Denon S-301 Mini Review

[Korum]

There seems to be a lot of people asking about this system on here and there aren't many reviews on it so I thought I'd share my thoughts on the system.

I paid £880 for the system from Peter Tyson's and was very nervous as I have a pioneer NV99 5.1 system and was hoping it would sound significantly better than this since there was a £500 price difference, anyway I received the system yesterday and it turned up in a huge box which was very heavy (which is always a good sign)

Everything was packaged to a high standard and upon opening all the components I have to say Denon has built everything to a very high standard.

The actually Carrier unit is attractive with a stainless front panel and plastic case, the buttons and connections at the back are substantial and logical in their layout.

The speakers have a nice weighty feel, have aluminium grilles and a plastic case, the connections for the speakers are foolproof as it doesn't even matter which way the speaker cable +/- connector is fitted as it's a moulded unit.I personally love the look of the speakers but some people may find them slightly unattractive.Nice little brushed stainless steel stands are also included.

The subwoofer is really heavy but understated with quite a small footprint.

The remote is very nice with easy to reach buttons and a good layout, all the more complicated settings are behind a door on the back of the remote. The first thing I thought was the Kids would rip it off quite easily though.

There is no disc eject button on the remote which is a bit strange but obviously you have to get up to change discs anyway and the power on/off button is rather strange as it's recessed and hard to press.(To stop you accidentally turning the system off I suppose)

There is a quick setup guide which is a bit too simplistic if you are wanting to connect it to anything other than a 4:3 TV with composite input. So you have to look at the manual which no word of a lie is about as thick as a telephone directory whilst still managing to be a bit confusing.

To get it setup you basically plug both speakers into the sub, attach a system cable from sub to carrier unit not forgetting to connect a HDMI lead to your display (which isn't included, a bit tight there Denon considering the cost of the system) You then only have to attach a power cable to the sub and everything works from that.

So once I'd realised the 16:9 and HDMI settings are little switches on the back of the carrier unit I was away.The first thing I did was turn the system on and admire the blue lighting on the buttons and display, it really looks nice turned on and the blue gradually fades after pressing any of the front buttons which is a classy touch.

The 301 has a frontend which is accessed by pressing the 'help' button on the remote, this allows you to visual interface to select all the different functions that the system does. The first thing I did was launch my ipod with the included cable and when it loads a display appeared on screen with all my ipod music, it even plays protected AAC from the itunes store.The front display also shows the track title scolling across.So i played a track hoping that it would sound impressive and I wasn't disappointed, all the tracks I played sounded amazing, so i tried a CD-R and that too sounded brilliant, the 301 can sure handle Audio convincingly.The only downside is the Denon ipod screen/frontend is bland , they could have done a much better job of jazzing it up.Also the Denon screen is slow to use compared to the actual ipod but it's as fast as a remote control could do it i suppose.

Next up I tried the DVD side of things to test the DD Virtual surround, after adjusting a few settings to do with HDMI and black levels i spun my Starship Troopers DVD and all I can say is WOW!! The upscaled image is excellent and the Virtual surround really does work as long as you are in the sweet spot, the front soundstage is awesome it's impossible to tell that there's no centre speaker. The Digital sounds is dynamic,clear and full of detail.The bass shakes the room even at a modest volume.

I decided to annoy the neighbours and turn it up and the sound remains stable at very high volumes,way higher than you could possibly listen at. I stared hearing surround effects I'd never heard on my old Pioneer 5.1 system.The downside with the Virtual surrond is that if the volume isn't cranked up it's hard to hear any rear effects but that's a small sacrifice to make if you want a 2.1 system.

Next I plugged all my other kit in, PS3/360 into the optical input with a splitter, SKY HD into a coaxial input using a optical/coaxial convertor and my Wii into one of the sets of phono's, everything worked and all sounded equally as impressive as the DVD playback, Prologic II sounding very nice.I only wish Denon had included 2 opticals and only 1 coaxial input but some of these all-in-one systems don't have any.I also wish it had HDMI inputs as now I'm one down on my plasma and have to swap the 301 and PS3 around.

So overall I'd recommend this sytem to anyone, it truly is an amazing bit of kit. The sound way exceeds my what my expectations were and the upscaled DVD image is getting near HD quality and it looks more expensive than I had imagined it would. It may appear pricey and lack a few features that it really should have had but it's worth every penny IMO.

[interbear]

Thanks for the review, very positive. Can I ask what else you considered and why you ended up choosing the Denon. The 301 was/is on my shortlist alongside a Harman Kardon HS200 2.1 system and a new Panasonic SC-PTX7

[LMD]

Thanks for taking the time to write this review, much appreciated.

Now is someone could just do a HS200/S-301 comparisson I'd be a happy bunny

[interbear]

Originally Posted by LMD

Thanks for taking the time to write this review, much appreciated.

Now is someone could just do a HS200/S-301 comparisson I'd be a happy bunny

I did read (using babelfish translation) plenty of user comments of people in Netherlands and Germany who had compared the HS200 with the S301 and Bose 321 via in-store demos. The majority commented that the HS200 blew the Bose away in sound quality terms, and was on a par with the S301.

Hence why the HS200 is still top of my shortlist. I just need to decide whether or not to buy now or wait a bit longer. Reading these forums is great but I keep learning more and delaying my purchase!

[LMD]

Originally Posted by interbear

I did read (using babelfish translation) plenty of user comments of people in Netherlands and Germany who had compared the HS200 with the S301 and Bose 321 via in-store demos. The majority commented that the HS200 blew the Bose away in sound quality terms, and was on a par with the S301.

Hence why the HS200 is still top of my shortlist. I just need to decide whether or not to buy now or wait a bit longer. Reading these forums is great but I keep learning more and delaying my purchase!

That's good to hear - not surprised about the sound quality, the main concern for me is whether the picture quality of the HS200 is on a par with the S301.

I know the HS200 uscales to 720p and 1080i via HDMI but what I haven't been able to confirm is whether the HS200 uses Faroudja DCDi processing as per the S301.

[interbear]

Originally Posted by LMD

That's good to hear - not surprised about the sound quality, the main concern for me is whether the picture quality of the HS200 is on a par with the S301.

I know the HS200 uscales to 720p and 1080i via HDMI but what I haven't been able to confirm is whether the HS200 uses Faroudja DCDi processing as per the S301.

Did you find out? I saw that some of the other HK kit uses Faroudja, not sure about the HS200 though.

[LMD]

Originally Posted by interbear

Did you find out? I saw that some of the other HK kit uses Faroudja, not sure about the HS200 though.

I couldn't find out and the official site doesn't give too much away - I'm sure I've seen it mentioned elsewhere but there is no mention in the users manual I downloaded.