Sonos v. Heos Comparison


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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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88 replies

Userlevel 7
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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!
Userlevel 5
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for 1- 3 it is about right, they are dead even. Both Denon and Sonos company knows how to make a good speaker. They both do sound really well.

I avoided the Sonos HT system most because of the HDMI issue. I thought the playbase should have added it. But the Heos does sound nice in HT. But the Heos does not support Atmos.

June 6th 2018 you will most likely know more about sonos plans.
Userlevel 5
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that is the app, once the law suit gets settle, which it will. They will end up paying a big lic fee to sonos. And that will resolve the block features on the app.

But other features to also consider, heos 1 and heos 3 are portable and you can travel with them as Bluetooth speakers. As they have the option of a battery pack. 2 function the sonos can not do.

They have usb ports to pop in a flash drive with party music.

Sonosnet works better then wifi, and does not bog down your wifi network. And if you have issues, you can add a boost. Something Heos do not do. You are completely on Wifi. In very high residential area, and tons of wifi, sonos net can make a huge difference. Very important if you live in an area with wifi issue. That it is big enough to negate some of the oh gosh nice to have features of the Heos.

You can add speakers with the connect family if you have some good ones. If I were to go big for a heos 7, i would go connect amp and get some really good sounding dump speakers. I did once upon a time.

Hopefully hdmi will be resolve so that will be a moot point after June 6. Right now heos has the edge.

The Sonos in white looks way better then the heos except for the black grill of the play5. Which I think throws that look off for a white motif home.

Sonos will have both google and alexa intergation, vs just alexa on Heos.

Heos have native HD Audio support, not to big of an advantage. Unless you have heading acute as a dog.

Sonos right now have way better customer service.

These are some of the pros of both system. And the decision will really come down to some of these factors.
Userlevel 5
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patience is my strong suit. It took sonos how long to finally come out with HDMI, if the rumors are true. Still waiting on native Bluetooth support. ;)

I do think with the change in ownership to a US company. They will get better. I have dealt with Polk Audio Customer service, and it was a nice experience.

For the same reason as change in cultural ownership, I think that denon will get better. Northern Asian companies are not big in the long game. They tend to panic and change direction with the pervailing winds.

Sonos will be facing more competition, think that is why they are looking to raise captial by going public. Samsung and LG system are not that good. But the yamaha, denon and onkyo wireless systems sound is just as good as sonos. But not as big a product line. But they will grow. I dont see yamaha bailing out of their musicast system. And this is actually a good thing, it will drive innovation.
Userlevel 5
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They would drop the line before having to continue to pay license fees to Sonos.

How do I use HEOS with my Smartthings controller and home automation?

How do I play my Apple Music to HEOS?

How is that chromecast support going with HEOS they promised?


chromcast can be plug in via chromecast audio 3.5mm

Apple musc via Bluetooth

alexa will work with heos, and like sonos google home is planned. maybe smartthings will be added one day as well. But I am still waiting for google assistant with sonos.
Userlevel 5
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2nd, but the tech is getting better every year. And the wx 010 does sound better then the sonos one. WX 030 is slight behind the play 3. But it will grow, especially with the advent of the smart speaker. They committed to three big boys, apple, amazon and google. They do not want to be left behind. It is no longer a niche market when sonos first started.
Userlevel 5
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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/
Userlevel 7
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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.
Userlevel 7
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Exactly. You never hear anyone talk about anything HEOS.
Userlevel 5
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Have there been any sales estimates for the Homepod? And I'm not quite sure how Google and Amazon are considered to be a different space than Sonos, but Apple is? Perhaps because Apple is comparing their speaker to Sonos while Google and Amazon are not?


Well one simple way to look at it is as follows - I am a 6 room Sonos household. Can Amazon replace my system? I wouldn't consider going in that direction mainly because of Sound Quality and the number of supported services etc. Sonos seems a more hard core choice for pure music lovers. The Echos are not in that space at really - for suited to casual music lovers and people who love tech and the range of conveniences that voice brings. OK with Google Home Max I may consider it an option but again Google does not have the range of multiform audio options that Sonos have.

