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Apple Announces New HomePod for $299 With Full-Size Design, S7 Chip, and More

I bought a discounted pair of the original Homepods many years ago from Overstock. They are the absolute best-sounding pair of speakers I have ever owned. Sounding better than my full-size AV set-up. I also have a pair of the homepod-mini's which sound okay but not stellar. My only issues with homepods ar: 1) there is no hard reset button and 2) there is no IOS dedicated app to fiddle with them like an EQ set-up. The Homekit app sucks and is unreliable.
I would like to see Apple take these speakers seriously and possibly enable pairing with the mini's to make a 5.1 system. I understand other Macrumors reader will comment that this is crazy and nobody wants that (except me).
 
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DMG35 said:
$199
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Given the price of the mini don't thing $100 more for all the capability/additional sound quality/etc... $249 would be the floor I'd guess... Now if you dropped the mini to $69 then maybe it makes (more) sense on a price/performance curve?
 
Innovation is over charging for a speaker.
Can’t do anything of value, for example charging my phone or showing the time or installing apps or becoming a wake up ”radio” alarm. I want a “wake up alarm
Clock“ to wake up to my music or radio station. Why so much technology can’t do that basic stuff?. I have the phone
wake tones and when I travel I have nothing more. Really garbage features. Zero innovation. Mediocre features at most.
 
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I have Sonos equipment myself in most places, but I need another setup for a TV in a smaller room. If these were $249 I would consider two of them over a Beam and Sub Mini for example which would run $950. I would expect a pair of these new HomePods to sound superior to a Beam alone, but will wait for some reviews, hopefully comparing the two.

$249 would be a better price for sure over $300, but I am sure there will be sales and I can wait!
 
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I have cash in my pocket ready to burn on AirPods Max with usb-c instead of lightning. Cmon Apple, make tomorrow a third day in a row of announcements!

(We got two OG HomePods back in November of 2020 when Apple was giving a $100 gift card if you bought one. They work fine as a stereo pair with ATV 4k, especially with ARC now enabled, but I wouldn’t make that kind of investment again when we upgrade our home entertainment setup. I still haven’t spent that $200 yet…)
 
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mcled53 said:
I bought a discounted pair of the original Homepods many years ago from Overstock. They are the absolute best-sounding pair of speakers I have ever owned. Sounding better than my full-size AV set-up. I also have a pair of the homepod-mini's which sound okay but not stellar. My only issues with homepods ar: 1) there is no hard reset button and 2) there is no IOS dedicated app to fiddle with them like an EQ set-up. The Homekit app sucks and is unreliable.
I would like to see Apple take these speakers seriously and possibly enable pairing with the mini's to make a 5.1 system. I understand other Macrumors reader will comment that this is crazy and nobody wants that (except me).
Click to expand...
While HomePods aren't able to pair with HomePod Mini, you can airplay to all using Airplay 2, doesn't this achieve same as 5.1 system? I airplay to 2 HomePods and 4 HomePod minis, additionally a Samsung soundbar and the sound is unreal. It's like being in an an IMAX theatre.
 
Really happy to have these back. I just hope they didn't compromise sound to help cut the cost. Removing a few tweeters has me worried-- it's possible they didn't make a difference in the end, but I'd happily pay the original price for an updated Homepod with the original sound quality and if they want to keep the line alive they need to keep the audio quality improving.
 
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I have 3 OG HomePods and love them, have two in a stereo pair in the kitchen( they sound amazing). I also have 2 Mini’s as a stereo pair for Apple TV, and 3 other mini’s in other rooms of the house (one is in the en-suite). Really pleased Apple have replaced the OG as they sound much better than the mini’s. I used to have 4 OG’s but one died recently, now I can replace them if needed. Almost all my lights are Philips Hue, so I can use Siri to turn the lights off an on, or change the colour or brightness in most rooms in the house.
 
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I wonder what advantage I would have in buying this new HomePod since I have the original full-size HomePod? In other words, are there any neat things the two together can do?
 
Actually they could prob do a mid size HomePod between the two current models. Battery powered?

