Denon DHT-S517 Review: Affordable Atmos

Value When Reviewed

$449

Greatest Costs As we speak: Denon DHT-S517

$426.55

$449.98

The Denon DHT-S517 is a soundbar and subwoofer combo that gained’t break the financial institution. It has quite a few methods of connecting to your telly and is straightforward to make use of – even in case you’re not probably the most tech-savvy. Plus, it comes with help for Dolby Atmos, bringing you a spatial audio expertise.  

Nevertheless, it is a crowded market, with rivals additionally providing reasonably priced dwelling leisure sound methods. Can Denon’s soundbar outpace them? 

Design & construct 

• Light-weight and compact
• Handbook button controls on high 
• Accompanying distant for energy, quantity, and EQ modes 

The Denon DHT-S517 shares a really related construct to its extra reasonably priced sibling, the Denon DHT-S416, in that the general end is simple. 

The rear is constructed from black matt plastic, while the entrance has a gray cloth cowl to maintain the whole lot wanting neat, with the Denon emblem within the centre. There are LED lights on the entrance to point your quantity and bass ranges. These additionally flash completely different colors to allow you to how the soundbar is connecting and when Atmos is enabled.

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

In the event you’ve acquired a TV on the smaller aspect, then the excellent news is that the Denon DHT-S517 gained’t dwarf it. It’s fairly compact, although simply over a metre lengthy, and weighs 2.5kg, so is mild sufficient for wall mounting, do you have to need to. On the highest there are buttons for the ability, quantity, Bluetooth connection, and enter supply.  

The subwoofer connects to the soundbar wirelessly, although it would nonetheless must be plugged in for energy. This shares the identical light-weight and inconspicuous design.

The Denon DHT-S517 comes with an accompanying distant, which you need to use to regulate the ability, connection sort, quantity, bass, and EQ modes. While the whole lot is clearly labelled, the distant is on the flimsy slide and will do with extra pronounced and brightly colored buttons for customers with accessibility wants.

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

Connectivity & setup 

• eARC and optical connections 
• Bluetooth 5.0 
• No actual good options

Organising the Denon DHT-S517 is a breeze – as soon as the whole lot is related it just about simply works.

The rear of the soundbar options one HDMI ARC (audio return channel) enter, an optical cable port, one further HDMI port, an influence port, and a USB-C slot for manufacturing unit updates.

You’ll need to use that eARC connection to your TV if you would like the advantages of Dolby Atmos, or if you wish to management the audio system’ quantity utilizing your TV distant.

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

In the event you’re watching through a media participant, then you definitely also needs to be certain that this helps Dolby Atmos, and that the content material you’re watching is optimised for it. The previous it is best to be capable of discover on-line, and the latter must be displayed within the digital library it’s in, in case you’re streaming.  

You’ll know when the Denon DHT-S517 is outputting Dolby Atmos, as a result of the sunshine will flip aqua. It additionally turns inexperienced when the sound output is Dolby Digital.  

While the soundbar helps wi-fi Bluetooth connectivity, it doesn’t have any help for Google Chromecast or AirPlay, so it could actually’t join with good dwelling audio system or be used to solid audio. It additionally doesn’t have Google Assistant or Alexa help, so voice management isn’t attainable.  

As well as, the Bluetooth connection solely helps the A2DP codec, with no LDAC or aptX help. For the very best sound high quality, it is best to go for a wired connection.  

Sound high quality 

• Spectacular Dolby Atmos help 
• Subwoofer suited to smaller areas
• Three EQ modes 

There isn’t a denying that the Denon DHT-S517 is a stable soundbar for the value.

The bar itself packs a powerful seven drivers, with a devoted central channel, a mid-range driver and a tweeter at every finish, and a pair of up-firing audio system that energy the Atmos results. That’s all mixed with the included subwoofer, which handles the low finish.

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

The Dolby Atmos encompass sound help works effectively. Streaming Avengers: Infinity Battle over Disney+, the sounds of gun pictures and sci-fi equipment sounded as in the event that they had been reverberating across the room, enhancing the expertise in comparison with the Atmos-less Spider-Man: Far From Dwelling.

That’s to not say that the sound suffers an excessive amount of with out Atmos although, whether or not it’s the likes of Spider-Man or the wealthy music of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Dialogue is evenly balanced with music and sound results, with fantastic particulars current the place they wouldn’t be in your built-in TV audio system. 

The speaker is unquestionably best-suited for a TV, although, and fewer spectacular as a music participant. While pop and rock songs sound effectively balanced and spectacular, excessive notes in some genres had been a battle to listen to, with the flute in Emmelie de Forest’s ‘Teardrops’ and the strings in Sebastian Bohm’s remix of ‘Blue Monday’ each getting misplaced within the combine. 

I additionally haven’t been blown away by the bass. The 2 audio system are most likely proper for my London flat with close-proximity neighbours, besides I tended to have the bass turned all the way in which as much as excessive to get sufficient of it.  

In the event you’re in search of room-shaking rumbling along with your motion pictures and music and have a bigger area to fill then it is best to contemplate stepping as much as a bigger and extra highly effective soundbar and subwoofer combo. 

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

There are devoted EQ modes for motion pictures and music, in addition to an evening mode which mechanically turns the bass and quantity right down to socially acceptable ranges, and a ‘pure’ mode for comparatively unaltered audio.

There are additionally three ranges of ‘dialogue enhancement’ accessible, which primarily controls the mids, and could possibly be helpful in case you battle to choose dialog out from the background noise in movies and TV. I discovered enabling this made voices sound a little bit too sharp and grating – the soundbar is evident sufficient with out it.  

Value & availability 

The Denon DHT-S517 soundbar has an official worth of $449/£379, however on the time of writing many retailers are promoting it for rather a lot lower than this. You’ll be able to at the moment purchase it from Denon within the US, and Denon, Amazon and Currys within the UK. 

That discounted worth makes it a really compelling possibility for a soundbar with Dolby Atmos. Nevertheless, it’s not as low-cost because the Inventive Stage 360 which additionally gives Atmos and a compact construct. For an additional spatial sound possibility, you might additionally contemplate the Polk MagniFi 2 – although it is a a lot larger gadget.  

Yow will discover additional choices in our chart of the very best soundbars. We even have an analogous roundup for the very best TVs if you wish to full your private home leisure set-up.   

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

Verdict 

In the event you’re after the Dolby Atmos expertise with out breaking the financial institution, then the Denon DHT-S517 soundbar is a wonderful alternative – notably in case you’re trying to improve your film and gaming experiences.  

It’s not fairly excellent – the bass isn’t probably the most highly effective you probably have a big room to fill with out cracking up the amount excessive, and it lacks good options akin to Chromecast and Alexa help. Nonetheless, that is an easy-to-use soundbar that yields spectacular audio for a stable worth.  

Specs

• Two 1in tweeters, two 4.7in mid-range drivers, 1in full-range driver, two 2.5in up-firing drivers and one 5.9in bass driver (subwoofer)
• Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS decoding
• HDMI In/Out with ARC (Help 4K with HCDP 2.2, Dolby Imaginative and prescient & HDR10)
• Aux-in
• Optical-in
• Bluetooth
• USB port (servicing solely)
• Bluetooth help
• Music, Film, Night time, Pure and Dialog Enhancer EQ modes
• Soundbar: 1050 x 60 x 95mm, 2.5kg
• Subwoofer: 172 x 370 x 290mm, 4.3kg