It’s been roughly six years since Denon first launched its Home wireless smart speaker range. The Denon Home 150, 250, and 350 were the Japanese audio company’s first to support the Heos wireless multi-room platform and retain the company’s branding.
Now, it’s got refreshed versions with the Denon Home 200, 400, and 600 that expand the Heos-supported lineup and add Dolby Atmos support.
Denon brings Heos home
“Designed for music lovers who want powerful, room-filling sound without complexity, Denon Home 2.0 combines the brand’s 100-year heritage in high-fidelity audio with sleek design, smart connectivity, and seamless multi-room functionality,” says the company.
Similar to what Sonos and Bang & Olufsen offer, the Heos platform allows you to connect up to 64 supported speakers together around your home, or all in the same room, to create a “fully synchronised multi-room listening experience” controlled by a single app.
Notably, the outgoing Home 1.0 range, as it’s been dubbed, and the new Home 2.0 range will both be compatible with the Heos app. Your speakers don’t even have to carry the Denon name. The Marantz Horizon and Grand Horizon also support the Heos platform, for example.
The three new speakers vary slightly, mostly in the number of drivers they contain, and, by extension, their size and shape.
200, 400, or 600?
The smallest of the trio, the Denon Home 200, features three drivers: one 102mm woofer and two 25mm tweeters. These are powered by three Class-D power amplifiers. This one technically supports Dolby Atmos spatial audio, but only virtually.
They can be set up as a stereo pair and support hi-res music streaming, whether that is from your local library or your chosen streaming platform. If you’ve already got other Denon gear, namely the Denon Home Sound Bar 550, any of these can be connected as wireless satellites.
The Home 400 adds three more drivers. There are two 114mm woofers, two 19mm tweeters, and two 25mm upfiring height channels. Each driver gets its own Class-D amp, and thanks to those height channels, Dolby Atmos content will fare better.
The Denon Home 600 is the flagship and sports suitable flagship specs. Two more drivers were added for a total of eight: two 165mm woofers, two 66mm mid-range units, two 19mm tweeters, and two 66mm upfiring height channels.
All three speakers support the latest wireless streaming tech, including Wi-Fi 6 and AirPlay 2. Bluetooth playback is also supported, and all three support a physical connection via USB-C or 3.5mm AUX. They all have a few physical touch controls and support voice control integration.
While Denon’s Home 2.0 range is available in South Africa, we haven’t been able to track down what they cost. We’ve reached out to Homemation, the local distributors, and will update this article once we’ve heard back.
