Denon DHT-S316 Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer, Bluetooth, Dolby Digital, DTS Decoding, Dialogue Enhancer, HDMI ARC, Wall Mountable, Music Streaming - Black

Excellent. Plugged it all in, and off it went turn our Samsung TV audio from 70’s radio to full cinema standard. Everything it plays is crisp, clear and complimented well with the bass from the subwoofer. Remote is small and a bit pants as other reviews advise of. However, if you’ve got it plugged in through HDMI-ARc then the TV controls its power and volume so can’t really ever seeing it be used. Build quality of the sound bar and subwoofer is excellent, typically Japanese.Excellent transformation of TV viewing for a very reasonable price.

I have two flat screen TVs in the house, one in the bedroom and the other in the ‘gym’. I have found modern TVs to be lacking when it comes to sound, often variable when streaming.Having done a bit of research I found this model which was attractive as I’ve I’ve used the brand before and there was a deal on the price. I didn’t want to commit to more expensive options not having used a sound bar previously. So I bought two.I’m really pleased. Easy to install and come with all you need. The sub is cableless and the end result looks good. Easy to control with the remote and the sound bar switches on and off with the TV. Both mine used ARC so only needed the hdmi cable, optical also included if that’s needed.Out of the box I found the sub to be very strong. This is easy to dial down with the remote. In the bedroom, with soft furnishings, that was enough. In the ‘gym’ the engineered floor and spare furnishings made the sub difficult to dial down sufficiently. I had a spare piece of flooring which the gym equipment sits on and cut a piece to go under the sub. Marvellous.I can also now hear high sounds and infill much better too. For example, bird song and an enhanced audio experience thinking of the chase scenes in the Bourne trilogy.I’m now looking at internet radio to Bluetooth to the bar.

