 Recently Denon proudly presented their new flagship streaming DAC. At a price of 1599 euros, it is very well priced for a flagship product, so I was immediately interested. A streaming DAC is what we currently call a network player with built-in DAC. It could also be called a DAC with built-in network player or a DAC with streaming facilities. Or a preamp with integrated network player and DAC. Confused? You won't be after this episode of the Hans Beekhuyzen channel. Or at least I hope so. The DMP2000 can play several roles in your stereo. The most likely one is to use it as an add-on in your existing stereo. In that case it is connected to an amplifier over a pair of RCA cables. The amp is then connected to a pair of loudspeakers. But just a pair of active loudspeakers would function just as well since the DMP2000 has both fixed and variable analog outputs and digital outputs. A pair of headphones can be connected to the headphone output on the front. The DMP2000 is to be connected to your router over either Wi-Fi or Ethernet cable to access streaming services and radio stations on the internet. If you have a computer or NAS holding music, it needs to run a so called DNA server program so the DMP2000 can play that music too. It can be operated using the supplied infrared remote control and the display on the front or with the HEOS app on smartphone or tablet. This app is available for free on Android and iOS app stores and is also needed if you want to use the DMP2000 in a multi-room setup with other HEOS network players. The HEOS system can also be found on Marantz equipment. The DMP2000 has several physical digital inputs. There is an HDMI ARC-CAC input that not only lets you connect your TV audio but also integrates to remote control. Other sources like a CD player, DVD player, Blu-ray player or a game console can be connected when the outputs are set to stereo PCM and not to Dolby Digital. When you are an Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or Apple Siri user, the DMP2000 can be voice controlled too. Furthermore, Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay 2 are supported. The DMP2000 comes in three versions, silver, black and graphite silver. The latter is slightly more expensive since the finish is more elaborate. But owners of the Denon PMA A110 Anniversary amplifier will appreciate it since it has the same finish. The width is 434 x 421 x 88mm. Width and depth are equal to other products in the range so they can be stacked easily. The DMP2000 weighs 9.7 kilos. On the front left, the power button with below it the USB-A socket for storage media holding music. Then the headphones output with next to it the headphones volume control. The infrared receiver is integrated in the window that also holds a display that contains sufficient information to navigate music using the cursor control on the front and on the remote control. If you navigate with the front buttons, this is the back button. The four cursor buttons have the enter button in the center that also doubles as play-pause button. The source button on the right lets you step through the inputs. The remote control has buttons that give direct access to the inputs. On the rear we find the mains input, then the digital input, SPIDF, two toss link input and a USB B connector for hooking up directly to a computer. There is a digital output on both SPIDF and toss link. Then the network connector, the HDMI arc input and the infrared control output. The supplied antennas for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are to be screwed on here. The analog outputs are available as variable for connecting to for instance active speakers and as fixed for connecting to an amplifier or active speakers with their own volume control. The DMP2000 is a big box and in contrast to some other streamers it is filled to the brim with circuit boards. Centrally placed we see two large transformers that are 180 degrees turned against each other to cancel out stray magnetics. They are mounted on a sub-chassis to reduce vibrations. Each one powers a linear power supply, one for the digital audio board, the other for the analog audio board. A third power supply, a switch mode type, feeds the digital interface board. That board can be found here and holds the Burr-Brown PCM9211 chip that does the SPIDF and toss link interfacing. The analog to digital converter in the chip is not used. These inputs are limited to 192 kHz 24 bit PCM. An XMOS chip handles the USB input that accepts up to 384 kHz 32 bit PCM and DSD256. We further find two microprocessors on the board and the HiOS module that is mounted piggyback on the interface board and also handles WiFi and Bluetooth A2DP. The HDMI-CAC arc input is handled by the well known Panasonic chip. From the digital interface board the signal goes to the UltraAL32 processing that oversamples the signal up to 32 times. Two ESS ES918K2M DAC chimps are used per channel. Since these chips are stereo and both channels are fed with the same signal, one channel is converted to analog four times and when they are summed up together in the analog domain, small errors and noise are concerted out since they have a random nature. The analog audio is then converted from current to voltage and subsequently buffered in two fully identical analog amplifier channels where audio grade capacitors are used. A separate headphone amplifier near the front drives the headphone output. As said before, the DMP-2000 can be fully operated from the front using the display plus the cursor buttons and menu buttons or the remote console. And that includes streaming. But a smartphone or tablet shows more info, works faster and from your