Denon Heos Bar


Userlevel 3
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Guys,

Right when I made a choice buy a Playbar or Playbase, i stumble upon Denon Heos Bar review. It got high praises. Can it steal (no pun intended) Sonos place at a market?
Neven

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37 replies

They lost two lawsuits to Sonos for patent infringement, so far. I wouldn’t go anywhere near Heos.
Userlevel 4
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They lost two lawsuits to Sonos for patent infringement, so far. I wouldn’t go anywhere near Heos.

So they have Sonos technology and HDMI?!

Sounds like a winner to me.
Userlevel 7
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except they have had to start removing features because of patents held by Sonos.

They have also backed out on promises for such things as Google Casting. They don't support but a fraction of services Sonos supports. List goes on. No third party supported apps / abilities. No open community.

It's worth looking at if deciding on system - but a little scary in that will it last.
Userlevel 6
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But at least you get to choose your firmware, unlike Sonos.

The company may have to remove features in future firmware revisions, but there is nothing that forces a user unto a endless update cycle with no return like Sonos. Denon allows you to download a firmware to a USB stick and re-upload it anytime you want to. With Sonos, you better like whatever the latest firmware is should you ever need to do a factory reset, add a component, whatever. Otherwise, your system will go on partial or complete strike.
Userlevel 3
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Guys,

Right when I made a choice buy a Playbar or Playbase, i stumble upon Denon Heos Bar review. It got high praises. Can it steal (no pun intended) Sonos place at a market?
Neven

I just wanted to add my 2 cents on favour of Sonos.
1. denon is ugly as hell
2. Denon’s other speakers to create 5.1 are bad in comparison with sonos.

I don’t mind sonos constant updates, as log as the music sings. And lack of hdmi also is not that much if a problem. Sonos in my opinion makes life easier.
And in the and Denon is a copycat!
Neven
Userlevel 7
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But at least you get to choose your firmware, unlike Sonos.

The company may have to remove features in future firmware revisions, but there is nothing that forces a user unto a endless update cycle with no return like Sonos. Denon allows you to download a firmware to a USB stick and re-upload it anytime you want to. With Sonos, you better like whatever the latest firmware is should you ever need to do a factory reset, add a component, whatever. Otherwise, your system will go on partial or complete strike.


No return? So lets ignore additional music services, voice control, audible support, trueplay, .etc etc.. As for updating via USB? Why is that ever more convenient.

Yes software/firmware update can be a pain but they are now the norm with almost every connected app and service i use. Sonos seems to have the fewest of that bunch.


No return? So lets ignore additional music services, voice control, audible support, trueplay, .etc etc.. As for updating via USB? Why is that ever more convenient.

Yes software/firmware update can be a pain but they are now the norm with almost every connected app and service i use. Sonos seems to have the fewest of that bunch.


Don't bother. That poster is one of the very few CR100 complainers trying to inject their displeasure into any thread they can now that the "Save the CR100" thread lost its goal, and deteriorated into tin-foil hat conspiracy land.
Userlevel 6
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No return? So lets ignore additional music services, voice control, audible support, trueplay, .etc etc.. As for updating via USB? Why is that ever more convenient.
Sonos' competitors give the consumer a choice: They can opt-out of auto-update, if they want to. More importantly, Heos, Paradigm, and Bluesound owners can download a firmware to a USB stick for future safekeeping in case their controller has a bad hair day, needs a factory reset and they can't download the latest firmware from the update server (let's say the vendor has gone out of that line of business).

Plenty of companies in the tech space have ceased to exist and everywhere else in tech-land, people embrace backups. What's wrong with having a backup and not relying on the availability of a company server that may or may not be maintained in the future? Never mind other use cases like folk in remote locations that don't have access to inexpensive, fast broadband at home.

