So I have gotten to use this new Airplay2 feature and I have noticed when watching a movie like "Deadpool" the speakers don't give as much "umph" when turned all the way too 100% as say it would if I was just listening to just music alone. When listening to music I barely have it at 60% volume and that is plenty of sound for my living room. Why when watching movies is the volume output that much different?
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HomePod Airplay2 Sound and movies volume difference?
- Thread starter clg82
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I noticed the same thing. I had to turn my HomePods to the max in order to hear Hulu from my AppleTV. I also feel as if the bass has been adjusted; it doesn’t have the impact that it once had and I like heavy bass.
I tried out the stereo pairing yesterday. For music, the sound was phenomenal. For movies, the sound was a little muffled and lower in volume.
Movies will be downmixing 5.1 to stereo. This can lead to muffled audio. Plex,as an example, has an option to boost audio to mitigate against this.
In my first experiences with two HomePods paired in stereo, I also had the impression that the sound level was less than the two when both were being used together (but not in stereo). I have them flanking my iMac computer so this is my normal setup when listening to music while using the computer.
My interpretation is that this is to be expected, as others have also suggested. When using the two speakers as mono speakers, you get something like 2 x the sound level of a single speaker. They are both putting out exactly the same sound and at the same sound levels (if that is how you have their volumes adjusted), and so you get louder sound than a single speaker.
When they are used as a stereo pair, it is quite different, I believe. The sound is now being divided between the two speakers. It makes sense that they have a lower total volume level possible.
I don't consider this a disadvantage. They play loud enough for me, and the greatly improved sound experience with the speakers as a stereo pair makes the experience considerably improved from the non-stereo HomePods, whether using them singly or two speakers together (in mono).
I think that you could easily do some experiments with this using iTunes, since it gives you the ability to operate either way. I may try it myself later, so if my impressions are different then I'll give an update at that time.
My interpretation is that this is to be expected, as others have also suggested. When using the two speakers as mono speakers, you get something like 2 x the sound level of a single speaker. They are both putting out exactly the same sound and at the same sound levels (if that is how you have their volumes adjusted), and so you get louder sound than a single speaker.
When they are used as a stereo pair, it is quite different, I believe. The sound is now being divided between the two speakers. It makes sense that they have a lower total volume level possible.
I don't consider this a disadvantage. They play loud enough for me, and the greatly improved sound experience with the speakers as a stereo pair makes the experience considerably improved from the non-stereo HomePods, whether using them singly or two speakers together (in mono).
I think that you could easily do some experiments with this using iTunes, since it gives you the ability to operate either way. I may try it myself later, so if my impressions are different then I'll give an update at that time.