Denon adds Siri to its smart speakers

Way back in 2021, Ecobee’s thermostats became the first non-Apple device to integrate Siri voice control into its hardware, following Apple’s making the voice assistant available to third-party devices at WWDC that year. Fast-forward a few years, and there’s finally another device with Siri on board: Denon smart speakers.

While primarily known for its receivers, Denon’s line of wireless whole-home audio and music-streaming smart speakers position it as a competitor to Sonos and Bose. Denon also happens to be owned by Masimo Consumer Audio, a division of Masimo, the company whose patent infringement case around its pulse oximetry tech is currently blocking some of the Apple Watch’s health features.

The hardware support for Siri on Denon speakers, first reported on by HomeKit News, came with the U32 firmware update released in December. It allows you to talk to Apple’s assistant through the speakers to control music playback, initiate smart home commands through Apple Home, or do most of anything you are used to using Siri for. Unlike using Siri on an Ecobee Thermostat, the audio quality should be a lot better on a Denon speaker than the thermostat on your wall.

Models with the capability include the Denon Home series 150, 250, 350, and Soundbar 550, which start at $250. These all offer Amazon Alexa voice assistant integration and Apple AirPlay 2 support, too, but as with the Ecobee thermostat, you can’t have both Siri and Alexa running simultaneously; you need to choose one or the other. And, as Siri is not built into the device, you also need to have a HomePod or HomePod Mini on the same Wi-Fi network to process the commands. Denon has instructions for activating the new Siri feature on its site.