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Amazon Reportedly Developing Echo With Better Sound Quality to Rival Apple HomePod and Other Speakers
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Why exactly do I need blind tests? I own multiple HomePods. I own multiple Sonos One speakers. The HomePod is unquestionably better than the Ones. I will go by my personal ear test instead of some random guy's blind test.
All this “which one sounds best in blind testing” bs.
Speakers take hours upon hours to “break in” and then are subject to type of music, environment and most importantly, personal opinion.
If it sounds good to you, it is good. That’s all.
Speakers take hours upon hours to “break in” and then are subject to type of music, environment and most importantly, personal opinion.
If it sounds good to you, it is good. That’s all.
There was an article released today that a probe found that Google Home devices had recorded 1000 conversations. I just don't understand why these things are recording anything. Why would you want that in your home?
I have two Sonos One speakers (at the time of purchase they were the same price as one Homepod) and they blow away the single Homepod. Obviously they cost a lot more than an echo. So price needs to be factored in, and Sonos wins.
Of course they do. It's a marketing tool and a way to gather data on people. I'm sure they don't care if they lose a little money on the hardware. Personally, I'd have to be paid (and paid very, very well) to put an Amazon microphone inside my home to record things, no matter how high-quality of a speaker it's attached to.
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What I don't understand is why there's no App Store for HomePod, no SDK, no third-party apps.
As it is, HomePod is a lot like the first iPhone: what it ships with is what you get. The iPhone really took off when the App Store came online.
Apple clearly isn’t trying to compete with Alexa and Google devices which are given away for free or heavily discounted pretty much everywhere I look in the UK. If consumers had to pay a decent price I doubt they’d have half as much pick up.
I love HomePod. My favourite Apple product. Think it was a good idea to drop the price a bit but they really just need to give it some more marketing muscle — it already feels like they don’t really give it the attention it deserves. Sell this amazing product to people and they’ll buy it.
I love HomePod. My favourite Apple product. Think it was a good idea to drop the price a bit but they really just need to give it some more marketing muscle — it already feels like they don’t really give it the attention it deserves. Sell this amazing product to people and they’ll buy it.
I was an early adopter with the original Echo and at one time I had 6 Echos around my house (1 original, 3 dots, 1 spot, 1 show). Over the past year I have been eliminated all but one of them (I moved the Echo Show to my workbench in the garage) and replaced all of the Echos in living spaces with HomePods.
I preferred the Alexa's ability to answer questions but there were just too many news accounts of Alexa doing strange things (laughing at odd times, arguing with a user who had cancelled Amazon music, etc.) and the story that broke about Amazon employees listening to audio clips and sharing their favorites with co-workers. My Phillips Hue bulbs have always worked with HomePod but I did have to replace some older smart outlets with Wemo outlets that are HomePod compatible. In the near future I will be replacing my Nest Thermostat, Ring Doorbell and Ring Floodlight Cam with Homekit compatible alternatives as I convert my smart home setup to 100% Apple.
I preferred the Alexa's ability to answer questions but there were just too many news accounts of Alexa doing strange things (laughing at odd times, arguing with a user who had cancelled Amazon music, etc.) and the story that broke about Amazon employees listening to audio clips and sharing their favorites with co-workers. My Phillips Hue bulbs have always worked with HomePod but I did have to replace some older smart outlets with Wemo outlets that are HomePod compatible. In the near future I will be replacing my Nest Thermostat, Ring Doorbell and Ring Floodlight Cam with Homekit compatible alternatives as I convert my smart home setup to 100% Apple.
I have the regular echo it sounds fine, but obviously not as good as my homepods. Still decent enough. The google Assistant and Alexa are better than Siri. It’s as simple as that.
Amazon is developing a higher-quality version of its popular Echo smart speaker, according to a new report today by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
The speaker is reportedly being developed to include improved audio to rival Apple's HomePod and other competing speakers on the market. According to Gurman, the Echo has lost some ground to more premium smart speakers that are marketed as offering superior sound.
