HDTV said:
There are PC solutions but they only play back in PCM stereo or substandard analog.
There are PC solutions to play DVD-A in its full glory. But it can be a real PITA.
There are no PC solutions whatsoever to play SACD. Sony never licensed this format for PC playback.

I think Denon-Link (and its competitor encrypted FireWire) was introduced to minimize jitter due to analog transmission of the sound between the player and AVR.

Around 2004 DVD-A had 5 times the market share of SACD
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/5176.cfm
but the numbers were mixed on year-by-year basis
http://retailtrafficmag.com/retailing/retail_day_music_died/
 
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