Denon Home 350 Wireless Speaker Review & Comments

@Steve Withers thanks for the write up, great review. I heard this against the Sonos equivalent and thought it sounded fantastic. In terms of musicality alone, how does this stack up against the Denon DHT-S516H soundbar (which I haven't heard)? I'm trying to find a good living room solution.
 
Really good review Steve.
I currently have the older gen Heos speakers and have been tempted to upgrade.
However i find these a little on the expensive side when compared to SONOS. I have also recently noticed a huge issue (for me anyway) with regards to HEOS, Amazon Alexa and Spotify.
I recently purchased Spotify premium and linked it all together with heos app and alexa app.
When asking Alexa to play something from Spotify to a HEOS speaker you will alway sget "device offline" response. Contacting Denon and i was pointed to their support FAQ page that states Spotify is not compatible via Alexa. This is a deal breaker for me.
 
Hi Steve, great review, thanks.
Could this speaker act as a sound bar re: one rear firing bass driver and as you have stated, it has a lot of bass to begin with.
 
Very nice review from Steve. The Denon HEOS speaker looks like a really good product.

I have two Denon X6200W AVRs, but these pre-date any HEOS capabilities.

I barely use any audio streaming services. I have a large collection of FLAC files stored on a Windows Server, and I manually maintain all the metadata including cover art etc.

Currently, I access the FLAC files via an SMBv2 network share from Windows 10 client computers. I play the files using Foobar via an external USB DAC and output the audio to a standard two channel audio amplifier (Rega). My main focus is audio quality, over and above convenience.

However, I'd be interested in augmenting (not replacing) my current setup with a Denon HEOS speaker in another room. But, will HEOS Speakers see a Windows SMBv2 file share, and use the existing metadata?

Does the current generation HEOS App for iPad / iPhone have the capabilities to work in this environment, or is it aimed at people who only want to stream audio from the internet?

As far as possible, I'd prefer to stay away from being tired into one manufacturers audio streaming platform, but I could be persuaded to go down the HEOS path, providing I can use my networked FLAC collection.

Best regards,
James.
 
From the Denon web page specs 'power consumption 37 Watts'
 
@Steve Withers thanks for the write up, great review. I heard this against the Sonos equivalent and thought it sounded fantastic. In terms of musicality alone, how does this stack up against the Denon DHT-S516H soundbar (which I haven't heard)? I'm trying to find a good living room solution.
The DHT-S516 is superior in part because it has proper stereo separation, plus it has a separate subwoofer. The Home 350 has a surprising amount of bass, but it's no match for a dedicated sub. Of course, the S516H also has HDMI, Dolby Digital and DTS, which I'm assuming would be more useful in a living room.
 
Really good review Steve.
I currently have the older gen Heos speakers and have been tempted to upgrade.
However i find these a little on the expensive side when compared to SONOS. I have also recently noticed a huge issue (for me anyway) with regards to HEOS, Amazon Alexa and Spotify.
I recently purchased Spotify premium and linked it all together with heos app and alexa app.
When asking Alexa to play something from Spotify to a HEOS speaker you will alway sget "device offline" response. Contacting Denon and i was pointed to their support FAQ page that states Spotify is not compatible via Alexa. This is a deal breaker for me.
I wasn't aware of this limitation, I was listening to Spotify via my phone. It's seems very short-sighted given that a lot of people use Alexa to access Spotify.
 
Hi Steve, great review, thanks.
Could this speaker act as a sound bar re: one rear firing bass driver and as you have stated, it has a lot of bass to begin with.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I'd definitely recommend you go for a dedicated soundbar. The Home 350 sounds great and has some decent bass, but it's not designed to be used as a soundbar.
 
Very nice review from Steve. The Denon HEOS speaker looks like a really good product.

I have two Denon X6200W AVRs, but these pre-date any HEOS capabilities.

I barely use any audio streaming services. I have a large collection of FLAC files stored on a Windows Server, and I manually maintain all the metadata including cover art etc.

Currently, I access the FLAC files via an SMBv2 network share from Windows 10 client computers. I play the files using Foobar via an external USB DAC and output the audio to a standard two channel audio amplifier (Rega). My main focus is audio quality, over and above convenience.

However, I'd be interested in augmenting (not replacing) my current setup with a Denon HEOS speaker in another room. But, will HEOS Speakers see a Windows SMBv2 file share, and use the existing metadata?

Does the current generation HEOS App for iPad / iPhone have the capabilities to work in this environment, or is it aimed at people who only want to stream audio from the internet?

As far as possible, I'd prefer to stay away from being tired into one manufacturers audio streaming platform, but I could be persuaded to go down the HEOS path, providing I can use my networked FLAC collection.