The development of a higher-quality Echo marks a new phase in Amazon's attempt to gain ground in the smart speaker segment. The company has previously introduced halfway-house solutions to improve the audio of the existing cylindrical Echo by offering a standalone subwoofer and connections to link the speakers to a hi-fi stereo system. The Echo range will also receive minor updates this fall, people familiar with the plans told Bloomberg.
Amazon also reportedly plans to launch a hi-fidelity version of its music streaming service by the end of the year.
In addition, Gurman's report includes details on Amazon's effort to ramp up work on its home robot, which has wheels and can be controlled by Alexa voice commands.
People familiar with the project have reportedly described prototypes that are about waist-high and navigate with the help of an array of computer-vision cameras, but it still isn't clear what purpose the robot would serve.
Amazon originally intended to reveal the robot, known internally as "Vesta," as early as this year, but the machine isn't quite ready for mass production, according to the report.
Article Link: Amazon Reportedly Developing Echo With Better Sound Quality to Rival Apple HomePod and Other Speakers
One would hope that the advent of these speakers will goose Apple into getting the HomePod out of that goddam walled garden so it can be used as a general-purpose speaker with a sound system or home theater. Everybody knows that the HomePod comes with Bluetooth circuitry aboard but that this is useful only for initial setup. Ideally all it would take would be a firmware update to make this accessible to the individual user (who, after all, has paid for it). If so, I can't for the life of me understand why Apple insists on playing keepaway with its user base, since making it a general-purpose Bluetooth device would not exactly hurt sales figures, which I understand could stand some improvement. What in the world is holding Apple back from doing this? The thinking entirely baffles me. Hopefully the arrival of a serious rival will compel Apple to get off its duff and do something to correct this absurd situation.
I own both. (In addition to several other echoes, standard and dot)
The Echo Plus sounds like total **** compared to the HomePod.
There’s no comparison.
And anyone saying they are comparable is self-deluded or has an agenda.
The Sonos One is much closer to the quality of the HomePod, the main difference is that the HP’s adaptive dynamics fill the room with sound and seem impervious to obstacles while the Sonos One sounds like a really good, normal directional speaker.
This is one of those things that everyone thinks is true because it's what everyone else says, but without any real evidence.
I've had a HomePod since they first came out and am nothing but amazed by how well Siri works. (The only issue I have with Siri is that it works so well on both my HomePod and iPhone that sometimes they try to preempt each other.)
Based on my own experience, the only reason I can see that anyone complains about Siri is because they're trying to echo what the 'cool kids' say.
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Sure. Apple's approach to user privacy and Amazon's & Google's approach are equivalent in the same way that chewing on ice and chewing on glass are equivalent. Both are crunchy & have no color...
The Echo Plus doesn't cost $300. I don't expect it to sound better than the Homepod. Who is saying that? For $149, in MY opinion, the Echo Plus sounds very good. I think the HomePod could sound better, especially for $300. It's still overpriced. It's a great speaker for hiphop but if you listen to rock music, some of the songs sound flat to me. The vocals still get drowned out by bass.
Alexa has more market share because it costs $50 versus $350 for HomePod. Nothing to do with any alleged superiority of Alexa.
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Such as?
Other than spying on me for its masters, what exactly is it that Alexa can do but Siri can't that I should care about?
I've read every excuse on here as to why Apple largely lost in blind testing, but speakers needing to "break in" takes the cake.
The issue isn't that HomePod is bad, it's that other than sound, Echo just does so many things better, and I'm not usually listening intently enough to care about the sound difference. My family loves animal sounds, fortnight hints, games, local radio stations, household intercom, internet phone call (check in with the kids without buying them a phone), ambient sounds, and occasionally connect to other speakers I have. I'm sure HomePod is great and has ways to do many of these things, plus I own so many Apple products I couldn't even count so I like the ecosystem, but there really isn't a benefit to owning HomePod over Echo. Someone else mentioned on the iPhone really thrived with the App Store, and until HomePod offers the same, I just don't see the value proposition.