Denon HEOS Ready to Do Battle with Sonos for Multi-Room Audio Crown?

[gene]

The Denon HEOS Drive fills a gap in the multi-room audio market that has been ignored for years. A great balance between the ease of set up and operation consumers demand, and the flexibility custom installers need, the Drive hits a sweet spot. At $2,499, this 4-zone amplifier sports a host of features that makes it a flexible solution. As the multi-room audio market moves from volume controls, IR repeaters, and FM tuners towards streaming sources and IP control, Denon seems poised to be a market leader.

Denon HEOS Drive Multi-Room Audio System Preview

Do you think Denon has what it takes to dethrone Sonos as the multi-room audio King?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Even if ALL custom A/V installers will choose HEOS system, it would still would a tiny niche compared to consumer direct sales of Sonos. They have made bulletproof system, which easy for consumer to install and use. Not mentioned cheaper. I think folks at D&M are pretty smart and they know it. Gearing it towards installed setup and pricing it accordingly is surefire sign they aiming to that specific market.

I have at least two custom installs using RTI and Extron (one in each) with Sonon - so it's not impossible to integrate Sonos with multiroom custom installs.

 

[mmulhern]

The major down-side with Sonos is that the system does not play 'nice' with existing A/V receivers. Modern A/V receivers introduce a delay for processing surround sound. Similarly, Sonos introduces approx 70ms delay between it's components.

Whether content comes from the Sonos Connect or the A/V Receiver it is impossible the get Sonos speakers in sync with a A/V Receiver driven system.

In an ideal world both Sonos and the A/V Receiver would have manual delay options to allow for syncing of speakers.

Currently neither do.

Can HEOS be attached with any A/V system and stay in sync? Does it have a way to manage delay? Can the user increase or decrease delay on the system?

 

[Cliff_is]

The major down-side with Sonos is that the system does not play 'nice' with existing A/V receivers. Modern A/V receivers introduce a delay for processing surround sound. Similarly, Sonos introduces approx 70ms delay between it's components.

Whether content comes from the Sonos Connect or the A/V Receiver it is impossible the get Sonos speakers in sync with a A/V Receiver driven system.

In an ideal world both Sonos and the A/V Receiver would have manual delay options to allow for syncing of speakers.

Currently neither do.

Can HEOS be attached with any A/V system and stay in sync? Does it have a way to manage delay? Can the user increase or decrease delay on the system?

I checked with Denon, and they said that there is no way to change the delay. That said, I've never had an issue with Sonos, or other multi-room systems, and audio staying in sync. As long as you don' have any DSP engaged, the AVR shouldn't introduce an extra delay.

The only issue I've ran into with delays and multi-room systems is when customers want the multi-room audio to sync with the picture on the TV.

 

[Montucky]

Can't wait to get some hands-on time with the Denon. I like the Sonos amps a lot actually, but they're not the best solution for a rack. I am NOT a huge fan of their wireless speakers though, so it'll be interesting to see how Denon's compare. Either way, The 4-Zone Denon seems like a far better choice for my own house than having 4 separate Sonos Amps. We'll see how well Denon implements everything!