5 Things to know about the Denon Home 600, a huge Dolby Atmos wireless speaker

If you’ve got plenty of money to spend on a big, wireless speaker, the new Denon Home 600 is a tempting proposition. It’s the largest of the bunch of new home wireless speakers that Denon just released. Not only is the 600 physically large with tremendous volume, but it’s also well-connected and can play Dolby Atmos songs.

The Denon Home 400 more directly competes against the Sonos Era 300 than the 600 does, but I was curious what a powerful spatial audio speaker could bring to a living room. So, after spending time with the new speaker, I’ve come away with a few impressions that might help your buying decision. Both good and bad, here are the five most interesting things about the Denon 600 wireless speaker.

5. Customizable preset buttons

The hardware is large, so you’ll want to make sure you have room for it. It weighs over 17 pounds and is 17.7 inches wide, 9.88 inches deep, and 8.9 inches tall. More interesting than its size, however, it has three customizable buttons on the top that you can use for presets.

I really like the idea of having quick-access buttons that you can assign to different music. Actually using the buttons was less than ideal, however. I couldn’t find a place in the Heos app to directly configure the buttons. Instead, you’re supposed to play something and then press and hold a button until the light on the speaker blinks.

I assigned a TuneIn radio station, but not everything worked. For example, trying to set an album from Amazon Music wouldn’t stick. The light just blinked red. A few tweaks could make these buttons even more useful.

4. Dolby Atmos support with upfiring drivers

There are a lot of earbuds and headphones that will simulate spatial audio. Those are fine options, but I don’t think a lot of people have really listened to a good Dolby Atmos song mix before. Hearing a well-mixed song play out loud is game-changing for music lovers.

The Denon 600 does a fine job of playing Dolby Atmos tracks. In the Heos app, you can adjust the height and width, just like you might adjust the bass or treble.

3. Eight drivers with amps

One of the reasons this speaker is so large and heavy is that it includes eight drivers, all with class-D amplifiers. There are two 6.5-inch woofers, four 2.6-inch midwoofers, two of which are upfiring, and two tweeters.

Even for substantial living rooms, this speaker might be too powerful to ever turn up to its full potential. Still, in terms of volume and bass, the 600 can handle whatever you want it to. I thought the speaker sounded great with its default tuning out of the box, but there are some EQ changes you can make to dial things in for your space or preferences.

2. No Spatial Audio from Apple Music

One of my biggest gripes with the Denon 600 is the Heos app. It’s rough in terms of interface design and functionality. Sonos gets a lot of flak for its Wi-Fi-connected mobile app, but the Heos one is worse. It’s not unusable by any means, but don’t expect an ultra-polished experience.

There are a lot of little papercuts with Heos, but the most annoying one is that there’s no direct connection for Apple Music. The service was the premier streaming service for Dolby Atmos songs, a key feature of the 600, but you can’t listen to them from Apple. Instead, you’ll need to subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited to listen to Dolby Atmos songs.

The second most annoying aspect of the music services is that Spotify’s integration is just a handoff to the Spotify app through its Connect protocol. You can listen to lossless audio, but there’s no actual Heos integration for Spotify.

1. Lots of ways to play music and use the speaker

I think the Heos app could really benefit from more and better music integrations. Still, the 600 has a lot of ways that it can be used. On the back, there’s a 3.5mm jack and a USB-C port. Both of these can be used for music playback.

The speaker supports Apple’s AirPlay 2, so you can listen to Apple Music, but you still can’t stream Dolby Atmos tracks. The 600 also has Bluetooth as a universal connector to make sure it can be used for nearly any device. I wouldn’t recommend buying the Denon 600 to only use as a Bluetooth speaker, but it’s a nice inclusion.

It’s not only the ways that the 600 can be used for music playback. The speaker is flexible in other ways. With enough cash, you can buy two and wirelessly stereo pair them. For a home theater setup, the Denon 600 can be used with the Denon Home Sound Bar 550 as wireless rears. It can also be paired with a wireless subwoofer. It’s a compelling speaker that should adapt to any living room situation.