Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If you've followed any of my other soundbar reviews, you'll already know, but to put the story in a nutshell, I have over 30 years of home surround sound experience, and have been on a quest of sorts for the best stand alone (no separate subwoofer) soundbar in the $200-300 price range. The S216 is the fourth soundbar I've tried (the others include the Sony HTX8500, Yamaha 1080 and one by Polk Audio), so I'll be directly comparing this one to the other three. As I've stated in other reviews, you're never going to get true surround from a stand alone soundbar, but, if the electronics and design are good enough, you will find that a good soundbar will draw you even farther into a film without drawing your attention to the soundbar itself. The good: The S216 does a pretty good job of creating a decent size soundstage as long as you are within about 7-8 feet of the soundbar. When compared with the Sony and Yamaha, the Denon comes up about even when using a Dolby encoded movie. The soundstage for Midway (2019) is better than the Yamaha, but comes up a little short of the Sony, which is somewhat expected since the 8500 includes Dolby Atmos. That said, the Denon, by virtue of having far more adjustability to the bass level than the Sony, provides a better experience. Turning to Independence Day, which has a DTS encoded soundtrack - this is where the Denon really comes into its own. The soundstage really opened up and drew me into the whole experience. If there is a drawback, it's the same as both the Sony and Polk Audio soundbars, they can all be overwhelmed with even slightly too much bass added in. This was where the Yamaha outshined all three of the other competitors. The Denon has one place where it beats the others hands-down, and that's in Dialog Enhancement. The S216 has three different settings for this feature, and I seldom found use to go any higher than Medium - Denon has clearly done their homework in this area, and to date, is the way in the lead amongst the other soundbars I've bought. The not so good: Bass from the S16 could certainly be better. Although it does better than the 8500 due to more adjustability, and beats the Polk Audio hands-down, it comes up really short of Yamaha's 1080. I suspect that this is because the 1080 uses larger, down firing built in subwoofers, and likely with a bit more power driving them. The bad: I can't really call it bad, but the Dolby performance was somewhat disappointing. This is the only area where Sony's 8500 was the clear winner, and with so many 4K discs being encoded in Dolby Atmos, it may be its biggest downfall. Still, the far superior Dialog Enhancement found on the Denon goes a long way to making up for this. The ugly: I don't plan on using this soundbar for music playback, but am rating it for others in that respect so they can get an idea of this bar is what they are looking for. The S216, despite being made by one of the best audio manufacturers, comes up really short in music reproduction. The high end is far too restrained, no matter what settings are used, and the soundstage shrunk significantly from when it was put through its paces for movies. If you're looking for a multi-purpose soundbar, the Yamaha is clearly the better choice, although the 1080 has a huge drawback of its own in that it does not passthrough Dolby Vision. Positives: + Outstanding dialog enhancement + Good soundstage (excellent with DTS) + HDR10 and Dolby Vision passthrough + Great adjustability for bass levels Negatives: - Smaller soundstage than 8500 on more common Dolby Atmos discs - Not so great at music reproduction - Best surround effect is with soundbar 8 feet or closer All in all, the Denon is an excellent soundbar in its price range. Even with its limitations with Dolby encoded films, I'm using it over the Sony 8500 because of the Denon's vastly superior Dialog Enhancement and more adjustability for bass level. There may be one more review yet to come, as I'm considering trying the newer Sony 3.1 Dolby Atmos capable soundbar to see if it will offer the superior Dolby Atmos experience of the 8500, yet have Dialog Enhancement as good as that found on the S216. For now, the Denon will be my soundbar though. Thanks for reading and happy viewing!