Reliable sources
Using AirPlay was seamless and easy, and it effortlessly integrated into iTunes without any fuss – as soon as the Ceol logs on to your network, it automatically links with iTunes on your computer and your iPhone. There was however the occasional glitch when the music would stutter for a split second. This may be unique to the test model I tried, but it’s something to look out for.
An iPod dock is included if AirPlay's £39 upgrade tariff chafes a bit
Verdict
Overall, the Denon Ceol is a very capable hi-fi quality system. While you don't need to have any Apple devices to take advantage of its music networking capabilities, the addition of AirPlay (albeit for a premium) makes it super-easy to take advantage of your computer-based music collection whether on you Mac or PC or directly from your iOS device. ®
More Audio Gear Reviews… |
|||
 Group Test
Surround Sound Amplifiers |
 Arcam
Solo Neo |
 Onkyo
CS-545 |
 Ixos
Divo |
Denon Ceol with Apple AirPlay
COMMENTS
Gaelic Keyholes indeed...
In Irish*, the word "ceol" has a single syllablle. "Ceo" is pronounced like the first syllable of "Kyoto" and the L is sounded as would be normal in English. Rhymes with "mole".
*never "Irish Gaelic". Ever.
Nice device though. Denon make very good small Hi-Fis. If I was looking, and there was one without the Apple nonsense, it would be on my list.
Gaelic
Of course, Ceòl also Scottish Gaelic* for 'music'... yet people forget such a language exists and is spoken.
*Yes, I agree with above post, Irish = Irish, but Scots Gaelic is "Gaelic"
I'm not a linguistics expert
I suppose calling the English language "English Modern Frisian-Latin" would be a bit cumbersome, hence "Irish" instead of "Irish Gaelic", but I think adding the Gaelic modifier adds a bit of clarity on an English-language site aimed at people who probably aren't familiar with the languages and dialects of the British Isles.
(it's all mostly Modern Indo-European anyway.)
Multi-room capabilities...
"You can play back through up to six sets of speakers simultaneously, though it won’t let you assign different tracks to different speaker sets at the same time, so it stops short of being a genuine Sonos-bothering multi-room system."
You can play different iP*d/PC/Mac sources through different Airport express-connected speakers, though, and use an iP*d as a remote control for the PC or Mac iTunes. I do this to 6 sets of speakers from 8 possible sources, all controlled from a single MacBook running Apple Remote Desktop.
All for MUCH less than a multi-room Sonos.
I upgraded last night
Firstly the system has been out since before christmas and Denon have been dragging their feet on the airplay upgrade. It was announced for the beginning of Jan ( not 1st feb ).
It will find any music server over the network and browse / stream from that. Thats what I had been doing before airplay with Nullrivers media server software.
Airplay is great, the system is as well. Very powerful, anything higher that 20% on the iTunes volume causes the speakers to be very loud ( its a loud system ). That can be a pain, remembering to turn the volume down. ( iTunes volume controls the Ceol onboard volume)
I bought this system for its airplay capability and it works really well and doesnt occasionally skip unlike using Nullrivers media server (which crashed a few times with some mp3s).
But it rocks.
BTW their iPhone app will crash constantly if trying to browse media servers but it works ok for everything else ( could be Nullriver again )
