Denon Home Soundbar 550

Dolby Atmos and DTS:X ; Confident ‘overhead’ performance ; Entertaining with music ; Lots of connectivity options

Volume ramping leads to an unbalanced presentation ; Adding more speakers is pricey

Big sound from a small soundbar, the Denon impresses with its performance and range of features. If you’re looking to compact system to beef up your TV’s audio and get a system that doubles up as a music system for the front room, this is a soundbar...

Well specified and flexible ; Poised, large-scale sound (at reasonable volumes) ; Nicely made and finished

Becomes socially aggressive at higher volumes ; Doesn’t feel as nice as it looks ; Dolby Atmos effect is lacking

Good specification, good flexibility ; Tall and convincing audio presentation ; Quite musical when required

Loses composure at volume ; Doesn't match genuine Dolby Atmos height

The Denon Home Sound Bar 550 is carried a long way by its mercifully manageable proportions, a good selection of inputs, a decent app and some areas of truly impressive audio reproduction. Go carefully with that volume control, though…

Big sonic delivery ; Dolby Atmos and DTS:X object-based decoding ; HEOS multiroom functionality ; Decent set of connections ; Channel expansion options

Pricey to add extra speakers ; Limited sense of immersion ; Struggles at high volumes

This soundbar offers easy installation, decent inputs, HEOS multiroom, and a surprisingly big sound despite its compact proportions. If you avoid pushing the volume too hard and don't expect true full sonic immersion, this capable performer is sure to...

Compact design ; Impressive Atmos audio ; Alexa built-in

HEOS app is clunky ; Sound can be a little boomy ; Not cheap

Exceptional for music listening Can handle both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X playback Built-in Alexa

Not as loud as many other soundbars

The Denon Home 550 delivers fantastic audio quality, but it might be better for music playback than for home theater buffs.

Good specification and connectivity ; Big, detailed and organised sound at lower volumes ; Good-looking and well made

Not so good at louder volume ; Not as Dolby Atmos-y as is ideal ; Plastics are especially tactile

About to buy a Sonos Beam Gen 2? Just hold on for a moment…

Bass and treble adjustments. Dialogue enhancement feature. EQ presets.

Lots of compression at max volume. Mediocre center channel performance. Doesn't get very loud.

The Denon Home Sound Bar 550 is fair for mixed usage. Out-of-the-box, this soundbar has a slightly boomy though fairly neutral sound profile. However, it struggles to reproduce a deep low-bass, so you don't feel the thump and rumble in bass-heavy music...