(notable update. I really can't figure out why a wireless sub is good - for the consumer. it still. needs. a. cable. and rather than a routable audio cable, it's now a chunky mains cable. also if you want to disconnect the sub, rather than just pulling the wire out of the soundbar, you need to unplug the sub from the mains. I can't see any advantage (for the end user) of this. maybe it has some for the manufacturer - and I can't see that it would be cost, because mains cable costs more than audio cable. doesn't it? plus a wireless sub will introduce some sort of lag. the only I can think of is that customers were mixing and matching subs to soundbars and damaging either the sub or the soundbar)I've realised a possible reason for the wireless. a wired soundbar with standard audio leads would have to have the sub amp within the soundbar. a wireless sub has the amp within the sub. so if the soundbar is a standalone product, a sub amp is needless (£) circuitry within the soundbar. so it isn't really for your benefit. actually another reason - audio cables can pick up interferencepre ambleI view soundbars as being for movies and television - I don't use them for music. soundbars for me are for a clear voice, and some bass thumps and resonance, but they don't have an open low/mid range for music. in the same way, my music speakers are slightly too boomy for speech - hence a soundbar. I'll give a maximum of 4 stars, because let's face it, do you pay any attention to the 5 star ratings?I only use them with the computer as the source (computer -> hdmi -> tv -> optical -> soundbar), so I always have an EQ for tweaking frequencies, and usually VLC player so I can change image/sound latency etc, which I find necessary for bluetooth which has a small delay. I prefer not using bluetooth because I have read (choose your favourite (un)official source) that the sound signal gets compressed/uncompressed at it is sent to a bluetooth device.my main spec for a soundbar is good quality of sound at low volumes, I rarely blast them. I want it to sound nice (speech, mids, bass), and not to be heard next door. I ended up trialling the Denon S316, the majority sierra plus, the JBL bar 2.1 deep bass mk2 and threw in the ultimea n50 for good measure.media tested:start of a new hope, Star destroyer overhead (brass instrument music, laser sounds, bass rumble)blade runner 2049, craft flying scene 12 mins in (rich bass music and thumps)matrix, some speech scenes and lobby fight (speech clarity/fullness and music/high pitched gun effects or booms)one or two random news interviews containing standard speech20Hz-20kHz sweep youtube videoStereo media tested only, I can't comment on Dolby effectssummary of audio:Denon £170 approx amazon - best for a warm/soft sound. slightly lacking in high end clarity (needs the EQ). speech sounds more natural at lower/medium volumes. subwoofer is reasonable. needs the EQ to take speech to the treble/clarity levels of the other twoMajority £160 approx amazon - at low volumes slightly tinny (but clear) speech. at higher volumes speech seems less tinny and more rounded. subwoofer is bassy and addictiveJBL £230 approx, different seller - for a brand name I was disappointed. very tinny speech. subwoofer is reasonable, better than denon but not as good as majority. I wonder if the tinny soundbar which may lack low to mids, causes the sub to sound more pronounced, hence the "deep bass" name. I'm not sure if this is end of lineultimea £110 approx amazon - very plucky contender. doesn't have the sound depth of the other 3, but for £110 is good value. very reasonable for voice and has an amount of depth from the subsummary of useability:Denon - has the worst control indication. it's just 5 LED's on the front, no indication of status of features. remote is full featured but has unpleasent squidgy buttons. when you change a setting, no indication of what has changed, just the blink of an LED on the front. has a complicated LED-combo system to tell you what the current setting is, you'll need the manual to decipherI emailed Denon about their sound settings (because the display doesn't tell you) and while Denon were extremely helpful, there was still some ambiguity about the settings. I *think* what they said was, upon factory switch on, a default setting is active (not movie night or music) and a default dialog setting is active (not 1/2/3). once you activate any of both of the 3, the only way to revert to either 4th default setting is a factory reset.Majority - has a good front display which tells you everything. remote is full featured and has nice buttonsJBL - same sort of front display as the majority. remote has decent buttons but has very basic featuresultimea - again same display as majority/JBL. remote has nice buttons and is fairly full featured"could it be that a non brand name wants to impress with features?"For my base line spec of a warm sound at quiet volume levels, the Denon suits best. that's at the cost of having a poor control display. as other people have said, needs treble EQ to boost voice clarity. the ultimea also serves as a compact system with speech with serviceable bass. the majority has addictive bass and I noticed things from the majority sub that I didn't notice with the others. at low volumes the majority bar is tinny (but clear), at higher volumes sounds slightly fuller/less tinny. the JBL has very few redeeming features to be honest. it isn't the best bass, the speech is shrill, the remote isn't full featured. in fact the only redeeming feature of the JBL is the control display. it's worth pointing out, if you're hard of hearing, the JBL might in fact be better. part of a soundsystem means that you can in principle make sound "more hearable" than the real thing - reproducing absolute natural might not be your goal.I think it's worth saying that all of these soundbar+sub combos probably lack open low-to-mids. they're all for speech with bass effects. I can tell you that because my edifier R1280DB's have open low mids. and aren't very good for speech - too boomy.other minor things - the ultimea volume buttons are up down, but the bass buttons are left/right. slightly un intuitive. those flutes on the side of the majority? as far as I can tell they arent ports, just plastic shapes. the three bigger products have wireless subs. why?? you still need a wire! you're just exchanging a routable/malleable audio wire for a heavy duty mains cable. the only reason I can think is so you can't mix and match subs from other systems....which is a pity, to be honest. plus not only that - the majority sub doesn't have a figure 8, it's hardwired. the denon's sparse information display and squidgy buttons is compounded by the fact that the LED's take 1-2 seconds after you've pressed the remote buttons to blink in acknowledgement that the button has been pressed.thankfully all of the 3 more expensive soundbars have the buttons on the top in the middle. the ultimea has them hidden at the end of the bar on the right. I don't know why. "you get convenient buttons only if you pay more"? I still prefer a rotary volume control and not +/- buttons. they all have +/- buttonsI also did a 20Hz-20kHz sweep from a youtube video (all at flat response). The majority was the only one that gave the "lorry driving past furniture buzzing effect" at sub-100Hz. I'm sure you could EQ the majority if you wanted less sub resonance. The JBL had possibly slightly more "controlled" bass. The Denon was possibly less than the other two (because of a physically smaller sub enclosure) but acceptable.The JBL had quite a weak midrange (200-800Hz) and quite shrill higher (4.5kHz). for the Majority higher frequencies were less "painful" - fewer shrill resonant points than the JBL. The Denon probably had least clear mids and highers (or more "natural/soft" speech if you want) and would probably need EQ to boost above 1.5kHz.The JBL had some almost painful resonant upper frequencies (4.5kHz), with the Denon being "smoother" (and needing EQ above 1.5kHz). the Majority was stronger around the 500Hz mark than the JBL, which might explain why the JBL sounded markedly tinnier (as in, the JBL had less at the 500Hz midrange)Denon good for "natural smoothness", Majority better for clarity, JBL possibly for your average interview with a man on the street for the news or Coronation streetthe JBL will be going back. I'd never forgive myself for returning the "soft/warm" Denon, and the majority bass is addictive with the soundbar improving at louder volumes. the ultimea is also a good little piece of kit. I need to say the Ultimea was respectable at £110. if you are comparing the Ultimea at £150 with the other two at ~£160, I'd choose either of the other two.I'll also say the Majority Atlas soundbar at £30 is decent (not extensively tested) - the only thing I don't like about it is that it talks to you when you switch it on - and switching it off sets the volume to 0 (no separate power button)All of these 5 is best, except tinnyness where 5 is most tinny (or most clear/sharp/shrill speech)________________remote button features remote buttons display sound qual bass clarity tinnyness________________response_______________clickyness_____________(warmness)Majority________5_____________5________5______________5_______3.5_________5_____4.5____3.5Denon__________3_____________4________2______________1_______4.5_________3.5___4______2JBL_____________5_____________2________3______________5_______2.5_________4.5___5______5Ultimea_________4_____________5________5______________5_______4___________3_____4______3

For the price, this is an awesome quality soundbar with woofer which has made a big difference to my LG OLED TV.Pros:- Easy fast set-up - just plug & play. Bluetooth phone connection was easy and very fast.- Very good clarity on voice + a dialogue enhancer for clearer speech- Deep Earth moving bass enough to wake up the dead! The floor and my ribs literally vibrated! N.b. Please check your neighbours aren't in before playing your favourite rock ballads!- Soundbar very slim & ergonomic. Fits under TV without obscuring picture.- Good build quality without cheap materials- Well packaged in protective foamAreas for Improvement- The controls on the remote would benefit from being lit up or at least painted luminously as it's impossible to see the control markings for the functions in low light.- The volume control isn't shown / indicated on the TV screen although the TV controller works and shows the volume on my LG OLED TVHowever, these are minor niggles and I'm very pleased with my purchase. Overall I think this is a quality sound bar and great value for money which I highly recommend.

The Denon soundbar is very good and sounds great. However, I wish Amazon had sent a new one, instead of the clearly returned item that I got...

Great soundbar easy to setup and great sound, unfortunately I had to return it as it didn’t fit in my tv cabinet

Very impressed big sound, well balanced rich lows