Denon Home 200, 400 and 600 review: Taking on Sonos

Denon Home 200, 400 And 600 Review: Taking On Sonos

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Home Denon Home 200, 400 and 600 review: Taking on Sonos By Billy Steele May 13, 2026 10:00 am EST Billy Steele for Engadget RATING : 8.2 / 10 Pros

Small size

Great sound quality

Multiroom ready Cons

Mids and lows can get muddy at times

Pricier than some of the competition Once upon a time, Sonos was the only brand worth mentioning when it came to multiroom audio. Those days are long gone as several companies now offer Wi-Fi-connected home speakers that work together from multiple rooms and are all controlled by the same app. Denon is one of the competitors that arose over recent years, and its Home line of audio devices takes direct aim at Sonos' crown. Each of Denon's latest products — the Home 200, Home 400 and Home 600 — has its own merits, so deciding on the model that's best for you really comes down to where and how you plan to use them. A Denon Home primer Billy Steele for Engadget The Denon Home line isn't new. The company already has the Home 150, Home 250 and Home 350 speakers on its roster, in addition to the Home 550 soundbar and Home Subwoofer. In other words, the company is no stranger to multiroom audio devices. To control all of those speakers, and the three new models, you use the HEOS app that works with compatible products from both Denon and Marantz (both companies are owned by Samsung subsidiary Harman). Like the Sonos app, the HEOS app is where you do the initial setup and connection for the Home speakers. Once you sync your music streaming services, you can beam tunes to any of the Home speakers you own. The app also ports in local radio for free via TuneIn, so I was able to stream my regional NPR station with a single tap. The HEOS app will let you access any connected media servers as well as wired audio sources via USB and 3.5mm aux. Of course, there's also Bluetooth and AirPlay support if you want to bypass the app completely. From the Rooms menu in the HEOS app, you have the option to play music everywhere with a single tap of the "All Rooms" button. To remove one or more rooms from the group, you simply drag them out of the list. You can build group presets for any frequently used configurations too. What's more, you have the option to control each room individually here as selecting a room will give you its media player and controls along the bottom of the UI. The HEOS app doesn't offer a room calibration tool like Sonos' Trueplay, but the software does account for speaker placement before adjusting the sound. During the initial setup, the app will ask if a speaker is placed "away from walls," "near one wall" or "near two walls." Based on your answer, the audio is optimized for "accurate, balanced sound." And yes, you can adjust this if you relocate the Home speakers later. The app will let you select multiroom audio quality as well, with Normal and High options for increased reliability and increased fidelity (16-bit/44.1kHz) respectively. The latter setting is only recommended if your Home devices are wired with Ethernet or when they all have excellent Wi-Fi signals. Multiroom connectivity between the Home speakers is reliable and offers a seamless soundtrack as I move from room to room. Sometimes using multiple speakers throughout my house produces slight lag that comes across as a bit of reverb. With the Home 600, 400 and 200, I honestly couldn't tell there were three different speakers playing music as I moved from my office to the kitchen and bedroom. All three of these Denon Home speakers can be used in stereo pairs, although the Home 200's smaller stature makes it best-suited for that. You would need a lot of shelf space in order to use two Home 400s or 600s like this. The trio all sport programmable Quick Select buttons on their control panels, putting commonly used content and settings just one press away. These essentially work like the buttons on a car stereo: Press and hold to store the current playback source, sound mode and audio settings. There's also an Action Button on all three that summons a connected voice assistant without reaching for your phone. Denon Home 600: Big sound in a big speaker Billy Steele for Engadget The Home 600 ($799) reminds me of an oversized Beats Pill. Let's blame it on all of the rounded edges. This is the largest of the new Home speakers, housing eight drivers and eight Class-D amplifiers. More specifically, there's two of each of the following inside: 0.75-inch tweeters, 2.6-inch midrange, 2.6-inch up-firing and 6.5-inch woofers. To fit all of that, Denon opted for a curved construction that measures 17.7 inches x 9.9 inches x 8.9 inches. In other words, you'll need ample shelf space to accommodate one of these beasts. As the largest of the new Home speakers, the 600 is the loudest and most powerful, but that doesn't come at the expense of clarity. There's an obvious emphasis on vocal precision in the mix, which means the words clearly cut through even the most chaotic of genres. Johnny Franck's clean choruses float above the drums, guitars and other instruments on Bilmuri's "TWICE," for example. The bass doesn't get lost either as those dual 6.5-inch woofers offer ample oomph without overpowering everything else. The speaker also exhibits subtle details that might otherwise be lost on shelf speakers. Things like the banjo on Bilmuri's "EMPTYHANDED" are still plainly heard, even at lower volumes. While this is the most robust of the three Home speakers, I found the 600 to be a bit too much for my needs. If you have a large space and like to listen loud, this could be a great speaker for you. However, at 50 percent volume, the 600 was almost too loud for casual listening, and using it at a lower level that felt appropriate for my office just felt like a waste. There's no doubt it's an excellent speaker with great clarity and reliable connectivity, but it also might be overkill for some users. Engadget review score: 8.3/10 Denon Home 400: The best of both worlds Billy Steele for Engadget To me, the Home 400 ($599) is the sweet spot in Denon's latest home audio trio. It's not so big you have to plan carefully where you're going to put it. It also has plenty of punch in terms of both power and overall audio quality. Six drivers provide the sound here, with two 0.75-inch tweeters, two 0.95-inch up-firing and two 4.5-inch woofers, all powered by six Class-D amplifiers. The design of the Home 400 is also a mix of the 600 and 200. If you took a 600, shrunk it and turned it up on its backside, you'd basically have the Home 400. Or, you could describe it as a horizontally stretched Home 200. Another difference in design on the 400 is that Denon moved the controls to the right side from the top panel. This was likely to give the up-firing drivers ample room to project their sound. I do like that the company opted to put the volume controls at the top of the vertical panel and the Quick Access buttons at the bottom, with play/pause and voice assistant buttons in between. Volume is likely to be the most used (at least, it was for me), so this placement is very intuitive. Just like the 400 is the middle of the road between the 600 and 200 in terms of size, it also bridges the gap when it comes to sound. There's still ample dedication to vocal clarity and there's plenty of low-end tone from the dual-woofer setup. But unlike what I found on the 200, the overall mix doesn't ever feel compressed compared to the larger Home 600. There's still plenty of detail, even when songs get complex like Nine Inch Noize's synth-laiden "Vessel." The biggest downgrade from the 600 is the less substantial bass tone, which isn't a dealbreaker for me since the Home 400 is no low-end slouch by any means. Engadget review score: 8.6/10