Denon DP300F Review – A Fully Automatic Turntable

Denon—now, that’s a name you’re most likely familiar with if you’ve done some research on turntables.  Not only has the company been producing tons of turntables over the years, but they have also produced some of the best ones on the market. After all, one of Denon’s turntables even got featured in our best turntables under $1000 list. In this Denon DP300F review, we take a look at one of the more popular Denon project turntables.

The Denon DP-300F turntable certainly doesn’t lack on quality either since its manufacturers had some client-friendly goals with this one. Besides from treating you wallet nicely by being affordable, the Denon DP-300F is a turntable with some nice features to offer. In order to help you learn more about it, I will elaborate on the turntable’s specifications in the following text.

Pros

• It’s a fully automatic turntable
• Good sound-quality for this price range
• Very well damped
• The setup is easy to do

Cons

• There’s not a USB outlet for connecting your turntable to a computer

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Design

Denon DP-300F is a cool-looking turntable. Yes, this turntable definitely has a cool vibe about it. When you open up the pre-attached dust cover, the turntable’s nice plinth and its components will appear right in front of you.

What you’ll see will be a slim design, gloss plinth with a platter and a shiny tone arm sitting on it. The unique tonearm design itself will most likely remind you of some high-tech device since it has many components that come with it.

Furthermore, the platter also gives the turntable a cool look with its shiny surface, and the turntable’s round feet make sure the cool look has a hint of cuteness to it. This is what the buttons on the Denon DP300F do too—they make the turntable’s coolness a bit mellower with their round, shiny surfaces.

If it were up to me, I’d have given this turntable the name ‘Denon Hard Rock’ because its cool look reminds me of the coolness that the hard rock bands have. Also, that name could’ve perfectly described the Denon DP-300F’s great build quality since the turntable is robust and really solid. But this turntable already has a great name, and it not only looks interesting—it also has some very interesting features.

Features

As I already mentioned in this Denon DP300F review, this turntable comes with a lot of interesting features for a budget turntable. These DP300F features are meant to primarily make the turntable easy to use. For instance, this is the reason behind the DP-300F fully automatic design.

A fully automatic design means that you can get the turntable’s tonearm from its resting position to the deck by pressing the start button on the plinth. Of course, since the Denon DP300F is fully automatic, this also means that once the record stops playing, the tonearm will return to the armrest without you manually moving it.

Because Denon takes care of their customers, the automatic movement of the tonearm will always be done carefully and precisely to avoid any damage to your needle or the record.

Denon DP-300F being fully automatic is already good news. However, there’s more to this turntable’s tonearm than that. That being said, the tone arm has a removable headshell which makes the cartridge upgrade a piece of cake.

Let’s get into details

I already mentioned that the platter on this turntable looks really nice. And, of course, it wouldn’t have been a great-quality platter if it wasn’t for its vibration resistance properties. However, what’s interesting about the Denon DP-300F platter is that it is uses hologram vibration analysis. Now, aren’t those some fancy words! What this basically means is that the platter will be able to regulate the position of the record players and make it stay on it while the record spins.

The next feature we will discuss in this Denon DP300F review is its cartridge. The company has decided to use the DSN-85 cartridge model for the DP-300F. Some people might argue that this cartridge model is not the ideal one to use on this turntable. The argument behind that is that there are many other better cartridges that could’ve easily replaced the DSN-85 on the DP-300F. However, I think that this turntable does just great with this cartridge model attached to its tone arm.

I think the sounds this turntable produces are great and rich in detail. Let’s not forget that this is a budget turntable, after all, and that even though that’s the case, having a detailed sound come out of it is more than expected. The cartridge might not be the best there is, but it does deliver greatly. And if you think you would want even more detail to your sound you can always upgrade it.

Other than these features, the Denon DP300F has a heavier base construction which eliminates vibration. It also has a built-in phono equalizer, it is belt-driven with a DC servo motor, and offers the two standard speeds of 33 1/3 and 45 RPM.

Performance

Denon DP-300F was designed to perform neatly and with precision for its users. Everything on this turntable was manufactured to decrease resonance and eliminate its transmission from one part to another. Also, each audio components was made with a great build quality so that it can function well as a separate part and together with the rest of the parts on the turntable.

Of course, the great build quality of the parts is combined with their awesome performance quality. This is why you will hear a crisp, warm sound every time you put on a record on the DP-300F. I think that you will like the way it sounds. Again, it’s a budget turntable, but it does sound great. You will perfectly hear the high, the middle, and the low notes in a melody sound genuinely and with a balance between the intensity and warmness of sound.

Wrapping up our Denon DP300F review

Budget turntables tend to be more attractive if they offer something that makes them stand out from the other competitors in their price range. In my opinion, Denon DP300F has all the predispositions of being an attractive budget turntable. Its design is nice, the features are great, and the turntable performs very well too. So, if you think that this is the turntable that has ‘that special something’ take your time, think things through, and explore the option of buying it.