finally a competitor for Sonos??????

[sparkyhx]

Denon Heos

http://heosbydenon.denon.com/uk

[bristolracer]

at those prices it wont be worrying Sonos.

About 30% more than equivalents.

Having said that the more manurfacturers who get spotify/deezer/tunein on board the better. Licence agreements between media suppliers and hardware suppliers need to be killed off. If you buy hardware it should play all.

[sparkyhx]

bristolracer said:

at those prices it wont be worrying Sonos.

About 30% more than equivalents.

Having said that the more manurfacturers who get spotify/deezer/tunein on board the better. Licence agreements between media suppliers and hardware suppliers need to be killed off. If you buy hardware it should play all.

But Sonos sound isn't brilliant the functionality, ease of use, stability, and connectivity is what swings it - I wonder if the Denon stuff is better with the same/similar functionality

[Bullett]

I never understood why Logitech got out of this market, the squeezebox range worked well and was reasonably priced. Ok not quite as slick as Sonos but a better proposition financially.

I guess if you want all in ones then you have to pick and choose. Don't most audiophiles just use Sonos as a transport (at least as the main source) hooked up to dedicated DAC/AMP/Speakers.

[Crackie]

I'm keeping powder dry until I can check out one of these first hand http://www.myoliveone.com/Ones. Looks like a good solution to me.

$699.00 USD for the 2TB version.

[kingston12]

I love the idea of Sonos, but hate the implementation. If these are more stable, I'd happily junk all of my Sonos stuff and go with these. Even better, because most people who run Sonos don't seem to have the 'challenging network environment' that Sonos helpful (but ultimately useless) support insist that I do, I should actually be able to get some money back on them!

Edited by kingston12 on Monday 15th September 22:04

[sparkyhx]

kingston12 said:

I love the idea of Sonos, but hate the implementation. If these are more stable, I'd happily junk all of my Sonos stuff and go with these. Even better, because most people who run Sonos don't seem to have the 'challenging network environment' that Sonos helpful (but ultimately useless) support do, I should actually be able to get some money back on them!

eh - explain?

Can't fault mine at all, and Sonos is generally considered as really stable and easy to use. the only common issues I'v heard of is with the Apple NAS whatever its called - and thats down to the NAS not Sonos.

[sparkyhx]

Bullett said:

I never understood why Logitech got out of this market, the squeezebox range worked well and was reasonably priced. Ok not quite as slick as Sonos but a better proposition financially.

I guess if you want all in ones then you have to pick and choose. Don't most audiophiles just use Sonos as a transport (at least as the main source) hooked up to dedicated DAC/AMP/Speakers.

totally agree about logitech - maybe they couldn't compete with Sonos. I think they got out just before streaming became a real proposition, maybe just bad timing for both the launch and pull out.

I use both - I have the Play 5's in a few rooms, but in the main room have it hooked up to circa 4k's worth of amp and speakers............still miss my turntable for sound, but can't fault the sonos for convenience.

[kingston12]

sparkyhx said:

eh - explain?

Can't fault mine at all, and Sonos is generally considered as really stable and easy to use. the only common issues I'v heard of is with the Apple NAS whatever its called - and thats down to the NAS not Sonos.

One problem after another with mine, random disconnects, won't see my music library/Spotify/both, wrong type of cat 5 cable used for the wired zone (even though it was the one that came with it!) etc, etc.

The advice is always the same - turn everything off, then turn on the wired stuff, then the wireless ones. The trouble is that I don't necessarily want to do that every time I want to listen to some music! Fortunately, I have got proper Hifi for most of my listening and Sonos only gets used occasionally, but it would be used a lot more if it was a bit more stable.

[kingston12]

sparkyhx said:

still miss my turntable for sound, but can't fault the sonos for convenience.

Sonos has actually given my turntable a lot more use. I have always loved listening to records, but I did want a hassle-free solution to use alongside it. I am still looking, and in the meantime adding to my record collection!

[VEX]

You shouldn't be having that level of problems with your system.it will be something like a spanning tree loop on your network, a wifi issue or even just one faulty unit that is dragging everything else down.

If you are local I would be happy to pop in and have a look.

V.

Edited by VEX on Tuesday 16th September 07:34

[kingston12]

VEX said:

You shouldn't be having that level of problems with your system.it will be something like a spanning tree loop on your network, a wifi issue or even just one faulty unit that is dragging everything else down.

