Denon S-101 Remote, Configuration and Listening Tests

RC-1007 Remote Control

The supplied remote (RC-1007) is a relatively slim, easy to handle remote control. The lack of back lighting and poor tactile feel of the back panel functions make it a useful primarily in reasonably well-lit rooms lest you risk hitting the wrong function key and interrupting your movie watching experience (as I did on more than one occasion.) The front face of the remote controls system volume and power up, DVD navigation, input selection, and sports a Help function key to rescue neophytes from themselves in the event they misconfigure the system and/or can't get it to operate properly. While the back panel keypad contains numeric keys and more geek tweakability of surround parameters, tone controls, DVD angle, etc. Oddly I found one of the most useful features on the back panel. I personally felt the Zoom Mode should have been on the front of the remote control since it's a feature that will likely be used by many connecting this system to a standard 4:3 display and wanting to minimize black bars while watching widescreen movies.

With the stored remote codes, I was able to power up and change inputs on my el cheapo Sansui 27" CRT TV, though control functions were very limited. Since this remote isn't programmable there was little I could do other than use a dedicated universal remote control. It got the job done, was fairly intuitive, and, provided you had adequate room lighting, served its purpose as expected.

Configuration

Configuring the S-101 proved rather straightforward for the most part. Though it irked me a bit that on-the-fly level changes simply weren't possible. In order to change channel trims you had to enter the OSD DVD player setup via four levels of menus while interrupting the music the whole time. So, if a song you are listening too has too much bass and you want to turn down the sub, you would have to do so via the OSD menu system. This is contrary to the way most Denon receivers work, allowing on-the-fly level changes by simply hitting the enter key on the remote with no interruption of music.

The S-101 allows the user to adjust speaker levels in 1dB increments, and digital delay in 1ft increments. This isn't as precise as most modern AVR receivers, but pretty typical of many DVD players and certainly accurate enough for the scope of this product. The S-101 allows the user to select between freestanding, on-shelf and on-wall speaker installations which essentially compensates for boundary conditions when the speakers are placed on the wall or when a wall is directly behind the speakers. The S-101 even allows the user to select room damping properties as low, mid and high which basically serves as an active shelf equalization to tame brightness in rooms with low dampening and boost high frequencies in over damped rooms. Denon should be commended for including such useful and practical features in this type of product.

Listening Tests: Music

CD: Daddy Yankee Barrio Fino
Cranking up the tunes I started with Daddy Yankee Barrio Fino CD. Track #5 "Gasolina" is a party favorite whenever I attend my wife's Colombian family parties. This song is a trip for sure. You can't help but sing along and, before you know it, your hips are moving to its rhythm. The S-101 belted out tight and controlled bass, and lots of sizzle on the top end. Track #8 "Lo Que Paso, Paso" is another song that gets you moving and playing it on the S-101 certainly exemplified this, especially when engaging Dolby Virtual Speaker which expanded the stereo soundstage considerably while maintaining vocal clarity and focus.

CD (DTS): Diana Krall Love Scenes
Next up was the Diana Krall Love Scenes DTS CD (a particular multi-channel favorite of mine). I am very fond of this CD for three reasons; content, recording quality, and surround implementation. Of course her rather attractive appearance doesn't factor into this at all, but I thought it would be important to point out ;-) On an exceptional playback system, track#1 "All or Nothing at All" envelopes you with Diana's powerful and eloquent voice. You could clearly hear the echo decay of her voice and airiness indicating a lack of compression and care taken in the mastering and mixing. The surrounds aren't used as cheap trick attempts to dazzle the listener but instead to increase the soundstage and enveloping experience of the recording. On the S-101, I could hear many of the elements I have grown to adore on my reference system, though it wasn't quite nearly as immersive or convincing. Of course it's not a fair comparison since my reference is a discrete multi-channel speaker system. The S-101 certainly did make a gallant effort of simulating the experience through a pair of speakers. The bass extension was again controlled and tight, though not quite as extended to accurately produce all of the elements of this recording without compression as I am used to hearing on my reference system. Track #3 "I Don't Know Enough about You" sounded silky smooth while track #7 "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You" literally had enough bass to pressurize the living room of my condo, shaking the floor and walls nicely while also causing one of the satellite speakers to resonate making me realize I didn't screw down the stand as tightly as I should have.

I tried out some more aggressive multi-channel audio discs such as Graham Nash Songs for Survivors DTS DVD which had a very full sound, but simply didn't envelop the listener like it does on a truly discrete 5.1 playback system. Toeing out the speakers helped remedy some of this, but regardless I couldn't place the surround image behind me, especially when cymbal crashes that were mixed for the rear channels were reproduced.

What I have discovered in my multi-channel music listening sessions was that Dolby Virtual works very well with ambient surround cues but not as effectively with more aggressively mixed multi-channel recordings. Your mileage may vary, but in all circumstances the 2.1 channel configuration of the S-101 worked better than simply connecting a pair of speakers and a subwoofer to a multi-channel receiver and switching over the receiver to stereo mode allowing it to downmix the 5.1 track to two channel.

Read our FAQ for more information on Dolby Virtual Speaker Technology.