HEOS Reviews

by Nitrodamus

This is the worst music app ever. I have two this app 1 Series 2 speakers with go packs that look and sound amazing when they work. The problem is HEOS . Everytime I use them I have to go into HEOS and find the devices and reconnect them to Bluetooth. HEOS will come up and say "searching for devices" but won't find them, even if I am standing right next to them until I do it multiple times. Then I have to go back into Bluetooth and connect to the devices all over again. If you then try linking the two devices to play together which they call "pairing the devices" it takes multiple tries as well. I have to toggle back and forth between Bluetooth trying to connect and the this app app trying to pair until they finally work. This takes a minimum of 10 minutes and has to be done everytime you use them. HEOS doesn't remember anything you have done before and the devices constantly lose Bluetooth connection. HEOS is also very basic with no real features at all.
I have had these for over a year praying for the day that Denon would try to save their reputation by updating HEOS with a new awesome version. NOT!! Very disappointed in Denon that they don't care enough to put a decent app out there to run an otherwise awesome product. They look good, sound great and the go pack is phenomenal. How could they package this together with such and archaid grade school level app? Go figure?

by WAEMario

Selected Denon over Sonos because the speakers have a lot of ways to connect music. All supposed experts reviews I read wrote that the Sonos speakers sounded better specially in large spaces. My space is not that big and I already had a Denon receiver so it made sense that I would just buy this app speakers to pair them along. Have a this app 1, 2, and 7. When the speakers emit sound they are great. Rich and profound sound comes out of them. The problem, and I’ve should have listen to the different blogs on the internet is HEOS . I feel like I am back at 1989 trying endlessly for any basic computer application to work. It’s insane the amount of time to pair the speakers, the countless times speakers do not appear, the countless times the speakers do not pair. I have probably one of the best internet connections ever but that’s not it. Unfortunately, Denon has applied all of their research and resources into sound quality but have not figure out that is 2019 when it comes to connectivity and wireless applications. If you want a one off speaker that sounds great, this app are excellent, if you want a cohesive sound system all over your house, don’t make the same mistake I did. This is not the system you want.

by BUBearsFan

Don’t waste your money! I owned a Sonos system and now invested in the latest this app Home with playbar, sub, 4 150’s and a 250 for a total of 3 rooms. Setup via HEOS is terrible!! Setup with Sonos is 1000 times easier and everything just works. Good luck tuning the home entertainment room for surround sound. Speakers drop. TV input drops. Sometimes no sound from a room even though blue light is on. Difficulty getting sound from all rooms when grouping. No it’s not the WIFI. No it’s not the size of the apartment which is 80m2. App is not intuitive at all!! Doesn’t work with Apple Music. The place where I bought it says Denon is coming with an app update in May. That’s 3 months from now and based on previous reviews with same/similar problems, I expect no solutions. Will probably return today and replace with Sonos. Because Sonos works and Sonos is supported.

by Hijacks Your System

It’s great when it works but often hijacks the whole system and intermittently kills the sound when just watching TV. It also switches randomly to other inputs. We know this is the culprit as when we delete HEOS (off all devices which is annoying) and sign out completely and sign back in..it seems to work. My husband has nostalgia for the brand as it was his first stereo and he thinks the sound is nice. But to come out with an app to compete without being functional is irresponsible. There is nothing worse than having company over, music on and your stereo decides it has other plans. Or watching a movie and it decides its will switch to a different input. I went to HEOS Store to make sure we weren’t missing an update. Sadly over and over not the case. I am not one for reviews but hope you can use this to get the resources needed to fix these major glitches.

by Stephchern

We built a new house and did built in speakers in several rooms including surround sound in our basement rec room and outdoor speakers for the pool. I do like the quality of the speakers, but HEOS needs a major overhaul.

HEOS is tricky to learn, it took quiet awhile for me to catch on to. My husband pretty much refuses to use it. Also, with the last update HEOS keeps trying to update the speakers, which was just done not long ago. I keep hitting “update tonight” but it overrides my choice and tries to “update now” anyway. Our internet is not the greatest so this is super annoying and prevents me from getting to use the system when I want!

