Denon PMA3000NE

Listening

Listening, conducted with Indiana Line’s Lira 6s and a pair of Vivid KayaS12s, begins with orchestral material. The PMA-3000NE handles dynamics with confidence, and the stability of the power section can be felt at the moments when the orchestra suddenly demands the maximum: there is no sense of compression, no hardening of the sound in the fortissimo. The midrange has a very convincing tonal density, and the strings in particular return a fullness that many class AB amplifiers in this range do not always provide. The bass is controlled and well-defined, without that tendency to bloat that sometimes accompanies amplifiers designed with an emphasis on numerical power. What is most striking is the behavior at low volumes. Many amplifiers, even valuable ones, lose resolution and coherence as soon as the level drops below a certain threshold: the soundstage falls flat, details are lost in the noise floor, and what remains is an opaque reproduction of what the music might be. The PMA-3000NE does not fall into this error. With the volume knob in the very first few degrees of useful travel, resolution remains surprisingly intact: sound planes remain distinct, mixing details continue to be perceptible, and music retains a three-dimensionality that in other contexts requires far more generous sound pressure levels. It is probably the most distinctive quality of this amplifier, the one that more than any other justifies the choice of a high-level potentiometer, and which in everyday practice-evening listening, low volumes out of respect for the neighborhood or simply by choice-makes the difference between a component that you “put up with” and one that you want to be with.

The remote control is the usual one that comes with all Denon amplifiers and also drives CD players

Turning to jazz material, the piano trio returns a well-defined and coherent scene, with the bass occupying its own space without prevarication and the cymbal living in a clearly perceptible acoustic plane. With rock and electronic music, the behavior is equally satisfactory on the analog amplification side: transients are precise, dynamics are real, and there is no feeling of fatigue in extended sessions. Same when listening to digital sources through the internal DAC. The ESS quartet is still able serenely to hold its own with current configurations; the sound is warm, smooth, in line with the amplifier’s timbral setting, and only by connecting a much higher-end product, such as our Aqua La Scala, can a substantial difference be felt, but we are also talking about two totally different levels. So the PMA-3000NE is a fully convincing amplifier-amplification, phono stage, and volume control quality-and it is a very attractive proposition for this price.

In short, really a nice product! Congratulations Denon.

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