Dell AS501 SoundBar 2 Speakers

I hate clutter on my desk so when I upgraded to 22" Dell monitors I decided to ditch the freestanding speakers I had and try out the Dell Soundbar. This model has the benefit of not requiring an independent power supply; it connects to the screen for power so one less cable going behind the desk.

The esthetics are ok; not brilliant. I wouldn't say it is the prettiest speaker bar. Ergonomically though it feels well built. The bar clicks into place into the screen securely and the on/off volume knob feels meety.

Sound quality in my opinion is great. I am not an audio freek but I ran this through some of my iTunes music and made the following observations. At the loudest setting that I could drive them at i.e. iTunes on Max volume, sound card volume on max and Soundbar knob on max I could not detect obvious distortion in the sound. It was very loud but very clear. It was loud enough that my wife ran into the room shouting "are you crazy?!". The bass is obviously not huge from these relatively small speakers but there is some.

When you plug in a headset, the Soundbar goes to zero volume on the speakers which is as you would expect. You cannot control the volume on the headset from the volume knob; you have to do it from the application that you are listening to. There are two headset sockets which I think is a bit redundant. I would have rather had a microphone socket there which I think would have made more sense.

Overall a very pleasing purchase that will clean up your desk and complement your Dell screen very well.

I bought one of these for my Dell monitor to go to lan parties with. I already owned one, but was getting fed up with having to remove it from another monitor. I thoroughly recommend these. Rotary volume control on the right end, 2 headphone sockets on the left. The soundbar draws power from the monitor, so there is a decent volume available. It removes easily (except when the cable is tied up like mine!) and looks very nice. Sound quality wont match a dedicated speaker system obviously, but it's fine for playing games, etc. They will also deliver a reasonable sound with music and movies.

If you have a large Dell monitor 20"+ then this the speaker set to have.. It clips on to the bottom of the monitior and also takes it's power from the screen too.

Volume adjustment is at one end and a headphone jack at the other. It really saves space and the nymber of cables flying around your desk top.

Sound quality is great. At £10 this is a great buy....

I liked the sound from this soundbar for the price you pay,I think Dell could have done a better job on the plastic clips which slide into the monitor very easy to break!!!The other point which Dell doesn`t mention the green jack attached to the soundbar has to be connected to your pc sound system not into green jack on monitor. overall 7/10 marks.

J.Ritchie

Likes:
*I like the fact that when you adjust your EQ and player volume to the right levels (i am using nf2 SB 16bit soundstorm) as to not be to harsh on the AS501 you can successfully crank the bass and volume up to full without distortion using 2 channel speakers w/ CineSurround keeping both channel thresholds within green.
*AS501 compliments monitors with green power LED's by having a 'behind speaker mesh' blue Led that doesn't distract you while using these speakers, looks great on your monitor and clips in place with ease ideal for low volume night use instead of prolonged use of headphones. I bet the AS501 could and will sound better running through HD audio out on the 2408WFP when using a modern PC and HDMI/DisplayPort.
*Two 3.5mm audio out jacks on the speaker set are just spot on and its surprising you can actually feel pulses of air coming from the two small bass ducts/ports on the back of the AS501, powers off the monitor and makes a Dell monitor without speakers perfect for newer console audio (not on the old Xbox360). This thing will only sound tinny if you start to use it like a ghetto blaster including keeping it on while you connect the 3.5mm jack and blasting it with bad sound levels or sudden high volumes from idle.
Dislikes:
'My only dislike for the AS501 is the fact that the volume knob is quite far down the side of the speaker set and should have been located nearer to the front mesh for ease of use.
Although this dislike is chopped in two becasue by doing this Dell have the volume knob 90% concealed when your head is facing centre to your monitor for better overall aesthetics, dells attention to detail as the visible 10% of the knob indicates its presence to guest users.

Yes i give it 8.5/10. Soon possibly 9.5/10 when using 24bit HD audio ;)
Z-5500 during the day, AS501 or headphones at night...

Why i bought the AS501?
I decided to buy this item for my new Dell UltraSharp 2408WFPb bEASt of a monitor which i had new for 1 day off OCuk before deciding to buy a BNIB AS501 from joboy69 on ebay (Congrats to joboy69 for cheapest price inc P&P with the fastest delivery i have ever had, ordered on the weekend and arrived monday morning at 8.30 O_o) LOL i upgraded from an old trusty Unisys 17" 3rd hand analog CRT, that was manufactured in August of 1996 O_o what a JUMP =) PIP on the Dell with SV FTA box rocks, aswell as games 'no ghosting here'.

Remember well set sound levels and the AS501 sounds great with Full Bass & Full Volume making sure your player is constrained and not distorting each speaker channel! Great Item
DELL AS501/2408WFP, WINDOWED SILVER LIAN-LI PC-75/3x120mm RAD WC/9x BLACK 5.25" & 3.5" BAYS, SAITEK PZ08AZ kb/RAZER COPPERHEAD BLUE & LOGITECH WIRELESS DESKTOP MX kb /MX700, CANON PIXMA ip4500/SE T610 & K750i, NYKO AirFLOW gamepad, PLANTRONICS MIC HEADPHONE set & LOGITECH Z-5500 SYSTEM all looks perfect, obviously if you've got down to reading here your as happy as i am atm!

