Denon’s new Dolby Atmos soundbar is an affordable Sonos Beam rival

Denon DHT-S517 Dolby Atmos soundbar
(Image credit: Denon)

Denon has unveiled its latest Dolby Atmos soundbar, the DHT-S517, a system that includes a soundbar and wireless subwoofer system and delivers 3.1.2 channels of audio.

Under the hood, there’s a seven-speaker array comprised of left/right channel tweeters and midrange drivers, a dedicated centre-channel, and two up-firing speakers.

Designed to work with a wide range of TVs, the Denon DHT-S517 includes HDMI eARC connectivity and digital optical input. There is also an additional HDMI input to connect external sources to the soundbar directly, ideal if your TV’s ports are already maxed out, and for wireless streaming, there’s Bluetooth onboard.

Users can customise the soundbar’s audio with three modes for speech enhancement and dedicated level control for dialogue independent of the rest of the system. There are also four general sound modes: Movie Mode, Music Mode, Pure Mode and Night Mode. Pure Mode is a feature found on Denon’s award-winning AVR’s in which all unnecessary processing is switched off, while Night Mode limits the volume output while gaining clarity and dynamic range so as not to disturb others.

The Denon DHT-S517 soundbar and sub includes HDMI and optical cables and will be available end of January, priced at £379 / AU$749 (US pricing TBC).

MORE

Read our pick of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

18 of the best Dolby Atmos movie scenes

Dolby Atmos: what is it? How can you get it?

Mary is a staff writer at What Hi-Fi? and has over a decade of experience working as a sound engineer mixing live events, music and theatre. Her mixing credits include productions at The National Theatre and in the West End, as well as original musicals composed by Mark Knopfler, Tori Amos, Guy Chambers, Howard Goodall and Dan Gillespie Sells.