Denon HEOS Link HS2 Streamer Review

[Jimster480]

When you can get a WiiM Pro Plus with a great DAC, better measurements, better App, arguable better connectivity and Roon support for cheaper, this is device is really just for the Heos fans I would imagine. Not to mention the WiiM Ultra should have similar or better components and a touch screen for about the same price.

This device is not competitive in 2024.

Yep, but since my whole house uses heos; i got this.
You can find them pretty cheap on ebay. Less than most wiim devices.

The app is pretty good once you have it all connected. I personally just use my heos from my Spotify account. The devices just appear in my account and I can play to them directly.

There really isn't any excuse for the internal DAC's performance--not when a $9 Apple dongle can get SINADS in excess of 100 db. Why don't these guys just spend the extra $1.00 and put in a decent dac is beyond me.

Again, thank you for the excellent review, Amir.

I don't think it's $1, it has to do with the scale of manufacturing. This device also came out like 6 years ago. Denon hasn't updated it (which is their fault).
For the price though, the DAC should definitely be better.

Heos is not a very good application: it does not even allow multichannel broadcasting... is not recognized by Roon and does not integrate Qobuz for purely unbearable commercial reasons. Moreover, these stories of streaming platforms integrated or used in this or that application are those which mean that a mini PC will always be preferable to any hi-fi streamer.

I don't think that it was ever built for audio enthusiasts. It is built for convenience and simplicity. My wife, for example, absolutely loves it and uses it all the time. She plays iHeart Radio, Spotify, SoundCloud and Amazon Music. It's very simple and she likes it for that reason.
You can easily make groups of devices so you can play across multiple rooms or have one room have multiple speakers like how we have our kitchen & dining room set up.

The pricing on this thing seems ridiculous, when you can buy an entry level Denon AVR with Heos built in, while having amplification and everything else all in one for about the same price.

I have a Denon 4400 and a Marantz AV7703 and use HEOS frequently... but I can also use apps like BubbleUpnp. I do wish there was a cheap - reasonable way to get synchronized music to my HEOS enabled Denon receiver in the den, along with my old school non networked receiver on my back porch. This would likely do it, but it's not worth the price.

You can buy one of these and the previous generation model on eBay quite cheap, sometimes under $100. That's how I purchased this one, as I would not spend $500 on a brand new one, which I think is just a ridiculous price.

It is not very expensive, but also not very convincing. Competition is too hard.

I actually think the MSRP is way too high and realistically it should cost $200 max MSRP. Especially now that we know the performance.

 

[RDoc]

In my opinion, anything with HEOS rates Poor -> Ridiculous because of the terrible user interface. HEOS seems to just be a way for Denon et al to have a placeholder in the market.

 

[Trouble Maker]

It is not very expensive, but also not very convincing. Competition is too hard.

It seems expensive to me, not just compared to the competition but even other Denon products. Denon AVRs start at $399, but with HEOS they start from $549. How is this product that's only the HEOS streamer $349?

Sonos is equally confusing to me for their streamer that cost more than some of their speakers, their amp cost more than most of their speakers... and the speakers all have streamers and amps built into them.

 

[pablolie]

one has to wonder why and how a respected brand like Denon can't deliver on better. these products are built with off-the-shelf parts.

 

[Koeitje]

Very poor, $350 for just a digital output is just a terrible value proposition. Should cost $125-ish.

 

[AndreaT]

Great review. Steer away from it. Why no manufacturer can make a complete box with good tablet interface, featuring the possibility to use your own music collection from a SSD HD, inspired by the (very expensive) MAN-301 by Weiss, and for less than $ 500? It should not be an insoluble problem. Topping was selling a decent music server for close to $ 200, with a poor user interface and problems of signal crosstalk. Cambridge sells a decent server with streaming capabilities for around $ 1,000, with a very poor interface. Other manufacturers’ products are very confusing: even reading the manual you are left with doubts: will it play my 84,000 FLAC files music collection?

 

[nathan]

Guess I won't get rid of my old SONOS CONNECT AMP. It isn't perfect but for 16bit audio, it is pretty darn good. And if I feel like the 55 watts per channel isn't enough, I can bust out an old SONOS CONNECT and attach is to one of these current class D two channel amps that cost about $100. Again, not a perfect situation, but accurate up to CD quality.

 

[restorer-john]

That was excoriatingly slow.

* excruciatingly.

 

[restorer-john]

I'd like to see if the line inputs do go out to 100kHz as they state. We know the digital inputs cannot with a top sample rate of 192kHz...

 

[Jimster480]

Great review. Steer away from it. Why no manufacturer can make a complete box with good tablet interface, featuring the possibility to use your own music collection from a SSD HD, inspired by the (very expensive) MAN-301 by Weiss, and for less than $ 500? It should not be an insoluble problem. Topping was selling a decent music server for close to $ 200, with a poor user interface and problems of signal crosstalk. Cambridge sells a decent server with streaming capabilities for around $ 1,000, with a very poor interface. Other manufacturers’ products are very confusing: even reading the manual you are left with doubts: will it play my 84,000 FLAC files music collection?

