Rating:  -
I'm a "big audio" kind of guy and my two primary audio systems reflected that, both being rather large systems. The only problem was that, since moving into a new house a few years back, as I sat on the couch in its modestly sized living room, I couldn't help but feel encroached upon by the large audio rack and speakers on the opposite wall. Sure, it sounded great, but it also made the room feel small. So I went shopping for a quality built, great sounding, stylish sound system that was also small enough, speakers and all, to fit on top of the 28 by 15.5 inch antique drawer unit positioned directly opposite the couch. After doing much research and shopping around, I finally set my sonic sights on the Denon S-81 personal audio system.
I'll admit, once I took the system's main unit and speakers out of the box, I was concerned that it may not best suit my needs. Sure, it looked sweet, with its angled top edges and European styled speakers. But it was so small and light. Then again, I had just disconnected and moved a 42 pound amplifier and a pair of floor standing speakers that tipped the scales at 48 pounds each. That was what I was trying to get away from. Plus, it was obvious to see that equal emphasis was placed on build quality as it was on style. I decided I should at least give it a listen. Maybe I'd be surprised.
I was not surprised - I was astounded! Setup was a breeze as you would expect from an all inclusive system. Basically, you just connect the antennas and speakers and plug it in. Decent quality speaker wire is included in the box. The wire is terminated on each end with proprietary connectors that are color coded for the left (white) and right (red) speakers. Simply plug each of the wires into the corresponding colored plug on the back of the main unit and each speaker, and you're done. A small allen wrench is included in the box, so you can easily remove the connectors, in order to shorten the wire.
Once the system was hooked up, I found the sound quality to be exceptional. The transition between the 12 cm bass-mid speaker and 2.5.cm high frequency driver was undetectable, and the overall sound produced was much fuller than I had expected to hear from speakers of such demure size. The mid and high frequencies were clearly defined. Imaging was equally impressive, especially considering that I had the speakers placed relatively close together, with little more than the 15 inch wide main unit placed between them. When it came time to push the volume level up, the Denon S-81 reached the maximum I would listen at around its half-way mark. Which was good, because distortion started becoming detectable about two thirds the way up.
The only negative I have with the S-81's sound quality, is in its reproduction of the lower frequency ranges - an area of audio bliss that I have yet to see any bookshelf speaker reproduce without the aid of a subwoofer. Fortunately, The S-81 is equipped with a mono out jack designed specifically for a subwoofer connection. I hooked up my small, but very effective Pinnacle Sub-Sonic, and voila! Sound that was as full and accurate as what I had with a full sized system that took up way more floor space.
FM radio reception was great - I didn't even have to hook up the amplified antenna that I used with the larger system. I'm just using the single wire antenna that came in the box. And the display even shows the text that many radio stations now embed in their signal, so quite often, you can get song and artist information just by looking at the display. CDs sounded great as well, my only complaint is that the display does not show CD text from discs that contain such information. The remote control unit is designed so that only the most commonly used buttons are immediately available, relieving it of the clutter that makes many other remotes difficult to use. The rest of the lesser used buttons can be found behind a door on the bottom of the remote. When you use certain buttons on the remote, the corresponding button will briefly illuminate on the main unit - a very nice effect. The Denon S-81 also has a sleep mode for auto shut-off, and a timer, so you can have it turn on automatically, for either a single instance or every day.
I would highly recommend this system to anyone who wants a small system for a modestly sized room (200 square feet or less) that looks good and sounds good. And if you can swing hiding a decent subwoofer in some corner of the room, you will be absolutely blown away. Sure, you can pick up shelf systems that cost half as much as this one, but they probably won't sound nearly as good and I'm sure they won't be built with the quality that the Denon S-81 is.
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