Sound quality: Denon's Home 250 had Very Good overall sound quality. Bass has good impact and goes deep, but is a bit prominent and boomy. Midrange is fairly even, but somewhat grainy and hazy. Treble is fairly extended but is somewhat smeared and a touch sizzly. Although it does a decent job of recovering room ambience, there is a slight echoey quality, and it also sounds a bit congested. When combined with a second unit to form a stereo pair, the sound is a bit more echoey, however, they provide wider stereo separation and the overall score improves and remains in the Very Good range. There is no significant difference between WiFi, Bluetooth, USB and Aux sound quality. It provides a decent volume level in a large sized room.
Ease of use: We found the Denon Home 250 ease of use to be Very Good overall. WiFi setup requires an app downloaded to the device, instructions included in app. Also offers WPS setup (only applicable for those with WPS routers): A three step process - push WPS button on router, push button on back of unit, wait for connection - instructions don't state how long the connection should take and there is no progress indicator, only a general indication that linking is taking place and whether or not linking has successfully occurred; connection takes less than 30 sec. Once WiFi is setup Bluetooth pairing always requires a press or flip of a well marked button or switch on unit and then the selection of unit from Bluetooth selection list on source device; unit provides an obvious indication that the unit is in pairing mode as well as when pairing has actually occurred. DLNA is listed as input in app, but it makes no reference on how to set up the DLNA server on the network (i.e. does not refer user to Windows/Mac/NAS setup instructions). Console volume controls are prominent, backlit buttons that appear when you put your hand over the surface of the unit, and disappear when you remove your hand. Lacks volume control label but (+/-) symbols suggest that it is a volume control. Lacks index markings for volume levels and does not provide any indication when max volume is reached. Volume controls all inputs the same way. Requires app to be installed, app installation is straight forward. Once app is installed switching between inputs is fairly intuitive, except Bluetooth requires the push of a button on the unit and has to be selected from the Bluetooth settings of the mobile device. Additionally, has three quick select console buttons that can be programmed using the app to choose preselected sources.
