Bought this speaker when it was somehow on a clearance sale at my local Best Buy. I was shocked at the price but even more so at the bass response of this shelf speaker. I’ve never listened to music in such high fidelity. I have this speaker in the same room as a Sonos Beam 2 and I prefer listening to music on this speaker. I’ll designate the Sonos for movies/tv (mostly because this speaker doesn’t have optical in or hdmi audio…).

Ok, I’m a bit of an Audiophile, with about 15K of equipment in my living room, and 3 other stereo/surround systems in my back yard, Master bedroom and Master bath. Not to mention the Sonos One pair setup in my office. So to be totally unfair I thought I’d see how a pair of the Denon 350’s would compare to my living room system to begin with (a 16’x30′ room). To begin with I installed the HEOS software on my iPhone. The HEOS software allows multiple input sources to be sent to your HEOS compatible speakers, today this includes Pandora, Spotify, TuneIn, Amazon Music and Amazon HD Music, deezer, napster, iHeartRadio, SiriusXM, SoundCloud, Tidal, Rhapsody, iTunes, network Music servers, USB music (from HEOS Speaker), and HEOS Speaker Input’s (could be turntable, CD, any external music source) and Stored Play Lists (from any of the above (to some extent)). A pretty complete list, only really missing YouTunes and Aha (IMHO). Installation of the first speaker went perfectly, installation of the second required more than one attempt so that both could be seen. I then took a 256GB USB drive that I use to back-up my music library and inserted it into one of the HEOS speakers, I went to USB music, and found nothing, waited 10m thinking maybe its reading this drive with +20K of songs on it. Still nothing, tried on the other speaker same result. Went to the Denon web site to find that the USB drive must be FAT formatted or NTFS not FAT32 or exFAT. FAT only supports up to 32GB so for large libraries it’s useless. I looked at what I had lying around over 64GB, all were exFAT (11 devices). This seems to be the most common format for large USB drives (it can be used by windows, android, linux and iOS), whereas NTFS is only supported by windows. Denon’s choice to require NTFS for large drives, I hope is temporary. Well I still wanted to try the USB input, as that’s where I have most of my FLAC files. So I backed up my drive (+2hrs), reformatted, and re-installed on the NTFS formatted drive (+2hrs). I hope this gets seen and gets corrected. Only supporting LARGE USB drives with NTFS format is just wrong. Once I had a NTFS formatted USB drive I inserted it, and under USB Music I could now see a Denon device, which I selected, it then took some time to populate the Browse Folders, I could then see my folders, but it did not populate the Artists, Albums, Genres and Tracks selections. I could only browse by Artist, which initially is fine, why the other categories were not populated, I don’t know. Will require further research, there was no information about this on Denon’s web site, or via numerous google searches. Well at least I can access my library directly (which contains FLAC, 320mb MP3, and Highest quality VBR MP3).
Each Denon 350 is a stereo speaker on its own or a ‘pair’ can be set up as a stereo pair, each driven as its own R/L speaker. To establish some expectations I listened to one Denon 350 where my center speaker is. Played Boston “Foreplay/Longtime”. Surprisingly, the speaker had some decent separation, at least on the mid/high end, it had enough power to play at a moderate listening level, not really filling my room, so I added the second speaker, putting each up on a 26″ stand separated like my main speakers are, and using the HEOS software to drive the speakers as a stereo pair. Did some more listening, and I was wowed by the fullness of the sound. Bass a little thin, but stull punchy. I was just trying to match the Denon Sound level to that of my primary system.
As “Foreplay” crosses over to “Longtime” there’s some beautiful soft right/left imaging, lesser speakers frequently muddle the nuances as the volume climbs, and bass builds. The Denon’s held up exceptionally well, with great stereo separation and nice building bass down to about 80-100hz where the 6.5″ drivers just can’t move enough air. They handled the tom-tom punch nearly perfectly, but the low bass, lacked kick (which is why I have 2 subwoofers to compliment the 4 open air 12″ woofers in the Carvers, which also lack a bass kick below 40-50hz). I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. I thought I’d try something in the Denon’s sweet spot, some Pat Benatar live. “Hit me with your best shot”, rang out with a really tight, sharp sound. The vocals were very smooth, not quite as airy as my Carvers, but given size/weight difference that they give up, they held their own. As I moved from my primary listening seat to other locations in the room, it was more interesting, as each of the Denon’s high end sound fields is driven both right and left, but given the 10′ speaker separation, you could detect many sweet spots, an unexpectedly benefit of their design used like this. I wished I could hook my subs up to the Denons to explore how they would perform, but it can’t be done with the 350’s alone. I listened to Peter Gabriel’s “Back to Front Live in London” which I have on FLAC, 320 Lossless, VBR MP3 rip, and from Amazon Streaming. I compared “Shock the Monkey”, “Red Rain”, “Big Time” and “Sledgehammer”, in each of the formats. I expected FLAC to be noticeably better, which it was compared to Amazon Streaming, but compared to lossless and HQ VBR, it was very hard to tell the difference, I am sure that this has a lot to do with the high quality DAC within the Denon 350. Playing through my main system which also has a HQ DAC I had the same impression, the FLAC was slightly better than the Lossless or HQ VBR, slight soundstage improvements on the live performances. But a good DAC really helps improve performance.
I then unpaired the Denon’s and moved one to my backyard theater, I played Pink Floyd on the Family Room speaker from the USB stick and Supertramp Live from my iTunes library, no doubt two different sources can be used at the same time. Supertramps “Breakfast in America” sounded great outside, the single speaker did a good job of nearly filling my walled-in back yard, the Denon 350s mids and high end had nice stereo separation, and pretty good bass, the twin 6.5″ woofers were a bit thin in the great outdoors, but Supertramps horns sounded most excellent. I then moved the other 350 from the family room to the backyard so I had a pair of Denons outdoors. From the HEOS app I dragged one speaker on top of the other to create a pair outside (via software). I could tell the right and left had its own stereo material as I separated the speaker by about 10′. I jumped to “Dreamer” and was more impressed than before by the sound quality and volume out to the Denon 350’s. My outdoor surround system is driven by 80w/channel 5.1 amp, I have 6 wall mounted speakers + a buried sub (which I disabled). My 6 speakers retail for about the sale price of the two Denon 350’s. A much fairer fight than my Family room system. And after initially hearing the Denons outside I expected it to be a pretty close A-B comparison. Now I could (easily) position the speakers equally, but I could get the physical separation about the same. The 350 pair had a tighter and more accurate mid-range, but its mid-high seemed to lack compared to those on my wall (which might have been reinforced because of them being wall mounted). My wall mounted speakers have 8″ woofer and an 8″ passive radiator. The lows of the Denon were much punchier, probably due to two active drivers, they did not cover the very low end, but neither did my wall mounted stereo pair. I’d call for the Denon’s being over all more pleasant to listen to. Then enabled the DSP surround on my outdoor system, and the additional center and rear made all the difference (worth the $’s); added in the sub and rich full sound, A-B back to the Denon’s and the strengths of the Denons could be heard, but so could the lack of power and deep low-end. But now I’m comparing 6 speakers to 2 (or 18 active drivers to 12). Still the accuracy of the Denons, and their thump was very appealing. Back to Stereo, I did a A-B of Pink Floyds “Great Gig in the Sky”, a song I think I know all the substiles of. The women’s voices from the Denon’s had a great piercing effect, literally bouncing off my (16′ walls), until the bass builds I preferred the Denons, once it did I missed a bit in the low end, but they were still accurate in filling such a large open area. As “Money” cut in my neighbor poked her head over the wall, (ut oh), to complement me on the music but she wondered why it was starting and stopping. I explained I was listening to 2 sets of speakers, she said she could not tell the difference, both seemed loud enough to her (all she gets is reflected sound). I decided I was happy with what I’d heard, and let the album play out on the Denons. I did compare iTunes over Airplay to the USB stick, and could not discern any difference.
I did a brief A-B comparison to my Sonos One system, the Denon’s were a clear winner, with a much more solid low end (in a 12×15 room), and they were over kill, something I never thought of the Sonus pair.
In the end I was very impressed by the Denon 350’s, I threw a lot at them and they surprised and impressed in many areas, they held their own. Many of my complaints have to do with the HEOS software which can be improved. They have an EQ, which only has high and mid, a 5 or 10 band EQ would be a big improvement. Support for exFAT USB drives, in my mind is a huge oversight. Possibly allowing AirTunes speakers to be included in the set ups would be nice (Sonus does). I’d also like to see support for google casting. The buttons on the top of the speakers as shortcuts are great for streaming stations. This was a nicer feature than I thought it would be. I’d kind of like them to be somewhat waterproof (splash proof), so I’d feel safer with them around a pool. But color me impressed, these are probably the best standalone wireless speaker available today, and Denon can improve them via software.

