The Heos 3 by Denon ($199.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window)  is the smallest of the three Heos speakers, dwarfed by the Heos 5 and Heos 7 and sporting only two drivers and a unique design that can work horizontally or vertically. It’s also the least expensive, but at $299.99 it’s still a pretty pricey speaker. Denon shows a lot of potential with this model, with impressive output for its size, and a generally well-designed app that integrates seamlessly into many popular music services’ own apps. Unfortunately, some clunky implementation issues and a persistent bass-driven buzzing tempers our enthusiasm. At this size and price range, you’d be better off with a Sonos Play:1 ($199.00 at Sonos)(Opens in a new window) , or sticking with a straight Bluetooth wireless speaker like the Bose SoundLink III ($399.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) .

Design
The Heos 3 is the strangest-shaped speaker in the Heos line. At first glance, it’s vaguely rectangular, but it’s more complex than that. The 10.7-inch-wide, 5.1-inch-tall, 6.5-inch-deep speaker weighs 4.2 pounds and actually features an irregular hexagonal cross-section that shifts between sides. The wider sides of the hexagon on the left become the shorter sides of the hexagon on the right, and vice-versa. It lends the front and top an organic look consisting of curved quadrilateral panels.

The front three panels are covered in black grille cloth, with the actual grille primarily behind the frontmost panel. A silver Heos logo sits either horizontally on the lower-right or vertically on the upper-right corner of the front panel, depending on how you use the speaker. It can work either on its side or standing, thanks to two sets of rubber feet, both on one of the hexagonal sides and one of the long sides.

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The right top hexagon holds Mute and Volume Up/Down buttons, while the left bottom hexagon contains a large white rubber foot that covers an indicator light. The back panel holds a screw mount for placing the speaker on a wall, a port for the drivers, a Connect button, a pinhole Reset button, and USB, 3.5mm, Ethernet, and Power ports.

Denon has not released amplifier power or driver measurements for the Heos 3, but it has confirmed that the speaker uses a dual-driver system. It seems to consist of two identical full-range drivers, each powered by its own Class D amplifier.

Wi-Fi Setup
Setting up a Heos speaker is a unique, but thankfully simple process. Instead of using a wireless or USB connection, you configure the speaker with an included 3.5mm cable. The audio input/output of your mobile device sends all the relevant configuration data to the speaker through Denon’s free Heos app for iOS and Android. Just plug in the included cable, press the Connect button on the back of the speaker, and follow the prompts to connect it to your network. The speaker automatically appears in the app once it’s set up, and you can rename it and group it with additional speakers for different rooms. The app also lets you set up the Heos 3 to work vertically or horizontally, or link two Heos 3 speakers together as a stereo pair.

Like most non-AirPlay Wi-Fi audio systems, Heos requires the use of a separate app to play music. However, that app integrates very nicely with the music services it supports. After your speakers are set up, they will automatically appear in Spotify, Rhapsody, TuneIn, and Pandora apps, letting you play music through those services just as if they were AirPlay or Bluetooth speakers. Room groupings and stereo pairs also show up in the apps in the same way, so you don’t have to worry about diving into the Heos app every time you want to play music in a different room.

Playback quality and response is dependent on the signal strength of your network. In the congested Wi-Fi environment of the PC Labs, the speakers were extremely finicky, sometimes vanishing from the network for short periods of time. Adjusting volume and controlling playback was particularly irritating, and whenever the connection weakened, my commands wouldn’t affect the speaker for ten seconds or so. Strangely, music would continue playing from my connected device; it just wouldn’t change the volume levels or pause the track when I told it to. This is a frustrating issue we’ve seen with some AirPlay and other Wi-Fi speakers in the past, and it’s one you might not find nearly as problematic in your own home. However, you should be wary of how heavy Wi-Fi congestion can affect each Heos speakers’ performance.

Unfortunately, you do have to worry about diving into the Heos app every time you want to use the 3.5mm aux input. Instead of simply playing any audio through the 3.5mm port, you need to specifically select the aux input in the Heos app and play local music through that app, since there are no source buttons on the unit itself.That actually makes a wired connection less useful than a Wi-Fi connection. A Bluetooth option would have been a much better alternative in this case.

Performance
The Heos 3 offers powerful sound for its small size, to the point that it’s more than the speaker can really handle. From a bass clarity and distortion perspective, the Heos 3 handled our bass test track, The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” with gusto. It put out some potent low end, barely brushing against distortion with the track’s bass synth hits. Unfortunately, even moderate bass made the speaker’s enclosure vibrate jarringly, creating an irritating buzz to go with each deep bass note.

That vibration continued with other tracks, like Miles Davis’ “So What” and Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.” The upright bass in the former track and the kick drum and bass guitar in the latter also made the speaker buzz at higher volumes. It’s a shame, because the piano in the Miles Davis track and the vocals in the Zepp track both sounded clear and detailed, indicating the speaker can produce a satisfying sound signature when parts of it aren’t rattling against others.

Songs that didn’t reach quite so low in frequency response didn’t suffer from this buzzing sound. Oingo Boing’s “Dead Man’s Party” sounded clear and full, with no rattling even at high volumes. Filter’s “Hey Man Nice Shot” was also suitably room-filling and powerful, with the opening bass guitar notes resonating warmly with no unwanted vibrations from the enclosure.

Denon’s Heos speakers are promising, but the Heos 3 doesn’t deliver quite enough. It looks interesting and sounds good overall, but it’s too flawed to justify its $300 price tag, especially when you can get the comparable Sonos Play:1 for $100 less, or the vastly superior-sounding Harman Kardon Aura ($299.95 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window)  AirPlay/Bluetooth speaker for $100 more.