I have used plenty of stereo bluetooth speakers, no bigger than the HomePod. I can hear their stereo separation from a good few feet away. Okay, the stereo imaging wouldn't be great, but it's better than no stereo imaging at all.
No, you won't get true imaging unless you are in the sweet spot. The smaller the speakers, the smaller that sweet spot will be. With the iPhone, you can move it an inch to the left or right of the sweet spot and it will completely change any imaging you might have. It is just the way audio works.
Personally, I have a lot of stereo and multichannel systems around the house. I don't complain about stereo imaging when I am up and walking around because it still sounds like music no matter where I am standing. However, the "stereo sound" is lost.
FM stereo is designed in an AB pair, where A is the combination of both channels and B is the difference between them. If the signal is weak and it loses part or all of B, you are left with either mono or a partial stereo image. I never heard of radio buffs complaining that a partial stereo pair was putting them off listening to the radio.
Exactly, people know this happens. It is a compromise we live with when we have stereo or multiple speakers for that matter. However, if you have been to audio forums, you will see a lot of discussion about the "sweet spot", room acoustics, bass traps, etc... People are spending a lot of time and effort to get audio to sound decent in compromised spaces...so yes, it is an issue.
True, but I was just arguing that Apple had decided it was a worthwhile exercise in a teeny tiny device, so why not in their flagship audio product?
The iPhone is meant to be handheld right in front of your face. It is a different type of device. A single HomePod is meant to fill the room with sound so it sounds good anywhere. I would much prefer that the iPhone have a speaker array and room-sensing audio, like my HomePod, but it has space restraints. The sound coming from the iPhone...even in the perfect sweetspot...doesn't hold a candle to the audio coming from one Homepod.
What is a 360 sound field? To me, it sounds like a very high-quality mono speaker, but I can hear exactly which corner it is coming from.
From
Fast Company:
"When the HomePod’s speaker starts emitting sound, an external microphone on the device starts to measure the acoustic pressure of the sound waves returning after bouncing off the walls, ceiling, floor, and objects in the room. Based on that information, it understands the acoustic response of the room. So if the HomePod is in a corner, the microphone will detect the close presence of the two walls from the strength of the sound waves bouncing off them and returning.
That microphone then shares what it learned with a microchip within the speaker. That chip is also collecting information from an internal microphone listening only to the speaker output. Now that it knows both what the speaker is outputting and how that output is being received out in the room, it can–through some fairly intense algorithms–instruct the speaker’s digital signal processor to tweak the equalization of the music to fit the room."
In my opinion, this is the ideal way to handle audio coming from a device with less than a 6 inch footprint. Personally, I don't care if it is stereo because I am not typically listening in the sweet spot.
But for that price, as long as you're not worried about the smart aspect, just buy a second-hand AirPort Express and a decent amp and speakers. For £700 you'd get amazing sound quality, better than two HomePods would produce.
People care about convenience and the lack of speaker wire. Personally, I have the type of systems you are referring to and when I sit in the sweet spot, I prefer my B&W and NHT speakers. When I am just listening to music while I am in the kitchen, the HomePod is ideal. Also, since I can use it to play music in my main system via its Airplay 2 control of the AppleTV, it even makes that process easier.
