Denon has some stiff competition in the all-in-one market - not least from itself. The DHT-500SD is an excellent and elegant system.
Now Denon has come up with a new one-box solution. The £400 DHT-M330DV is a micro DVD surround-sound system comprising the DVD-M330 DVD player, AVR-M330 receiver and SYS-M330 sub/sat speaker system.
It is a 5.1-channel set-up out of the box, but is upgradeable for 6.1- or 7.1-channel sound and is aimed primarily at small-room installations (possibly as second installations in bedrooms).
The design of this two-deck system is faintly retro and it certainly stands out from the plethora of combined DVD player/receiver boxes we've seen lately. The two main units are each 210mm wide and 70mm high, making them much squatter than we're used to. It's a pleasing design.
The DVD-M330 has some basic disc transport controls on the fascia, but it remains mostly uncluttered. Connections at the rear include component video outputs for PAL and NTSC progressive scan, alongside an RGB-capable Scart and S-video socket. There is no provision for HDMI or DVI signals. Digital audio is handled by a pair of optical outputs and there is stereo audio back-up as well.
The absence of six-channel outputs confirms that there is no DVD-Audio or SACD compatibility, but Denon has stated clearly that at this sort of price they consider them to be unnecessary extras. You do get playback for WMA, MP3 and JPEG files, however.
Modest amp
The AVR-M330 carries six channels of amplification at 20W per channel. This is decidedly modest compared to other systems around this price, but again we would remind you that this is a set-up aimed at small-room use.
There are three optical digital audio inputs (shame there is no electrical option as well), for piping in sound, along with stereo support for two inputs and one output. There are also three pre-out sockets, one for an active subwoofer (if the one supplied does not satisfy you) and two for surround back channels.
You would need to provide the extra amplification needed for these extra channels as well. Speaker sockets are colour-coded plugs, matching the plugs on the ends of the supplied speaker cables.
Decoding formats cover Dolby Digital EX, DTS-ES, DTS Neo:6, Pro-Logic IIx, Dolby Virtual Stereo and Dolby Headphone. There is also a single, rather lonely, DSP mode. The AM/FM RDS tuner wraps things up.
