Denon, in competition with Sonos and Bose, has unveiled its new wireless, multiroom device, the Denon Home Amp.
This is the next-generation version of the HEOS Amp HS2, which comes with two new key features, an HDMI eARC input and compatibility with multichannel Dolby Audio. There’s 125W per channel.
The company has slowly been migrating its HEOS line to its new Denon Home brand, with the new Denon Home app being the latest device transitioned.
It takes what’s special about the HEOS Amp HS2 and wraps it in a new, simple body for blending seamlessly with existing hi-fi setups.
It has clean lines and squarish dimensions, equipped with touch controls on the front panel for present access, play/pause, track skipping, and volume control.
It also comes with the usual HEOS capabilities, such as app-controlled multiroom music streaming for various services, such as Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Music, Tidal, and more.
The device can decode ALAC, FLAC, and WAV formats up to 24bit/192kHz high-resolution lossless audio, as well as DSD 2.8MHz and 5.6MHz.
It will also work with other HEOS-enabled devices, such as AV receivers from Denon and Marantz.
On the back panel, there are optical and USB-A digital inputs, as well as RCA analogue inputs, four-way binding posts for connected passive speakers, and a subwoofer output.
What’s new is the HDMI/eARC input and a dedicated button for Bluetooth pairing.
That HDMI input allows the device to downmix multichannel Dolby Audio (with Dolby Digital Plus compatibility) into two-channel sound.
Audio from the HDMI port can be shared across connected HEOS speakers. The device can be connected to a home network via wires or wirelessly.
The Wi-Fi specifications haven’t been upgraded though. It’s still dual-band, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac.
Amplification is still two-channel, class D, however, power has been increased to 100W at 8ohms and 125W at 4ohms, from 70W at 8ohms.
Two sets of speakers can be run as long as their combined impedance is over 4ohms.
The Home Amp also gets Apple AirPlay 2 support, and it can be added to the Apple Home app, where it can be managed. This capability also provides Apple Siri voice control.
Also compatible is Amazon Alexa. There’s no support for Google Assistant compatibility.
The Denon Home Amp will be available in Australia starting this August at a price of A$1,199.