With Sonos, your only choice is to embrace the latest firmware, if a new firmware is needed. While that approach may serve you well presently, don't ignore the potentially bad consequences that come with not being able to fully control your equipment.
[...] Sonos' competitors give the consumer a choice: They can opt-out of auto-update, if they want to. More importantly, Heos, Paradigm, and Bluesound owners can download a firmware to a USB stick for future safekeeping in case their controller has a bad hair day, needs a factory reset and they can't download the latest firmware from the update server (let's say the vendor has gone out of that line of business). [...]
So why don't you opt for one of these companies? Those don't seem also to bother much with customer support. 🙂
Userlevel 5
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The heos does not sound as good as the sonos playbar, but the bose soundtouch sounds better than the sonos playbar
Userlevel 3
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The heos does not sound as good as the sonos playbar, but the bose soundtouch sounds better than the sonos playbar
i have heard a Bose sounbar (don't remember the model), and it impressed me. I have heard the playbar a number of times in a store, did not sound as good. I will give the playbar/playbase a listen and will compare them to qacoustics M4 which I own.
Userlevel 5
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I don't listen to much music and before I owned the sonos 5.1 system, I owned the Bose 5.1 system - in the end I had to return the Bose to the store because I was unable to get it setup and working

However I did get to listen to a movie shortly on it and it sounded better than the Sonos because it was able to produce sound over head that Sonos can't do and also the Bose was able to make left and right channel sounds actually sound like they were next to me

Bascially the Sonos system is real 5.1, the Bose system is actually 7.1.2 (because its able to do some left/right channel and overhead channel sounds)

But I'm still happy with the Sonos because setup actually worked and was much easier, the Bose has some real software issues and is very difficult to get setup

However if I had a choice for which soundbar I would rather have - it would have to be Yamaha, Yamaha clearly make the best soundbars for both music and movies/games as far as sound quality and virtual surround sound goes, but Yamaha doesn't support wireless rear surround speakers which is the only reason I didn't buy Yamaha
Userlevel 5
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The heos does not sound as good as the sonos playbar, but the bose soundtouch sounds better than the sonos playbar
i have heard a Bose sounbar (don't remember the model), and it impressed me. I have heard the playbar a number of times in a store, did not sound as good. I will give the playbar/playbase a listen and will compare them to qacoustics M4 which I own.


The bose has better bass then the playbar, the playbase makes a jump in bass responses so it is much closer to the bose sound touch 300 in that regard. Give both a listen, only you can decide which ones sound best for you. While I am a fan of sonos for music and multi room music audio. I still use a onkyo 3.1 HT system, as I like the sound of the onkyo better. And I do not need to multi room my tv sound.

I an planning a TV upgrade, and have toyed with the idea of added the sound base to the sonos network. But I am very satisfied with old onkyo. And can't see to talk myself switching out the onkyo.
The heos does not sound as good as the sonos playbar, but the bose soundtouch sounds better than the sonos playbar

Bose is well known for juicing the sound of their products to appeal to unsophisticated ears.
Userlevel 5
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The heos does not sound as good as the sonos playbar, but the bose soundtouch sounds better than the sonos playbar

Bose is well known for juicing the sound of their products to appeal to unsophisticated ears.


To be clear, I was not refrencing music quality - I was actually refering to something that in particular interestes me which is the surround sound effect - the bose soundbar creates a significantly better soundstage that is wider, has better channel seperation and even has additional channel such as overhead sound
Userlevel 3
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I don't listen to much music and before I owned the sonos 5.1 system, I owned the Bose 5.1 system - in the end I had to return the Bose to the store because I was unable to get it setup and working
Sonos works perfectly for me, that is why I would like it to handle my tv duties

However I did get to listen to a movie shortly on it and it sounded better than the Sonos because it was able to produce sound over head that Sonos can't do and also the Bose was able to make left and right channel sounds actually sound like they were next to me

My room is open space and my sitting position is 5.5 metres from the tv. So, the sound must travel that far without having to crank up the volume.

Bascially the Sonos system is real 5.1, the Bose system is actually 7.1.2 (because its able to do some left/right channel and overhead channel sounds)

But I'm still happy with the Sonos because setup actually worked and was much easier, the Bose has some real software issues and is very difficult to get setup

However if I had a choice for which soundbar I would rather have - it would have to be Yamaha, Yamaha clearly make the best soundbars for both music and movies/games as far as sound quality and virtual surround sound goes, but Yamaha doesn't support wireless rear surround speakers which is the only reason I didn't buy Yamaha


Yamaha relies on bouncing the sound of the walls, and I am a bit short of that.:-)

Best

Neven
Userlevel 3
Badge +9
The heos does not sound as good as the sonos playbar, but the bose soundtouch sounds better than the sonos playbar
i have heard a Bose sounbar (don't remember the model), and it impressed me. I have heard the playbar a number of times in a store, did not sound as good. I will give the playbar/playbase a listen and will compare them to qacoustics M4 which I own.


