Sonos v. Heos Comparison

The upcoming "Works with Sonos" addition to Onkyo/Pioneer amplifiers and receivers eliminates whatever small advantage Denon (and Yamaha) may have had over Sonos. Sonos does, however, need a much smaller and less expensive Connect replacement, or better yet, a card that can be slipped into a slot on Onkyo/Pioneer (and other) receivers.

However, NAD sells the BlueOS card for $399, so even at $350, a Sonos card would be slightly cheaper. At $99, though, it would be a no brainer add-on, but would need a lot of sales to be profitable. I'm guessing we'll see a card within a year or two, but who knows?

In all honesty - HEOS looks like a decent system. The thing that scares me the most about it is that there is not a large user base (not even any type of online discussion on) and there seems to be very little communication via Denon on the future of the system. Seems just to closed off to me. I mean Sonos isn't exactly great on the communication side but you do know their general direction - and there is discussion on Sonos all over the internet (from AV sites, to Reddit, to this Forum). Denon is all crickets.

HEOS just doen't have the feel of a long term player in the market with a strong user base.

As much as I am irritated with at Heos right now, I feel a reply is warranted.

Sonos is the market leader yes, but Heos is second with something like 17% compared to Sonos's 50(ish)%. Heos has also been around longer than any of the other competitors in whole home wireless audio. If (arguably) Sonos started the trend, Heos was second to the game and has tried to fill in the holes left by Sonos. Their parent company, Denon, is one of the oldest technology companies in the world (founded in 1910) and is highly regarding in the audio community. Denon was acquired a year or so ago by Sound United, one of the largest tech companies in the world. In short, they are much larger than Sonos and could buy Sonos if they really wanted to. Now that the legal case between Sonos and Denon is settled, it is highly unlikely that Heos is going anywhere.

It is true that Denon is not the greatest at communicating with the public. This is one thing that Sonos has and still does very well. Even if Denon wanted to communicate with the public, between the acquisition by Sound United and the Sonos lawsuit, there are plenty of reasons why they might be apprehensive about communicating openly with the public. That said, I doubt we'll see Denon get much better at communicating, as this would require a major corporate philosophy shift.

The upcoming "Works with Sonos" addition to Onkyo/Pioneer amplifiers and receivers eliminates whatever small advantage Denon (and Yamaha) may have had over Sonos. Sonos does, however, need a much smaller and less expensive Connect replacement, or better yet, a card that can be slipped into a slot on Onkyo/Pioneer (and other) receivers.

However, NAD sells the BlueOS card for $399, so even at $350, a Sonos card would be slightly cheaper. At $99, though, it would be a no brainer add-on, but would need a lot of sales to be profitable. I'm guessing we'll see a card within a year or two, but who knows?

For me, the speaker designs are the biggest thing holding Sonos back. There needs to be a larger variety of sizes and styles. I would love to see a Play:7. The design of the Play:3 and Play:5 is very off putting from a visual perspective.

Sonos is the market leader yes, but Heos is second with something like 17% compared to Sonos's 50(ish)%

Where are all of these HEOS users - none of them talk about HEOS at all on the internet. Good/Bad/Indifferent - no chatter at all.

Just look at their reddit - it may get a post a week. Compared to Sonos with dozens a day.

Bose SoundTouch launched October 11, 2013

Denon HEOS launched June 2, 2014

Both have been through full line redesigns since.

I'm also curious as to where the "17% compared to Sonos's 50(ish)%" came from. Sonos does not give sales figures, and even so, if Denon is outselling Bose, I'd be very, very surprised.

Where are all of these HEOS users - none of them talk about HEOS at all on the internet. Good/Bad/Indifferent - no chatter at all.

Just look at their reddit - it may get a post a week. Compared to Sonos with dozens a day.

Amazon reviews for comparable products:

Sonos Play:1 has 3800+.

Bose SoundTouch 10 has 700+

Denon HEOS 1 has 93!

Exactly. You never hear anyone talk about anything HEOS.

In all honesty - HEOS looks like a decent system. The thing that scares me the most about it is that there is not a large user base (not even any type of online discussion on) and there seems to be very little communication via Denon on the future of the system. Seems just to closed off to me. I mean Sonos isn't exactly great on the communication side but you do know their general direction - and there is discussion on Sonos all over the internet (from AV sites, to Reddit, to this Forum). Denon is all crickets.

HEOS just doen't have the feel of a long term player in the market with a strong user base.

As much as I am irritated with at Heos right now, I feel a reply is warranted.

Sonos is the market leader yes, but Heos is second with something like 17% compared to Sonos's 50(ish)%. Heos has also been around longer than any of the other competitors in whole home wireless audio. If (arguably) Sonos started the trend, Heos was second to the game and has tried to fill in the holes left by Sonos. Their parent company, Denon, is one of the oldest technology companies in the world (founded in 1910) and is highly regarding in the audio community. Denon was acquired a year or so ago by Sound United, one of the largest tech companies in the world. In short, they are much larger than Sonos and could buy Sonos if they really wanted to. Now that the legal case between Sonos and Denon is settled, it is highly unlikely that Heos is going anywhere.

It is true that Denon is not the greatest at communicating with the public. This is one thing that Sonos has and still does very well. Even if Denon wanted to communicate with the public, between the acquisition by Sound United and the Sonos lawsuit, there are plenty of reasons why they might be apprehensive about communicating openly with the public. That said, I doubt we'll see Denon get much better at communicating, as this would require a major corporate philosophy shift.

Denon might get better with communication. Sound United is a US company vs Denon old owner, a Japanese company. And US companies are generally way better at the customer service aspect.

Their parent company, Denon, is one of the oldest technology companies in the world (founded in 1910) and is highly regarding in the audio community. Denon was acquired a year or so ago by Sound United, one of the largest tech companies in the world. In short, they are much larger than Sonos and could buy Sonos if they really wanted to. Now that the legal case between Sonos and Denon is settled, it is highly unlikely that Heos is going anywhere.


Sound United uses DTS PlayFi for its other brands (Marantz, Polk, Definitive Technology). Assuming they are having to pay royalties to Sonos now, why would they not switch their HEOS line to PlayFi? They also pay royalties to DTS, obviously, but maybe at lower rates. Doubt Sonos is letting them get off cheaply.

They also own Boston Acoustics, which has long been known for its high quality, reasonably priced speakers. They could use that expertise to build a real Sonos competitor, but they are still going to be stuck paying royalties for the multiroom wifi tech.

Their parent company, Denon, is one of the oldest technology companies in the world (founded in 1910) and is highly regarding in the audio community. Denon was acquired a year or so ago by Sound United, one of the largest tech companies in the world. In short, they are much larger than Sonos and could buy Sonos if they really wanted to. Now that the legal case between Sonos and Denon is settled, it is highly unlikely that Heos is going anywhere.


Sound United uses DTS PlayFi for its other brands (Marantz, Polk, Definitive Technology). Assuming they are having to pay royalties to Sonos now, why would they not switch their HEOS line to PlayFi? They also pay royalties to DTS, obviously, but maybe at lower rates. Doubt Sonos is letting them get off cheaply.

They also own Boston Acoustics, which has long been known for its high quality, reasonably priced speakers. They could use that expertise to build a real Sonos competitor, but they are still going to be stuck paying royalties for the multiroom wifi tech.

Marantz came with the Denon merger, so they actually uses Heos. They still don't know which system to be the United Sound standard multi room system with all their brands.