Bluesound or Heos for Streaming and Multiroom?

QuadraphonicQuad

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Joined
Mar 10, 2021
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Location
Michigan
I have an extensive legacy quad collection of Q8's Q'4s, Cd-4's, SQ's, and QS's all analog. I am just now considering moving into the Digital Space Age and purchasing an AVR, like one of the Denon capable of Atmos and Heos equipped.

But, I see a lot of advantages to Bluesound for their streaming software. Here are my questions for the experts.

1) I believe the Bluesound Node has inputs for analog for 2 channels. Can one set up two separate Blue sound nodes on the same wifi system
and if so plug two analog RCA plugs into each of the nodes, and have analog quad available to stream to another room via wifi and wireless speakers?

2) Am I better off just using the AVR with HEOS to do this?

The potential advantage I see with Bluesound is mostly the software and ease of streaming from many many streaming services, as opposed to HEOS which seems both services limited and ease of use limited.

A big disadvantage I see with either system is that with HEOS, I'm limited to HEOS speakers for the wireless speakers in the other room, and
for Bluesound, the same thing, limited to Bluesound or a related sister company set of speakers that will work on BluOS. Can't for example use ELAC or KEF or other speakers I might consider better.

The advantage of having the AVR will be more for streaming or playing Atmos in the main room with hardwired speakers. But, I might play
something digital that I want to cast in quad or 5.1 to the other room too.

Is there an AVR capable of Atmos, in the class of the X4700 H or the X3800 H which will cast the music to another room and allow any speaker to be set up? Maybe I should be considering something else?

I could still do Bluesound on my QRX 8001 or the two Sony Receivers I use? But again, speaker compatibility is an issue if I want to both stream music and cast it, and play analog sourced music and cast it to another room. I sure don't want multiple sets of speakers.

Anyone ever cross these bridges before and have good suggestions before I cross the Rubicon?

HEOS vs. Bluesound,
Speaker compatitibilty all around
Can two powernodes work together to cast in 4 channels using analog inputs?
Can Bluesound stream atmos if I plut it into the AVR? Would only one powernode be required for that using HDMI?

Thank you in advance for your help on this.
 
HEOS doesn’t do multichannel audio, so there’s that to consider
My understanding, and I may have misunderstood or just don't have it right, but I thought if you hook up your room for Atmos to the AVR with hardwired speakers, you can then set up 1 main wireless room on Heos to Cast in multichannel.?

So, for example if you had tried to use multichannel in the room for Atmos using Heos, you could only cast 2 channel to other rooms in the house, but if you do not use HEOS in the Atmos room, but set it up entirely for another room with wireless that 1 room can be multichannel, but not two rooms?
Is that not correct?
 
My understanding, and I may have misunderstood or just don't have it right, but I thought if you hook up your room for Atmos to the AVR with hardwired speakers, you can then set up 1 main wireless room on Heos to Cast in multichannel.?

So, for example if you had tried to use multichannel in the room for Atmos using Heos, you could only cast 2 channel to other rooms in the house, but if you do not use HEOS in the Atmos room, but set it up entirely for another room with wireless that 1 room can be multichannel, but not two rooms?
Is that not correct?
I could be wrong, but I believe this is the Denon sending multichannel over HEOS to a supported HEOS soundbar. Which it might do properly if the Denon is receiving a valid multichannel signal from a source. I never tried this experiment. I guess I would have to set up a Zone 2 to try, but I don't have a HEOS speaker right now.

In my experiment, I just could not get the source to be a multichannel FLAC or DSD file, either through USB or DLNA. This same experiment worked correctly with a Panny UB820 Blu-Ray player. You might be OK if you're just using HEOS to get multichannel signal from the Denon to supported speakers.
 
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