Test: Denon Home 200

New in the multiroom world

When it comes to speakers capable of simultaneously playing music in several rooms, Japanese Denon and their Home series are a well-proven solution. Denon has now launched fairly straightforward successors to their popular Home 150, Home 250 and Home 350 speakers. The new models are named Home 200, Home 400 and Home 600, and over the past weeks I have had the opportunity to look at the entry-level Home 200.

In terms of multiroom functionality as such, it is no secret that Denon is one of the bigger competitors to Sonos. With Denon's HEOS app you can link together all speakers in the Home series as well as most of the company's soundbars and subwoofers. Basically the same setup Sonos offers with its products.

So how does the new Home 200 stand on its own and compared to Sonos speakers that are similar in function?

Lovely design with physical buttons

Starting on the outside, the Denon Home 200 is a very stylish creation with a fairly discreet design consisting of a surrounding fabric material together with sturdy plastic at the bottom and a rubberized base for stable placement. The look undoubtedly evokes thoughts of the Sonos Move 2 speaker. Subjectively that's not negative, and I actually think the Home 200 has the edge as it looks more like furniture.

On top there is a somewhat soft-feeling surface under which Denon has thoughtfully placed real physical buttons. That feels almost luxurious after years of mostly pointless touch variants. Besides normal controls there are three preset buttons that can be programmed to launch, for example, a specific music service or a radio station with a single press.

Color-wise the Home 200 comes in a dark and a light variant; I've tested the latter. On the back of the speaker, besides a power connector, there is a network-pairing button, an AUX in port (look Sonos, it can be built in!), a USB-C port, a Bluetooth button and a switch to enable or disable the built-in microphones. The connection is primarily via Wi‑Fi, but you can buy a USB-C to ethernet adapter if wired connection is preferred.

Getting started with the speaker is otherwise very straightforward and Denon's HEOS app provides excellent guidance through the whole process, which completes in a few minutes.

Playback options and the HEOS app

When it comes to setting up and configuring the Home 200, everything is handled via the HEOS app. First of all it's nice to see that Denon has finally started catching up to Sonos regarding the interface, which was previously rather technical and stiff. Denon is not fully there yet, however, and at times it's not very logical where a particular setting is located. The app is overall also a bit more technical compared to Sonos. For example, you cannot swipe to go back; this type of navigation must be handled by tapping the different icons in the app, which feels a bit dated.

The service offering for music playback is also somewhat more focused on locally stored music compared to Sonos's more streaming-oriented experience. For example, there are no built-in login options for Spotify directly in the HEOS app; you must connect via Spotify Connect. Direct playback options are available for Amazon Music, Deezer, SoundCloud, Tidal and Qobuz. There is also support for radio streaming via TuneIn as well as AirPlay 2 and direct Bluetooth playback.

In addition to playback, the HEOS app is used to add speakers and group them into rooms and configurations. That works excellently and is much snappier compared to Sonos's current app experience, which remains relatively sluggish since it was completely rebuilt nearly two years ago.

A very nice feature of the Denon 200, also found in the Home 150, is the included AUX-in port which allows streaming an analog source (e.g., a turntable) to chosen speakers in a HEOS system. You can do the same with Sonos's new Era speakers, but they require a USB-C to AUX adapter.

Sound quality and playback

Inside the Home 200 are two tweeters along with an active 4-inch woofer and a passive radiator for bass reinforcement. It's worth noting that there are no upward-firing drivers for Dolby Atmos playback, even though the speaker supports it. The Home 200 instead relies on virtual processing for this, while the more expensive models in the series are equipped with dedicated Atmos drivers.

Regarding the sound itself, I'd say Denon continues its previous line where the Home 200 delivers a fairly lively soundstage with a relatively good stereo experience and a focus on a centered listening impression. Sonos speakers, especially the newer models, have more automatic room correction, which can make them sound a bit larger but sometimes at the expense of detail and with a slightly more digitized sound. In this regard, the Denon 200 is undoubtedly more precise compared to, for example, the Era 100 and offers a clearer separated listening experience rather than one that is as easy-listening as possible.

The volume is fully adequate and even though some distortion occurs at higher levels, quality is maintained quite far. The virtual Atmos options are fairly mild in effect; while they can imply height, the effect is modest. That's somewhat positive compared to the alternative where software over-processes the sound. But if you want serious Atmos sound, this is not the speaker to buy.

The tuning options in the HEOS app are limited to a bass and treble control, and I personally needed to increase both somewhat to achieve a clearer, heavier sound. Otherwise the default profile is reasonable and the bass, despite leaning towards a more analog character compared to Sonos, is punchy and precise. The room correction based on speaker placement is good. However, the stereo experience from a single speaker remains quite placement-dependent.

Additional functionality and a verdict

Although Sonos's voice control is fairly limited in capabilities, it supports playback via Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music among others. Denon has chosen a slightly different route: the Home 200 is equipped with a solid microphone array (which can be turned off), but not with its own voice assistant. Instead, the speaker acts as an extension of Apple's Siri over AirPlay 2—requiring a HomePod or HomePod mini to handle commands—or you can use Amazon Alexa to control the speaker directly. I believe the setup process needs an overhaul as it is graphically dated and cumbersome, requiring many logins and account synchronizations to get everything working.

Price-wise the Home 200 sits at a fairly high level at launch. It is also considerably more expensive than, for example, the Sonos Era 100, which is currently priced noticeably lower.

From a comparative perspective, there is no doubt that the Home 200 delivers a more natural sound leaning a bit toward the rawer side. The Sonos speaker instead aims for a more easy-listening experience.

To summarize my impressions of the Denon Home 200: it's overall a very pleasant speaker with a relatively clean sound. The design is attractive and the connectivity options, including a built-in AUX port, are good. The app experience still leaves something to be desired and I also miss better voice control options. But for those who know what they want in terms of service offerings and are looking for a scalable and stable multiroom solution, the Denon Home 200 is unquestionably a quality candidate.