The Mani offered an incredible amount of control. Preamp out to the Schiit Audio Loki, which can pass through, I used with and without, unplugging it. The setup… DP-400 to Schiit Audio Mani preamp via Mogami interconnects. The Denon DL-160 sounded just as I expected, incredible. I’ll make this quick, the Ortofon stunk, like a $30 cartridge, leave it at that. I removed the cartridge that came with the TT and put it away. The Ortofon came with the TT for $29 extra, so I bit. I have two cartridges, the Ortofon 2M Red and the Denon DL-160. Protractor and stylus scale, I had her dialed in, and did the same with both cartridges as I figured out which one will stay put on the tonearm. Setup was pretty straight forward, I also like the fact that you can use head shells from other cartridge manufacturers, that was a huge plus.
I like to use my own cables and wanted to be able to ground the TT. It also has RCA outputs, I can use the cables of my choice, along with a ground stud, the other reason I bought.
The DP-400 is semi-auto, as stated above, one of the reasons I bought it.
The DP-300 is full auto, returns the tone arm and turns off the TT. I also own the Denon DP-300, so I have something to compare it too. It is semi-auto, in that the tone arm raises up at the end of the album and turns off the TT, it has no return on it. I own the DP-400, for the money, it is what it is, nothing fancy here. Reply Mike in Michigan 7th March 2019 at 5:20 pm The built-in phono stage can be bypassed, allowing the turntable to be used with external models. The “newly engineered” S-shaped tonearm is fitted with a moving magnet cartridge (looking like an Audio-Technica AT3600 with, if so, a spherical stylus). Such gearing all adds noise to the turntable and lowers sonic quality. If this is the case then this compromise will improve sound a touch because the gearing for tonearm return will not need to be included. From what I can see, the arm is not returned to its cradle, though. That is, when the stylus reaches the end of a vinyl side, playback stops and the tonearm lifts. Speed is reportedly controlled via an integrated sensor with a pseudo-semi-automatic action. The company makes a play about the 41cm width of the plinth which, it says, will, “…save space and match with the Denon Design Series.” The Denon DP-400 is built on a “heavy, well-damped” plinth. Both turntables feature a built-in phono amplifier while the DP-450USB adds automatic analogue-to-digital conversion to enable fast ‘ripping’ of vinyl Denon has announced the release of two new, 3-speed, belt-driven, semi-automatic (well, kinda) lifestyle turntables, the DP-400 and DP-450USB.