I am trying to find straight comparison's between the various Sonos and Heos speakers. Ignoring the apps, lawsuits, and preference of appearance and instead focusing strictly on sound quality, does anyone know of where to find some good comparisons between the products or maybe have done comparisons of their own?
Below are a few basics as best I understand or have compared:
Sonos One v. Heos 1 - Most seem to give the Sonos One a slight edge in sound quality.
Sonos Play 3 v. Heos 3 - Neither really seems to have an edge.
Sonos Play 5 v. Heos 5 - Most seem to give the Play 5 a slight edge in sound quality.
Sonos Play 5 v. Heos 7 - A vast majority seem to give the Heos 7 the easy edge here. It seems to be highly rated all around.
Sonos PlayBar (w/ sub) v. Heos HomeCinema - Neither really seem to have an edge.
Sonos PlayBar (w/ sub) v. Heos Bar (w/ sub) - Reviews that compare these are hard to find but between the lack of HDMI on the PlayBar and the raw specs of the Heos Bar, it seems to be the better pick. A few stores will tell you the same.
Does anyone have links that support/refute the above? What are your personal experiences?
Have the specs for the new PlayBar/PlayBase leaked?
Thx.
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I think the OP knows that. It was clearly stated in the op orginally mesaage about the lawsuit and other post he has visited. While i agree with your stance. And that sonos is better at delivering then others. Things are forever changing. Nokia was the gold standard 15 years ago on cell phone. Now it is apple. With samsung as the gold standard in android. Which google is chipping away at with pixel. If you want to talk lawsuits. Their are a whole mess with smartphones. But samsung is the biggest now apple second. And they competing with each other drives Innovation. Also samsung decided not to listen to the market. That is why they have been left behind in the OLED UHD market. When you talk high end uhd it is LG Sony Panasonic. Samsung is upper middle grade with their qled. I something sonos sit back on its lurals sometime. Mostly because of captial issue i think.
Case in point the playbase kinda miss it mark. It should have included atleast one hdmi port. Now there might be another ht speaker. And playbase buyers might feel left out. Just food for thought.
So if heos and the others were not out pushing more features. We might have to wait longer for hdmi. But if all the competition supports hdmi. And atmos is going to be the standard. It forces sonos to listen to the market. And it is one of the fastet growing markets now.
Case in point the playbase kinda miss it mark. It should have included atleast one hdmi port. Now there might be another ht speaker. And playbase buyers might feel left out. Just food for thought.
So if heos and the others were not out pushing more features. We might have to wait longer for hdmi. But if all the competition supports hdmi. And atmos is going to be the standard. It forces sonos to listen to the market. And it is one of the fastet growing markets now.
Yep...it is quite entertaining how so many ignore the original subject matter. Fully aware of the lawsuit. I think the chances of the line forcibly or voluntarily getting taken off the market are next to nothing. But they may be forced to remove features permanently or pay a fee to license existing features. Features from the App have already been removed under the guise of 'market research says our customers do not want those features'. The App itself has always been servicable but now it is just crap. Denon has been less than helpful in dealing with all this so there idea of Sonos crept back up. I originally chose Heos because I thought it sounded better and did not like the minimalist design of the Sonos products. I think the Denon's are some of the best looking products on the market, but it all kinda comes down to whether you want your speakers to blend in or stand out as a piece of art. Sonos clearly wants them to blend in. And this whole situation has forced me to ask what I liked about the Heos sound quality in the first place. Most of my experience, much like many others, has been on a showroom floor or online reviews. Many of those go into the review with bias (possibly even paid) or maybe just don't know a lot about speakers so it is hard to judge how much weight to give reviews. What is clear is that most prefer the Sonos App (I wish they had a black screen option though), and Sonos is much more widely accepted and supported. Sound quality is the most important factor for me though. If they don't sound great, Sonos could come to my house and give me a massage and it wouldn't matter. Thankfully the differences seem to be minute. I am installing a couple of Sonos speakers now and will run them along side their Heos counterparts. Still debating, but a large group of Heos speakers may show up on Craigslist soon.
Highly subjective, of course, but I find the Heos speakers hideous to look at. The only place I’ve seen them in person is at the Magnolia inside the local Best Buy, tucked in a dark corner. I’ve never seen anyone actually demo them, and the few times I’ve asked the sales people there about them, they’ve always guided me to the Sonos aisle, in the brightly lit BB store. I just don’t see any valid reason to choose Heos over Sonos at this point.
