Denon DHT-S517 review

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

Nonetheless, this can be a crowded market, with rivals additionally providing inexpensive house leisure sound techniques. 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 comparable construct to its extra inexpensive sibling, the Denon DHT-S416, in that the general end is simple. 

The rear is created from black matt plastic, while the entrance has a gray material cowl to maintain every part trying neat, with the Denon brand 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.

If you happen to’ve acquired a TV on the smaller aspect, then the excellent news is that the Denon DHT-S517 received’t dwarf it. It’s moderately compact, although simply over a metre lengthy, and weighs 2.5kg, so is gentle 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 is going to nonetheless should 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 manage the ability, connection sort, quantity, bass, and EQ modes. While every part 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

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Connectivity & setup 

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

Organising the Denon DHT-S517 is a breeze – as soon as every part 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 additional HDMI port, an influence port, and a USB-C slot for manufacturing facility updates.

You’ll need to use that eARC connection on 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.

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If you happen to’re watching by way of a media participant, then you definately must also 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 ought to be displayed within the digital library it’s in, if you happen to’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 assist for Google Chromecast or AirPlay, so it will possibly’t join with sensible house audio system or be used to forged audio. It additionally doesn’t have Google Assistant or Alexa assist, so voice management isn’t potential.  

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

Sound high quality 

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

There is no such thing as a denying that the Denon DHT-S517 is a stable soundbar for the worth.

The bar itself packs a formidable 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 assist works nicely. Streaming Avengers: Infinity Battle over Disney+, the sounds of gun photographs and sci-fi equipment sounded as in the event that they have been reverberating across the room, enhancing the expertise in comparison with the Atmos-less Spider-Man: Far From House.

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 nice particulars current the place they wouldn’t be in your built-in TV audio system. 

The speaker is certainly best-suited for a TV, although, and fewer spectacular as a music participant. While pop and rock songs sound nicely balanced and spectacular, excessive notes in some genres have been a wrestle 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 best way as much as excessive to get sufficient of it.  

If you happen to’re in search of room-shaking rumbling along with your motion pictures and music and have a bigger house 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 routinely 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 basically controls the mids, and might be helpful if you happen to wrestle to select dialog out from the background noise in movies and TV. I discovered enabling this made voices sound a bit of too sharp and grating – the soundbar is obvious sufficient with out it.  

Worth & 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 quite a bit 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 choice for a soundbar with Dolby Atmos. Nonetheless, it’s not as low-cost because the Inventive Stage 360 which additionally presents Atmos and a compact construct. For one more spatial sound choice, you might additionally contemplate the Polk MagniFi 2 – although this can be a a lot greater gadget.  

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

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

Verdict 

If you happen to’re after the Dolby Atmos expertise with out breaking the financial institution, then the Denon DHT-S517 soundbar is a superb selection – significantly if you happen to’re trying to improve your film and gaming experiences.  

It’s not fairly good – the bass isn’t probably the most highly effective if in case you have a big room to fill with out cracking up the quantity excessive, and it lacks sensible options comparable to Chromecast and Alexa assist. 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 assist
• 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