Not sure why Apple did this. As someone who previously considered a HomePod but went Sonos, Id make the same choice again. Nothing compelling here, missed opportunity.
 
nikaru said:
Im struggling to understand why the they discontinued the old Homepod, just to release a new one which is exactly the same, but with some temperature and humidity sensor and less tweeters? So strange announcement...
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Because HomePod mini is selling really well?

There are quite a few more upgrades to this 2nd gen HomePod, like better Wifi radios and the U1 chip, Matter compatibility (mini already has all of that but OG HomePod didn't).

But being that Bluetooth is still 5.0 while essentially all newer Apple products get Bluetooth 5.3 makes me feel like this, essentially, is a kind of HomePod SE -Mostly the same as the 1st Gen but some components have been upgraded.

I don't know.

I see the HomePod as a decent option if you want to hook up your entire home using Apple Music a lot, want to use Siri all day in all of your house, and have a bunch of smart home stuff that you want to operate using Siri.
 
S7 chip, no thank you.
you would think Apple would offer not just a stereo setup at this point but also a home theater with stereo minis in the back ..
 
dragoon2745 said:
I really don't understand why they went backwards and downgraded from 802.11ac to 802.11n and then kept Bluetooth at 5.0 and not upgrade it to 5.3. I don't even know if my router broadcasts 802.11n. Furthermore audio quality was supposed to improve in Bluetooth 5.2 with LC3.
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I imagine price had to do with it, sadly. Apple is penny pinching.
 
OG Homepod still rocks. After replacing diode one. Not sure why people are complaining the price point. It's $50 less and it's newer tech when compared to release date. And it's Apple. Everyone else go buy a "$199" Alexa.
 
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N1jl said:
I've no idea what they've just announced but my 3 existing HomePods do everything anyway. What is this nonsense?
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Biggest reason I’m buying 2-4 of them even though I own 3 version 1: I play most of my music from the computer (non-Apple Music). I stopped buying the original because macOS did not at the time allow for airplay 2 stereo pairs from the Mac except Apple Music and TV. Now that it does this I want to have stereo pairs in all my workspaces. They just sound so amazing for the size/price. Siri I just use as a kitchen timer.
 
LestâtMayfair said:
While HomePods aren't able to pair with HomePod Mini, you can airplay to all using Airplay 2, doesn't this achieve same as 5.1 system? I airplay to 2 HomePods and 4 HomePod minis, additionally a Samsung soundbar and the sound is unreal. It's like being in an an IMAX theatre.
Click to expand...

The difference between AirPlay 2 Multiroom and Stereo Pair is how the audio is handled. When doing multiroom, you play the same audio on all speakers simultaneously. When you have a stereo pair, the software will ensure that they work as a stereo pair, meaning that the left HomePod will act as the left channel, and the right HomePod will act as the right channel. When playing back stereo mixes and Dolby Atmos mixes, both HomePods will act as separate speakers playing back what corresponds with the location of each HomePod, instead of simply playing back the exact same sound on both at the same time.
 
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dragoon2745 said:
I really don't understand why they went backwards and downgraded from 802.11ac to 802.11n and then kept Bluetooth at 5.0 and not upgrade it to 5.3. I don't even know if my router broadcasts 802.11n. Furthermore audio quality was supposed to improve in Bluetooth 5.2 with LC3.
Click to expand...
Damn, I read that the other way around on apple.com.

I thought the Wifi was upgraded.

Wow. This really is to some extent an "HomePod SE".. except iPhones SE usually get the latest Bluetooth and Wifi and then the price is really competitive.

This is such a weird "1.1"-ish release.

What makes this 2nd Gen is quite hard to grasp judging by specs alone.
 
Onimusha370 said:
Really wish these were $249 or even $199 each if you’re ordering a pair. Feels like apple haven’t understood why the first gen didn’t sell well.
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Agreed. Although, I think it’ll sell well with the usual crowd (Apple fans). And maybe that’s all they need.

But as far as an Apple Watch type success story, I don’t see it at $299 USD.

Plus there’s this looming thing called a recession.
 
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