Userlevel 7
+22
My favorite speaker is my Play:1 bluenote. It blends in like artwork on my dining room hutch.
Atari Prime,
Let us know what you think of the play 3 v. heos 3 and play 5 v. play 5. Sonos one v. Heos 1 I have heard in a home environment and like the sonos a little bit better. But not much on the larger speakers in a home environment. Just curious.
Enjoy the playing with the home comparison.
Let us know what you think of the play 3 v. heos 3 and play 5 v. play 5. Sonos one v. Heos 1 I have heard in a home environment and like the sonos a little bit better. But not much on the larger speakers in a home environment. Just curious.
Enjoy the playing with the home comparison.
So...I posted a rather lengthy comparison between the Heos 1 and the Sonos One yesterday. For reasons unknown, it was taken down by the moderators. Not really sure which is better, no forum at all or a forum that takes down comments it doesn't like.
Anyway, the gist of of it was: Round 1 goes to the Sonos One. It sounds a little better, looks a little better, and the App seems to be better. The only negative I noticed is that it doesn't seem to get as loud as the Heos 1.
Sorry the review is so short, still a bit miffed that the prior post didn't pass muster for whatever reason.
Anyway, the gist of of it was: Round 1 goes to the Sonos One. It sounds a little better, looks a little better, and the App seems to be better. The only negative I noticed is that it doesn't seem to get as loud as the Heos 1.
Sorry the review is so short, still a bit miffed that the prior post didn't pass muster for whatever reason.
Userlevel 7
+20
Anyway, the gist of of it was: Round 1 goes to the Sonos One. It sounds a little better, looks a little better, and the App seems to be better. The only negative I noticed is that it doesn't seem to get as loud as the Heos 1.
Sorry the review is so short, still a bit miffed that the prior post didn't pass muster for whatever reason.
Hi Atari_Prime,
As far as I can tell your post wasn't deleted by us. Generally we only moderate posts which violate the forum rules, things like profanity or personal attacks. Posts are often caught up in the spam filter here, but I don't see a post by you in there either. Did you post the review in this thread or another?
I created a new thread under wireless speakers. It referenced back to this thread but since the focus was on the Sonos One and sound quality, it seemed logical to create it in its own post. It was rather lengthy, probably around a thousand words or so.
So...comparison posted again, comparison disappeared again. This time, I even saw that people viewed the page, then poof.
Userlevel 5
+12
Atari, the post was there 2 mins ago. Well written too! Gave it a thumbs up!
Thank you. Somebody doesn't seem to like my posts I guess. I wouldn't call it Pulitzer work but tried to be concise and fair.
Userlevel 5
+12
Maybe it was discussion of the litigation? As the writup showed Sonos in a relatively favourable light then I can’t see what else might be ‘wrong’ with it! If comparisons are against competitive prosucts are not allowed it does not say much about a company’s confidence in its products!
I’d have thought a heos owner coming onto a sonos forum praising its products after taking the time and money to invest and writing an seeminly unbiased ‘review’ would be just the positive feedback a company would seek. Very odd that it went a 2nd time without explanation. It made a nice change from 90% of posts complaining about broken devices, unreliable performance and a lack of a certain feature!
Or maybe it was the tongue cheek request for free products to review. ?
I’d have thought a heos owner coming onto a sonos forum praising its products after taking the time and money to invest and writing an seeminly unbiased ‘review’ would be just the positive feedback a company would seek. Very odd that it went a 2nd time without explanation. It made a nice change from 90% of posts complaining about broken devices, unreliable performance and a lack of a certain feature!
Or maybe it was the tongue cheek request for free products to review. ?
Well the earlier poster indicated that it has to be profanity or personal attacks to get a takedown. Would be nice though if some insight was offered.
Um, this thread is a comparison against a competitor’s product... There are hundreds of similar threads here, as a simple search will show...
It was most likely this horrible InSided forum sortware. It’s really bad, appears to have been built from scratch by folks who had zero previous experience with forum software. There are several threads on it, with thousands of posts,
Userlevel 5
+12
Um, this thread is a comparison against a competitor’s product... There are hundreds of similar threads here, as a simple search will show...
I know. Then why was it rejected? You’re stating the obvious. I was playing devil’s advocate as to the reason for deletion. I suggested a few reasons. The list was not exhaustive.
