The Denon Home 400 is one of the best home speakers I’ve ever tested, but I’m not sure it quite jumps the “best smart speakers” hurdle. Let me explain. The Home 400 sounds divine, with enviable instrument separation, rich, room-filling bass, and clarity across the frequency range. Vocals, keys, strings, and percussion all sound full-bodied and immersive. When I was playing music through this speaker, I never wanted to turn it off.
Streaming directly from the HEOS app was super straightforward. I instantly synced up my Spotify and Qobuz account, and could even play my favorite radio station directly from my phone. However… if you want to use the Denon Home 400 as a smart speaker — as in, give it commands like “start a timer” — you can’t. There’s no built-in, first-party smart assistant. If you have a HomePod on the same network, you can use Siri, but there’s no Google or Alexa integration (yet).
