Denon‘s new 5.1 channel HEOS AVR brings with it their idea of eliminating some of those wires that typically run all over the place when setting up a surround speaker system. Their focus is to make it as easy as setting up a soundbar, thus bringing wireless to your rear channels.
The new design features a sleek approach, allowing it to take on the appearance of a futuristic amp. If you take a moment to study the image above, you could see that it doesn’t look anything like your traditional receiver. Out with the LCD displays and in with the companion app, their HEOS app walks you through everything in setting it up. For everything else, you look on-screen for.
The new AVR supports HEOS wireless speakers, which allows you to go wireless with the rear channels. You still have the option of sticking to the familiar wires if you have other speakers you’d like to use, with 50 watts per channel. You get to mix it up however you’d like. Since it supports HEOS speakers, you also have the option of adding speakers to other rooms so that you can either play different music to each room or have everything playing the same source at once throughout the house.
It supports the latest in HDMI with 2.0a and HDCP 2.2 across all 4 HDMI inputs on the back, with full 4K passthrough, as well as ARC (audio return channel) for your TV. You can stream music from your mobile devices via Bluetooth, supporting all of the popular formats including lossless audio with formats like FLAC. You also have some of your favorite online streaming solutions such Spotify, Pandora, and Tidal to choose from.
The new HEOS AVR will be available in April for an MSRP of $999.
Additional Specs:
- Combines up to 5.1ch top-class surround sound with the ease-of-use of a soundbar
- Wireless surround channels using a pair of any HEOS speakers
- Unique industrial design with dark silver chassis and HEOS family style
- 5x 50W powerful class D amplification capable to drive your favorite speakers
- Latest HDMI and 4K UltraHD compatibility with 4 HDMI inputs
- HEOS music streaming and multi-room technology built-in
- Intuitive app-based set-up and operation; additional compact remote control
- Supports all major streaming formats, including high resolution audio: DSD (2.4, 5.6 Mhz), FLAC, WAV, ALAC (192 / 24), MP3, WMA, AAC File Playback (USB / Network)
- Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio
- Control basic functions of the HEOS AVR with a remote
- Bluetooth streaming
