Denon PMA-1500R MkII integrated amplifier

What's this? A £500 stereo integrated amplifier from an established Japanese manufacturer? If this smacks of a U-turn to you, well, you'd be right. After the big Far Eastern giants (and a choice few UK firms) dropped hi-fi faster than you can say multichannel, there's now a slow, largely unpublicised return to stereo. Slowly but surely we'll begin to see more two-channel equipment from those brands who historically have been the backbone of affordable high fidelity. A Denon spokesman has even unofficially commented that new hi-fi product will be launched, “at all levels” - perhaps the £5,000, two-channel SACD/CD player due for launch at this year's Bristol Sound and Vision Show on 25 February will give us a taste of the future.

Kicking off the renaissance is the PMA-1500 MkII amplifier - a 70-watt stereo amp that looks every bit a thoroughbred and style-wise is almost retro by today's standards in its dated black casing. The PMA prefix will be well known to audiophiles as many fine amplifiers from Denon over the years have been designated this series moniker - remember the legendary PMA-255UK? In fact a version of the PMA-1500 was launched in the late nineties just before the big multichannel drive of the noughties.

Around the back, the remote controllable engine boasts five inputs plus a 'high quality' phono stage (switchable between MM moving magnet and MC moving coil-type cartridges), twin tape loops and a preamp output (could there be a power amp in the pipeline?) There is also provision for bi-wiring speakers from the twin sets of speaker terminals. The chunky fascia sports a huge volume knob, input selector and useful bypassable tone controls, but the remote has limited functionality and is every bit as beautiful as Tracy Emin's 'art'.

Denon is shouting loudly about four key features of the amp - the high-current MOSFET-type output devices to ensure generous power reserves for dynamic peaks, a wide frequency response for use with DVD-A/SACD sources, high grade audio parts and vibration-preventing heat sink stabilisers. These specs, on paper at least, point to a diverse engine that should operate well in any environment.

It's reassuringly deep, chunky and well weighted, thanks largely to the sizeable, and twin toroidal transformers packed into the casework. Build quality is high as per Denon's flagship products and there's certainly nothing to fault in terms of fit and finish.

Sound
The Denon's spec has plenty to offer the audiophile and enough to worry the competition priced at many times more than £500. What's immediately noticeable is the huge amount of grunt and headroom available from this oriental delight. Denon's claim of 70 watts per channel is erring on the conservative side and this soon becomes evident when dynamic peaks in the music deliver unexpected impact and dynamism. There's a generous amount of bass weight here, which may well appeal to dance and ambient fans, although it's a shade loose and bloated. In fact the presentation is fairly bass-heavy and depending on your speakers, this could either be a blessing or a curse.

Turn up the wick and the amp delivers plenty of loudness but without the grace of some of the UK's most favoured amps. One thing's for sure - there's no glossing over the poor recordings in your collection - this amp is warts and all with a bit of its own excitable character thrown in. With the wrong album or a fairly live room the high frequencies can draw enough attention to themselves to become a bit unwelcome, although at modest listening levels the problem is much less noticeable. This is however a pertinent point if you're auditioning in a heavily damped dealer dem-room. Get it home and it may sound very different.

With Nick Drake's uniquely delicate guitar work for example, the lower stings sound rich and slightly thick while the snap of the upper registers has a tendency to sound a little, well, lifeless. Moving up a gear to Radiohead's The Bends and the Denon is much more at home - it delivers all of the guts, drive and gritty raw sound that's been laid down in the studio with plenty to offer in the lower bass and lots of headroom for the big dynamic build-ups. When Yorke slips into something more comfortable, however, such as the beautiful Nice Dream the Denon tends to lack the kind of harmony our UK ears have come to hold in such high regard.

Verdict:

A shade more balance and neutrality would no doubt tame the few foibles that come packaged with this really very fine amp, but the minute the music steps on the gas, you realise what this amp can do when it's going full throttle. What do you think of the Denon PMA-1500R MkII? Have you got any Denon kit already? Tell us about it in our forum.