Apple Confirms HomePod's Supported Audio Sources in Tech Specs

[deanthedev]

Because people like you continue to try to spin something different than what Apple says about this topic themselves.

And I'm not claiming it's a mono speaker. It seems only those who want to spin one as stereo or more-than-stereo keep seeing challenges to those ideas as others calling it mono. Personally, for reasons beat just about to death in other threads, I'm (personally) in the mono+ camp myself.

And again, if all it takes to be able to formally call it "stereo" is one more woofer, why is Apple saying it will also need a software update in their copy about "it takes two" for stereo? One will have that second woofer as soon as they buy a second HP. Is Apple wrong for saying it needs a software update too?

People are saying a single HomePod is not stereo. The basis for this is Apple allowing you to pair two HomePods as a stereo pair.

This is absolutely false. A single HomePod can output a stereo signal. It won’t have as wide a soundstage as two speakers placed far apart, but it’s still stereo.

 

[jav6454]

The greater the sensitivity of the speaker, the less watts you need for high volume.

Not quite. There is also impeadance in there.

Except audio is logarithmic, not linear. So double the volume would require 80W, not 16W.

Agreed. But it's an example.

Yes I understand. I was trying to take a poke at all of us who seem to be working overtime to puff this thing up into being a whole bunch of stuff that even Apple is not claiming it to be. Why not a power plant too? Just joking around.

Did you hear it can slice bread?

I want a speaker to play slicing bread. I'm sure it'll sound great to hear that crust....

 

[Rogifan]

Those songs will be uploaded to your Apple Music library and the HomePod will play those uploaded files.

According to the tech specs you will be able to ask Siri to play these songs in the same way that you can the music in the main Apple Music catalog. You can currently do this using Siri on your phone.

How it works in practice may not be quite so easy. I have quite a lot of music in my library by artists that aren't available in the iTunes store. Trying to get Siri to play tracks by them gives fairly mixed results (although that can be argued about artists that are in the store as well).

Yeah I just tried it on my iPhone and it worked. I swear it didn’t in the past. Still Siri doesn’t always understand what I say and doesn’t get spelling right so it’s hit or miss.

I’d still like to know what the restrictions are for uploading to iCloud Music Library. Sometimes I upload things and iTunes says not eligible but doesn’t explain why. It seems like there’s a limit to the length of a track (like nothing over 2 hours) but no Apple documentation to say specifically what the requirements are.

 

[OllyW]

I've read some of these accounts. I don't remember in any instance where the HomePod was compared with another device.

They were set up and demoed against competing smart speakers.
HomePod vs. Amazon Echo vs. Google Home Max vs. Sonos One: Speaker showdown

 

[ChrisCW11]

What a joke. So it supports ALL of Apple's walled garden services. Hardly earth shattering news. I mean if it supported even Spotify that would have been huge news but buying an Apple device that only works with this closed ecosystem, what did you expect?

 

[casik]

Any confirmation that you can for sure log in with an Canadian iTunes account or iCloud account and use it in english only?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

People are saying a single HomePod is not stereo. The basis for this is Apple allowing you to pair two HomePods as a stereo pair.

This is absolutely false. A single HomePod can output a stereo signal. It won’t have as wide a soundstage as two speakers placed far apart, but it’s still stereo.

Oh brother! I can feed a stereo signal to a true mono speaker and it will play it. But it's not stereo.

Wow are we ever splitting hairs on this topic.

 

[gnipgnop]

And again, if all it takes to be able to formally call it "stereo" is one more woofer, why is Apple saying it will also need a software update in their copy about "it takes two" for stereo?

Simple answer: it's due to the complexity of how the HomePod is balancing the sound during playback. With one HomePod, it's already calculating how to distribute the audio in terms of projection and reflection, as well as how to cancel out interference from the sound waves. When you add a second HomePod, that increases the difficulty of how the sound waves are interacting within the environment and how the projection/reflection/cancellation would work.

 

[Rogifan]

Apple’s strategy has never been to sell as many of anything as possible. Their strategy is to maximize their revenue, and not for a single product - for the brand. They are very good at that.

My guess is that they held off implementing Bluetooth to maximize new Apple Music subscriptions. The services area is practically pure profit after a core number of subscribers, which they’ve already reached. When new subscribers fall off, they will turn on BT in a firmware update and get a nice second wave of buyers, knowing that most people who signed up earlier for Apple Music won’t drop it.

I love Apple, but they are very adept at separating consumers from their money.

Except if they can’t use Siri what’s the point? Apple Muisc on Android can be streamed to any BT speaker. I don’t think sound quality will be enough to draw in people not using Apple hardware.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I want a speaker to play slicing bread. I'm sure it'll sound great to hear that crust....

Well here you go then. Take that Echo, Google & Sonos. Only HP can slice bread.

And if it slices 2 pieces at once, it's doing so in stereo.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

The problem with this is lip sync issues/delay. I believe there is a second or two delay with bluetooth and AirPlay, but maybe AirPlay 2 fixes that. If these had even one input (optical, USB-C, anything) input it would have helped those of us that wanted to use them for things beyond Apple music.

Right but any A/V receiver that is not completely rudimentary is going to have a lip sync compensation setting.

 

[Braderunner]

At this point in time, the people who own a HomePod, but not the AppleTV is next to zero. So your point is moot.

Actually, at this point in time, nobody owns a HomePod.

