Logistics simplification and flexibility are the biggest highlights of the new HEOS Drive by Denon. This new multi-room amplifier covers four-zones and eight potential channels. That means it covers all HEOS zones with a 2U 3.5-inch tall, rack mountable chassis, making the HEOS Drive well worth the $2,499 price tag.
The HEOS Drive delivers class-D amplification, with the included features of rack mount ears, active cooling, wired Ethernet input and pass-through. Add to that its small size, and it’s easy to see how and why the HEOS Drive is an ideal option for homeowners interested in the whole-home distributed audio system. The HEOS Drive is the lynch pin as part of the HEOS multi-room sound system that enables users to listen to their favorite music wherever they’d like to in their homes. This currently includes the streaming music services such as Spotify®, Pandora®, TuneIn, Rhapsody™, iHeartRadio, and SiriusXM™, with plans to incorporate even more streaming music services in the future. The HEOS Drive also works with the HEOS app, which is available on iOS, Android, and Kindle.
Key Features of the HEOS Drive:
- 4 HEOS zones
- Eight-channel Class-D amplifier
- 70WPC (20Hz-20kHz, .05% THD)
- Dedicated preamplifier output for each zone (selectable as stereo zone or subwoofer)
- Third-party control compatible
- 4 x 12V trigger outputs
- 2 fiber optic inputs, 2 digital coax inputs, and 4 analog inputs (matrix switching)
- 4 USB inputs
- Amplifier bridge capability
- Selectable stereo / mixed mono output
- Selectable high pass / low pass filters
- Four-way binding posts
- 2 Ethernet inputs
- Actively cooled
- Rack ears included
- 2U (3.5-inch) rack height (with feet removed)
- Multi-voltage power supply
- Dolby Digital decoding (downmix to 2.0 ch)
Along with speaker outputs, each of the 4 zones feature a stereo analog input, stereo analog pre-out, USB port, and 12v trigger output. The analog inputs and USB ports are all zone agnostic, meaning that it doesn’t matter which of your analog or USB inputs you use. The HEOS Drive’s USB ports are especially versatile as it allows homeowners to take a basic external hard drive or thumb drive and play its music throughout your home.
For the money, the logistics and flexibility of the HEOS drive is well worth it. You won’t need to ever again worry about arranging multiple different wiring configurations that might not even fit in your chassis. Even if the installation needs change, you are able to simply adjust the Drive to fit the new needs, as opposed to buying new components.
Let us help you install this amazing new HEOS drive for your home theater system for you, and we promise you won’t miss all the wires.