heos v sonas v ANother soundbars

MarcusP12

Hi guys, looking for some advice on a future soundbar purchase. I've a few questions as follows:

1. Is the Heos home cinema any good compared to other non-multi rooms, e.g. Q acoustic M4? Is the simulated surround sound decent or are there better for the same kind of money?

2. I know the homecinema can be part of your heos home set up but does this mean it can be paired with a couple of heos 1 to act as rear speakers to make it into a 5.1? I think I've read that it can't....

3. Is the heos soundbar worth the significant extra money over the home cinema? is the sound that much better for watching bluerays for example?

4. I have definitely read you can pair the heos 1 with the soundbar and the sub woofer to make a true 5.1. What's your best price for that combo? How much would the equivalent sonas package be?

5. Is there any risk that denon will fade away due to the ongoing legal issues with sonas?

6. Is sonas better than denon? sonas always seem to feature on best of lists but rare the heos. I've a denon ceol system which I bought from you which I love so i'm a fan of the brand but is sonas where its at for multiroom?

7. Is it worth integrating your soundbar into a multiroom set up or is it better to treat the multiroom and TV sound as separate to open the soundbar opens up?

8. Final question, I have a monitor audio S300....can this act as a soundbar to improve the TV sound? I know it wont give surround affects but as an interim measure, would it be worth hooking this up to the TV?

Sorry for the many questions, looking forward to you feedback!

Thanks....

MarcusP12

Anyone?

Richersounds.ie: John

MarcusP12 wrote: »

Hi guys, looking for some advice on a future soundbar purchase. I've a few questions as follows:

1. Is the Heos home cinema any good compared to other non-multi rooms, e.g. Q acoustic M4? Is the simulated surround sound decent or are there better for the same kind of money?

2. I know the homecinema can be part of your heos home set up but does this mean it can be paired with a couple of heos 1 to act as rear speakers to make it into a 5.1? I think I've read that it can't....

3. Is the heos soundbar worth the significant extra money over the home cinema? is the sound that much better for watching bluerays for example?

4. I have definitely read you can pair the heos 1 with the soundbar and the sub woofer to make a true 5.1. What's your best price for that combo? How much would the equivalent sonas package be?

5. Is there any risk that denon will fade away due to the ongoing legal issues with sonas?

6. Is sonas better than denon? sonas always seem to feature on best of lists but rare the heos. I've a denon ceol system which I bought from you which I love so i'm a fan of the brand but is sonas where its at for multiroom?

7. Is it worth integrating your soundbar into a multiroom set up or is it better to treat the multiroom and TV sound as separate to open the soundbar opens up?

8. Final question, I have a monitor audio S300....can this act as a soundbar to improve the TV sound? I know it wont give surround affects but as an interim measure, would it be worth hooking this up to the TV?

Sorry for the many questions, looking forward to you feedback!

Thanks....

Marcus,

apologies for the delay getting back to you - we are still in catch-up mode after the long and exceptionally busy bank holiday weekend, apologies!

1: The Denon HEOS HC is an excellent unit but in pure sound quality terms it does not compare to the Q Acoustics M4 which is pretty unique and TBH not many sound-bars under £500 sound as good as the M4 - however to be fair to the HEOS it does have way more functionality and features that the M4 can only dream of!

2: The current HEOS HC is a stand alone unit and cannot be matched with H1's for the rears - however the HEOS BAR can be partnered with any other HEOS speakers to give you proper surround sounds ( and its very impressive!):
http://www.richersounds.ie/p-202628-319009.aspx

3: The HEOS Bar is a completely different beast to the HC - albeit at a different price range - it has the additional functionality you are looking for above AND it sounds great.

4: For HEOS Bar / HEOS SUB / HEOS 1 HS2 * 2 - we would price that at £1289 / Sonos Playbar / Play 1 * 2 / Sonos Sub  - £1599

5: No idea, but I think it's highly unlikely - Denon's parent Company, Sound United is fairly huge and I dont see that happening - but I'm no lawyer so I really cant make any informed opinion on the subject.

6: Again this is subjective - I have the pick of what multi-room system I want to use at home and I use Sonos exclusively.

7: Completely up to you - I think its mad not to integrate any component if this is a possibility - its possibly a little different if you have a completely separate cinema room but if its just a soundbar in your main home and you have the chance to make it part of a 'whole home' system it would seem a bit of a folly not to be able to integrate it.

8: S300 was a great portable speaker in it's day but it was never really intended as a soundbar and from memory ( I stand to be corrected) it did not have any digital inputs - only 3.5mm analogue input - if your TV has a 3.5mm output then it will almost certainly sound better than your existing TV but I would regard it as a stop-gap compared to any of your proposals above.

Keep us posted,

ATVB,

John Mc & Crew

MarcusP12

Thanks for the reply John and no need to apologise....I was just giving myself a bump in case my email got lost amongst the back log.
So are you saying that for stand alone sound bar, the M4 will give better virtual surround sound? The Heos HC can form part of a heos multiroom network but can't be made into a 5.1 though right?

Is it pretty much sonas or Heos for a wireless surround solution?

As I said, I like denon....I have a Denon Ceol (the one with the CD). My only gripe with building a multi room and getting a good soundbar is that it might make this fantastic unit redundant....however, can it be integrated into a heos network, for example by hooking up to the heos link?

Richersounds.ie: Kenny

MarcusP12 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply John and no need to apologise....I was just giving myself a bump in case my email got lost amongst the back log.
So are you saying that for stand alone sound bar, the M4 will give better virtual surround sound? The Heos HC can form part of a heos multiroom network but can't be made into a 5.1 though right?

Is it pretty much sonas or Heos for a wireless surround solution?

As I said, I like denon....I have a Denon Ceol (the one with the CD). My only gripe with building a multi room and getting a good soundbar is that it might make this fantastic unit redundant....however, can it be integrated into a heos network, for example by hooking up to the heos link?

Hi MarcusP12,

The M4 has superior sound quality for a stand alone bar. It does have virtual surround but in terms of clarity, depth and balance the M4 sounds best, especially for music and vocal boosting.

The Heos HC can be used in the Heos network but can't be added to with wireless rears. For that you would need the Heos Bar at £579. This can then be linked with the Heos sub and Heos wireless speakers. If you went down the Heos route you can add the heos Link to your Ceol and have it on the same network as the soundbar.

For wireless speaker Heos and Sonos would definitely be the front runners. I personally prefer Sonos as it's a lot more user friendly with the App control. You can also get a Sonos Connect for your Ceol if you were to go down the Sonos Playbar route.

Let me know what you think.

Kind regards

David

MarcusP12

Thanks for the feedback guys, lots to think about.....I'm in the research phase at the moment and will be a while yet before I purchase due to overseas work commitments. But rest assured that I'll almost certainly be buying from you as a repeat customer on whatever set up I go for!

Richersounds.ie: Kenny

MarcusP12 wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback guys, lots to think about.....I'm in the research phase at the moment and will be a while yet before I purchase due to overseas work commitments. But rest assured that I'll almost certainly be buying from you as a repeat customer on whatever set up I go for!

No problem at all MarcusP12.

Lets us know if we can help in anyway or if any more questions come up in the future.