Denon AVR-S540BT
Pros
- Good Sound Quality at This Price Range
- Easy to Use Calibration System
- Built-In Bluetooth
Cons
- Spring Clips for Speaker Connections
- May Struggle in Large Rooms
So, you’ve decided to pick-up a new AV receiver, but you don’t want to spend a lot of moolah. The question is, what amp do you sink your hard-earned money into. If you’re on a tight budget, then the 5.2 channel Denon AVR-S540BT deserves serious consideration.
The Basics
The Denon AVR-S540BT is what most would call an entry-level receiver, but this little amp gives you a lot of bang for your buck. As far as looks, the Denon 540 isn’t much to look at. It’s your standard black box. The promotional photos you see online of the receiver make it look sexier than it really is. In real life, it’s kind of blah, but that’s the case with most AV receivers.
Bundled with the Denon 540BT is a serviceable remote. It’s simple and easy to use. Flip the amp around and you’ll see all your available connection options. One thing I will note is that unlike the Yamaha RX-V395 which has 5-way binding posts for the speaker connectors, the 540BT only has binding clips. This isn’t the end of the world, but binding posts typically gives you a more secure wire connection. Other than that, the Denon AVR-S540BT has a couple of analog and digital inputs and dual subwoofer outs. It even has a connector for a radio antenna (is that still a thing?). Anyway, along the top is a row of 5 HDMI inputs and one output. The output supports 4K video and HDCP 2.2. Three of the HDMI inputs support HDCP 2.2, HLG, HDR, BT.2020, and 4:4:4 color sampling. All of this jargon basically means that the 540 supports most of the important 4K ultra HD video standards. And if you’re wondering which of the three inputs are 4K video compatible, they’re clearly indicated on the back of the AV receiver.
Setting Up the Denon AVR-S540BT
Getting this AV receiver up and running is a cinch. Connecting everything is straight forward, but if you run into any hiccups Denon has an on-screen setup guide that will assist you. All of the speaker connections are color-coded which aids in hooking-up everything. Something else I like about the Denon AVR-S540BT is that it has a calibration system that you can run after you have everything connected. A few years ago you didn’t see these on entry-level receivers. You pretty much hooked everything up and hoped for the best, but with Denon’s inclusion of a calibration system, it makes it much easier to get the best sound out of the receiver. Once you place the included microphone at the suggested location in your listening area, the receiver will send out a series of test tones and based on this adjust the speaker levels and assign the proper crossover settings.
In-Use
If you want to listen to music on the 540, you have a couple of different options. The front of the amp has a USB port, so if you have a flash drive or external hard drive you can connect it and stream music to 540. The 540 supports numerous audio formats such as MP3, WMA, FLAC, and MPEG-4/AAC. For wireless audio transmission, the Denon 540 has built-in Bluetooth. The benefit to this is that you can stream music freely from your favorite app on your phone such as Spotify, Amazon Music etc. If you’re a fan of multi-room audio, the 540 is also compatible with Denon’s HEOS multi-room audio system.
Sound Quality
All I have to say about the Denon AVR-540BT is…What the Hell! After spending some time with this supposed entry-level amp, I walked away pretty impressed. I freely admit that it doesn’t sound as good as a $2,000 receiver, however, it sounds waaay better than it should. I plopped in a couple of Blu-Ray movies and was immediately hit by the 540BT’s clarity and precision. The dialogue was clean and clear with a surprisingly beefy mid-range. The 540BT also knew when to flex its low-frequency muscles by sending my SVS subwoofer into a frenzy from time to time. If the receiver has any weaknesses, I would say it falls a little flat in the music department. For movies, it sounded great, but with music, the Denon 540 wasn’t quite as agile. It was good, but not great. That being said I still felt that the Denon AVR-S540BT was one of the best sounding entry-level receivers on the market.
Conclusion
There’s not much more I can say about this receiver. For what you pay, the 540BT gives you a lot of features. Audio-wise, it’s great for movies and really good for music. My only caveat is if you place this receiver in a cavernous room it will struggle to fill your room with sound, however, if you plop this baby into a small or mid-sized room, it will shine.
