I replaced my Sonos Era speakers with an unlikely alternative - and didn't miss a beat

ZDNET's key takeaways

• Pros: Wide, spacious soundstage, AirPlay-enabled
• Cons: More expensive than competitors

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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.

Jada Jones/ZDNET

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. 

Denon says the Home 200 supports Dolby Atmos, but I wasn't able to access it via AirPlay on Apple Music; I assume that with a Home 200 stereo setup connected to a Denon soundbar, or with another music streaming subscription, you can access it.

Still, I've listened to Charli xcx's "Sympathy is a Knife" in Dolby Atmos several times on a Sonos 5.1 surround sound setup, and all the digitized harmonies layered in the chorus I usually hear in surround sound come through the Denon Home 200 speaker. 

In comparison, Sonos' choice of a midwoofer in the Era 100 delivers a bassier sound with much more emphasis on main vocals and upper bass, which most people enjoy, especially in a movie or TV-watching context.

What's new with Denon Home 400

Denon's Home 400 speaker is a behemoth of a middle sibling within the Home speaker lineup, featuring six Class-D amplifiers, two tweeters, and two upfiring midrange drivers. This speaker succeeds the Home 350 and debuts with a fresh, modern look.

This speaker is most similar to Sonos' Era 300, which also features a two-tweeter, two midrange driver, and two-woofer acoustic structure. Denon's Home 400 swapped the previous generation's DTS:X spatial audio for the more accessible Dolby Atmos, includes Bluetooth and AirPlay, and features a 3.5mm line-in port along with a USB-C port for external devices or hardwiring.

Also: Should you buy a Sonos or Samsung sound system? I compared both brands to find out

Like its younger sibling, the Home 400's sound is very detailed and clear, with noticeable detail and depth, though the smaller Home 200 delivers a more spacious soundstage. Its bass response is tight and present without muddying the rest of the sound.

HEOS vs. Sonos

My primary quest was to determine which whole-home ecosystem and why. The answer to that question heavily depends on what kind of person you are and what goals you wish to achieve. To start, Denon currently has one HEOS-compatible soundbar, so you're limited to one model if you're anchoring your system to a TV. In comparison, Sonos' S2 operating system supports seven soundbars, spanning several price points and sizes.

Denon's HEOS works just as well as Sonos' S2 for moving from room to room; Sonos just offers more products within its ecosystem. For streaming, Sonos offers Apple Music in its app, making it one of the few third-party services to do so, allowing you to access Dolby Atmos from a single speaker.

The Denon Home 400 in Charcoal.

Jada Jones/ZDNET

HEOS doesn't support Apple Music, but Denon's speakers support AirPlay. However, HEOS supports TuneIn access without a subscription, which is awesome for people who like local, talk, music, sports, or news radio stations. 

Sonos has more music streaming services, but several of them (aside from the essentials: Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music, etc) are for commercial use, such as gyms, spas, corporate offices, retail stores, or hotels, so you likely won't use them -- unless you're into that kind of thing.

Also: I connected a Bluetooth Auracast receiver to my TV, and it's a worthwhile home audio upgrade

All in all, Sonos and Denon achieve very similar results within their respective whole-home audio ecosystems, but there are major differences in each company's hardware. Sonos products have a much stronger midrange, lower mids, and bass, making them primed for movies, TV shows, podcasts, and entertaining guests.

Denon products emphasize mids and higher frequencies, feature a more balanced tone, support connection to analog devices, and support higher-quality playback, making them primed for more critical listening. 

Essentially, you should choose Sonos if you want to start with a home theater, then expand to other rooms; you should choose Denon if you want hi-fi smart speakers throughout your home and plan to focus on your home theater down the line.

ZDNET's buying advice

The Denon Home 200 and Home 400 speakers are an excellent comeback for the company, proving that a five-year hiatus yields tangible upgrades. They make wonderful tabletop centerpieces for your home while doubling as high-fidelity smart speakers. 

Denon's new home speakers can double as rear speakers for your HEOS-powered home theater, though the company only offers one soundbar to anchor them to. However, Denon offers several AV receivers, amps, and network audio players powered by HEOS to supplement the lack of soundbars.