Denon DHT-FS5

Reviewed by

Steve Guttenberg

on 12/04/2008

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Like most single-speaker audio systems, just plopping the Denon DHT-FS5 in front of your TV will likely block the TV's remote IR receiver. You'll instead want to mount it in a cabinet underneath, or wall-mount the Denon with the included metal wall brackets.

Performance
Robert Rodriguez' Sin City DVD didn't pull any punches over the DHT-FS5. The film's unrelenting gore and bloodletting was surprisingly visceral, and the macho narrations from Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke were big and full sounding.

In movie mode, the sound was projected well out to the sides of the front wall of the CNET listening room. Surround effects, such as police sirens and helicopters flying overhead, appeared far forward of the DHT-FS5. That was true as long as we sat directly inline with the speaker, but if we moved over to the left or right sides of the couch the sound was far less spacious. (The pricier Denon DHT-FS3 was more consistent in this regard, and the surround effects were almost as good on the sides of the couch as they were from the center.)

Switching over to Stereo we felt the sound quality improved a bit, sounding less "processed" and tonally richer, though substantially less spacious.

Next, we played Lou Reed's newly released Berlin concert DVD. The music's dynamics felt lackluster, so we borrowed the ESW-CS8 subwoofer from the Energy RC-Micro speaker system. Wow, that made a huge difference, not just because it added bass, but because it also improved the sound of the DHT-FS5 overall. In some ways--like bass definition and oomph--this combination surpassed the more expensive DHT-FS3's overall sound quality. Bass definition and dynamics were closer to what you'd hear from a budget 5.1 satellite subwoofer package.

We next tried the DHT-FS5's Night Mode feature while watching some DVDs and found it mildly effective in reducing the films' dynamic range for late night listening.

CD sound, with or without the subwoofer, was only acceptable for background listening. In stereo or music modes, the sound felt cramped and small. The DHT-FS5's sound was more or less on par with a table radio.

We finished up with a shoot-out between the Denon DHT-FS5 soundbar and the identically priced Zvox Z-Base 550, using the Mission Impossible III Blu-ray to sort out the differences. The Denon had greater overall clarity and produced a much larger, room-filling soundfield than the Zvox. That said, the Zvox had a richer, bigger sound, and dialog was more naturally balanced. With the Denon voices sounded a little thin. We liked both units for different reasons, but we'd give the nod to the Denon.

Editor's Note: Following the original publication of this review, subsequent testing with competing products has improved our initial impression of this product. As a result, we have raised the rating from a 6.8 to a 7.2.