Denon will add Bluetooth and high-resolution audio compatibility to its Heos line of multi-room audio components, the company announced today. The speakers and amps will receive a boost in processing power, but the product lineup will otherwise remain unchanged.
Heos owners will now be able to listen to uncompressed WAV audio files, as well as those that use the Apple Lossless and Free Lossless (FLAC) codecs. Support for DSD and AIFF tracks is coming soon. To handle the increased audio resolution, new Heos components will ship with an upgraded ARM A9 1.25GHz processor with 512MB of flash memory and 256MB of RAM.
The Heos lineup is based around the Heos 1$149.99 at Amazon, an upright cylindrical speaker that can be placed in any room and connected to other Heos 1 units to provide multi-room audio. Like most multi-room audio systems, you can configure multiple speakers together through the Heos app to correspond to different rooms.
Other Heos products include larger speakers (the Heos 3, Heos 5, and Heos 7$599.99 at Amazon) a Wi-Fi extender, an indoor/outdoor speaker, a soundbar with subwoofer, an amp, and a whole home multi-zone amplifier.
The addition of Bluetooth compatibility means that users will be able to connect mobile devices to Heos speakers more easily, in addition to relying on the current Wi-Fi setup process (Wi-Fi and Ethernet will still be supported). It also puts the company more in line with rival Sonos.
As more and more music consumption shifts to cloud streaming services likeSpotify and Apple Music$9.99 at Apple Store, it’s clear that Denon is positioning its Heos line to appeal to audiophiles who appreciate the increased quality of lossless tracks.
