The Denon Home Sound Bar 550 produces a truly impressive wall of sound for its size, and is a major upgrade for any TV, but has one notable caveat
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Denon)
(Image credit: Denon)
T3 Verdict
Reasons to buy+Good specification, good flexibility+Tall and convincing audio presentation+Quite musical when required
Good specification, good flexibility
Tall and convincing audio presentation
Quite musical when required
Loses composure at volume
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Denon Home Sound Bar 550 deals
$649View$649View$1,248$1,098.99View
$649View
$649View
$649View
$649
$649
$649View
$649View
$649View
$649
$649
$1,248$1,098.99View
$1,248$1,098.99View
$1,248$1,098.99View
$1,248$1,098.99
$1,098.99
Show More Deals
Show More Deals
We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Certainly the Denon Home Sound Bar 550 has got most of the right ingredients to be one of thebest soundbars. It’s nicely made and properly finished, and is pleasingly compact and discreet too – in fact it’s one of thebest soundbars for small TVs, thanks to being just 65cm wide.
Thanks to its support for HDMI passthrough and both major advanced sound formats, it’s one of thebest soundbars for Samsung TVsspecifically, though this feature also makes it a great pick as one of thebest soundbars for LG TVsif you have a lower-priced option with a limited number of HDMI ports.
Denon Home Sound Bar 550 review: price & release date
The Donon Home Sound Bar 550 launched in the UK a few months ago at an asking price of £599. These days, Denon itself is asking £469 and you can do a little better than that if you shop around - so it’s lined up even more directly in opposition to theSonosBeam Gen 2. In the United States, meanwhile, the going rate is around the $549 mark, while in Australia it’s priced at AU$899 or thereabouts.
So yes, this is Sonos Beam Gen 2 money. But that’s not the only deeply credible rival the Denon is going to have to see off if it’s to achieve primacy - the DALI Katch One, the LG SP8YA and the T3 Award-winningSamsungHW-Q800A are all very capable devices and all priced in roughly the same ball-park. So this is far from a done deal.
(Image credit: Denon)
(Image credit: Denon)
Denon Home Sound Bar 550 review: features & what’s new
It’s amazing the amount of difference an additional HDMI socket can make, isn’t it? Unlike the Sonos Beam Gen 2, with its single HDMI eARC socket, the Home 550 adds an HDMI input too - so you don’t have to take up one of your TV’s HDMI inputs if you don’t need to. You’d think it was an obvious course of action, but it seems Denon has had more of a think about this than some competing brands.
(Image credit: Denon)
(Image credit: Denon)
Denon Home Sound Bar 550 review: performance
The first box any soundbar has to tick is marked ‘sounds better than an unaccompanied TV’. Admittedly that’s not much of an ask, given that the overwhelming majority of televisions sound pretty grim, but we have to start somewhere - so yes, the Home 550 sounds a lot better than your TV can manage on its own.
There’s a lesson here, and the lesson is: don’t drive the Denon Home Sound Bar 550 too hard. For most people, that’s probably not a problem. Especially if you like your neighbours.
Switch to some music and, broadly speaking, the story is the same. Keep volume at a civilised level and there’s a nice sense of space to the Denon’s delivery, enjoyable levels of insight and, considering the number of drivers involved, decent cohesion to the overall sound. The Home 550 doesn’t dig as deep as some subwoofer-assisted alternatives, of course, but the bass it does produce is well controlled and sprightly. Decide you want to listen at party levels and, again, composure plays second fiddle to shoutiness.
So, again, there’s a lesson here…
(Image credit: Denon)
(Image credit: Denon)
Denon Home Sound Bar 550 review: design & usability
When the Home 550 launched,Alexavoice-control was still on the ‘to do’ list. But Denon having got it done, it’s now possible to deal with this soundbar via Alexa. Which is handy - especially as the assistant is sharp-eared and responsive.
If you don’t fancy raising your voice, though, there’s a fair degree of control available in the HEOS app (including some EQ adjustment, ‘night mode’ and what-have-you), and a bigger degree via the 550’s remote control. No, it’s not the most luxurious (or biggest) handset you ever held, but it’s reasonably tactile and it covers most aspects of the soundbar’s functionality. And on the top of the ‘bar there’s a proximity-sensing touch-control pad that lets you adjust volume and switch between ‘play’ and ‘pause’ too.
As far as ‘design’ goes, well, Denon isn’t about to tear up the rulebook and start again. Like the entire ‘Home’ series, the 550 is discreet to the point of anonymity. The quality of fit and finish is unarguable, though, and the deep grey acoustic cloth that stretches across the front and around the sides of the soundbar looks good. The plastics from which the 550 is built are far from the most tactile, but unless you spend a lot of time fondling your electronics that’s really neither here nor there.
And, mercifully, the Home 550 is of manageable proportions. At 75 x 650 x 120mm (hwd) it’s ideal for screens between 40in and 55in, and at 3.5kg it will happily hang on the wall.
Denon Home Sound Bar 550 review: verdict
In some ways, the Denon Home Sound Bar 550 is as good as any compact subwoofer around at this sort of money - and it’s better-specified than many of them. It undergoes a fundamental change of character at volume, though - and that’s not a good thing.
Denon Home Sound Bar 550 review: also consider
Denon Home Sound Bar 550: Price Comparison
$489View$649View$649View$649.99View$1,248$1,098.99View
$489View
$489View
$489View
$489
$489
$649View
$649View
$649View
$649
$649
$649View
$649View
$649View
$649
$649
$649.99View
$649.99View
$649.99View
$649.99
$649.99
$1,248$1,098.99View
$1,248$1,098.99View
$1,248$1,098.99View
$1,248$1,098.99
$1,098.99
Show More Deals
Show More Deals
We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Sign up to the T3 newsletter for smarter living straight to your inbox
Get all the latest news, reviews, deals and buying guides on gorgeous tech, home and active products from the T3 experts
Sky Stream gets a great new trick that unlocks long hidden potentialA Sky Stream puck update gives you a host of new channels
A Sky Stream puck update gives you a host of new channels
If you ever needed proof that cassette players are back, this is itWe Are Rewind has made a portable tape deck so retro it should appear from nowhere in a DeLorean
We Are Rewind has made a portable tape deck so retro it should appear from nowhere in a DeLorean
PS5 could finally be getting Gears of War and Halo after game-changing decisionThe age of exclusives is coming to an end
The age of exclusives is coming to an end
