Digital Trends

Denon S-301

December 26th, 2005 | by Rebecca Day

Setup and Use

Why can't all A/V systems be this simple to set up? Plug the red connector into the red jacks on one speaker and into the corresponding red jacks on the subwoofer. Then do the same with the white connector and the other speaker. Take the pin connector, which looks like the old parallel connector from a printer, and screw it into the receiver and the sub. Plug the sub's power cord into the wall. A snap.

Denon included an HDMI output on the back panel of the system, an unusual feature on a one-piece system. It's a welcome one. If you've bought into the look of a flat-screen TV, you don't want to see multiple wires behind the TV—especially if, as in my case, your A/V furniture doesn't have a back to conceal the wires. There are also component, S-Video and composite inputs and outputs for additional source equipment, along with optical and coaxial audio inputs.

The on-screen help guide was easier to sort through than the complex owner's manual, which is chock full of disclaimers like “Won't play MP3 Pro” and “Operation of and power supply to all USB mass storage devices is not guaranteed.” Illustrations of some setup pages simply repeat what is said on the menu rather than providing guidance. The section on selecting HDMI, for instance, tells you to connect to either Y Cb Cr or RGB without explaining why you would select one over the other. The manual would gain from fewer disclaimers (or tuck them away in a special section) and more explanations.

The iPod was particularly fun to use. A simulated iPod shows up on screen displaying your playlists, artists, albums and songs. iPod controls are shown on screen too and you can operate them using the joystick button on the Denon remote. I was relieved to discover that tracks I've purchased from iTunes played through the system, something that's not always possible with outboard media players because of copyright protection.

Just after I disconnected the iPod, it appeared that the Denon had locked up. I could enter the Help menu but couldn't navigate between sources. When I tried to turn down the volume, nothing happened. I found the section in the manual about rebooting (welcome to convergence) and followed the directions. Despite the reboot, the problem continued.

I placed a call to a Denon source who shot the trouble: a tiny button on the side of the remote had slipped over to TV mode from DVD mode so my presses weren't being received. That's one button that's not well placed on the remote. It should be behind the back panel with the other less frequently used buttons where it can't get in the way. It's also confusing that the DVD mode is the one you need to be on even when playing an iPod or listening to the radio.

Once I could navigate again, I jumped through the audio, video and parental settings leaving most of them as I found ‘em. I tweaked the speaker settings to adjust the distances for my room and I ignored the simulated surround settings like jazz club that never quite sound like the real thing. You can play with delay times and beef up the bass, but with a virtual surround sound system those types of adjustments seemed excessive.

I had success playing both MP3 and WMA files on CD but could not get a music file from a USB drive to play. And I thought it was odd that the USB mode doesn't support JPEGs. You can only play Picture CDs or homegrown CD-ROMs with JPEGs aboard. Since they went to the trouble to support iPod and USB, Denon engineers could have designed in an SD slot, too. It would be nice to pop the card out of the camera and into the receiver.