HomePod Anyone buying HomePods now that they are discontinued?

[Cassandle]

I’m probably in a similar boat to a lot of people, in that I have one HomePod. It sits on my desk, and I use it almost exclusively for playing music (Siri is occasionally useful).

Prior to them being discontinued I had been thinking about getting a second to create a stereo pair, but only if they came down to roughly £200 (which is what I paid for mine).

Now they are harder to find, and only at £279. I’d still love a stereo pair, but it’s kind of a steep price for a discontinued product.

Has anyone else taken the plunge and bought extra HomePods since they were discontinued?

Anyone rocking a stereo pair - is it worth it?

 

[nothingtoseehere]

I had only one. When I read that they were discontinued, I immediately ordered a second one. I love the pair, much better sound!

Personally, I think they will get software updates for a while and keep functional for some years. Old airport products also still work.

 

[fwmireault]

I just bought a second one to make a stereo pair for my TV. No regrets. Many people still want to buy them, especially the space grey, so I don’t think that price will go down by much in the next year (I bought mine used at 350$CA, only 50$CA less than the retail price). If you see one to sell and want one, grab it immediately.

 

[vbctv]

I got one 2 days after they announced the discontinuing to make a stereo pair in my Living Room Apple TV. Microcenter marked them at $189, and I got the last one at my store. They will still be supported for years and will still likely get new features. I don't think Apple discontinued software or features, they discontinued sales because they stopped selling and felt everyone who wanted one had one in my opinion.

 

[haralds]

Just completed my second stereo set. I had two platinum and one white. I added a white to match a second pair. I also have a matched set of minis and on singleton. Stereo mode is more and twice the sound.
The second set is in my living room that also has a high-end system with Event Opal monitors and a Peachtree DC preamp that is hooked to a turntable and Express 2 for AirPLay2. But the HomePods are more convenient for background listening and take less attention. I love being able to have music play throughout the house.
I am still so impressed by the audio quality of the HomePods. People have not appreciated the sophisticated audio engineering in these devices. There is nothing like it. Bose and Sonus simply pump the response curve to get bass resonance but lack transparency and imaging.
But American mass markets are price sensitive. Apple's decision was purely sales volume/margin related.

 

[Itinj24]

I bought two more immediately after the discontinuation announcement brining my total to nine. Only thing that I’m concerned about is the HomeKit portion of WWDC today only mentioned the HomePod Mini with new functionality. For example, using HomePod Mini Siri to bring up a show on the AppleTV.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I bought two more immediately after the discontinuation announcement brining my total to nine. Only thing that I’m concerned about is the HomeKit portion of WWDC today only mentioned the HomePod Mini with new functionality. For example, using HomePod Mini Siri to bring up a show on the AppleTV.

Yes I just watched the re-cap and noticed this. I hope this will be coming to the OG HomePod too. I have a stereo pair in my living room hooked up to my Apple TV. I have other Apple TV’s in other rooms with minis but this is my main set up.

 

[Itinj24]

Yes I just watched the re-cap and noticed this. I hope this will be coming to the OG HomePod too. I have a stereo pair in my living room hooked up to my Apple TV. I have other Apple TV’s in other rooms with minis but this is my main set up.

Part of me is saying not to be too concerned. They’re not mentioning the OG only because it’s not being sold anymore and not to confuse the not so tech nerdy masses. The other part of me is saying that this is their first step towards dropping support. I’m happy with the functionality of the OG now but I was always hoping for better HomePod Siri integration with the AppleTV. Only one way to find out I guess.

On a side note, nice that the Mini is getting the default audio option. I have a few of those as well.

 

[kp98077]

WHY did they do away with homepod and now only have the MIni? no comparison...

 

[Shanghaichica]

Part of me is saying not to be too concerned. They’re not mentioning the OG only because it’s not being sold anymore and not to confuse the not so tech nerdy masses. The other part of me is saying that this is their first step towards dropping support. I’m happy with the functionality of the OG now but I was always hoping for better HomePod Siri integration with the AppleTV. Only one way to find out I guess.

