Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I bought this to replace an aging sound system in the bedroom. Denon S301 is ideal. It is small and compact, yet is has bass.
The strongest point of this system is that the sound is very clean and well-defined (do not know how to describe it better). It not not as good as a pile of separates and floor standing speakers, but it is the next best thing. It is way better than any shelf system I owned, including the $600 Sony system I had prior to this. I am comparing it to the shelf systems, because it is small, and that is what I bought it for. It has bass, and overall the sound is very clean.

Strengths:
Clear, well-defined sound.
Small size.
It has the built-in alarm, so you can wake up to it (although it can only be configured when the unit is connected to TV, and it does not allow you to skip weekends. It's either every day or none).
My other systems would produce various sounds when turned-on. Not DENON. This is one is absolutely silent.

This system allows to very and adjust the timing of the sub relative to the main speakers. This is a fantastic feature that has a profound effect on music. The sound system in my car lacks this, and I am suffering that every day...

It plays MP3/WAV songs from any USB attached device. This is neat feature that I find *very handy* (and sorely lacking in all other equipment that I own.) Beware though that if you have folders, you'll need to turn on the TV because that's the only way to navigate.

Weaknesses:
Video has problems: I had several disks freeze on me -- repeatedly -- at the very same spot. When played in another player, those disk had no problems.

Maybe it's just me -- I tried the various "theater" modes and surround sound effects, but found them very "weird" and obscuring. I never use them. It is set to "music/stereo" mode.

It has NO simple interface. Everything is buried deep in menus and requires oh! quite a lot of clicking on the remote covered with buttons on both sides. I hate that.
Even the simplest things like adding bass or trebble requires delving into the menus.

It would wake up only to DVD or CD. It would not wake-up to an MP3 song on the USB storage, or IPOD or an AUXILIARY input (say CABLE/TV). Very annoying.

Similar Products Used:
Pioneer Elite Series components.
Sony MHC-3600 shelf-system.

sirlancelot

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
When comparing the Denon S-301 to any rival HTIB or 2.1 surround sound system it becomes very clear that there is absolutely no comparison; the Denon S-301 is in a class of its own.
THE S-301 IS THE COMPLETE PACKAGE! Even if it is an awfully expensive package...IT'S STILL WORTH IT!

Strengths:
I believe that the strongest selling point of the Denon S-301 is its superb design. I didn't know anything about this system until I walked past it at Best Buy. I stopped, turned around, and marveled at how beautiful and elegant it looked when set up next to a wall-mounted, high definition LCD TV. I couldn't help but think to myself, "Wow, that would look REALLY nice next to my brand new LCD!"
Obviously there is no denying the elegance of the S-301's design, however I wasn't interested in buying the HTIB that looked the best, I was interested in the HTIB that sounded the best. I've been listening to music off of two Mackie SR-740 Studio Monitors for the last 3 years and it takes A LOT to impress me with respect to sound quality. As much as I love my Mackie's, I wanted a "surround-sound" setup in my room without taking up too much space. The satellite speakers on the S-301 are heavy, well crafted, and in my opinion, ooze of quality. Similar HTIB's from Bose and Sony had very flimsy feeling satellites; I was NOT impressed by the competition.
I played a couple of reference CD's to check out the quality of the speakers. I played some rock, some rap, some jazz, and some R&B. The S-301 was able to handle everything with ease. The sub could handle the deep bass of Snoop Dogg's tracks while the satellite speakers comfortably jammed alongside Miles Davis and John Coltrane. I turned up the volume to high, higher, and then highest. I had the attention of most of the guests at Best Buy that afternoon. We were all amazed at how a small little system created such clear and powerful sound.
I didn't get a chance to test out the DVD player while I was at Best Buy, but I was already sold. The design and sound quality was light years ahead of anything in its class. Yeah, I wasn't too thrilled with having to pay $1,500, but I saw this HTIB as an excellent investment.
I took my new baby home with me that night and plugged it into my HDTV via HDMI. OH MY GOODESS...Really...the DCDi, HDMI, and virtual surround sound was an absolute treat while watching Spiderman 2. Awesome, absolutely awesome. Denon put in one of their best DVD players to this outstanding audio package; the image quality really shows. Because of this DVD player and its HDMI up-conversion, I have absolutely no need or no desire to "upgrade" to Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. It's really quite impressive.
Did I mention that the remote that is included with the system is a universal remote?
iPod feature works exactly as advertised and is one of the best "show off" features of the system. People's jaws drop when they see their iPod on my TV and then start controlling their music via the remote control. It really adds to the "wow" factor.
I hooked an external hard drive up to the S-301 via the USB port and created a "pseudo-jukebox"!
The virtual surround sound REALLY WORKS! Honestly, it's not as good as a 5.1 setup, but I'd rather have this system than a mediocre 5.1 system. I live in an apartment and don't have space for 5 huge speakers and a sub.
This is the absolute PERFECT system for a bedroom or a small living room. It's not cheap, but I believe that sometimes you simply have to pay for quality. In my opinion, the Denon S-301 is worth every penny spent on it.
I see retailers selling it for about $1,000 now. It is a VERY SOUND INVESTMENT that WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN.

Weaknesses:
Expensive. I went shopping on a $1,000 budget, but this system impressed me so much that I felt compelled to pinch pennies in other places to afford its $1600 MSRP.

Only one HDMI port. I really wish the S-301 was a receiver/DVD player. It is, but it isn't. There's enough connectivity options on it for most people, but for enthusiasts such as myself will find it lacking with respect to expandability (for $1600).

Remote, which is actually exceptionally designed, doesn't have an LCD on it or any form of an illuminated screen. It only has illuminated buttons. I'm nitpicking here because I'm being honest; I don't see any reason why I should have to spend another $150 on a Harmony remote when the remote included is in fact, a universal remote.

Manual is kind of confusing.

Similar Products Used:
Bose 3-2-1 system. The S-301 wipes the floor with Bose's best offering. If I was Bose, I'd be embarrassed to release such a grossly inferior competitor. Anyone that knows anything about audio, video, electronics, or what true quality really is will agree that the S-301 is WAY AHEAD of its time.

Price Paid:  $1399.00 from Myer-Emco

Summary:
Overall, a great home-theater-in-a-box, which is a product category that I have entirely avoided until Denon released the S-301. Stunning picture and audio quality from such a convenient package, although its premium price-point means you could probably get similar or better performance from separate components. For my part, though, I was going for "my-wife-and-kids-can-figure-this-out" simplicity, and on that scale, the Denon scores big. I'm not sure that I understand Denon's choice of color for the system, but I suppose that's a fairly minor complaint. The silver/titanium color looks great on the main player, but, since nearly all TVs these days are black, having an all-black system (especially the speakers) would've made a lot more sense to me.

Strengths:
Design. Performance. Ease of use. Denon build quality.

Weaknesses:
Titanium color. Price/value proposition.

Similar Products Used:
None.