Fits my Dell LCD like a glove. Be careful it has no mains power cable and therefore fits only certain Dell screens.

great quality product for the dell 20"widescreen monitor ,simply clicks into the back of the monitor & connect the lead to the monitor & computer and it,s done very neat and good quality sound with a volume & on/off control

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The manufacturing is good quality, as usually with Dell. The integration with Dell screens is cleverly made and elegant.
The speakers are not very powerfull but are enough for one staying close from the screen.
Price is very reasonnable.

I purchased this Soundbar from e-Bay being the cheapest way of purchasing it, having undone it , on inspection like all Dell products it was well manufactured, and so easy to install 5 minutes tops.
Now the test I chose some music from my folder, and hey presto nice clean sound reproduction, clear high, and nice Bass, I never thought that it would be as good as my seperate speakers but have been proved wrong, again another Dell first and it looks so classy on the front of my Dell Screen.

thses speakers are the best from dell becuase they save so much space from a desktop
the idea of placing speakers under the tft monitor and then to sav e the space from the desktop and then from the power points where the power point comes from the tft monitor

Compact, attaches like it belongs, no loose/trailing wires and no need for another mains adaptor ... very neat but don't expect superb sound quality, it is adequate for most users who just want sound and not huge DVD or gaming sound experience ... the heavy bass for such applications would probably shake the monitor to pieces anyway!!! Great for what they are at the price offered.

Great sound and easy to fix to the monitor. Less bulky than conventional speakers. Ideal in a small office.

Very neat, connects to bottom of monitor with minimum wiring, good sound. needed sound system for computer system but didn't have a great deal of space so this an ideal solution.

perfect and easy sound of a computer or screen only. i use three.easy to install and once set no one can play with the volume.

It fits underneath the screen easily and is a great compliment. It sound 100x better than my previous monitor speakers that was 2 watts. It does have a bit of an electronic hum if turned right up. To get it really soft have to work through windows based sound control. Overall very happy.

I most of all like the product of the company Dell.
I have already bought 2 laptops-dell Vostro 1500 & Dell vostro 1400 on Ebay.
The Quality simply beautiful.Recommend!
These soundbars I have bought as addenda to monitor Dell 198WFP.
Why buy heavy and greater rows for building if possible buy the small panel,which beautifully suits for home conditions.Easy is fixed on monitor,goodness.Recommend all,who values the simplicity and concinnity.

For such a slim item you get excellent sound. Really please with the easy connection to my Dell screen. Simply slide and click. The power is taken from the monitor onboard power socket. So when you switch the monitor off the speaker goes off too, so no need to fiddle with any extra switches.

I would definately buy again.

In the interests of freeing up some precious space on my desktop I decided a Dell SoundBar to fit under my Dell monitor would be a great idea and do away with the seperate cluttering speakers. A used Soundbar from an Ebay seller was much cheaper than a brand new Dell one and I wasn't too worried about a bit of wear and tear on something that only cost a few quid.
Well, it looks pretty good on the monitor, has a nice blue power led and fits in seconds. I might not get full on surround sound, but then I should be working rather than listening to music anyway... shouldn't I?!

I bought this to go with a newly purchased Dell 2408 monitor. The plus points are that the build quality is good and it integrates well with the Dell monitor. The bad point is that the sound quality is disappointing (even compared to my 10 year old little Altec Lansing PC speakers). A relatively high end monitor like the Dell 2408 really deserves a higher quality sound option than the AS501. I would not recommend this sound option if you're going to be watching movies or playing games.

Dell seem to have at least three versions of the AS501 SoundBar:
* One option takes its power from the monitor (this is the one I got).
* Another option has a separate power supply.
* There also appears to be a version with a sub-woofer output.
All a bit confusing really.

If you're going to buy the Dell Soundbar then you have to accept that it isn't going to sound as good as pair of seperate speakers - this is reflected in the price, but in my opinion made up for in convenience. It clips neatly onto the bottom of a Dell LCD monitor and takes power from the same source, turning on and off with the screen. It's a lot better than the speakers that you'd get built into laptops and LCD TVs, and perfect to provide general sound to a PC generally does office-relates tasks. I bought it for my parents who only really needed sound to hear when Windows was alerting them, and to be able to watch the BBC news streams. For this it is perfect, and has cleared an old, ugly set of speakers off the desk, as well as freeing up a power socket.

Highly recommended, especially if you can get it brand new for £15 like I did.

Must have been designed by a woman - practical, elegant sleek design and reduces the clutter & wires on your desk. Sound is better than a lot of regular desktop speakers - if you have a Dell widescreen flat panel its a must - worth every penny and its simplicity itself to fit.

I have 2 Dell widescreens but only fitted a soundbar to one to start with - I am so delighted with it I've now bought another.

I don't use any other Dell equipment but do think their flat screens are among the best and the soundbar complements them perfectly with its understated styling

These speakers fit very tidily underneath the monitor and for their size give a pretty good sound. You'll probably need to tweak the equalizer setting on your sound control applet, but for casual audio usage they're fantastic. Having a seperate on/off/volume knob makes volume adjustment quick and easy. There's two headphone sockets on the other end of the sound bar which is a nice touch. Had I paid full Dell price then I would probably have given a Good rating, but for eBay prices this really is worth a go.