Denon DRA-N5 CEOL Piccolo network receiver

Denon DRA-N5 CEOL Piccolo network receiver

A very diminutive, modern, minimal exterior design network streaming audio system, the new Denon Ceol DRAN5 is available in either gloss black or gloss white finish to fit in with modern style living, including those customers who don't use traditional music sources, but use a laptop, smart phones and tablets for example, or music streaming such as Airplay.

Probably the best feature though is it's ability to stream music files from your computer or NAS drive either via Ethernet connection or with the built in wireless antenna.Connecting a new device to your home network can sometimes be time consuming, but with WPS (wifi protected setup) nothing could be more simple. The rear panel has a red button marked WPS - first press the WPS button on your router, then press the WPS button on the CEOL - the CEOL will then automatically connect to the network. For flawless media streaming, Wireless Multimedia (WMM) is supported via a wireless access point - with WMM audio data is prioritised over other data, so that there are no random audio dropouts.

Support for on-demand music sources such as last.fm and Spotify are supported too, adding immensely to your options when listening to music. Spotify can be accessed directly from the CEOL Piccolo, with no need for smartphone or tablet.With over 15 million songs on the Spotify database, you can always find great music options just a click away. Multiple Spotify accounts allow each family member to pull up their own personal Spotify playlists - you do need a premium Spotify account to take advantage of all these features, but at £10 per month it is affordable.

Sixty-five watts per channel amplifier power into 4 ohm speakers is more than ample to fill even a large family room with high quality stereo sound. The high sound quality has been achieved by the following 4 factors:-

• full digital signal processing - the entire signal path from signal source to output stage is fully digital so there is no quality loss due to unnecessary signal conversions
• improved bass reproduction - a Denon custom designed low pass filter at the output stage feeds more bass than previously to the speaker system, giving a deeper, richer sound quality
• high power output - 2 x 65W is a significant power output from a compact system such as CEOL, and can even drive large speakers with ease - again high quality speaker binding posts are fitted, and a subwoofer pre-amp output allows an active bass speaker to be added for even more bass if required
• matching speakers available - SC-N5 speakers are designed with a 10cm bass woofer and a 25mm dome tweeter with high quality MDF cabinet and speaker terminals

Streaming from Apple devices using Airplay, Android devices via DLNA, Windows PC using DLNA, NAS using DLNA and internet radio are all possible with with DRAN5. Airplay is now built into the CEOL Piccolo as a standard feature - no upgrade is required after purchase. New streaming file formats have been added including Apple Lossless (.m4a files), and WAV and FLAC with 24 bit resolution at 192kHz sampling frequency, giving a more high quality sound than ever before, sounding more like SACD than CD quality.

In addition, when streaming music files from a computer or NAS drive, gapless playback is possible (playing muic tracks with no gap between them). This is particularly relevant to live music recordings, where the gaps between tracks creates an interruption of the concert. The CEOL DRA-N5 now allows gapless audio playback for enhanced enjoyment of these types of recordings.

Internet radio access gives a wealth of free, high quality music from around the planet - want to hear what they are listening to in Venice right now, no problem! 

iPod and iPhone users can control the Ceol Piccolo via a free Denon App which is a great convenience feature, and if your iDevice is getting low on fuel just dock it on the top of the Piccolo for a battery top-up. Airplay connection to play music directly from your iPhone makes the Ceol everyone's favorite tech at a party or get together.

Of course, you are going to need a detailed display when selecting music from the Ceol, and it does not disappoint - a clear, bright 3 line OLED indicator display allows scrolling text and plenty of space for Artist, Album and Track information, so getting your favorite music started is a pleasure with the DRA-N5.

If you misplace the nifty remote control, don't worry too much - there are essential controls on the top panel of the CEOL Piccolo, so you'll find a power on/ standby button, volume up and down, plus a 5 way up down left right selector to aid choosing your music and playing or pausing it.

On the rear panel you will be pleased to find sturdy 4mm binding posts to connect up your speakers - a decent upgrade would be to go for some QED silver micro speaker cable to give a definite uplift in sound quality over the standard copper wire normally used. A pair of phono inputs allows a CD player, DVD player or any other stereo source with analogue audio outs to be hooked up, or you can use the toslink optical input to route your TV sound through the Denon - a great way to improve your TV sound. A front mounted USB port allows the direct playing of WMA or MP3 files from a USB stick or hard drive.

The rear panel is also designed with a small overhang, which helps to hide the interconnecting audio cables from view.