Heos by Denon – Multi-Room Audio (Part 1)

By Simon – Custom Audio Visual Solutions

Multi room audio systems are becoming more popular as time goes be with many advantages. It is at a point where many manufactures are trying their hand at it, for example, Samsung, LG, Bose, Bowers & Wilkins are a few, and now Denon. Ever since 2002, Sonos has dominated the multi-room audio market and since the Heos has come to the market in 2014 and not to mention having done such a great job at producing the product with many commendations form different technology review websites which has attracted a lot of attention, Sonos has decided create waves and slow the success of Heos.

AUSTRALIAN BORN IDEA

Unlike Sonos, Bose or any of the other multi-room audio systems, Heos is an Australian born idea, originally developed in North Sydney and then Denon taking up production, so purchasing a Heos system means supporting Australian engineers and an Australian idea, Denon will be keeping development in Australia, but Heos does also have another R&D centre in California and of course Denon in Japan.

“The Sydney Morning Herold Digital Life” dated 22.4.15, article on the Heos range.

ADVANTAGES

The main advantage of a multi-room audio system is each family member is able to play their favorite music or radio station in any rooms of the house without interfering with other family members, and unlike with a home theatre amplifiers where you can play something in the main room – then have a second zone playing for example outside on the deck, and in some cases with high end receivers, play a third zone, with the Denon Heos you can place a speaker in every room of the house, no more CDs lying around as it is possible to put all your CDs on your phone, tablet or better yet, onto a NAS to share your collection around to all the Heos units. Another is with internet music services like Pandora where you give a thumbs up or down, each family member can have there own account on there own device and not interfere with your account settings, and with some services that are geographical by nature – only music services that work in Australia are displayed (or the country the system is being used in). The Heos system also has an input, so this would be a very good substitute for a soundbar (with the right add-on equipment) with all the added extras of a multi-room audio system. Currently Sonos is the king of wireless multi-room audio and has Heos in its sights as a serious contender.

RELOCATING THE HEOS TO ANOTHER ROOM

Taking the Heos from room to room is very easy as well, disconnect the power, pick it up and carry it to another room and then plug it back in to power, wait for it to reconnect to the network and away you go again, it couldn’t be any easier. For those odd places where the Wi-Fi is a bit poor, Heos has range extenders, so this mean no room or area is out of reach.