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The Denon DR-M650S hit the market at the time of the audio cassette’s decline in 1996. It was the best deck on offer in the manufacturer’s catalog, but it was far from a DR-M44 or 33 … or earlier models.

It’s a two-headed deck.

However, the price was much lower, only about 260 EUR, and keep in mind that this is a deck with Dolby S noise reduction system. The British press review was very well.

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Marantz produced an identical model – SD57, in champagne color. Denon was mostly black. I don’t have exact data, but in terms of construction and technology, I’m sure that both were made in Denon and not Marantz.

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The Denon DR-M650S is a classic example of industrial design, with almost no imagination: a completely normal layout – transport to the left, transport buttons to it, additional functions to the right and a large rotary knob for the recording level. However, from the ergonomic point of view, there is nothing to complain about: everything is where it should be, well-designed, boring, but again practical. It’s as if some experienced deck designer said “You don’t have enough decks? Do you want one, do you really want it? Here it is …”.

The options are equally modest but the ones here are well chosen: Denon has neither a motorized door opener nor a light inside the cassette (pity), can skip forward or backward only one song, there is no additional search function such as blank search or intro skip, and nor is his counter in real time but ordinary numerically.

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But there’s Dolby S, autocalibration, additional manual bias adjustment if needed, the Rec Return option if you want to repeat the recording, as well as headphone output control, and a remote control sensor is also present. That’s about it. For someone who also cares about filming, that’s enough.

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The display of Denon, as well as many others at the time, was small, but readable up close. He is not imaginative either, he is completely in line with the somewhat ascetic design of the rest of the device: only a couple of markers are present – for transport status, self-calibration, etc., he doesn’t even write the type of tape in the blanket. The peaks are retained and have a solid resolution of about 0 dB – ranging from -3 and -1 dB to one side and the same to the other.

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Let’s not forget: the front panel is made of metal, 1 mm aluminum over plastic, and the top cover is metal. The rest of the case is plastic. Although it looks disgusting to me, the anti-vibration properties of plastic do not have to be bad. Protection against electromagnetic influences is something else.

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The mechanics of the Denon DR-M650S are completely in line with the one that was built into the decks at that price in the mid-90s, in other words, simple and miserable, as the Japanese ALPS punched millions. Pressed sheet metal, Two engines though, one modest flywheel and belt drive. The lifting of the heads is by means of an electromagnetic actuator and a curve. It is good that the main engine does not work constantly and thus saves both itself and the flywheel bearing.

Take my disgust with this transport with a grain of salt: knowing how nice it used to be, in the seventies or eighties, the mentioned mechanics in Denon are, in my opinion, far below the level of electronics. However, if you use quality cassettes (I don’t mean expensive, Maxell UR, Sony HF or some of the EMTEC cassettes are quite enough) that are not killed by use, the transport will work within specifications – a slightly higher degree of howling and shaking, may not lie to violin lovers and piano, but does the job. Unfortunately, that’s the way it is.

I won’t talk much about electronics: Denon used the so-called Dual Power Supply, which meant that one branch of the power supply was made for logic and mechanism, while the other was for audio circuits and it all goes to the secondary windings of the transformer. It’s nice that this is also built into the 650C. Dolby S cars are located on a special vertical card, and a special separate cover plate for the blanket, including transport drivers.

Autocalibration is done very quickly, of course this is a double-headed deck and you have to wait for it to rewind the tape and listen to the recording. Test tones that are recorded simultaneously are 400 Hz (left channel) and 12.5 kHz (right) and the microcontroller adjusts the sensitivity of the blanket and bias based on them. Manual bias control exists, but I had no need to use it.

Sound

For one cheap deck the 650S sounds solid to very good. On the plus side, there’s a much larger amount of detail on the mid and high range than I expected, and the HX Pro does a great job as well. The tones themselves are nicely edged and have a solid dose of microdetails, and the whole picture is bright and clean, with a surprising dose of natural reproduction – so this is not one of those blankets you buy so you think the sound is tailored to your liking – 650C everything works fairly.

With Dolby S the deck sounds very correct, and I did not notice any negative consequences of using the compactor system for noise reduction.

What I am is a bit of a ballistic bass that could have a better definition and detail that would fit more with its power that it definitely has. Not noticeable on every type of music. I would also like you to be taller

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Denon DR-M650S se našao na tržištu u doba zalaska audio kasete, 1996. godine. U katalogu proizvođača bio je najbolji dek u ponudi, ali daleko je to bilo od jednog DR-M44 ili 33… ili ranijih modela.

Radi se o dvoglavom deku.

Doduše i cena je bila daleko niža, svega oko 260 EUR, a imajte u vidu da je ovo dek sa Dolby S sistemom redukcije šuma. Britanska štampa ga je odlično ocenila.

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Marantz je proizvodio identičan model – SD57, u šampanj boji. Denon je uglavnom bio crn. Nemam tačnih podataka ali po izradi i tehnologiji siguran sam da su oba napravljena u Denon-u a ne Marantz-u.

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Denon DR-M650S je klasičan primer industrijskog dizajna, bez skoro i malo mašte: potpuno uobičajeni raspored – transport levo, transportna dugmad do njega, dodatne funkcije desno i veliko rotaciono dugme za nivo snimanja. Međutim, sa ergonomskog stanovišta nema se šta zameriti: sve je tu gde treba da bude, odlično osmišljeno, dosadno, ali  opet praktično. Kao da je neki iskusni dizajner dekova rekao “Nije vam dosta dekova? Hoćete jedan, baš hoćete?? Evo vam ga…”.