Userlevel 7
+26
I just rescued the thread Atari posted, it was caught by our automated spam filter and held for moderation review, nothing sinister I assure you.
Have a good weekend everyone!
Have a good weekend everyone!
It seems the patent infringement case Sonos vs Denon is closed?
Denon vs. Sonos reaches settlement, HEOS line will go on unchanged
Denon says its 'direction with HEOS is unchanged' after resolving its Sonos patent infringement case, which began four years ago.
https://www.cnet.com/news/denon-and-sonos-reach-settlement-over-wireless-speaker-patent-case/
Denon vs. Sonos reaches settlement, HEOS line will go on unchanged
Denon says its 'direction with HEOS is unchanged' after resolving its Sonos patent infringement case, which began four years ago.
https://www.cnet.com/news/denon-and-sonos-reach-settlement-over-wireless-speaker-patent-case/
Obviously, Denon is paying Sonos for infringement, and subsequently licensing the technology they stole. Also, does their "direction with HEOS is unchanged" statement mean it is unchanged from before or after they stripped some of the patent infringing functions from their app?
As of 5/21/18 @ 7:40 AM PT, the functionality that was removed from App has not been restored. If it is going to be restored I imagine there will be an update by the end of the week. Programmers don't typically work on the weekend unless it is any emergency. The announcement was made on Friday, so we'll see.
Curious just before the IPO
Userlevel 7
+22
Yea I figured when I saw that - they wanted to clear up current lawsuits before the IPO.
We don't know that Denon can actually put anything back - they may just have settled and are paying for the remaining issues.
We don't know that Denon can actually put anything back - they may just have settled and are paying for the remaining issues.
Looking at some of the major quotes from the case:
“[p]art of D&M’s plan to make Sonos-copy products included reproducing Sonos’s dynamic-grouping, synchronization, and group-volume control technology, which D&M internally lauded time and again.”
“[t]he infringing HEOS features are software-based and … D&M allegedly could have easily and readily implemented alternative synchronization and volume control features that would apparently avoid infringing Sonos’s patents.”
“D&M continued to sell HEOS products that infringe the ‘258 and ‘949 Patents, and continued releasing new marketing materials and promoting the HEOS features that infringe those patents.”
“D&M’s HEOS Apps included a nearly identical group volume control interface as can be found in Sonos’s patented App. …[t]he HEOS device’s synchronization mechanism is identical to the mechanism claimed and described in Sonos’s 258 Patent.”
Does anyone have the details of the 258 and 949 patents?
At a glance, the above implies that that the main issue in the App is volume control and sound grouping. Sound grouping was not changed within the product, and for good reason, if they removed that feature they would have killed their own product as sound grouping is essential. The main thing that is missing right now is volume control of all speakers using one slider. Instead you have to change the volume of each speaker independently, which is inconvenient and annoying.
This may seem small but really is an essential feature of a whole home audio system.
“[p]art of D&M’s plan to make Sonos-copy products included reproducing Sonos’s dynamic-grouping, synchronization, and group-volume control technology, which D&M internally lauded time and again.”
“[t]he infringing HEOS features are software-based and … D&M allegedly could have easily and readily implemented alternative synchronization and volume control features that would apparently avoid infringing Sonos’s patents.”
“D&M continued to sell HEOS products that infringe the ‘258 and ‘949 Patents, and continued releasing new marketing materials and promoting the HEOS features that infringe those patents.”
“D&M’s HEOS Apps included a nearly identical group volume control interface as can be found in Sonos’s patented App. …[t]he HEOS device’s synchronization mechanism is identical to the mechanism claimed and described in Sonos’s 258 Patent.”
Does anyone have the details of the 258 and 949 patents?
At a glance, the above implies that that the main issue in the App is volume control and sound grouping. Sound grouping was not changed within the product, and for good reason, if they removed that feature they would have killed their own product as sound grouping is essential. The main thing that is missing right now is volume control of all speakers using one slider. Instead you have to change the volume of each speaker independently, which is inconvenient and annoying.
This may seem small but really is an essential feature of a whole home audio system.
Update: As of 5/25/18 @ 8:25 AM PT, still no update to the Heos App restoring functionality. No updates at all.
Userlevel 7
+22
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.
HEOS just doen't have the feel of a long term player in the market with a strong user base.
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