Every time I see there is a this app app update I hope that it’s a major one. Hopefully it happens sooner than later. We have a $6,000 audio system that should have came with an app that is much better quality than it is.

by Josh Karp

I’ve had my this app bar for a couple of years now. For some reason, despite having a flawless home MESH network, the this app bar and subwoofer have trouble staying connected to each other and the network. And HEOS is so archaic that it really is no help at all. In order to fix the problem you have to physically plug your phone into the sound bar and do a bunch of steps that seems very Y2K.

Last night, about 8 hours after HEOS updated, the this app bar started flashing yellow/green and woke us up. I’m assuming this was a software update but now, once again, HEOS can’t find the speaker! My god is 2020. This stuff should JUST WORK!

All in all I would avoid HEOS and Denon in general. Try Sonos or BlueSound or anything else....

by Fchixon

HEOS is medium and clunky. I find that it keeps trying to play stuff and my Marantz receivers(1 and 2 year old models) keep trying to play tracks after I have paused them and switched to a different input (cable etc). It takes a few tries and settles down.
Navigating a larger collection of music on my server is tedious and has yet another way of selecting favorites and playlists.
Playing higher resolution music is nice but there is not much info if it can’t play a format other than skipping the tracks and sometime giving me message. Some formats won’t play on HEOS but play fine when played directly on the device.
You cannot manage much on the receivers since it only looks at a subset of features on them.
Sometimes it finds the receivers, other times it is searching for them.
Since there is no web log in it is very hard to find your password and it’s unclear what benefit I get from logging in to the system.

It can be made into a nice app, but it is primitive and unintegratrd at this time. Since the company owns all of the receivers they should be much more tightly integrated that they are.

Sonos is a good model to copy.

by Dario Argento907

The functionality of choosing which speakers and system works great, and it’s nice to have one app that gets your streaming services all in one place...BUT, in this day and age it is simply unacceptable to have such a poor interface. The search functionality of Tidal is so freaking bad they should be ashamed of themselves. If you don’t spell the name of the artist or song perfectly, the search won’t recognize what you’re looking for. In this day and age that is just completely unacceptable. That technology is almost 30 years old at this point and this app couldn’t bother to put it in their app. Also the way the song queue works is a mess. It’s great to use HEOS from your phone to control your system but the this app app is a mess. Had I known how lame it was I might have chosen a different receiver. this app needs

by Utachi

this app miss one important opportunity: making the duo PM/ND8006 operate as one integrated device. I explain: while you can turn both devices on using the this app app, you cannot do that in one click. That’s a shame. The switch to turn the amp (PM8006) on is almost hidden in the “music” session of HEOS ! Also, because of that, when you connect Alexa to this app, you cannot turn the streamer and the amp with one command. That’s frustrating, it seems an easy fix. Marantz, please fix that and let us enjoy the full integration of our wonderful audio system (PM+ND) with simple voice or app commands.
Update: I need to add that this is a highly unstable app. It crashes often and is often left “hanging” without connection. When is Denon/Marantz going to finally pay attention to HEOS ????? I hate to have exceptional sound and horrible user experience.

by Jbh2phd

Issue 1: poor user interface (UI). This looks like an app that development engineers hacked up to get the system working. UI organization is horrible with many redundancies and non-intuitive paths to what you want to accomplish. I can live with issue 1, but … Issue 2: some units will not upgrade firmware to latest version. They “think” they’re updated but they’re not. As a result, units have different firmware revisions, which breaks your ability to group speakers to, for example, get them all playing the same music. After about 48 hours, the culprit speakers do update to latest firmware, but there’s no apparent way to control this other than leaving it up to the auto update feature and waiting until it does its thing in the background.
Issue 3: I’m sure it’s a big challenge to make HEOS interface well with all the music streaming services out there. HEOS doesn’t allow for search in Pandora, which is a major pain. HEOS also doesn’t show or give access to any content on my iPhone.

by HS2012

this app has/had so much potential from design and hardware point of view. However, software support is seriously lacking. On a paper, this app has HiRes support, various input options including Bluetooth, aux in, USB, airplay etc, extensive lineup with AVRs, many standard support DTS etc.

However, no Roon support, no Apple Music, AirPlay didn’t get added to expensive Heosbar nor on second gen this app speakers.

Denon is now releasing Denon home series and therefore trying to get into smart speaker market. This is a great move from hardware perspective to add another device on their extensive line up. But they seem to be always years after SONOS.

The biggest issue and trend here is; however, the lack of support on existing customers from software stand point of view. App has looked the same despite all the negativity its receiving on online reviews. Even now still no support on major stream service like Apple Music.

