I traded my Sonos Era 300 for Denon’s new home speaker – and see no reason to go back

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Sonos has perhaps been the most recognized name in the home speaker market for some time, but Denon has something to say about that. The company recently launched its lineup of second-generation home speakers: the Denon Home 200, Home 400, and Home 600.

The Denon Home 400 is the mid-tier option in the lineup, and it’s designed to go head-to-head with the Sonos Era 300. It has a similar, larger form factor, up-firing Dolby Atmos speakers, and a slew of smart streaming features. It’s also built on the company’s HEOS multi-room audio platform, for integration with speakers from other HEOS-compatible lineups.

Also: I replaced my Sonos Era speakers with an unlikely alternative – and didn’t miss a beat

Sonos has spent years refining its smart speaker offerings, and the Era 300 is an excellent example of where it’s landed. Can Denon truly take on the likes of Sonos with competitive alternatives? I’ve been using the Denon Home 400 to find out.

It’s actually very smart

The HEOS multi-room platform runs things behind the scenes, and it handles things like streaming, the app experience, and so on quite well. I actually found it supported all the features I’ve come to rely on in my Sonos speakers. HEOS natively supports several music streaming platforms, including Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon Music, and more, while Apple Music connectivity relies on the speaker’s AirPlay 2. 

The Home 400 works perfectly well on its own, but you can also pair two for stereo playback or use them as wireless surround speakers alongside the Denon Home Sound Bar 550. That option is especially helpful if you want to build out a proper living room setup without running speaker wire everywhere — and it mirrors Sonos’ implementation with its soundbars. Denon also supports HEOS-compatible subwoofers for extra low-end muscle.

For physical connections, there’s Wi-Fi, a USB-C port, a 3.5mm aux input, and a built-in microphone. While the HEOS ecosystem might not be as well-built as Sonos’s, in day-to-day use, HEOS works pretty well. Setup is easy, multi-room grouping is dependable, and you’ve got coverage across the major streaming services.

Music sounds excellent

Inside the Home 400, you’ll find six drivers total, including two tweeters, two 114mm (4.5-inch) woofers, and two up-firing drivers dedicated to height information. Every single one of those drivers gets its own dedicated Class D amplifier, giving the speaker precise control over each element of the sound. 

This acoustic makeup is a major upgrade over the previous-generation Home 250, which had fewer drivers and couldn’t do anything close to true Atmos playback. The Home 400 is actually the first HEOS-enabled speaker to support real Dolby Atmos music playback, using physical upfiring drivers rather than virtualized height effects.

Also: Tidal vs. Qobuz: I tried both hi-res streaming services, and they couldn’t be more different

You can hear the difference in compatible content, too. Whether you actually want to use Atmos while listening to music is another story. I sometimes find it enjoyable, but I usually prefer to stick to stereo playback. However, Atmos support does really help when you use these speakers as surrounds in a home theater setup. The immersion of 3D audio is noticeable from the surround speakers and the front channels, which can work together to enhance the height effect.

You can control the speaker’s frequency range, but it’s not very precise. To be clear, Sonos doesn’t give you very precise control either, so if you’re comparing the two, this isn’t necessarily a big drawback for this speaker specifically. You will get basic bass, treble, and height controls, so you can make heavy-handed adjustments, but the controls are a little hard to find. 

I spent a while digging through settings before realizing I had to actually be playing audio through the speaker to control the adjustments. Once you get an understanding of the app and how it works, you’ll find it mostly easy to navigate, but it’s still not very intuitive.

If you’re an audio nerd, you’ll appreciate the better support for hi-res audio on the Denon Home 400. The Home 400 can play full 24-bit/192kHz audio natively, and if you play audio through the USB port, you can play your FLAC files. That’s ahead of the Sonos Era 300, which can accept 24-bit/192kHz audio as an input but downscales it during playback.

ZDNET’s buying advice

The Denon Home 400 is a serious home speaker that somewhat blurs the line between consumer-grade and audiophile speakers in the sub-$500 price range. True audiophiles with deep pockets won’t consider the Home 400 an audiophile-grade speaker, but casual listeners will appreciate its sound.

Also: Sonos Play vs. Sonos Move 2: Why I’d go with the $200 cheaper Bluetooth speaker

If you’re looking for immersive and full-sounding audio without paying a high price, the Denon Home 400 is absolutely worth considering. That said, whether it beats alternatives depends on your region. In some regions, like Europe, it costs the same as the Sonos Era 300, but in the US, it costs $150 more. Most people looking for a smart speaker in this class will want to save the cash and go for the Era 300, especially if they don’t care about better high-res playback.