Denon S716H (Heos Bar) and DSW-1H review

Once upon a time, TV speakers were hefty affairs, which could go to deafening levels, with decent bass and allowed the dialogue to be anchored to the screen. You only went to the home theatre route if you wanted a complete surround experience. Then TV panels became wafer thin, and manufacturers found that they could not pack the speakers of the same volume into the panels to make credible sound for movies and definitely not for music. So the soundbar was born.

Initially, you needed to connect this via RCA outputs or digital ones like an optical cable. Things have since progressed, and now you have ARC (Audio Return Channel) and eARC, which uses a single HDMI cable to bring sound to and from the TV. Some use Bluetooth for a wireless connection. 

Then you have 3 dimensional sound in the form of Atmos, and it become fashionable to get soundbars with this moniker.

But today, we are reviewing a 3 channel soundbar, which can eventually be expanded into a full 5.1 experience with an extra outlay and it cost more than what some so called Atmos equipped soundbars cost.

So is the extra outlay worth it?

Well firstly, I have to bring potential soundbar owners back to reality first. Firstly, the soundbar helps to make dialogue clearer, and maybe, maybe, add a little surround effect  along with some bass especially if there is a subwoofer thrown in. 

However marketing would have you believe you can do away with the traditional home theatre system, and now with Atmos they would like you to believe that a single front source soundbar can replicate the entire 3D experience. AND do it with a two channel soundbar no less.

However I have to tell you that things are clearly exaggerated. In an ideal room with equally spaced reflective hard walls, you might get enough reflections to get some semblance of side surround, and if the speakers pointing upwards can reflect off your hard ceiling, you can even enjoy some Atmos top feel. But you will need a better soundbar equipped with many channels and speakers to do so, and only in such an ideal reflective room. Plus many basic models do not even try to measure distances so there is no way they can time the delay so that sound comes from the front and can navigate to the back as the sound engineers intended. 

Hence the premise of a front three channel soundbar. When your money is concentrated into less channels, you get more budget devoted to the right equipment to make the speaker sound better, and you can get sufficient stereo separation for music to sound decent. 

The Denon Heos Bar is the flagship model, and is an evolution of an earlier HDMI 1.4 version and now it’s also 

Some info from the official site:

https://www.denon.com/en-ca/product/sound-bars/dht-s716h 

Features to note:

- slim wide profile with three separate front channels 

- HDMI 2.0a equipped (4 ports no less!)

- DTS-MA and TruHD decoding

- can be paired with the Denon DSW-1H sub and HS2 rear speakers for a true 5.1 surround experience 

- ARC

- 1 USB port

- optical, stereo and coaxial inputs

- Alexa interface (check your country availability)

- Bluetooth 4.2 with APTX playback 

- wide streaming options including Spotify, Tidal, Tunein etc…

- NO Airplay

- No ATMOS or DTS-X

Specs for the subwoofer:

https://www.denon.com/en-ca/product/sound-bars/dsw-1h 

- No LFE input

- LAN port

- USB port allows you to plug a USB drive to play music on the Heos system

- Twi 5.25 inch woofers

- Can be placed vertically or horizontally 

Let's begin with the unboxing. It is quite a hefty speaker and the speaker comes separate from the subwoofer. The wrapping is pretty impressive and in the box, you get everything you need to get set up. There are HDMI, optical and stereo cables, as well as the power cord. You even get a LAN cable and more on that later. The flat remote comes equipped with batteries inside, and everything is carefully packed in it’s own box. It feels very premium indeed. 

As for the looks,  this is a typical black color, low profile soundbar, which has a height of 7.2cm without legs and it can be placed on the table or mounted on the wall.  The bar itself is very well built and likewise for the subwoofer. The equally black sub has two rubber strips beneath it to help prevent it from ‘walking’, but at 10kg it is as hefty as a ‘real’ subwoofer from the major companies and is unlikely to move. 

Now to the configuration, and this is the most vexing part for the uninitiated. You should really read the manual, because you’ll need to use the LAN cable first, and download the app, which has both google and Apple versions. Using the app, you’ll then need to add the soundbar to your home network (likewise for the sub, but get your soundbar up first). Then the app will take you through the basic setup. If you’re already using the app for other HEOS products, then it’s a lot easier, but pay attention to the lights on the front of the soundbar and the first time, it will take some time, as it will also update the firmware too. After you setup the soundbar, then do the same, plug in the sub and also plug in the LAN cable and add it to your network. Don’t worry, you can remove it later and use the wireless option but you’ll need LAN to get it going. This isn’t so simple as other products, but once the network finds the soundbar and sub, the app will help you navigate through the options quite quickly. 

