- Denon has just launched its 2.0 range: elegant 200, 400 and 600 wireless speakers
- HEOS; Dolby Atmos (400 and 600) or Dolby Virtual (200) support for height
- I listened to them and really like them for the price (prices from $399 / $299)
When an iconic brand like Denon releases a set of products, you need to take note. Of all the best wireless speakers I know and love, none have 116 years of hi-fi engineering behind them, except Denon.
My friends in the UK will remember the dog Nipper (a nickname that may or may not be associated with ‘Nippon’, because the first Denon name on the list was ‘Nippon Chikuonki Shoukai’ in 1910) listening to the gramophone in the famous painting His Master’s Voice. This is the kind of Denon heritage I’m talking about; Denon did not make the first gramophone, but the company certainly improved it and brought it to the general public in larger and more affordable quantities.
Even the name ‘Denon’ comes from an abbreviation of a later company name: ‘Denki’ (electricity) and ‘Onkyo’ (harmony of sound), although Denon should not be confused with the other prominent hi-fi specialist called Onkyo.
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And today we’re going to be very specific about sound. When a listening session begins with the phrase “Sound is one of our first senses in the womb and the last to leave us before we die” and ends with Riders in the storm But raising the Dolby Atmos height to make those 1971 choruses sound truly ghostly? Well, you know, we went pretty deep into how humans experience music.
But I digress. The point is, Denon has launched three very stylish new wireless speakers, all with downward ambient lighting, titanium base plates, seamless machined fabric, and two décor-specific color combinations: ‘Stone’ and ‘Charcoal’. And the company calls them “Sonos-busting.”
I was also able to listen to them in situ, in a healthy suite in a London hotel. And let me tell you, they looked and sounded right at home.
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give me chills
The smaller Denon 200 may look like a wireless mono speaker, but it’s not. This is a built-in stereo unit, with two 1-inch tweeters and a 4-inch woofer, plus Dolby Atmos virtualization for room-filling sound (unlike the similarly sized Sonos Era 100), though you can of course pair it with a second unit to build a high-fidelity stereo soundstage, or use two as rear channels in a Dolby Atmos home theater setup, with the 400 or 600 (I’ll discuss them in a minute). Here you get three built-in amplifiers for a total of 65W of power.
There are Siri-compatible microphones, but you can turn them off completely, and Denon is very interested in confirming that turning off actually means off, so that Big Brother isn’t listening.
All speakers feature Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE Audio (coming soon via update) with support for ALAC and aptX formats via Bluetooth, USB-C and 3.5mm aux-in for flexible connectivity, and you can enjoy high-resolution audio streaming services (Apple AirPlay, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and Qobuz connect are built in, plus it’s Roon-ready), all using your home Wi-Fi network in any room, powered by HEOS. Do you want to make a direct connection to your Ethernet? This time you’ll have to use a USB-C to Ethernet adapter, but the company explains that it will give you a choice of network adapters with your purchase, which is unusual.
I listened to the 200 in the London suite dressing room and it more than filled the jewel space with crisp, detailed sound up to 24-bit/192kHz, which was especially evident when listening to the emotive texture of Ed Sheeran’s voice on Shivers.
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The 400 is the advanced model, and here you get a six-driver array (2 0.75-inch tweeters, 2 1-inch upturn drivers, 2 4.5-inch midrange drivers) for true Dolby Atmos-certified sound and a total of 90W of power through its six built-in amplifiers.
In my opinion, it is perhaps the most attractive model of the trio; Fits perfectly on shelves and bookcases while serving up clean note edges. It would look fantastic in bijou apartments by the sea (like mine).
Now might also be a good time to tell you that during setup, you’re advised to indicate where the speaker is placed (away from one wall, near one wall, or near two, i.e. in a corner) and that within the HEOS companion app, you can opt for a purer stereo hi-fi mix or add “width” (read: increase the horizontal width of the sound field). The “pure” option here bypasses the built-in DSP, but the spatial and directional stuff is very It was fun to play with and made me hear additional sonic items on tracks I thought I knew on that Doors track.
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Last, but definitely not least, is the eight-driver 600. Denon hasn’t introduced a soundbar within this new 2.0 series, but it has made all three compatible with the older Denon 550 (go figure, Sonos), so if you wanted to build a home theater system around that, you certainly can.
In fact, Sonos and WiiM should probably take note, because here you get Dolby Atmos with headroom to spare, thanks to its array of eight drivers: 2 x 2.5-inch tweeters, 2 x 2.5-inch midrange drivers, 2 x 2.5-inch upward-firing drivers, 2 x 6.5-inch woofers, and eight built-in amplifiers, for a total of 170W of power.
Again, skip the onboard DSP and you’ll get a pure, joyous stereo mix; roll out the DSP and Auto, and the floor drops: here’s the most impactful, immersive mix in the tub. And with this kind of enthusiasm behind it, the large room I’m sitting in is really ready to party.
Oh, and before I forget, you can add up to 64 products in up to 32 ‘zones’ in the HEOS app, which really would be a wall of sound. And those delicious ambient lights? You can dim them or turn them off completely; Denon believes that the primary function of our hi-fi system is to be heard rather than seen (although it doesn’t hurt that they look very cool).
Prices? Come on. The Denon 200 is priced at $399 / £299 / AU$699; the Denon 400 is priced at $599 / £449 / AU$999; The Denon 600 is priced at $799 / £599 / AU$1,499.
And considering that the Sonos Era 300 costs about the same price as the Denon 400 and the WiiM Sound sells for about the same price as the Denon 200, you could say that these hot new multi-room wireless speakers are facing some stiff competition. But you could also say that the market has just received a trio of highly viable contenders, and I can’t wait to put them through their paces under review conditions.
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