The Denon RCD-N8 networked all-in-one micro system

Recently, whilst watching Techmoan's YouTube channel, I watched a video where he reviewed a Denon all-in-one micro hi-fi system. Whilst impressed by the sound quality, he wasn't taken with the feature count and ultimately thought the device was a bit 'boring'.

Now, Techmoan is no audiophile (although he does appear to appreciate decent audio kit). A few years ago I may have described myself as one, but recently the term has certain connotations, namely people who spend £1,000 on a digital cable and swear it makes a difference (it doesn't - a digital cable either works perfectly or not at all), and companies that make and sell - I kid you not - directional 'audiophile' Ethernet cables, costing a few grand each for a 1 metre length. Anyone who knows anything about Ethernet should realise why that is a massive con, designed only to separate the wealthy but non-technical from the contents of their bank balance. Nowadays I just say I'm a 'hi-fi enthusiast'. I use my system to listen to music - an audiophile uses the music to listen to their system!

So when I was offered one of these Denon systems for basically next-to-nothing, I snapped it up. The model I have is the RCD-N8. I don't think that's the same model that Techmoan reviewed, but it's the same range.

First impressions on receiving the unit were favourable.  It's a well-constructed unit with a metal base and a strong white plastic upper section. (It's also available in black, and apparently in slate grey.) The unit I obtained also came with the "Denon by Mission" speakers, which I believe are based on the Mission MX1 standmount speakers.

The system was supplied with some "get-you-going" speaker cable, but this was less than impressive and basically slightly thicker than bell wire. Despite my comments above about £1,000 digital interconnects, in the analogue domain (so loudspeaker cable and analogue interconnects), the cables do make a difference. I didn't even bother undoing the supplied cables, and instead linked up the supplied speakers with some Audioquest 14/2 cable (that's 14awg, so 16swg, or just over 1.6mm cross section) with proper banana plugs on the ends.

Of course before I could use the banana plugs I had to lever out the blanking pins that had been inserted into the binding posts on both the main unit and the speakers. This was, apparently, an EU regulation, as the 4mm banana plugs commonly used for speaker connections will also fit into a European mains outlet. Here in the UK there's no such worry.

Anyway, I set the speakers up on some decent spiked stands and hooked them up to the main unit. I powered the unit on and went through the setup menu. At this point I hit my first snag. My home Wi-Fi network uses a hidden SSID, but despite entering the network name and WPA2 key manually, the unit couldn't find or connect to my Wi-Fi.

So I grabbed a 5 metre patch cable and plugged it in to the nearest Cat5 wall outlet. Fortunately there are several of these around the house. Setting the network type to "Wired" resulted in a wait of a few seconds, whereupon the unit obtained an IP address and automatically configured itself.

The first thing I tried was pressing the "Music Server" button. The unit immediately found my LMS server (used for Squeezebox etc) and I was able to browse and play all the music stored on it. Which of course brings me to the most important question - what does it sound like?

On the supplied Denon-badged Mission speakers, the answer is 'pretty good'. Plenty of detail and dynamics, good bass (for such small speakers) and very musical. However the Denon speakers aren't bi-wireable, so I decided to experiment.

I swapped the speakers for another pair, also Mission, the 760iSE model. These are a few years old (mid-1990s) but were multiple award winners in their time. The SE model (which I have here) are also bi-wireable. So I swapped the cables for Audioquest 14/4 (same cable type but 4-core for bi-wiring). The key differences with the 760s is that they're a larger speaker (so more low-end) and they have the bass reflex ports at the front rather than the rear (so less fussy about positioning). Having swapped the speakers over I then fired up the system again with the same piece of music I was using. The difference was... somewhat spectacular. A jump from 'pretty good' to 'very good'.

Ok, I'm not denying that the supplied Denon-branded speakers are pretty good, definitely a cut above the usual cheap garbage you get in various department stores. But the 760s are on another level. Whilst still a 'budget' speaker, they always did punch above their weight.

I'm also plannng on trying this out with some more upmarket speakers. I have a set of Monitor Audio MR2s (large stand-mounts), and, going completely over the top, a set of Monitor Audio Silver RX6 floorstanders. The RX6s, although now a decade old, still get exclamations of "wow" from people 'in-the-know' with audio. They normally sit as part of the home cinema system, using an Arcam AVR360 for amplification. I'm genuinely curious as to how the Denon will stack up against the Arcam.

The unit also features an iPod dock on the top panel, so of course I had to try this out.

Unfortunately my iPod (5^th gen 60GB iPod Video from 2006, upgraded to a 128GB SSD) is too old to be fully supported. The iPod can be controlled by the unit but no sound comes out. It appears that with an older iPod it is necessary to run a 3.5mm stereo minijack cable from the headphone output to the "iPod in" socket on the front of the unit.

To confirm this, I borrowed a newer iPod Classic (either 5.5^th gen or 6^th gen, depending on who you ask) and tried this. It worked perfectly. Initial research suggests that the dock uses an SPDIF input from the 30-pin connector, which is only present on the last generation of iPod Classic. However, hooking my iPod up to the USB port gave the same result (which also worked perfectly using the newer Classic), so something else is going on. I tried plugging a USB stick full of MP3 files into the front panel socket; this also worked perfectly.

I'm not too worried by this, as my iPod only tends to get used in the in-car dock nowadays. I have a music server for home use, and a fairly decent set of Bluetooth headphones for when I'm out and about, using the MP3 player app on my phone. (VLC for Android if anyone's wondering.)

Most importantly, the digital input.

I'm intending to use this unit on the PC via the SPDIF (digital) output, so I felt it worthwhile to hook up a 'spare' Squeezebox:

Again, this works perfectly. In fact if I was going to use this unit purely as a network streamer, I'd probably use the Squeezebox in preference to the built-in functionality. Whilst DLNA streaming does the job, the Squeezebox system is just 'nicer' to use. Plus it has a rather lovely Android app (Squeezer) which can control the entire system.

Anyway, once I've finished experimenting, I'm intending to use this as an audio system for my office. This brings me on to the feature which attracted me to it - the unit has an optical digital input. I can simply connect the Toslink cable from the PC directly to it and use it as a PC sound system. I have a set of PC speakers connected to the analogue out, and every version of Windows since Vista treats the analogue and digital outputs as separate devices. So I can use the analogue out as the default Windows audio device, then set the SPDIF output for Winamp, Foobar2000, Audition etc. I have a similar setup at present with an old Sony micro system (which also has a digital in) powering a pair of Celestion 1 speakers on the desk, so as far as Windows is concerned nothing needs to change.

All-in-all though, I'm impressed. This thing sounds great, it's fairly compact, it runs cool (it's 2x 65W RMS, but Class D amplification) and the display is nice and bright. The CD player supports MP3 discs. There's no DAB radio (only FM) and no Bluetooth streaming, but for what I want it for, this doesn't matter in the slightest.

It even came with a new set of Duracell batteries in the remote. Can't complain at all.