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Denon has today launched its new Denon Home 2.0 wireless speaker lineup, which consists of three models – the Denon Home 200, Denon Home 400 and Denon Home 600 – and caters to a range of consumers.
The Japanese brand has taken on board feedback from its last generation of home speakers, which included the Denon Home 250, and all three speakers feature several key upgrades.
First, to enhance immersion, the Japanese brand has ensured each of the three supports Dolby Atmos, the most popular spatial audio format on the planet. Second, it’s smartened up its design language. Both the Stone and Charcoal colourways naturally blend into modern living spaces very nicely. Finally, it has improved the setup process and app experience, doubling down on ease of use.
I got to check out the trio at a behind-closed-doors briefing in London a couple of weeks ago, and came away pretty impressed by what each of the speakers offers. The two larger options play particularly well into the hands of those who want room-filling Dolby Atmos and control over the width and height of the music they’re playing.
You can read my thoughts on each of them below. I’m yet to receive review samples, but all three are available to buy from today.
Denon Home 200: The smallest and simplest
- Price: £299
- Drivers: 2 x 1in tweeters, 1 x 4in woofer
- Power output: 65W
The baby of the range, the Home 200, is a stereo speaker that houses three drivers, each with its own amplifier. Though capable of stereo playback on its own, it can also be paired with a second Home 200 to create a larger stereo soundstage. It lacks up-firing speakers, however, so it relies on virtualisation to create the height effects of Dolby Atmos soundtracks.
If you’re not using the HEOS app to control it, you’ve got touch controls on the crest of the speaker that include customisable quick select buttons for streaming services and internet radio stations.
Denon says that its “splash and stain resistant”, though it’s not really intended for outdoor use. Like the models above it in the range, there’s support for both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, a USB-C port, and an AUX-in for connecting legacy devices.
You’re well-served on the software front, too. Spotify Connect, Qobuz Connect, and Tidal Connect are all supported, the speaker is Roon Ready, and there’s also Siri built in. A privacy switch on the rear of the speaker turns off the mic if you don’t want Apple’s voice assistant listening in.
Initial impressions: The Denon Home 200 isn’t the kind of speaker that will blow your head off, but I thought its Flat EQ profile did a good job showing off the smooth vocals of Nora Jones on Come Away With Me.
There was an engaging brightness to the Dolby Atmos mix of Shivers by Ed Sheeran, and the relatively small speaker projected its sound into the hotel suite effectively without straining. I didn’t get a great sense of verticality from the track, however, and the jury is still out on how effective the width enhancement feature is. This allows you to narrow or broaden the soundstage using an in-app slider; I love the idea, and the change in soundstage was noticeable, but I wasn’t particularly taken by either the collapsed or expanded profiles.
Denon Home 400: The mid-ranger
- Price: £449
- Drivers: 2 x .75in tweeters, 2 x 1in up-firing drivers, 2 x 4.5in mid-range drivers
- Power output: 90W
The Home 400 offers all of the same functionality as its smaller stablemate, but steps things up in the power and driver departments.
The addition of two up-firing speakers means you’re getting “proper” Dolby Atmos from a 2.0.2-channel system, and a 50% increase in power output from the Home 200 earmarks this as a speaker capable of filling larger spaces. Of course, it takes up considerably more room and costs a fair bit more as a result.
Initial impressions: I was treated to Ed Sheeran’s Shivers again (not for the last time) to demonstrate the new height extension feature in the HEOS app. Increasing the height effects using the slider pulled the soundstage up considerably; at maximum, it sounded a little odd to my ears. However, there was an engaging balance between verticality and cohesion to be found when the slider was dialled a few notches back.
And on the second demo track – Riders on the Storm by The Doors – I saw the true value of the height-channel-boosting effect. On this Atmos recording, the backing vocals are encoded to the height layer, and they were inaudible to begin with. Once the slider was engaged and gradually increased, I became more and more aware of their presence. Being able to hear parts of songs you’d otherwise miss out on is awesome, and I enjoyed the track considerably more because of it.
Denon Home 600: The big daddy
- Price: £599
- Drivers: 2 x .2.5in tweeters, 2 x 1in up-firing drivers, 2 x 2.5in mid-range drivers, 2 x 6.5in woofers
- Power output: 170W
Again, sporting all the same software support, connection options and functionality, but this time increasing the channel count to 2.1.2, the Denon Home 600 is the biggest and most expensive of Denon’s Home 2.0 range.
With two beefy woofers to handle low-end frequencies and a total power output of almost twice that of the Home 400, this is the speaker most likely to cause complaints from your neighbours.
Initial impressions: The more robust bass presentation of the Home 600 was immediately apparent when switching from the Home 400. Shivers (yes, we listened to it for a third time) isn’t an especially bassy track, but it possessed added punch in the lower registers, despite the overall tuning remaining more on the bright side.
The width and height effects were undoubtedly better realised here than on the smaller speakers, as evidenced by the guitar twangs on Death Row by Chris Stapleton being clearly sent upwards, and the crisp, piercing vocals being convincingly projected all the way across the room.
HEOS-powered multi-room functionality
While I imagine most people are unlikely to splash out on all three speakers at once, one of their big draws is multi-room functionality and the fact that you can continue to grow your home audio ecosystem by adding new models as and when.
The trio are backwards compatible with older HEOS devices such as the Denon Home 550 soundbar, and were you to own a mansion and 64 different HEOS products, you could group them in 32 zones and synchronise music or play different content in different rooms. Stereo pairing isn’t supported across generations, however.
We’ll hopefully get some of the new Denon Home 2.0 range in for testing in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for reviews of them on the site soon.