This can definitely play your local music files. You can plug in a drive to the USB port and it can read and access and play all of your files from there.

The music will then appear in your app.

In my opinion, anything with HEOS rates Poor -> Ridiculous because of the terrible user interface. HEOS seems to just be a way for Denon et al to have a placeholder in the market.

What about the user interface is terrible? I mean honestly I have had Heos products for 10 years and I mostly just open Spotify and press play.
Even if you want to play a local radio station through tune in or iHeart Radio, it only takes a few taps and you are listening to what you want.

Very poor, $350 for just a digital output is just a terrible value proposition. Should cost $125-ish.

To be fair, it is not just a digital out. It does work via RCA and to be completely honest, unless you are connecting this to a very expensive speaker system, the rather dismal DAC performance is actually totally fine for 99% of content.

I definitely wouldn't use this for my headphone amp as obviously this would not be up to the standard but I personally tested it with a couple different sound bars that I use in my bedroom for sleeping and it sounds completely fine.

I realistically use this to put on music while I go to sleep and my wife uses it to play music in our bedroom while she folds closed or does other around the house tasks.
Using this is quite a big upgrade versus connecting via Bluetooth to the sound bar, especially when the Bluetooth drains the battery of my phone and still sounds like a wet paper towel.

I even went on a trip and left my heos playing music for my dog before... 30hr+ long Playlist and it's fine.
9/10 times the app doesn't need to be opened if playing Spotify (or even Tidal once it's setup).

 

[TonyJZX]

realistically the only people who buy these things are people already "IN" the Denon Marantz world - maybe room installers

so its an easy profit center - see the Denon name? its never going to be $129 rrp because why would you not get easy money when the customer demands a one brand system.

 

[Chrispy]

Mostly I'd like to see just how Heos works generally, particularly with various apps/gear. I just didn't sign up for Heos as saw no need to belong

 

[nathan]

I voted "not terrible" because it is a fine alternative to SONOS for people that whole house background music, and are already part of the Denon ecosystem. People looking for a dedicated high quality streamer would likely not choose this, like they would likely not choose Sonos.

 

[Jimster480]

I voted "not terrible" because it is a fine alternative to SONOS for people that whole house background music, and are already part of the Denon ecosystem. People looking for a dedicated high quality streamer would likely not choose this, like they would likely not choose Sonos.

I think WiiM has probably the best setup now for people who don't have anything.

I really thought about buying a WiiM streamer before I bought this one, but I know my wife knows how to use the Heos system and so far all our Denon stuff is still working even after 10 years of use. So I bought this on ebay for around the price of the WiiM.

 

[nathan]

I think WiiM has probably the best setup now for people who don't have anything.

I really thought about buying a WiiM streamer before I bought this one, but I know my wife knows how to use the Heos system and so far all our Denon stuff is still working even after 10 years of use. So I bought this on ebay for around the price of the WiiM.

Yeah that’s the value of something like the HEOS or Sonos gear: fits into a broader whole house solution with many different form factors. No single unit or model is best in class or even best in value on its own.

 

[Koeitje]

To be fair, it is not just a digital out. It does work via RCA and to be completely honest, unless you are connecting this to a very expensive speaker system, the rather dismal DAC performance is actually totally fine for 99% of content.

The RCA output doesn't manage transparency for Redbook audio. That really should be the bare minimum in 2024. But to be fair Denon doesn't advertise it as hi-fi so I guess its fine to ask $350 for a level of performance below $20 phone dongles.

 

[Haskil]

I have read and understood the positive reviews on this device and even more on its use. I have a Denon 3600 and sometimes use Heos... but I prefer to use Audirvana in UpnP...
However, it is still curious that not all streaming platforms are automatically included in Heos or that the owner cannot easily integrate those of his choice... Why can't you find isn't Qobuz in Heos which in terms of choice of classical music recordings is the most complete of all platforms? This device, just like the Denon and Marantz integrated AVRs, would not cost more... Is this due to purely commercial reasons for the agreement between Denon-Marantz and the streaming platforms?
It is strange that the hifi press does not try to find out why... From the point of view of the consumer and his protection: manufacturers should be obliged to include all legal streaming platforms in order to let the consumer choose and not to push the consumer towards platforms of which they become prisoners Without the possibility of including new ones: it is anti-competitive.

 

[restorer-john]

To get a baseline for performance, I fed it Toslink input and measured pre-out:

Was the "pre-out" level at maximum or did you adjust it to provide ~2V out? What was the maximum output- did the THD+N get better or worse above ~2V?

It's disappointing the device is roughly 10dB behind a CD player from 1983 with a direct optical feed.

 

[amirm]

Was the "pre-out" level at maximum or did you adjust it to provide ~2V out?

I set it to fixed output and that was the level.

 

[amirm]

Why can't you find isn't Qobuz in Heos which in terms of choice of classical music recordings is the most complete of all platforms?

A lot of times services are included that give the device maker a kickback if they sign up new users. Maybe Qobuz doesn't offer this bounty.