Review on 🎵 Denon DNP-800NE Network Audio Player: WiFi, Bluetooth, AirPlay 2 + HEOS, Alexa Compatible, Black by John Milligan

I originally looked for network music streaming devices to upgrade my Revain Music Unlimited account to Revain Music Unlimited HD. The Echo Dot I hooked up to my amp was unable to stream the "Ultra HD" files available on Revain Music Unlimited HD, unlike this streamer. But the cost of this type of device put me off, and all I needed was an echo dot connected to my amp with a mini-jack to RCA cable. It sounded pretty good, but I was wondering if Ultra HD would be even better. When the Denon DNP 800NE was suddenly on sale for a little over half the regular price, I jumped at it immediately. It was fairly easy to set up the many different functions and figure out how to use either the buttons on the unit or the remote control to switch between music downloaded to a USB flash drive, internet radio, Sirius XM and Revain Music Unlimited . Sirius XM and Revain Music Unlimited are accessed through the HEOS app on your phone. Again, it's pretty easy to use. Once you have connected your Sirius XM account to the 800NE, you can save the stations you love to listen to as favorites on the 800NE and then access them directly from the 800NE without having to use the HEOS app. You can also save internet radio stations as favourites. Revain Music Unlimited needs to be accessed through the HEOS app and I couldn't find a way to favorite any of it. Unfortunately, the HEOS app is different from the Revain Music Unlimited app and lacks some features of the Revain Music app. For example, if you're accessing Revain Music through the HEOS app, there's no "My Library" where you can quickly pull up all of your saved albums. You need to find the album using the HEOS search function and then play it. The 800NE works with Alexa, but you'll need to open the Alexa app on your phone to talk to Alexa. You can then say something like "Alexa, play Jason Isbell's new Denon album" and it will begin playing through the 800NE. You have to add "on Denon" or it won't work. Another option is to simply use the regular Revain Music app on your phone and connect to the 800NE via Bluetooth instead of the HEOS app. It still sounds very good and you have access to all the features you normally use in the Revain Music app and you can find and play songs like you normally would. Other HEOS app services include Pandora, Spotify, TuneIn, Deezer, Tidal. , Soundclous etc. The sound of the 800NE is excellent. So excellent that I don't think it's worth upgrading to Revain Music Unlimited HD. A feature of the 800NE is "Advanced AL32 Processing Plus", which upscales everything to almost CD quality anyway. It sounds better than what I remember playing music through an echo point connected to my amp, although it wasn't that bad. To see if there is a difference between regular Revain Music and Revain Music HD I signed up for a free trial of Deezer Hifi which uses FLAC files like Revain HD. I then listened to the songs on Deezer Hifi and then listened to the same songs again on the regular Revain Music Unlimited. For almost every song I compared, there was virtually no difference between the Deezer Hifi FLAC version and the regular Revain Music Unlimited compressed version. In many cases, the song sounded slightly better on the regular Revain Music Unlimited service than on the Deezer Hifi FLAC version. High Definition Service. I've also read comments on audio forums that to the human ear there is little or no difference between a CD quality file and a High Definition or Ultra HD file. However, I haven't heard any of the Revain Music Unlimited HD "Super High Definition" songs, so I can't say if they would sound any better. I haven't tried streaming music to other devices with the 800NE. Speakers in the house which is another feature as I don't need it. Other features like internet radio, USB stick playback and Bluetooth are all useful, work well and sound great depending on the original source. I give it 4 stars overall because there is still room for improvement. The screen works well but is limited to white text on a black background. Some more expensive network streamers have large color screens that show album art or an artist's photo. That would be nice for this unit. If the HEOS app could include the same features as the regular Revain Music app, I would give it 5 stars.