On a side note, nice that the Mini is getting the default audio option. I have a few of those as well.

Yeah this was the main thing I was looking for from the HomePod. I hope it was just because it’s not being sold anymore rather than it being dropped. They did say that spatial audio and lossless audio was coming to the OG homepod when it was announced a few weeks ago.

 

[Itinj24]

WHY did they do away with homepod and now only have the MIni? no comparison...

Didn’t sell well, I presume. I bought two brand new units immediately following the discontinuation announcement and they both had manufacture dates of 2018. There’s a whole thread discussion this in this sub forum if you care to read. It’s pretty long but entertaining 😁

 

[kp98077]

Didn’t sell well, I presume. I bought two brand new units immediately following the discontinuation announcement and they both had manufacture dates of 2018. There’s a whole thread discussion this in this sub forum if you care to read. It’s pretty long but entertaining 😁

i always thought they sounded amazing!!

 

[Itinj24]

i always thought they sounded amazing!!

Absolutely. I have nine of them and not because I disliked them lol. Probably too expensive and didn’t make a big impact in the smart speaker space. They were flying off the shelves when they were on sale for $200, from my observation at least.

Anyway, here’s a link to the thread I was talking about.

HomePod Discontinued... Discussion.

Surprised there isn’t a thread about this yet. So Apple pretty much said they’re done with this product (hardware wise but will continue to support it with software until they’re officially obsolete) to focus more on the Mini. Thought it was odd that there were no recent sales on the HomePod...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Itinj24]

Yeah this was the main thing I was looking for from the HomePod. I hope it was just because it’s not being sold anymore rather than it being dropped. They did say that spatial audio and lossless audio was coming to the OG homepod when it was announced a few weeks ago.

🤞🏻

 

[Cassandle]

Thanks everyone.

Those of you with a stereo pair - is it worth it?

 

[pup]

My take is that if you have a single HomePod and like it, then a second to make a stereo pair isn't a terrible purchase so long as you don't pay too much for it. But that means around $200, which was reasonable before they were discontinued - and still is, since scarcity of a product for which there are ample substitutions is no justification for a price increase. At the moment, the $300+ prices you see on eBay are silly. It's not worth that, never was and never will be.

As for buying more speakers for other rooms, there were better buys out there before the HomePod was discontinued, so I certainly don't see the value now.

As for life expectancy, if it weren't for the growing Fart of Death problem, I'd say HomePods would be safe purchases for the long run, since they'd likely work as AirPlay speakers for many years. But FoD does seem to be a thing.

As for HomePod support for spatial or lossless, you'll surely get a 16/44 update, but personally I wouldn't get too optimistic for how well it will work. That's simply because there's ample evidence of HomePods having fairly weak wifi reception, so making the stream that much more dense can only exacerbate the problem. Worth a try, but my guess is that anyone without perfect wifi is going to see too many dropouts to make it work. (IMO, that's not a big deal though since it's not a good enough speaker to show a noticeable sound improvement anyway.)

So if I were in your shoes, and really wanted a second HomePod for a stereo pair, I'd wait until used prices inevitably drop. But that means risking buying someone's FoD'ed HomePod. So really, the best solution is to put your existing HomePod up on eBay, and then put that $300 - $350 toward a new pair of comparable speakers. Trust me, you may really like your HomePod, but you're not going to miss it - other speakers are every single bit as good.

 

[Synomenon]

I bought the last two from a local Apple store last weekend. Checked around this week and the local Apple stores are all out now.

 

[NARadyk]

Thanks everyone.

Those of you with a stereo pair - is it worth it?

Having two paired together is incredibly worth it. Cannot recommend this enough. I have them connected to my Apple TV as the default output and couldn’t go without.

