Denon Home 150: review in the minutes
A familiar name in home audio and theater, Denon takes aim at Sonos with its lineup of three home speakers. The Denon Home 150 is the cheapest of the trio currently available, but it is good value for money.
Before you get too excited, it's not exactly cheap for a smart speaker, but the Denon Home 150 gives you plenty of options while keeping it simple.
A mono speaker, it offers dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity, as well as a physical Ethernet connector, as well as a USB-A port for connecting your hard drive or USB flash drive. There is also an analog minijack input. The only useful extra missing here is the optical digital input, but something has to go in a smart speaker priced at £249/£219.
Such variety continues with your application options. Through the HEOS app, you can quickly connect to Spotify, TuneIn Radio, Amazon Music, Deezer, Napster, Soundcloud, Tidal, and other services, with the app adjusting to your location.
Clever touches come from the ability to set playlists across all sources, as well as use the Google Assistant or Alexa to control things with your voice. The app is a bit simplistic in terms of appearance, but it has all the essentials and its aesthetics make its features more accessible, including EQ settings and other customization tools.
Setup is pretty quick, save for one hiccup we had updating the Denon Home 150, and before long we're ready to listen.
The Denon Home 150 also sounds reasonably beefy. The soundstage is quite wide for such a device, although we did wonder what it would sound like with two speakers. Along with punchy bass at higher volumes, you also get smooth mids and relaxed highs. A bit of zing would have been nice here at the top end, but turn up the volume and you'll miss it.
This is a speaker that you want to subtly blend in with your living room decor, but will also look great in the kitchen. If you want a small speaker that doesn't steal the spotlight but offers decent reproduction, the Denon Home 150 is the one to consider.
Some of your options will be overkill if you just want something to stream music from your phone, but it's nice to have so much flexibility. Being able to access your NAS drive collection won't be necessary for everyone, but if you're one of those people, it's vital.
Through the HEOS app, you'll also be able to control playback in multiple rooms with the idea that you're formulating your own ecosystem of Denon Home speakers for the entire home, putting you in control wherever you are.
Ultimately, the Denon Home 150 is a lot more fun than your average smart speaker, even if its sound quality doesn't quite match the Sonos One. application potential means the Denon Home 150 is an excellent alternative.
- Denon Home 150 (Black) on Amazon for €249 (Opens in a new tab)
Denon Home 150: price and release date
- Available in UK, US and Australia
- Priced at € 249 / € 219 / AU € 340
- Released in 2020
The Denon Home 150 launched in 2020, but held steady at $249 / £219 / AU$340. At time of writing you can buy it for $189 direct from Denon UK with similar third-party discounts, while the price is pretty stable in the US
It is available in white or black.
Denon Home 150: design and features
- Requires plug-in power supply
- Proximity sensor based controls on top
- So many music options
For a jewel-like unit (at 18,7cm tall, it's only 4,5cm taller than Apple's original HomePod), there's a lot going on with the Denon Home 150. At the top of the cabinet is its control Panel. Surprisingly, the surface darkens when not in use, with a proximity sensor that detects when you're nearby. Buttons include play/pause, volume controls, and quick select buttons that you can assign as needed.
On the back of the speaker there is a manual connection button, an Ethernet port, a USB-A port, a 3,5mm auxiliary input, a Bluetooth pairing button and the socket for the power cable. You can also mount it on the wall.
A small status light is located at the bottom. Blue shows it's ready for action, orange indicates an update, and green is Bluetooth pairing mode. Use the voice assistant and a blue stripe will appear at the top to show that you are being listened to.
The features of the Denon Home 150 just keep growing when you take a look at the integrated side of things too. While the HEOS app isn't exactly fancy, it's packed with features. It provides integrations with a variety of music streaming services, including Amazon Music, Spotify, Tidal, and many more. There's also multi-room control if you have multiple HEOS speakers in your home, so the app doubles as the remote you might have been surprised not to find in the box.
There is also support for AirPlay 2 and voice assistant. The latter is about as responsive as you'd expect from a dedicated solution, so it's handy. Being able to set up your own playlists across multiple services and choosing to import music from your home network or an external hard drive is also handy and pretty simple to do.
Ultimately, the Denon Home 150 mostly does everything you could possibly want or need, though the app could get by with a few simple taps or even a tutorial or two.
Denon Home 150: sound quality
- monaural speaker
- Good quality sound even at high volume
- Powerful bass
The Denon Home 150 is a small speaker, so in an ideal world you'd need to pair it with another or even a subwoofer and soundbar for a truly room-filling experience. Despite this, its small form factor works well in a living room, kitchen, or even a bathroom.
The HEOS app initially asks where the speaker will be placed, slightly adjusting its sound if you've placed it against a wall or outdoors. Stick with it and you'll get a pretty rich and crisp experience.
Bass is powerful even at lower volumes during Foo Fighters' All My Life and Muse's Hysteria, sweeping the room with aplomb.
Turn up the volume and you won't lose sharpness either, distortion just doesn't happen. While it's not the loudest speaker, it outperforms many of the competition at this size. The wrong side? You may need to adjust the volume depending on what you're listening to.
Going from a bass-heavy and vibrant track to something more zingy like Childish Gambino's Feels Like Summer makes you want to adjust the volume so you don't get overwhelmed, but stick with the same genre throughout and it becomes less a problem. Everything Must Go by Manic Street Preachers is a perfect example of the emoticon that can be played through Denon Home 150. Cambiar a algo más nítido como All of Me by John Legend funciona igual de bien, mientras que God Only Knows de The Beach Boys está lleno de contemplación melancólica, como debería ser.
Denon Home 150: Value
- Many features
- Ideal for the home environment.
The Denon Home 150 is both a good start to your home entertainment setup and an effective speaker in its own right. There are alternatives, but the Denon Home 150 keeps things simple.
It has a simple app and many ways to connect to other devices and services, while looking for the part in your home. Reliability seems to be its focus here, though it doesn't always shine on just one thing.
Denon Home 150: Should You Buy It?
Denon Home 150 AttributesRemarksRatingDesign & FeaturesVery good bang for the buck in a small package4/5Sound qualityNot afraid of going down as it doesn't distort easily4/5ValueMore like a jack of all trades than a master, but that's not necessarily something bad4/5Buy it if...
Don't buy if...
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