For me Apple can only be considered if I am pleased to be barricaded into Apple's jungle. I am an big Apple user but no thanks.
Userlevel 5
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If you Can anyone advise if the Heos wireless soeakers will work for 5.1 HT with the Heos equipped Denon AV receiver range? Website is a little vague on the matter.

If you hook up a Denon receiver that has Heos built in, you simply plug in speakers to the receiver as you would any other receiver. If you happen to have other Heos wireless speakers, you just need to download the app to join the two together and sync the sound.[/quot[quote=Atari_Prime]If you Can anyone advise if the Heos wireless soeakers will work for 5.1 HT with the Heos equipped Denon AV receiver range? Website is a little vague on the matter.



If you hook up a Denon receiver that has Heos built in, you simply plug in speakers to the receiver as you would any other receiver. If you happen to have other Heos wireless speakers, you just need to download the app to join the two together and sync the sound.


So If I buy a Denon Heos compatible ‘full’ receiver (not the limited special receiver they have) I can send full dts-hd wirelessly to a set of denon heos speakers? If that is the case, i’m boing to replace Sonos 5.1 in the morning.


It is similar to the Yamaha Music Cast, you send 5.1 DTS and DTS-X with the yamaha music cast from a yamaha AV receiver. Yamaha and Denon does better HT system system the Sonos. Yamaha does Atmos with their Music cast system as well. So I can not see Denon doing the sonos thing of no DTS or DTS-X.
Userlevel 7
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Hi everyone, this discussion went way off topic, so I've deleted some posts to clean it up. Please don't attack any other users for any reasons, and try to stay friendly. If this thread can't remain friendly we'll close it down. We encourage discussion, so please feel free to keep on the topic at hand.

If you have any questions, please message me directly instead of re-sparking the off-topic discussion.

Thanks!
Sonos: Robust, highly active, public support forum (this one).
Heos: Crickets

Sonos: Won two major lawsuits against Heos so far for stealing their technology
Heos: Will need to license Sonos tech, or completely redesign their products yet again

Summary: I wouldn’t go anywhere near Heos
Userlevel 5
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Sound United acquired D+M last year, so they do have the money to acquired lic deal. They are pretty big actually, with an equity company as parent to Sound United. They have funds to afford a lic deal
Userlevel 7
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of course - try to ask the question in a HEOS discussion forum ..... oh yea there is no discussion anywhere about HEOS. Love all the 3rd party support with my Sonos (alternate controllers, sonosequencr, Smartthings, Harmony Remote...)
Userlevel 5
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Yup to get heos discussion you will have to go 3rd party. Reddit has a Heos forum. But things might change with the Sound United deal last year. Company is more American then Japanese now. So they might be better with customer support going forward.
Userlevel 7
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Reddit’s heos discussion is like one comment a month
Userlevel 7
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Reddit’s Sonos forum is way more active.
Userlevel 5
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hey it takes time. Sonos has been around for over a decade, heos is 4 years. It is slowly growing to build a customer base. But at the end it will not be a sound quality decision for the OP. It will come down to the pros and cons of each system. Each has both good and bad things going for them.
Userlevel 5
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Atari Prime,

If the sonos play 1 and heos 1 are on your shipping list. The sonos had 2 digital amp one for the driver one for the tweeter vs 1 digital amp driving both the woofer and tweeter. This is where the slight sound quality of the play 1 comes from. It is not a overwhelming difference.
App Store
Sonos app: 248,000 reviews, 4.4/5*
Heos app: 203 reviews, 2.2/5*

Play Store
Sonos app: 5 million downloads, 64,000 reviews, 4.0/5*
Heos app: 100 thousand downloads, 4,500 reviews, 3.4/5*
hey it takes time. Sonos has been around for over a decade, heos is 4 years.

They’re already in their 2nd hardware generation in just 4 years!? Has to be longer. They’ll likely need to go to gen 3 after Sonos finishes them off in the courts.
Userlevel 7
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Yes - HEOS building a customer base isn't happening.
Userlevel 7
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They would drop the line before having to continue to pay license fees to Sonos.

How do I use HEOS with my Smartthings controller and home automation?

How do I play my Apple Music to HEOS?

How is that chromecast support going with HEOS they promised?