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Denon Launches HEOS 1 Wireless Indoor/Outdoor Speaker For $199

By Chris Boylan

Take It Outside, Gents!

The wireless whole home speaker market is heating up as more vendors and more products make their way to market. And now that whole home wireless speaker system is making its way outside the home with Denon's new HEOS 1 indoor/outdoor speaker. The HEOS 1 is Denon's entry-level wireless speaker, selling for $199 (MSRP) and expected to begin shipping in June.

On its own, the HEOS 1 is a small but punchy bookshelf speaker which integrates into Denon's HEOS wireless music framework. It plugs into a wall for power (for its internal amplifiers and wireless transmitter/receiver), but needs no wires to connect it to your digital music collection or to the internet.

The HEOS app drives the show from an iOS or Android phone or tablet or a PC accessing digital music files on your local network or streaming apps such as Pandora, Spotify, Rhapsody and tunein (Internet Radio). You can synch your digital music playback among different HEOS speakers all over the home, playing the same music in multiple rooms or different music in each room. You can even pair two HEOS 1 speakers together to get real stereo imaging.

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The HEOS 1 is available in black or white cabinet, each with metallic grilles.

The HEOS 1 Go Pack ($99) is an optional base for the HEOS 1 speaker, consisting of a rechargeable battery, a Splashguard, and a Bluetooth-USB adapter. With the HEOS 1 Go Pack, you can get up to 6 hours of music listening with a single charge. The HEOS 1 speaker itself is humidity resistant, but with the addition of the Splashguard it becomes IPX4 splash-proof for added protection in the rain or by the pool. And if you're not near a WiFi signal, you can use the Go Pack's USB-Bluetooth adapter to stream music directly from your phone or tablet to the speaker. If you are close enough to your home's WiFi network, then you can also pipe the music from your phone through the HEOS 1 to any of the other HEOS speakers within or outside of your home.

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Here the HEOS 1 sits on its optional "Go Pack" which gives it Bluetooth streaming capabilities and about six hours of fully wireless music playback.

The HEOS 1 is priced and sized similarly to that other wireless speaker company's entry-level offering, the SONOS Play:1. SONOS filed suit against Denon late last year for alleged copyright infringement in the design and marketing of the HEOS platform. Denon then fired off a counter-suit asking the judge to throw out the complaint. So far, no ruling has been handed down and both companies are continuing to do business as usual. But the Go Pack from Denon makes the HEOS 1 the first truly wireless outdoor solution we've seen which integrates with a wireless whole home music platform. Sonos has yet to announce an outdoor speaker in their wireless speaker family.

Denon will be showing off the HEOS 1 at a press event and reception in Manhattan later today.  More information will be available soon on the HEOS by Denon web site.

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The HEOS 1 Go Pack, with its integrated Lithium Ion battery, makes the HEOS 1 truly wireless.

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The HEOS 1 makes its US debut in black and white at a press event in New York City on May 6, 2015. Each HEOS 1 pictured is sitting atop a matching Go Pack base.

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