Denon Electronics introduced this week the first soundbar and subwoofer system designed to network with its HEOS wireless music ecosystem.
The company said the HEOS HomeCinema, which will hit stores in July at a $799 suggested retail, was designed to do dual-duty as an upgrade for the sound on today’s flat-panel TVs while also serving as a powerful speaker setup that ties in with the whole-home HEOS wireless music system.
More on the Denon HEOS HomeCinema soundbar and subwoofer after the jump:
The HEOS HomeCinema features dual 2-inch by 5-inch drivers that reproduce upper bass and midrange audio, producing clear audio and vocals. For the treble range, the system includes dual 20mm dome tweeters, with response extending to 20 kHz. Connections include an HDMI input supporting TV audio return channel (ARC). Many flat-screen TVs on the market offer one ARC-enabled HDMI input that lets users listen to audio from a source device (such as a cable or satellite box) as well as audio from the TV’s internal tuner and built-in smart TV platform.
“The Audio Return Channel works well. We’ve tested it with every major brand of television,” Paul Belanger, D+M Group Canada technical product manager – Americas, told HD Guru. “We will be selling it anywhere that sells HEOS products, including Amazon, Magnolia Home Theater, and regional and local specialty dealers.”
For TVs without ARC, the HEOS HomeCinema includes both optical and coaxial digital audio connections. An AUX input is also supplied.
The HEOS HomeCinema also comes with a remote control that enables controlling the volume of the soundbar and is equipped with TV-remote-learning functions for simplified system control. In addition, a HEOS App for smart phones or tablets provides another control source for the TV and HEOS music system control.
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To produce a surround-sound effect from movie and TV sound tracks, the system is equipped with Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS decoders. Dolby Digital Plus produces 5.1-based sound from on-line video streaming services and other sources for premium content.
Denon also includes its exclusive Virtual Surround processing that uses advanced psychoacoustic algorithms to simulate the surround sound of a multi-channel home theater speaker system.
The matching wireless HEOS HomeCinema subwoofer is equipped with dual 5¼-inch woofers that work in tandem to produce deep bass with low distortion for both movies and music. The subwoofer can be placed horizontally or vertically for installation flexibility.
Other features of the HEOS HomeCinema Soundbar and Subwoofer include: a USB input for use with mass storage devices, music and movie DSP modes, dialog enhancer and Night mode, wireless connection to other HEOS speakers to distribute music throughout the house on the HEOS ecosystem, shelf and wall-mounting options, supplied HDMI and optical cables to connect to the TV, an installation assistant app, and an IR blaster for greater placement flexibility.
The system is designed to easily connect to an existing Wi-Fi network while the HEOS app, available for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire devices, delivers favorite music from online music services including top cloud sources, “legacy” sources, and smart devices, in any room with a networked HEOS speaker. In addition to the HEOS HomeCinema, the HEOS line includes four wireless multi-zone music players: HEOS 1 ($199) and HEOS 1 Go Pack ($99), HEOS 3 ($299), HEOS 5 ($399), and HEOS 7 ($599). Also part of the series is a Wi-Fi range extender HEOS Extend ($99) as well as the HEOS LINK ($349), HEOS AMP ($499) and HEOS Drive ($2,499). By Greg Tarr
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