I believe Sonos devices retain relative values because each device sees upgrade via software and firmware. Please make App better, more professional looking and easier navigation, and most importantly speed up software update process e.g. Apple Music Support.

by MysticNord

Well, when it works it’s great. I’ve a Denon this app AVR and HEOS works with that each and every time, maybe because it’s hardwired to my network. I also have two this app 3 HS2 speakers (which sound amazing) stereo paired in the kitchen, and with them, HEOS is just plain finicky, but they are WiFi connected to my network. The connection is solid so I doubt that it’s a connection issue that sometimes causes various problems, such as dropping a speaker, failure to play from one of the in app streaming providers after having connected to the service, and in the case of my wife’s app, random crashes. This is after having deleted and reinstalled HEOS , reconnecting and configuring the speakers, resetting HEOS controller and standing on one foot while swinging my black-cat-mojo-bone in a brown paper bag over my head. Anyway, I look forward to future updates resolving these issues, and when that happens, it will be a five star app.

by Samindalnac

Half of the people reviewing this application are complaining about Bluetooth while the this app devices are primarily WiFi speakers and that is how this application communicates. The other half are complaining about issues which are clearly caused by poor WiFi coverage and connectivity within their homes.

Is HEOS aesthetically pleasing? No, and that’s a shame, but it is for the most part functional. For those speaking to issues with individual receivers and zone configuration try ensuring your firmware is up to date. I’m not saying that fixes everything, but give it a shot

by Jimfraser

I recently moved to this app when I bought a denon 9.2 system. The ap was great (compared to my old onyko setup). It was easy to use, my wife could even figure It out! But a couple weeks ago my iOS changed and now the ap does not function properly. It does not update with each song and does not show the zone (s) are on. It would be great if this can be resolved. If I kill HEOS while leaving the music playing and then restart HEOS it seems to heal itself for one song then is out of date again. Happens with multiple sources.

Hope this gets resolved because I know it can work

by RoanokeRebel

Overall, HEOS is easy to set up and use. My place is small, and I lack the additional audio equipment to utilize more of the capabilities, so I can not judge the multiple rooms option.

The only problem I seem to have is with switching among “Favorites”, particularly between two specific radio stations. The audio switches from one to the other fine, but the display is a mixture of text for the new station and the logo and other information from the previous one. Generally, the new station is now famous for putting out a digital FM signal that causes listeners in a specific car brand and model years to be “locked” on it. I can in fact switch around among favorites, but the display disagrees in part with the selected Favorite. Odd.

Overall, and with the above provisos, a great app.

by MunchieRun

Near totally satisfied. After reading reviews, hope that others will check network connections before submitting negative reviews as HEOS is amazing considering it works with so many different platforms involved.

I began utilizing it after setting up my Denon home theater 9.2 system. It would be great as mentioned in other reviews to have a more fluid avenue to adjust even just the bass and treble but the menu for channel adjustment would be a dream.

Overall the apps they’ve made available to us are beyond my level of acceptance (especially because they’re FREE) and doesn’t make me question buying the other one they offer for my setup.

by Glpdrum

The people that rate HEOS poorly must be holding their mouth wrong or something. It puts everything you want in one location to witch you can control everything. As those who have it know Airplay is almost better than money and I put this app right by it. Instead of going to the network pc (Windows) and pushing music to my AVR I can grab it with HEOS. I have total access to my wav files on the flash drive and can make a queue or play track by track whatever I want. If there’s a music source connected to the network or online it will find it on its own and access it. Those of you who are having problems finding something you know is on the network turn that device off and back on again and this app will find it. Be patient and learn HEOS and you’ll love it.

by BirchwoodBill

I have 2 this app 1 and 3 this app Amps connected to Boston acoustics speakers. Have owned them for 2-3 years. HEOS works in coordinating the sound. The biggest problem has been with intermittent WiFi. On the this app 1 speakers they sometime just drop off the network and fail to reconnect. I have to remove the battery base and the power cord then reconnect the power. Then the speakers come back online. So the firmware in the speakers probably needs to be reviewed so they reconnect to the WiFi better. I hope they add a sleep timer to the firmware so the speakers turn off after streaming. However you can just play an album or a play list.
2019-nov-03
Upgrading the mesh network and the internet gateway has helped the connection problem. I have also moved all the connections from a managed switch to an unmanaged switch.

