Denon DHT-T100 Speaker Base

DHT-T100 Speaker Base Featured Image

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What is the DHT-T100?

The Denon DHT-T100 is a speaker base for your TV. It takes the sound from your TV and will enhance it for a more pleasurable listening experience. Thanks to the built in bluetooth connection you can also stream your music from your iPhone, tablet and other devices. There are an array of similar devices on the market which you may find under different names such as sound bar, sound base etc, it really depends on the companies products you’re looking at.

DHT-T100 Angled View

Design

In terms of design the Denon DHT-T100 looks like a lot of other speaker bases due to the fact that there isn’t really much room for variety because of their purpose. That being said the build quality of this product is outstanding.
The top of the speaker base is finished with a matte black, which works a hell of a lot better at hiding dust and fingerprints than it would if it were glossy. Denon states that it’ll accommodate TV’s that weigh up to 27kg, which means that most screen sizes up to 50-inches should be okay. Although before purchasing do ensure that you check this as some older TV’s bases may be too large to fit as well.

The base measures 71 x 608 x 355mm (Height x Width x Depth) which means overall it’s slimmer than quite a few of its competitors. With it placed under your TV its surprisingly discreet and looks really nice with the mesh covered front. The only distinguishing features on the front are the Denon logo and eight nicely incorporated illuminated buttons. These buttons include power, source selection, remote learning (so you can use the sound base with your existing remote), sound mode selection, mute and the volume buttons.

Connections

Around the back of the device you’ll find all of the connections needed. There is also a small cut-out for easier access and means that you don’t have to pull out the whole unit just to swap a cable. Another great thing about the DHT-T100 is that there is no need for an external power brick which means less clutter behind the TV.

Denon DHT-T100 Connections

Among the different sound connections you’ll find 3.5mm analogue input, optical and coaxial digital inputs, surprisingly no HDMI port though. In the manual Denon recommends that you hook up the optical connection, and all of the cables to do so are included in the box so you don’t have to go out and purchase any.

If you switch from the TV source to bluetooth either using the remote or the button on the front then you can stream music from you audio devices like you would any other bluetooth speaker.

Denon DHT-T100 Remote

Altogether there are five different listening modes which again you can cycle through using the remote or buttons. The basics are that there is a setting for speech, music, movies as well as wide-spectrum music and movies. You are told which mode you’re currently in with illumination of the buttons on the front of the speaker. Each combination of buttons lit up means a different mode is selected which you’ll have to remember or you can just take a look in the manual. The same goes for the volume controls, and the buttons will light up as you adjust upwards or downwards.

Performance

Each of the different sound settings are great and you can really tell the difference when you swap between them. The dialog setting makes speech more crisp and stand out from the background audio, whereas the movie setting enhances the whole spectrum adding a little more bass and power to it. When I was just watching TV normally I was happy to leave the setting on the movie mode and feel this provided the best all round experience.

Denon DHT-T100 Insides

The DHT-T100 can reach great volumes so you don’t need to worry about not hearing your sound. One thing we noticed was that increasing the volume of the source, say the TV instead of the sound base itself sometimes caused distortion of the audio but this is prevented by ensuring you change the volume on the sound base rather than the TV. I’m sure we’ve all watched that film which suddenly changes volume and therefore you have to sit there with your finger on the volume buttons. Well Denon have incorporated a night mode into the device so that it ‘flattens’ all of the sounds and makes them more equal in terms of volume to help avoid this.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve used the unit for watching movies, streaming music via bluetooth and gaming with all sorts of different games, and overall I’m impressed with it.


Our Verdict

The Denon DHT-T100 retails at £249 which makes it more expensive than some of it’s rivals but the presentation of this product along with superb audio that it produces makes it so hard to resist. The build quality of the product is impeccable and makes it worth the extra bit of money that you’ll pay. Although missing a few features that it’s rivals may have included, if you’re looking for thee best sounding speaker base then this Denon product is most likely the one for you! If you’re looking for a more “bassy” product as well as maybe supporting larger a TV then you’ll want to look at what else is available.

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