I feel like HEOS is overlooked!

[StevenEleven]

I don’t know much about it, but I do believe DENON / HEOS had to remove some functionality from their streaming systems because they infringed on SONOS’s intellectual property. If I remember correctly and understand correctly this was reflected in their corporate emails to have been done intentionally. SONOS sued and won in court, twice, pretty handily, if I remember correctly and understand correctly. DENON / HEOS admired the SONOS tech greatly and, if I understand correctly and remember correctly, sort of. . . stole it.

 

[watchnerd]

I've never even heard of HEOS.

Perhaps there is a reason it is often overlooked.

 

[Chromatischism]

It's basically a way of organizing multiple sources of music and playing them to different end devices using UPNP.

 

[watchnerd]

It's basically a way of organizing multiple sources of music and playing them to different end devices using UPNP.

Oh I use Roon for that.

 

[BillG]

I just looked at some of the technical documentation for HEOS, and it is indeed UPnP/DLNA. I suspect that Yamaha's MusicCast, and DTS Play-Fi, which is used by a number of other manufacturers - such as Klipsch for instance - are also based on it. I suspicion is supported by the fact that both of them have access to UPnP/DLNA servers embedded in their control software.

 

[Chromatischism]

Oh I use Roon for that.

Yeah, it's a poor man's Roon

 

[Alexanderc]

I don’t know much about it, but I do believe DENON / HEOS had to remove some functionality from their streaming systems because they infringed on SONOS’s intellectual property. If I remember correctly and understand correctly this was reflected in their corporate emails to have been done intentionally. SONOS sued and won in court, twice, pretty handily, if I remember correctly and understand correctly. DENON / HEOS admired the SONOS tech greatly and, if I understand correctly and remember correctly, sort of. . . stole it.

You may be right about the outcome, I don’t see anything about it, but they settled in May 2018. Bluesound and Sonos just settled a similar case about a month ago.

 

[StevenEleven]

You may be right about the outcome, I don’t see anything about it, but they settled in May 2018. Bluesound and Sonos just settled a similar case about a month ago.

Of course the terms of the May 2018 settlement between SONOS and D&M are undisclosed, so we have, in lieu of any admission, among other things, two court opinions and the behavior of the companies after the fact:

https://images.law.com/contrib/cont...3/42786/Sonos-v.-DM.Andrews-101-opinion-1.pdf

https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20171102f68

https://en.community.sonos.com/wireless-speakers-228992/sonos-v-heos-collateral-damage-6805280

 

[jfr1974]

Hi all,

I have now owned 3 Denon / Marantz receivers with HEOS (3500, 3600, and SR6012). I always discounted it as a solution for the lazy or as a Sonos replacement, never thinking it was up to snuff for my “serious” (lol) listening practices. I previously used a Chromecast Audio into a DAC into the CD analog input on my receivers.

Well, after running Audyssey on my new 3600 I thought I’d give it a test just to mess about.... holy hell! It works incredibly well and has integration with practically every service out there! Upnp shares, Plex, Tidal, Spotify, SoundCloud, Amazon Music, TuneIn radio, USB drives, and more! It supports absurd bit/sample rates up to 24/192. No weird RaspberryPi quirks, no random drop outs like the CCA, just rock solid performance across all the services I used.

I find the app pretty intuitive. It’s not graphically beautiful, but for Tidal you get access to the music discovery playlists and all your saved music in a logical order. For the Plex / upnp section it really shines. Album art is pulled correctly and you have almost unlimited options for sorting your music if properly tagged.

Combining this practically ubiquitous source compatibility and the simplicity of using the Denon 3600H as a preamp and DAC all controlled from your phone! The pre outs let me run my mains off any absurd power amp I choose. It even has a 12v trigger!

As has been proven through testing, the 3600 has an impeccable DAC and (often overlooked) incredible preamp section along with Audyssey DSP. Add Airplay 2 support to all of this and I cannot figure out how this isn’t the default all in one solution for the vast majority of digital audio nerds out there.

PS prices for the 3600/3700 are distorted right now because of COVID, but historically you could get the previous years Denon model refurbished for $450-600 all day long. The 3400 and 3500 followed this price path. Although even at $1000 I think it’s a very solid deal, forgetting about the fact it is an excellent home theater receiver and has a quite good internal amp section.

Great assessment, and I couldn’t agree more re: the quality of the DAC. My first encounter with HEOS was 6 years ago on the X2200 (not a great AVR); between wifi drop out and a lame interface I quickly gave up. Switching to the 3600h 2 years ago I noticed the improvements straight away. DSD is supported and sounds great too.

Since your post the HEOS iOS has had a refresh and looks a bit better but navigation isn’t much improved. One copes because it comes bundled with the AVR and the sound is excellent.

Where HEOS is running behind however is in the format wars - while Amazon Utra HD is now supported alongside Tidal hifi, there is no hint that Atmos music will be supported on any service, nor lossless audio form Apple Music or Deezer.. . These issues may be third part my dependent but they remain to be resolved nonetheless!

 

[Smitty2k1]

We recently moved into a house with an in ceiling speaker system and a Marantz 1509 the previous owner left. HEOS was my first intoduction to a comprehensive streaming service like Sonos/BlueOS etc. At first I thought it was great. Functionality is top notch and user friendly but the software was very buggy. Crashed all the time and had inconsistent behavior. Was using it to stream media off a NAS, Pandora, and Spotify.

I've since moved to a combination of Chromecast Audio and Raspberry Pi with PiCorePlayer and I much prefer it.

 

[Heos Skeptic]

For the Plex / upnp section it really shines. Album art is pulled correctly and you have almost unlimited options for sorting your music if properly tagged.

If others have achieved a quality integration of Heos and Plex, please share!

I agree with many elements of your post but in my experience, Plex integration is the weakest aspect of HEOS. The Heos iOS phone app does not read my Plex playlists and has none of the strengths of the Plex app for music, such as search, autogenerated “popular tracks” playlists for artists, and a strong visual interface. Music access is buried deep in the Heos app’s directories.

By contrast, Sonos integrates well with Plex. (I’m not a fan of Sonos for other reasons.)

I’m using a Marantz NR1200 networked integrated amp (Heos is native) connected to a NAS with Plex server for my digital music collection. Plex is fabulous for streaming the NAS music collection when I’m away from home. The Heos app is so disappointing to use that I hooked up an old Sonos connect btw my NAS and the Marantz so that I can use the Sonos app while at home to stream my Plex playlists to the amp. A clumsy workaround but still better than the Heos app.