Denon Home Speakers now support Siri .... stealth marketing

 

I've been a Denon fan for years. In my opinion they produce some great products at a reasonable price. They aren't cheap, but neither are they mind blowing expensive. If you are after a home theatre system, you can't really go wrong. So, I've been using their AVR's (Audio Visual Receiver) for years now. I have a post from when I lived in the USA on my setup then. My implementation is slightly different now, as I have an tv as my front end, and my amp is a different model, but I still use my MacMini for a few things including being a home media centre. One of the reasons I love Denon, too, is they support AirPlay 2.

I love my home audio set up. I'm going through some renovations on the house at the moment, but when those are done, I will have a 7.1 surround sound system. (6 pairs of speakers, one centre speaker and a sub-woofer). I've built the speaker collection up over many years with my British made front speakers now about 30 years old... and still going strong. It even reflects my life, as one pair of speakers and my sub woofer are from Krix, an Australian company, and my rears are American.

The one down side is all the cables I have to run. Bloody nightmare.

A number of years ago, Denon bought an Australian Company and that, essentially, gave them what is now called HEOS (Home entertainment Operating System). This is a multi-room audio network. Initially, Denon (And Marantz) created a set of products that were branded as HEOS but now HEOS technology is built into its products, and the HEOS brand is discontinued.

I'd been looking at Denon remote speakers for some time, but they didn't have Siri support, just Alexa. For me, that discounted them. Why would I have a remote speaker that I have to actually go through the effort of using my watch or iPhone? I just want to walk into the room and say something.... and I'm not going to deploy a HomePod mini as well as a Denon wireless speaker. For the same reason, I did not implement Sonos.

Then, in December of 2023, Denon Home firmware v3 came out and it included Siri support. It was the ultimate in stealth marketing. I don't think they told anyone. Even then, it is little more than a foot note in their release notes. I only tripped over it during an on-line search.

Why is this. big deal? Well because Denon is an Audio company that is introducing tech, rather than a tech company adding audio (Apple and Sonos for example). It is also only the 2nd company that I know of that has introduced the Siri capability. Sure, you do have to have a HomePod somewhere in your home, but only 1. Now, I must admit, I have quite a few, and they are not going to go anywhere. Still, this gives me more options, especially when I re-introduce my outdoor cinema :-)

Denon Home 150

I bought a pair of Denon Home 150's. I'm not going to go into massive details about the device itself. That's not really the aim of this blog, there are plenty of review sites that could do a much better job than me. However, I will point out a few items that are well worth noting:

• You can connect via Bluetooth and Auxiliary In
• It supports way more music services than HomePod, the most popular of which would be Spotify.
• There's a USB port to plug in a thumb drive with music on it.
• If WiFi is difficult, it also supports Ethernet. Unfortunately, not PoE.

I set mine up using Wireless. I'm pleased to say it supports both 2.5Ghz and 5Ghz.

Install via App.

The Home Screen on the app. This is where you can stream various audio services and where, if you use it, you'll find Spotify.

For me, I hit the cog in the top right hand corner.

And the first option is to Add Device, where it takes you to a screen this is kind of obvious.

So plug it in! Click Next!

You are now taken through some selections. I must admit, I find this a tad annoying as it should be able to just find what devices you have and then give you a selection of devices you may want to add,

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For me, this was Denon/Speaker/Denon Home 150.

It finds the speaker, and now you actually start configuration.

It goes into AirPlay configuration by choosing the network and you can define the name of the speaker. You can also add a password if you wish.

This next screen is completely useless. I've already changed the name, so why is it giving me an option to change the name again?

Just Click Next.

You set up the speaker in terms of its placement. I'm guessing that this is to make sure the speaker performs optimally. This is where Apple really shows superiority in that it works it out for itself. 

And we're done... except not quite.

It very quickly found that there was a newer version of the firmware. This is particularly important as it is the version that gave me Siri support.

When the update is complete, it now asks you about adding voice assistants. You have an option of Alexa OR Siri. You can't have both.

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You can see I already had one Denon Home 150, which already has Siri enabled, but I want to add it to the Living Room speaker that I've just set up.

You are reminded you need a HomePod or HomePod mini, and then it asks if you have already added the speaker to Apple Home.

I hadn't already added the speaker, so selected "No". The setup wizard then takes you through doing the speaker to Apple Home.

Now you can decide if you want to add Siri. This is still following the Apple screens.

Finally we have completed setup! It all works, and you can use Siri through the Denon Home 150.

This is how your devices now look in the App. You can see both Denon Home 150's, and my AVR.

Rooms in Denon are not quite what rooms are in Apple Home. They are more like groups, and this really comes out when you create a stereo pair. You create a Group by dragging one speaker on to the other one, and it automatically creates the group for you.

You then click the arrow in the top right hand corner of the group, and you will see that the screen now says "Edit Group". Selecting "Stereo Pair" causes one of the speakers to be removed as a Siri enabled Accessory from Apple Home.

And now you see less devices in the App.

Despite what the Denon App said, though, the accessory is still in Apple Home, and you have to delete it manually. So, unlike a pair of HomePod's which appear as a group of speakers, it shows as a single speaker, which you can see here as "Rear Right".

Thoughts on use.

My original aim was to use these as rear surround speakers. I can't do that, even though my AVR also has HEOS.

To be honest, I'm a tad peeved with Denon as it is kind of difficult to find out if you can use them, or not. The reason is that you can use them with a HEOS AVR, but not with a Denon AVR with HEOS built in.... and the HEOS AVR is discontinued.... not that I would've replaced my existing AVR anyway.

As a Smart speaker, they work well, and I'm very happy with the Siri integration. I thought there may be a delay, but there isn't.... or not one that I can perceive.

Given that they can play music services that the HomePod's can't, they are a very interesting alternative to the HomePod. Such a shame that the tv can't be used instead of a HomePod or a HomePod mini.

The setup, I think you can see in my write up, is a little annoying. I don't like overly verbose UI's. There's no point and this is something that Apple does well. So, in an Apple ecosystem that verbosity really stands out.

Where to from here?

I've already requested the functionality of adding the speakers as surround speakers for a Denon AVR with HEOS built in. The response was interesting with a final comment of "we will see what the future will bring."

If it doesn't bring what I want, I'll use these for my home cinema, which I'll do after my renovations. That'll be a 4K short throw projector, tv and these speakers as they are AirPlay.