Opcije su jednako skromne ali one koje su tu su dobro odabrane: Denon nema ni motorizovano otvaranje vrata niti osvetljenje unutrašnjosti kasete (šteta), može da preskoči unapred ili unazad samo jednu pesmu, nema nikakve dodatne funkcije pretraživanja tipa blank search ili intro skip, a ni brojač mu nije u realnom vremenu već običan numerički.

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No, tu je Dolby S, autokalibracija, dodatno ručno podešavanje biasa ako zatreba, opcija Rec Return ukoliko hoćete da ponovite snimak, kao i kontrola jačine izlaza za slušalice, a prisutan je i senzor za daljinski upravljač. To je otprilike sve. Za nekoga kome je bitno i snimanje, sasvim dovoljno.

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Displej je i kod Denona, kao i kod mnogih drugih u to vreme sitan, ali čitljiv iz blizine. Ni on nije maštovit, potpuno je u skladu sa donekle asketskim dizajnom ostatka uređaja: svega par markera su prisutni – za status transporta, autokalibraciju i slično, čak ne piše ni tip trake koja se nalazi u deku. Pikovi su sa zadržavanjem i solidne rezolicuje oko 0 dB – kreću se od -3 i -1 dB na jednu i isto toliko na drugu stranu.

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Da ne zaboravim: prednja ploča deka je metalna, 1 mm aluminijum preko plastike, a i gornji poklopac je metalan. Celi ostatak kućišta je plastika. Iako mi izgleda odvratno, antivibracione osobine plastike ne moraju biti loše. Zaštita od elektromagnetnih uticaja je nešto drugo.

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Mehanika Denon-a DR-M650S je potpuno u skladu sa onom koja se ugrađivala u dekove te cene sredinom 90-ih, drugim rečima jednostavna i bedna, kakvu je japanski ALPS štancovao na milione. Presovani lim, Dva motora doduše, jedan skromni zamajac i remenski pogon. Podizanje glava je pomoću elektromagnetnog aktuatora i krivuljara. Dobro je da glavni motor ne radi stalno i time štedi i sebe i ležaj zamajca.

Moje gađenje ovim transportom uzmite sa rezervom: znajući kako se nekada lepo radilo, sedamdesetih ili osamdesetih, pomenuta mehanika u Denon-u je, za moja shvatanja, daleko ispod nivoa elektronike. Međutim, ukoliko koristite kvalitetne kasete (ne mislim skupe, Maxell UR, Sony HF ili neka od EMTEC kaseta su sasvim dovoljne) koje nisu ubijene od korišćenja, transport će raditi u okviru specifikacija – malo viši stepen zavijanja i podrhtavanja, možda neće leći ljubiteljima violine i klavira, ali obavlja posao. Nažalost, tako je kako je.

O elektronici neću pričati puno: Denon je godinama na svojim dekovima koristio tzv. Dual Power Supply, što je značilo da je jedna grana napajanja pravljena za logiku i mehanizam, dok je druga za audio kola i to sve ide do sekundarnih namotaja transformatora. Lepo je da je ovo ugrađeno i u 650S. Dolby S kola se nalaze na posebnoj vertikalnoj kartici, a posebna je izdvojena i ploča za napajanje deka, uključujući i drajvere za transport.

Autokalibracija se obavlja veoma brzo, naravno ovo je dvoglavi dek i mora se sačekati da premota kasetu unazad i presluša snimak.  Test tonovi koji se istovremeno snimaju su 400 Hz (levi kanal) i 12.5 kHz (desni) i mikrokontroler na osnovu njih podešava osetljivost deka i bias. Ručna kontrola biasa postoji, ali nisam imao potrebe da je koristim.

Zvuk

Za jedan jevtin dek 650S zvuči solidno do vrlo dobro. Sa pozitivne strane tu je znatno veća količina detalja na srednjem i visokom opsegu od one koju sam očekivao, a i HX Pro odlično obavlja posao. Sami tonovi su lepo oivičeni i poseduju solidnu dozu mikrodetalja, a cela slika je svetla i čista, sa iznenađujućom dozom prirodne reprodukcije – ovo, dakle, nije jedan od onih dekova koje kupite pa vam se čini kako mu je zvuk krojen da se svidi – 650S sve radi pošteno.

Uz Dolby S dek zvuči veoma korektno, i nikakve negativne posledice korišćenja kompanderskog sistema za redukciju šuma nisam primetio.

Ono što jesam jeste pomalo loptasti bas koji bi mogao da ima bolju definiciju i detaljnost kakva bi više pristajala uz njegovu snagu koje definitivno ima. Ne primećuje se na svakom tipu muzike. Takođe bih želeo viši stepen dinamike, nije to strašno, ali voleo bih bolje.

Sve u svemu, kako već rekoh, solidno do vrlo dobro – iznenađuje na nekim područjuma, dok u drugim otkriva svoje sirotinjsko poreklo ali ne mnogo. Uglavnom, Denon ne laže u zvuku, što mi se dopalo.

Zaključak

Denon praktično nikada nije pravio dekove da impresionira – od plastičnih kućišta i štednje gde god se moglo do dobro odmerenih, često skromnih opcija. I, da znate, ponekada ni to nije loše.

Imajući u vidu novac koliko je 650S koštao, nudi sve što treba jednom korisniku, uključujući autokalibraciju, a posebna stavka je Dolby S koji nije tu samo radi reklame. Zvučno… nećete pasti u nesvest kako svira, ali za taj novac govorimo o submaksimumu koji se mogao dostići. Održavanje ovakvog deka je jednostavno i, generalno gledajući, predstavlja dobro rešenje za nekoga ko ima kolekciju kaseta i želi još da snima za sitan novac. Dobiće sasvim upotrebljivu mašinu.

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