by Rshide

I have had this for about six months now and absolutely love it. I built a new house and spent allot of time researching what I would put in. My wife was insistent that we not have speaker enclosures visible so i needed to support in wall and in ceiling speakers. After some research I quickly discovered that this app was the only system that supported a wired center channel. I was nervous considering so many negative reviews of HEOS . After using it for six months I can honestly say I have no idea what the negative reviews are talkinG about. HEOS is intuitive. There are 3 steps 1) select what you are controlling, where you can easily combine zones to create a multi zone sync. 2) select your source, which can be any streaming service or any input on any of your physical devices and 3) control, volume, pause, skip. One thing that took a bit to find was how to expand the volume control so you can set individual zone volume. It is right under the master volume.

by Geojunkie In OKC

I have been an audio and home theatre enthusiast for many decades. We also have a wired whole house sound system. We added the streaming music source to it via a PC with a remote control PC app and streaming has become our main source. The problem is that using the remote app for the PC with security log ins and navigating the various music sources was really clunky and inconvenient. I ended up being the only one who understood it well. this app in the new Marantz home threatre preamp has changed everything for the better. The audio quality is far superior. The variety and easy access to streaming sources is amazingly comprehensive. Control is super easy and intuitive. Our local radio stations streaming feeds allow us to enjoy local programming with the same ease. The Home theatre sources are all available as well. My wife and children love being able to use it as well as I can. I can’t tell you how much of a game changer this has been. We love this app. Note: We do have strong WiFi everywhere.

by PF_16

I’ve owned my speakers for over three years now. During that time, there has been no features added to compete with other wifi speaker systems. The amount of music platforms is very minimal, there is no crossfade option, no sleep timer, no desktop app for your computer, and playing local music from your mobile device is hit or miss.

All of these issues are leading me to selling these speakers and moving over to SONOS, who spend time continuously developing their platform for their customers. There are so many music services available on SONOS, including Apple Music and Plex! Sleep timer? No problem! Crossfade to enjoy seamless playback? No problem! Get it together Denon. this app is getting blown out out of the water and all you need is a couple developers to fix it.

by Aeiou247

I have the 5 in my bedroom and also two 3’s and the sub grouped as a 2.1 system in my garage and they all sound amazing! I’ll admit I had my doubts at first to the spotty/connectivity issues I had. I decided to upgrade my WiFi network to a whole house Eero Pro 3 router system and haven’t had a problem since. As others have said, most if not all negative reviews probably stem from a poor WiFi network. It’s nice that you can hardwire the devices to completely eliminate that from ever being an issue. If there is one thing I could ask for though, it would be an easier access to the EQ and sub level settings while playing music. As recordings and sources vary, I find myself having to navigate excessive steps to make a minor adjustment to the sub level. PLEASE add an independent sub level (for grouped devices like my 2.1 system) at the music page!

by Ghetdjc

HEOS and the this app system in general work great and the sound quality is superior to that of sonos. That being said, you must have a rock solid network for this to work reliably. No network extenders that plug into the wall, no dual router setups, no service provider routers. You need consistent internet service, a solid router and wired access points if you home is large. Also, hardwiring your this app devices is the way to go unless it's not possible. If you have a router that does 5g and 2.4g but uses the same name for both (eg ATT) it will cause problems like “searching for devices”.

by Allen34345655

I witnessed no real problems with this application, I would say it is really useful and cool way to manage home sound system. I think there is one missing functionality (not an issue, but opportunity to improve) and that is memorizing several different setups. For example for louder party music in living room only, opposing to smooth background music in all rooms. With pushing memorized setting button to change all together at once. this app is truly revolutionary way to manage music at home and HEOS is nice cream on the cake to CEOL + Soundbar. Thank you Denon!

by Citizenearth

Read lots of bad reviews, but as an installer, and user in my own home, if you have strong wifi, and did the updates, no problems. Tested Sonos here as I do with all products I sell and install, my wife told me to get it out of here. User interface is super easy. If you are having issues, 1. close HEOS completely, 2. reopen, 3. check your wifi, 4.cold boot, 5.tech support, 6. worst case swap out for a new unit. Sometimes you get a bad part. I have worked on several systems, Sonos, Bose, Samsung, Polk, B&W. I prefer this app. Good luck and God bless.