 

[jav6454]

Well here you go then. Take that Echo, Google & Sonos. Only HP can slice bread.

And if it slices 2 pieces at once, it's doing so in stereo.

Not... anyways, I've diverted from topic. I will stay say the HomePod is a bad buy.

 

[deanthedev]

Oh brother! I can feed a stereo signal to a true mono speaker and it will play it. But it's not stereo.

Wow are we ever splitting hairs on this topic.

There’s no splitting hairs.

The left signal gets fed out of a left side tweeter while the right signal gets fed out of a right side tweeter. That’s stereo. Not mono, not mono+ or whatever you want to call it.

 

[shakes.holt]

So that it remains anti-competitive and forces users to stay within the Apple ecosystem. (That way you can't use it with an Android device or something)

You are wrong!!!
It has Bluetooth 5.0 which is not backwards compatible with 4.0

Bluetooth 5.0
Bluetooth 5 is announced in 16 June 2016 to come in late 2016 or early 2017. Bluetooth 5 is here and with it release, developers have tried to meet the all the advanced standard of wireless world with more privacy and security. This version is the continuation of Low Energy LE. Its speed is 48MBps (double than last version). It can be connected up to distance of 300 meters or 985 feet (4 times of last version). The ISM band ranges from 2.4-2.485 GHz. One little disappointing thing for users is that it don’t have any backward compatibility with its old or previous versions. It requires new hardware which should be latest and advanced so that those devices meet the requirements of Bluetooth v5.0 to run it smoothly.

Educate yourself before spouting BS

 

[jav6454]

Actually, at this point in time, nobody owns a HomePod.

That's my point...

 

[gnipgnop]

Not quite. There is also impeadance in there.

Okay, but you can find audiophile systems that only use 8W per channel. So it's not exactly unheard of to get quite a bit of volume from low wattage.

 

[Princejb134]

Think of HomePod like AirPods. Needs Bluetooth to pair.

not exactly. homepod can be can be paired through wifi

 

[vipergts2207]

And that's fine because even with multiple speaker setups, low frequencies are typically the same across all channels as low sounds aren't generally directional. We're far better at distinguishing the direction of higher pitched sounds. This is why a 7.1 home stereo will still just have a single subwoofer.

Most fail to understand how amazing what the HomePod offers really is. Until the HomePod, you'd be looking at paying $20,000 to get a speaker with beam forming. They can create a stereo-like experience by sending different tones and frequencies in different directions, so they appear to be coming from different areas of the room as they would with a true stereo setup. This has been noted in multiple hands-on reviews with the HomePod thus far.

Only very low frequencies aren't localizable. Once you get above ~100 Hz audio becomes increasingly so, and the single woofer in the HomePod is going to be playing well into the frequency range where audio is localizable. The crossover is probably going to be around 2100 Hz- 2400 Hz. And also consider that the crossover figure is only a nominal value in the first place and a limited range of frequencies above the crossover will still get through to the woofer as well.

 

[jav6454]

Okay, but you can find audiophile systems that only use 8W per channel. So it's not exactly unheard of to get quite a bit of volume from low wattage.

However, for a device that people want to connect to an AppleTV, 8W is laughable. I can see it doing music...

 

[44267547]

no headphone jack....
not even bluetooth.

You're joking, right? Can you please explain why the HomePod should include the 3.5 Jack? Isn't the point of the HomePod to freely listen to the audio anywhere in the room? A headphone jack would defeat the purpose of the HomePod. (And if you reply by using the 3.5 Jack for external speakers is not a valid reason either.)

 

[neutralguy]

They were set up and demoed against competing smart speakers.
HomePod vs. Amazon Echo vs. Google Home Max vs. Sonos One: Speaker showdown

Seems like different than
http://nymag.com/selectall/2018/01/this-is-what-apples-homepod-sounds-like.html
where it seems Google Max is better than HomePod in sound imaging.

 

[jav6454]

You're joking, right? Can you please explain why the HomePod should include the 3.5 Jack? Isn't the point of the HomePod to freely listen to the music anywhere in the room? Who would sit next to the HomePod with their headphones plugged into it? (Even trying to picture that is hilarious and defeats the existence of the HomePod).

I'm going to go out on a limb and say he meant 3.5 jack as an input.... hopefully that's what he meant.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

While it is possible to do that, I don't see much of a point to do it. That's like buying a Ferrari and driving it at 5 miles per hour for ever. Again I am not understanding this whole idea about using HomePod for TV speaker. I bet TV speaker will sound better and louder than HomePod for that content. Hompeod is marketed as a music speaker, not a versatile speakers like the major audio speaker brands. I have not seen anybody hooking up a tv to JBL Flip or Bose SoundLink.

I 100% agree. OP wanted to know if it's possible. It's possible, maybe not (definitely not for me) advisable or economical. But that for OP to decide.

 

[Mtmspa]

Yep, Sonos is an option for sure - my ex has Sonos and it sounds pretty good for the size. My personal preference would be for something with Siri/HomeHub - I'm pretty keyed into the Apple walled garden and I'm quite happy with it for my purposes. Others' mileage may vary.

As to "better sound" well, since I''ve heard Sonos over dozens of hours and, like almost everyone around here, never heard HomePod for a millisecond, so I'll have to reserve judgment until I have one in my home I can listen to properly.

Don’t wanna join the crowd that is telling us how it will sound, even tho they never heard it? That is the Mac rumors way. Oh, and make sure to mention something about Spotify and airplay.