- Denon just launched its 2.0 range: chic 200, 400, and 600 wireless speakers
- HEOS; Dolby Atmos support (400 and 600) or Dolby Virtual (200) for height
- I heard them, and I really like them for the money (prices from $399 / $299)
When an iconic brand such as Denon releases a set of products, you need to take note. Of all the best wireless speakers I know and love, none of them have 116 years of hi-fi engineering behind them, except Denon.
My UK friends will remember the dog Nipper (a moniker which may or may not be associated with ‘Nippon’, because Denon’s first listed name 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 didn’t make the very first gramophone, but the company certainly improved it and brought it to the general public in larger, more accessible quantities.
Even the name ‘Denon’ comes from a shortened portmanteau of a later company name: ‘Denki’ (electricity) and ‘Onkyo’ (sound harmony) — although Denon is not to be confused with the other notable hi-fi specialist named Onkyo.
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And today we’re about to get super specific on sound. When a listening session starts with the phrase “Sound is one of our first senses in utero, and the last to leave us before we pass” and finishes with Riders on the Storm but bringing the Dolby Atmos height right up, so those 1971 backing vocals sound truly ghostly? Well, you know we went pretty deep into how humans experience music.
But I digress. The point is that Denon has released three new very chic wireless speakers, all with downward mood lights, titanium base plates, seamless machined fabric, and two decor-specific colorways — ‘Stone’ and ‘Charcoal’. And the company calls them ‘Sonos-busting’.
I also got to listen to them in situ, in a salubrious London hotel suite. And let me tell you, they looked and sounded right at home.
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Give me the shivers
The smallest Denon 200 may look like a mono wireless speaker, but it isn’t. 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) — although of course you could pair it with a second unit to build a high-fidelity stereo soundstage, or use two as rear channels in a Dolby Atmos home cinema setup, with the 400 or 600 (I’ll discuss those in a minute). Here, you get three built-in amps for a total of 65W of power.
There are mics for Siri support, but you can switch those off entirely — and Denon is very keen to confirm that off really means off, so Big Brother won’t be listening in.
All of the speakers boast Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE Audio (coming via an update) with support for ALAC and aptX formats over Bluetooth, USB-C, and 3.5mm aux-in for flexible connectivity — and you can enjoy hi-res audio streaming services (Apple AirPlay, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, and Qobuz connect are baked in, plus it’s Roon ready) all using your home Wi-Fi network in any room, powered by HEOS. Want to hard-wire direct to your Ethernet? You’ll have to use a USB-C to Ethernet adapter this time, but the company explains that it will give you a choice of network adapters with your purchase, which is unusual.
I heard the 200 in the London suite’s dressing room, and it more than filled the bijou space with crisp, detailed sound at up to 24-bit/192kHz, which felt especially apparent when listening to the emotive texture of Ed Sheeran’s vocal in Shivers.
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The 400 is the step-up model, and here you get a six-driver array (2 x .75-inch tweeters, 2 x 1-inch up-firing drivers, 2x 4.5-inch midrange drivers) for true Dolby Atmos certified sound and a total 90W of power through its six onboard amps.
It is perhaps the best-looking model of the trio to my eyes; it fits neatly on shelves and bookcases while serving up clean leading edges of notes. It would look fantastic in bijou apartments by the sea (like my own).
Now might also be a good time to tell you that during setup, you are encouraged to list where the speaker is placed (far from a wall, close to one wall or close to two, ie. in a corner) and that within the HEOS companion app, you can opt for a more pure stereo hi-fi mix or add ‘width’ — read: boost the horizontal spaciousness of the sound field. The ‘pure’ option here bypasses the inbuilt DSP, but the spatial and directional stuff is very fun to play with, and it had me hearing extra sonic articles in tracks I thought I knew in that Doors track.
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Last but definitely not least is the eight-driver 600. Denon hasn’t unveiled a soundbar within this new 2.0 series, but it has made all three compatible with the older Denon 550 (imagine that, Sonos), so if you wanted to create a home theater system around that, you certainly can.
In fact, Sonos and WiiM should probably take note, because you get Dolby Atmos with headroom to spare here, thanks to its eight-driver array: 2 x 2.5-inch tweeters, 2 x 2.5-inch mid-range drivers, 2 x 2.5-inch up-firing drivers, 2 x 6.5-inch woofers, and eight built-in amps, totalling 170W of power.
Again, bypass the onboard DSP, and you get a pure and joyous stereo mix; deploy the DSP and Auto, and the floor drops — here is the immersive, more tub-thumping mix. And with this kind of oomph behind it, the large room I’m sitting in is truly party-ready.
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 mood lights? You can dim them or turn them off entirely; Denon believes the chief job of our hi-fi system is to be heard rather than seen (although it doesn’t hurt that these look very handsome).
Pricing? Let’s. The Denon 200 is priced $399 / £299 / AU$699; the Denon 400 is priced $599 / £449 / AU$999; the Denon 600 is priced $799 / £599 / AU$1,499.
And when you consider that the Sonos Era 300 costs around the same price as the Denon 400 and the WiiM Sound sells for roughly the same price as the Denon 200, you could say that these good-looking new wireless multi-room speakers are up against some tough competition. But you could also say that the market just got a trio of highly viable contenders — and I can’t wait to put them through their paces under review conditions.
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