This denon home 350 is a beast of a speaker. Literally from its sheer size to the sound output. This amazing speaker has a perfect balance of highs, mids, and lows. You can hear the guitar strings as if they are close by. Vocals are rich and clean to my ears and the bass is thunderous. And I’m not exaggerating, this thing will shake your house. But not in an overbearing way. It’s bass response is top notch. I turn the bass down. I highly recommend using your favorite HIFI Streaming service. I personally use Tidal hifi. I love it. You want the best sound source to get every bit of sound quality out of this speaker and at its price. Please note: in the HEOS app there is an EQ and also there is an option to change the sound of the speaker from normal to high.
Now for the denon heos app. It’s great. One of the better dedicated music apps. Very clean and super easy to use. Set up is simple and pretty self explanatory. Choose your favorite music app, link and pair speaker. Then update and you are good to go. I have 2 of the denon home speaker line. Which I use to stream multi-room music or play one song in my living room(where this speaker is) and another song in my bedroom if my wife wants to listen to her music. You simply drag and drop one speaker into the other and your good. Airplay2 works well on this speaker. And I don’t personally use BT myself. But the functionality is there.
Touch controls are very nice. The proximity sensor is obviously great. Responsive and very high end looking and feeling. You can save presets. But for me I am a simple man. The app and airplay are good enough for me.
These speakers are great. Very stylish and well built with some heft to them. It just makes them feel more premium. At this price you expect this type of quality and attention to detail and sound. Denon hit a home run with this one here. I love it. I just sit in the dark and listen to my favorite music. That’s my stress release.
I recommend this speaker if you are somewhat of an audiophile like I am. 100%!

Super, beautifully crafted quality sound renditions