You will definitely need the app for most adjustments, and access to streaming as well as to add more speakers. There is a light adjustment which allows you to adjust the amount of light from the blue light in the front of both soundbar and sub. With a HEOS account, you can access a wide selection of streaming options too, but there’s no Airplay. Yep, that was rather disappointing for a flagship product. 

The remote is a basic card type, but it’s very well built. There are very few buttons, with a mute and power button, as well as volume control and most importantly, six quick select buttons.  However there's no backlight. Even so, those quick select buttons made me smile widely as you can program them for almost any input, eg your favorite Tunein channel, which TV input or if you want to start up from the Blue Ray player connected to one of the HDMI ports. Very convenient and nicely done Denon!

The machine is also smart enough to switch inputs when you turn on something, such as the aforementioned disc player, and it will respond to any brand. If you turn back to using the built in apps from the TV, the soundbar will go back to that input. 

Now how does it sound? 

Firstly as mentioned, this is a 3 channel soundbar. So forget Atmos, but you have four HDMI 2 equipped inputs and the ability to decode Dolby TruHD and DTS-MA. Bear in mind there’s no eARC, only ARC. So you cannot send a lossless signal from the TV, only via the other HDMI inputs. 

Firstly we took it through it’s paces for home theatre and truly it adds a lot of punch, with a much clearer voicing and the wide footprint of the soundbar means that you can really get stereo separation. You can get feel the transition of sound from the left to the right. I prefer to use the dialogue enhancer, which makes it even better for hearing the dialogue. 

Now when you turn on the subwoofer, it goes into a totally new plane or depth, pun intended. This sub excels at the mid bass, and will fill your 45-60 hz region with a lot of energy. It does not really go that deep, a limitation of the size of the cabinets and the woofer sizes, but within it’s limits, it’s really impressive. You can rival some mid priced traditional surround systems with this and more. 

I played Black Widow, and despite being limited to a 3.1 experience, the movie was highly enjoyable. The bass was really solid and meaty, dialogue was easy to follow. I then tried an older movie fed from a Blue Ray disc. PTU is a Hong Kong movie set with a lot of ambient sounds and is mainly dialogue driven. You still get ambient cues going offscreen and it was effortless listening to the actors speak. Unlike basic soundbars, which try to do too much and forget the fundamentals, here dialogue is wonderful captured, and the subwoofer is many steps above the entry and mid level offerings from other brands. 

As you move into music, it continues to excel. Give it a lossless source, and you can enjoy good stereo separation as well as depth. It won’t make you give up that 10 grand sound system, but it will replace more basic ones easily and with the ability to stream internet radio and play music effortlessly, it can be the centrepiece of your home entertainment system. 

This is impressive considering that music is often considered a weakness of soundbars. A bit of tweaking is needed for music since the bass can get a tad heavy, but for those craving more bass, I guess it’s never enough. However when I switched to a classical station, I was very impressed with the output, and sound quality. Often when I use soundbars, it becomes unlistenable to jazz or classical. 

Now one of the reasons why this model cost more is the sound and you do get more of it, as well as better quality. When you put the money into less channels it really shows. The three channels get the benefit of twin amps per channel and you can get deafening loud easily. 

The negatives are function related. The setup is a bit more complicated then it really needs to be, and the lack of Airplay is a crime these days. For those who crave the Atmos moniker, then I guess you have to move on, but you’ll be missing out on the wonderful sound here. 

The main rivals for this are the higher end soundbars from Sonos and Bose. These have good streaming options and Airplay available, and some also have the option to add surround speakers. 

Sound quality is comparable, but I guess it all comes down to dollars and sense. 

This soundbar isn’t cheap but there’s an offer on now, and they are clearing the older HEOS BAR which is identical to the current 716 model so grab it while stocks last.

Now if Denon gives a competitive street price they will really kill the competition with this and buyers might forgive the lack of Airplay and Atmos. 

Update:

I have managed to acquire two units of the Heos 1 Unit, which can pair with this, and give rear surrounds.

The pairing process is a bit annoying, as you need to use the LAN cable, but once it's detected, you use the slightly cryptic app to add them as surrounds instead of individual speakers and set the distances plus the levels, then you are good to go.

With the new surround speakers in place, the sound is pretty good and using Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downing Jr version), you do get a convincing envelop, but do check the levels first and adjust accordingly.