The bose has better bass then the playbar, the playbase makes a jump in bass responses so it is much closer to the bose sound touch 300 in that regard. Give both a listen, only you can decide which ones sound best for you. While I am a fan of sonos for music and multi room music audio. I still use a onkyo 3.1 HT system, as I like the sound of the onkyo better. And I do not need to multi room my tv sound.

Which onkyo system do you have? The another thing i have in mind is the sources i listen to. Here in croatia, most tv channels have poor bit rate sound. I highly doubt sonos is able to squeeze something from that. I will try the playbat and playbase, If I’ll have to pull the volume to 50+ % in order to hear the news man, i will stick to my qacoustics.

I an planning a TV upgrade, and have toyed with the idea of added the sound base to the sonos network. But I am very satisfied with old onkyo. And can't see to talk myself switching out the onkyo.


Cheers
Neven
If you are leaning towards the Heos bar because of HDMI I would hold off on buying either. Looks like Sonos will be releasing a home theater option with HDMI relatively soon based on a FCC filing.
Soon is an undefined point in time. The FCC filing was exposed this week.
Userlevel 3
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If you are leaning towards the Heos bar because of HDMI I would hold off on buying either. Looks like Sonos will be releasing a home theater option with HDMI relatively soon based on a FCC filing.
If this is true, Playbase and Playbar will flood the used market.
Neven
If 'flood' means more than normal, sure. However, it's not going to trigger all customers to up and sell there playbar/playbase for this new device. I'm sure there are plenty that are perfectly happy with what they have. Then there are those that may not want to make a purchase right now. Depending on features, I might be in that category. Even if I did purchase, I won't be selling, I'll move my playbar to a different tv.

I could be off on this, but I also don't think people in general are all that comfortable with selling off ebay and the like. To those that do, it's a no brainer. To other's there's a mental hurdle to get over.
Userlevel 3
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If 'flood' means more than normal, sure. However, it's not going to trigger all customers to up and sell there playbar/playbase for this new device. I'm sure there are plenty that are perfectly happy with what they have.
Then there are those that may not want to make a purchase right now. Depending on features, I might be in that category. Even if I did purchase, I won't be selling, I'll move my playbar to a different tv.
I could be off on this, but I also don't think people in general are all that comfortable with selling off ebay and the like. To those that do, it's a no brainer. To other's there's a mental hurdle to get over.


i suppose you are right, but what is Sonos strategy? Why add HDMI, all of the sudden? Many competitors had this a long while ago, and Sonos did not respond. And still, they took a big piece of market pie. How will they advertise the new Playbar One/Playbase One? "Every thing you love about our products, plus HDMI?"

IMHO, HDMI is not the essential thing for Sonos to be up there with the best.

Neven
Userlevel 7
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I won’t be replacing my playbar.

But I will be buying the hdmi version. Hopefully a playbase version as well.
Userlevel 5
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If 'flood' means more than normal, sure. However, it's not going to trigger all customers to up and sell there playbar/playbase for this new device. I'm sure there are plenty that are perfectly happy with what they have.
Then there are those that may not want to make a purchase right now. Depending on features, I might be in that category. Even if I did purchase, I won't be selling, I'll move my playbar to a different tv.
I could be off on this, but I also don't think people in general are all that comfortable with selling off ebay and the like. To those that do, it's a no brainer. To other's there's a mental hurdle to get over.


i suppose you are right, but what is Sonos strategy? Why add HDMI, all of the sudden? Many competitors had this a long while ago, and Sonos did not respond. And still, they took a big piece of market pie. How will they advertise the new Playbar One/Playbase One? "Every thing you love about our products, plus HDMI?"

IMHO, HDMI is not the essential thing for Sonos to be up there with the best.

Neven


HDMI gives sonos the ability to add Dolby Atmos format. Which is the way home theater is going. A lot of other that had hdmi only support dts which was not a huge difference from optical performance with HT. So Sonos was able to stay competitive without HDMI. But now they need HDMI. Sonos need to add support for the new ATMOS standard. Or they will be left behind when ATMOS becomes the mainstay for HT. It might also allow for 7.1 setup.
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Big question. Will it support 7.1 wirelessly.