If you are local I would be happy to pop in and have a look.

V.

Edited by VEX on Tuesday 16th September 07:34

That's a very kind offer, thanks. I have actually got it up and running quite well at the moment, I think. Sonos has confirmed that there is a Wifi issue, but it is sporadic and only seems to affect Sonos. It is a fairly simple network headed by an Apple Airport Extreme with perhaps 10 devices hanging off it.

I actually don't mind having a muck about with it and find it quite satisfying to fix it, but the problems usually occur about 10 minutes before we have a house full of people!

[sparkyhx]

kingston12 said:

VEX said:

You shouldn't be having that level of problems with your system.it will be something like a spanning tree loop on your network, a wifi issue or even just one faulty unit that is dragging everything else down.

If you are local I would be happy to pop in and have a look.

V.

Edited by VEX on Tuesday 16th September 07:34

It is a fairly simple network headed by an Apple Airport Extreme with perhaps 10 devices hanging off it.
!

any reading around, therein lies your problem.

[CoffeeTreat]

Logitech for me too. Squeezebox connected to my hifi - controlled from my ipad - fed to a high quality dac - preamp - mono blocks - speakers - hi definition flac when I can otherwise normal flac sitting on my PC. I'm sure sonos could do the same but thats £££ more for what I need and I can't believe as a digital source it would sound better.

Its each to their own - I know some people can't distinguish between am mp3 played over apple airplay and a half decent source.

[JimbobVFR]

Sonos can't (yet) do high res audio. Although for me its debateable if there's a difference with all other thing being equal anyway.

I'm also very much a fan of Logitech Media Server, TBH for me at least Logitech dropping the hardware has been irrelevant. There's plenty of other devices you can use as part of a LMS system and LMS has had more development recently than it did before. LMS is just getting better and better.

[Digger]

Surely hi-res audio has as much to do with your home network's wifi capability more than anything else? Assuming all your Sonos / Heos devices are Ethernet cabled I don't see a major issue, but via wifi. . . who knows. Technology needs to catch up methinks.

[Mermaid]

Digger said:

Surely hi-res audio has as much to do with your home network's wifi capability more than anything else? Assuming all your Sonos / Heos devices are Ethernet cabled I don't see a major issue, but via wifi. . . who knows. Technology needs to catch up methinks.

Doubt it will work well with wi-fi. Needs to be wired for the high res music AFAIK, or connected direct via a USB stick for 96k/192k.

Free sampler available from:

http://www.hdtracks.co.uk/free-highres-sample/

[Bullett]

Went looking for the bandwidth requirements and found this https://xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html which I thought was interesting.

I see no reason why you couldn't stream HD audio though as people can stream HD video over wifi N at least.

[JimbobVFR]

Yes you can stream higher resolution audio over WiFi. Obviously more data means it will potentially be more problematic than lower bit rates.

The main limitation is what your audio equipment supports, I.e. the streamer and possibly DAC you use. For example a squeezebox touch will support up to 24bit/96Khz out of the box, either with the internal DAC or via S/PDIF to a DAC.

Personally I've been a high res believer and have since changed my mind after further research and testing. I had a high res version of DSOTM and thought it sounded fantastic, did some blind tests ( none scientific but was unsighted listening) and still came to the conclusion. However I have since down converted the high res files to 16/44 FLAC which still sounds better than the CD rip and no different IMO to the the HD files.

So in conclusion it's the mastering of the original source that makes all the difference.

All in my opinion of course, Neil Young is wrong (and a bit of a tt)

[durbster]

I don't know how well these have been selling but I recently bought a couple of HEOS speakers (a 1 and a 3) as after a lot of deliberation, I decided against the SONOS.

I thought the SONOS speakers were excellent but my gripe was mainly that all the software was controlled by then, rather than the providers. This meant the Spotify implementation was lacking many features e.g. Artist Radio which I use a lot.

I know SONOS are working on those things but the Denon kit supports Spotify Connect so I don't have to wait for them to catch up.

The second factor was that the HEOS 1 is splashproof so I don't worry about it being next to the kitchen sink, and with the battery pack it's portable so I can take it in the bathroom for some shower tunes.

The only problems I've had is the 1 would sometimes briefly cut out when grouped but it hasn't done it recently so that could be a bug that's been fixed.

It's usually a bit more expensive than the SONOS but if anyone is looking for an alternative then I would recommend it.