Best regards,
James.
That's a good question, but as a dedicated Apple user I'm not able to answer. I think you'd be better off checking directly with Denon before committing to a HEOS speaker.
 
@Steve Withers how does this stack up against the Denon DHT-S516H soundbar (which I haven't heard)? I'm trying to find a good living room solution.

I thought I'd share my thoughts aswell. I have the denon home 350 and I don't think there is any way it can be used as a soundbar replacement.
For music I would guess it is better sounding than the "Denon DHT-S516H".
I've compared the Denon 350 with another soundbar the Samsung ms750 + W700 subwoofer (which i think is a higher end soundbar/sub than the Denon DHT-S516H ) and the denon home 350 sounds much better for music in my opinion.
 
I wasn't aware of this limitation, I was listening to Spotify via my phone. It's seems very short-sighted given that a lot of people use Alexa to access Spotify.
Very much so.
I can launch spotify from either my iPhone directly or from within the HEOS app and it works fine.
I can ask Alexa to play something from Amazon music and it plays fine via my HEOS1 pair. Same with TuneIn but when i set Spotify as my default music selection i cannot ask Alexa to play anything from it.

This is from the Customer support:

· Amazon Prime Music
· Amazon Music Unlimited
· TuneIn
· Pandora
· iHeart Radio
· Spotify (Not available yet)
· SiriusXM (Not available yet)
I was floored to find out that Spotify wasnt supported via Alexa voice commands.
 
Very much so.
I can launch spotify from either my iPhone directly or from within the HEOS app and it works fine.
I can ask Alexa to play something from Amazon music and it plays fine via my HEOS1 pair. Same with TuneIn but when i set Spotify as my default music selection i cannot ask Alexa to play anything from it.

This is from the Customer support:

· Amazon Prime Music
· Amazon Music Unlimited
· TuneIn
· Pandora
· iHeart Radio
· Spotify (Not available yet)
· SiriusXM (Not available yet)
I was floored to find out that Spotify wasnt supported via Alexa voice commands.
Was tempted to get one by the review but this is something I would want to use. The Citation 500 is really just for google home. It looks like the Bose 500 is still my only choice. So thanks
 
Was tempted to get one by the review but this is something I would want to use. The Citation 500 is really just for google home. It looks like the Bose 500 is still my only choice. So thanks
Im still hoping someone can prove me wrong as i have several HEOS speakers dotted around the house already. Plus their AVR.
 
Im still hoping someone can prove me wrong as i have several HEOS speakers dotted around the house already. Plus their AVR.
I have an AVR, but no HEOS speakers as yet, so was holding out to kill 2 birds.
 
I wonder how this compares to the Beolit 17, which I have but am not super impressed with...
 
I own Denon Home 250 and I can't make Alexa play Spotify on it either. It always says this device is offline. Yes, I have Spotify account linked to Alexa (and linked to HEOS account inside HEOS app) and I can play Spotify on my Echo Dot but whenever I ask Alexa to play on my Office Speaker she just says it's offline. This is very frustrating.
 
If I was lashing out that kind of cash I think I’d go for one made by a real speaker company.

The Dynaudio Music 5 leaps to mind.

No Alexa as far as I know, but I’d rather add one to the Dynaudio.
 
According to Spotify, Alexa can be used to access its range of music. The link is here for setting it up - Alexa - Spotify
Very true. Alexa works a treat with Spotify. I can play to any echo device. The problem is being able to play Spotify on a HEOS speaker by asking an Alexa device..
 
Does it sound better than the Huawei that's half the price?
 
I've reservations about HEOS in general. The speaker is built upon this Ecosystem and given current firmware woes on their receivers, testing should be across a range of DLNA servers to determine whether or not this speaker is stable enough to provide streaming. Serviio for instance has a random track playlist generator that when run through the HEOS app kills all network connectivity on both my Marantz 7012 and my current Denon x4700h. If you have over 15,000 tracks in FLAC, it's a good feature to have. The HEOS app isn't bulletproof either despite its good design. If you add the SMB address to the music server list in the app, there's a chance it will throw up error codes and won't list all your music.

Given all these speakers require connectivity, sound quality is now a secondary feature because if you can't stream what you want, how you want it, it's all moot.
 
I'm really interested in one of these or the smaller one but could anyone that has one of these speakers and uses TuneIn confirm whether or not they can stream BBC radio stations?
 
I'm really interested in one of these or the smaller one but could anyone that has one of these speakers and uses TuneIn confirm whether or not they can stream BBC radio stations?
I have tested it today and it seems to work ,
 

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