Denon's new music streamer has all the goods. Not only is it as versatile as they come thanks to its HEOS streaming platform, but it also supports high-resolution audio up to 32-bit/384kHz – that's much better than CD quality.
HEOS support means you can stream music wirelessly from a plethora of music streaming services, including Spotify, Tidal, Amazon Music, internet radio and more, as well as from other networked devices like NAS drives. You can also create playlists through the HEOS mobile app and use any of Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or Apple's Siri for voice control.
Then there's the sound quality. Inside the network audio player, Denon's Advanced Processing supports up-sampling to 384kHz and bit-extension to 32-bit, while the asynchronous USB Type B connection supports native hi-res digital files, including DSD256. Four high-precision 32-bit/384kHz ES9018K2M digital-to-analogue converters are configured in a double-differential-mode just like Denon's flagship DCD-A110 SACD player, which should result in quality sound.
This is all helped by Denon's Master Clock design which suppresses jitter, and the isolation of the analogue and digital circuit boards from each other to prevent interference.
You want connections? The DNP-2000NE has plenty, starting with wi-fi, wired Ethernet, Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay 2. HDMI ARC lets you hook up your TV to your hi-fi, and you can even control the DNP-2000NE using your TV remote. Two optical and one coaxial digital inputs are also ready and waiting, alongside a USB Type B input. There are also fixed and variable analogue output options, and one coax and one optical output each. And finally, there's a headphone socket on the front panel.
It's available in three colours: black, premium silver and graphite silver (though the latter comes at a premium, ironically). The Denon DNP-2000NE streamer launches in June for £1399 / $1599 / AU$2999 (or £1599 / $TBC in graphite silver).
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