 

[Itinj24]

My take is that if you have a single HomePod and like it, then a second to make a stereo pair isn't a terrible purchase so long as you don't pay too much for it. But that means around $200, which was reasonable before they were discontinued - and still is, since scarcity of a product for which there are ample substitutions is no justification for a price increase. At the moment, the $300+ prices you see on eBay are silly. It's not worth that, never was and never will be.

As for buying more speakers for other rooms, there were better buys out there before the HomePod was discontinued, so I certainly don't see the value now.

As for life expectancy, if it weren't for the growing Fart of Death problem, I'd say HomePods would be safe purchases for the long run, since they'd likely work as AirPlay speakers for many years. But FoD does seem to be a thing.

As for HomePod support for spatial or lossless, you'll surely get a 16/44 update, but personally I wouldn't get too optimistic for how well it will work. That's simply because there's ample evidence of HomePods having fairly weak wifi reception, so making the stream that much more dense can only exacerbate the problem. Worth a try, but my guess is that anyone without perfect wifi is going to see too many dropouts to make it work. (IMO, that's not a big deal though since it's not a good enough speaker to show a noticeable sound improvement anyway.)

So if I were in your shoes, and really wanted a second HomePod for a stereo pair, I'd wait until used prices inevitably drop. But that means risking buying someone's FoD'ed HomePod. So really, the best solution is to put your existing HomePod up on eBay, and then put that $300 - $350 toward a new pair of comparable speakers. Trust me, you may really like your HomePod, but you're not going to miss it - other speakers are every single bit as good.

The thing I would miss is the Siri smart home control and all the other conveniences that the HomePod offers with regards to the Apple eco system like sending messages, setting a timer, creating a reminder, etc… I’m hoping that Sonos brings over Siri support like they just announced at dub dub and showed the Ecobee doing.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Stereo pair is wonderful for music.

I don't think it's that great for TV/movies though.

I have a hard time hearing the dialogue when comparing to my sound bar.

 

[Synomenon]

Stereo pair is wonderful for music.

I don't think it's that great for TV/movies though.

I have a hard time hearing the dialogue when comparing to my sound bar.

Interesting how widely the experiences vary. After watching a couple of different genres of movies and shows last night (switching between the stereo HomePod set and my full AV system throughout the listening session), I like the HomePod pair better because dialogue is clearer and easier to hear compared to the full AV system which does have a dedicated center channel and the AV receiver does have an dialogue boosting feature (tried that on and off).

 

[turbineseaplane]

Interesting how widely the experiences vary. After watching a couple of different genres of movies and shows last night (switching between the stereo HomePod set and my full AV system throughout the listening session), I like the HomePod pair better because dialogue is clearer and easier to hear compared to the full AV system which does have a dedicated center channel and the AV receiver does have an dialogue boosting feature (tried that on and off).

I think it’s because I have a zvox sound bar..

Their entire business proposition is making dialogue clear and wonderfully easy to enjoy and so I’m not actually that surprised that the HomePods don’t keep up in that particular area.

I’m also in a space with very high ceilings and I think in this setting something that is pointing directly at the listener probably has an advantage versus something like the HomePods that is counting on bouncing sound off of different surfaces from the 360° array of speakers

 

[Surfman]

Are 2 minis worth buying for a home/office, will connect to a new 12.9 iPad for music etc, do they audio sync for Netflix?

 

[Cassandle]

Cheapest I can find a new one is £262, direct from Apple using my NHS discount. Second hand is barely any cheaper.

That’s still £62 more than I paid for my original, but I doubt I’ll get any cheaper than that now.

Decisions, decisions…

 

[mrt.plt]

I got my first HomePod for free after a horrible repair experience at an Apple Store, and although it's in no way perfect, I quite like it. I'm looking for another one to have a stereo pair but won't buy one at retail price as it's, well, discontinued. I also don't mind a used one as long as I get one at a decent price.