listening position. The app shows you the sources to choose from, like for instance tune-in radio. Let's see what local radio stations there are for me. It still embays as me how many radio stations there are in a small language area the Netherlands is. Let's go back to the sources screen and select title, I have a title subscription. Search for Paul McCartney, choose albums and go for the Egypt station album. If you want to switch to another source, you simply press the music icon along the bottom twice to get the sources screen. Here you tap inputs and select the one you want. At the introduction we were told that Roon can be used over Airplay or if you have the computer nearby over USB. A Roon ready update is expected to be added in a later update. Connecting the TV is well supported. The best option is to use the HDMI ARC-CSC on your TV. That sends audio and control signals over HDMI to the DMP-2000. This means that when you switch on your TV, the DMP-2000 will also be switched on and the HDMI input is selected. If you also own a current Denon amp in the same range, that can be switched on and set to the right input by simply connecting the infrared control cable between the two. Don't forget to set the TV's digital output to stereo PCM for the DMP-2000 can't decode surround signals. If your TV doesn't have HDMI ARC, you can use the Toslink or Spidiff output on your TV and connect that to the corresponding input on the DMP-2000. In the setup menu you then select TV via Toslink or Spidiff. Auto-sensing will automatically select the right input. If you use active speakers or connect the DMP-2000 directly to a power amplifier and thus use it as a pre-amplifier, you need to use the variable output. In a menu you can limit the output voltage to avoid damage to your speakers. The fixed output gives 2.2 volts at 0 dBFS. The variable output gives it slightly over 60 dBs more, 4.5 volts. The headphone's output does 150 mW in 32 ohms. The DMP-2000 was connected to my reference setup too where the amplifier is the Merence PMKI Perl Lite. It drives the Acoustic Energy Radiance 1 loudspeaker connected over Kimber 4PI loudspeaker cable. They are supported by the Rail T5 subwoofer that is connected to the loudspeaker terminals on the Merence using the cable that came with the sub. The network switch is the Uptown Audio Ether-Region with Uptown Audio UltraCaps 1.2 power supply. The Minim server, the DNA server, is running on a Synology DS1819 plus NAS with DX517 extender. The equipment with the exception of the NAS is housed in a target rack. The first thing I noticed was the royal, deep and wide stereo image with good focusing. Better than to be expected in this class. Resolution over the entire spectrum is rather good and sibilance is controlled well for its class. It sounds roughly at the level of my reference in setup 2A. So I took it downstairs to my setup 1B to discover its limits. Now the amplifier is the Air Acoustics AX520. It drives the PMC FAC12 signature loudspeakers on stack audio over our 70 isolators and is connected over AudioQuest Robinhood 0 loudspeaker cable. The network connection comes from the Zixle GS1900-10 HP switch and is filtered by the network acoustics Muon Pro. The same DNA server is used. The Minim server on a Synology DS1819 plus NAS with DX517 extender. Here again the stereo image is the first thing that took my attention. For the rest it's clear that the DMP-2000 belongs in the top of my setup 2. When describing the sound of a product, one mentions what it does better than other products in that class and where it fails short against equipment in a higher class. I notice that there are viewers that don't understand this and think that when I am enthusiastic about a product, it is the best product in any class. That's not the case of course. Take the DMP-2000 for instance, that does perform great in its class, above average I would say, but compared to the more expensive equipment it doesn't have the same resolution in the lows. Connected to a clearly higher class setup in my setup 1, the lows aren't as tight, deep and lack some texture. But that's something that is not noticed in my setup 2A, for there the amp and the speakers are not capable of reproducing that resolution. The same goes for all other sound quality characteristics. It's like a BMW 5 series is a great car but not a Rolls Royce or Ferrari. The DMP-2000 has a lot of clever technology on board and is voiced as denim products are supposed to be voiced. Up front and bright with a royal stereo image. Sister brand Marantz is more laid back, so much more rounded. Between the two is no better or worse, it's just different. And although in general I am more in the Marantz camp, I enjoyed the sound of the DMP-2000. Furthermore, Heos today has a final working app that does both smartphone and tablet resolutions. I also like the solutions Denon has included for the TV sound. As might be clear, I am rather enthusiastic about the DMP-2000, which brings me to the end of this video. As usual there will be a new video next Friday at 5 pm Central European Time. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to my channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out. Help me reach even more people by giving this video a thumb up or link to this video on the social media. It is much appreciated. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially. It keeps me independent and lets me improve the channel further. If that makes you feel like supporting my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on YouTube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theH3project.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.