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Sonos isn't the only company investing in the whole-home audio game; Denon released three new smart speakers, bringing its lineup to seven. The Denon Home 200, 400, and 600 debut with a new look, Dolby Atmos support, and more ways to expand your Denon ecosystem around your house.
The question is how adept Denon's HEOS ecosystem is at serving as a whole-home audio hub, and whether it's one you should consider over Sonos? Once you're locked into an ecosystem, it's harder to achieve the seamless room-to-room audio you're searching for, and an expensive pivot to make if you want to start anew. Let's dive in.
What's new with Denon Home 200
The Home 200 succeeds the Home 150, swapping a denim-adjacent woven material for a more nondescript woven pattern. Buttons and ports are now in less obvious positions, branding is muted, and the previous square form is rounded for a modern look.
Denon's Home 200 is similar to Sonos' Era 100 in acoustic structure, containing three Cladd-D amplifiers, two tweeters, one woofer, and built-in microphones for voice assistant compatibility. Like the Era 100, Denon fitted the Home 200 with AirPlay, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi connectivity for wireless streaming. Both speakers also have a microphone switch to disconnect the built-in microphones, if privacy is your concern.
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However, the Home 200 features two separate ports for 3.5mm line-in and USB-C connectivity, allowing you to connect analog devices, and you can hardwire the Home 200 via the USB-C port with an Ethernet adapter. You can control the Home 200's bass, treble, and width on a 10-point scale, and the HEOS app lets you toggle between "Auto" balanced sound and "Pure" sound, which reduces digital processing.
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On the sound front, the Home 200 delivers an exceptionally spacious soundstage for its small stature. Before tweaking any EQ settings, the Home 200's tweeters are emphasized, delivering detail in vocals and harmonies, with very clear imaging and instrumental separation.
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