Apple Says HomePod Consumes Less Power Than Average LED Bulb During Music Playback

[Piggie]

Wow one has to be pretty desperate to enter the Smart Speaker market, not mention how smart it is, but try and show how little power it uses.

And less than the average LED lightbulb when playing?
STOP LYING APPLE.

I replaced all my lights at home with LED's and they are all in the 3, 4, 5 watt category.
I don't have ANY LED's that would use 9.25 watts

 

[Martyimac]

Wow one has to be pretty desperate to enter the Smart Speaker market, not mention how smart it is, but try and show how little power it uses.

And less than the average LED lightbulb when playing?
STOP LYING APPLE.

I replaced all my lights at home with LED's and they are all in the 3, 4, 5 watt category.
I don't have ANY LED's that would use 9.25 watts

You might want to double check that. I thought that too but when I checked, mine ALL used between 10-13 watts. Surprised me.

 

[KdParker]

Sounds great, I guess, but can I use this with my TV and game console?

Or only with an apple product?

 

[62tele]

My wife couldn't even use the HomePod to access her things as it would only recognize me.

I thought Apple had already stated that it will respond to more than one voice.

As for everyone not being an audiophile, this isn't meant for audiophiles. However it is meant for people who want better music reproduction in their home without the space and financial requirements of more sophisticated audio gear. I have a Sonos which is very nice but if Apple's device is better than I will appreciate it.

When I was much younger one of the first investments you make was a nice stereo system. That's an anachronism for today's living.

 

[Martyimac]

Sounds great, I guess, but can I use this with my TV and game console?

Or only with an apple product?

My viewing of the Apple page would seem to indicate it's locked to  products. That right there makes it a no go for me.

 

[Bacillus]

Not exactly. There are several other factors that’ll affect speaker power other than input power.

Such as the level of your physics edu

 

[npmacuser5]

Sometimes we get too far down in the weeds on Tech Specs (power). The end of the day, meets or exceeds ones expectations, thumbs up. Simple.

 

[bollman]

The heating of my house draws 7kW at the moment, my "top" the last 3 months was 12.8kW, I use 3000kW+ per month.
My Zeppelin Wireless draws less than 0.3W at sleep, 1.5W at standby and outputs 150W speaker power.
If I assume it's a real powerhog and uses 200W at max volume, it uses 5kW per day, 150kW per month at max volume, that would still only be 5% of my total electrical bill.

It's rare to see audiophiles go for the setup that uses the least electricity...

 

[Cloudkicker]

lol It only does Apple Music, so it uses a lot less power? [Settle down, folks: It's a joke.]

 

[Piggie]

You might want to double check that. I thought that too but when I checked, mine ALL used between 10-13 watts. Surprised me.

Nope I'm 100%

I have these:
https://www.valuelights.co.uk/minis...ILpgmS72aPBYIHcH_TguN-luuSuzanscaApF5EALw_wcB

And these:
https://www.valuelights.co.uk/minisun-high-power-4w-led-bc-b22-golfball-light-bulb-warm-white.html

Some like this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Light-Halo...ements=p_n_feature_three_browse-bin:250340031

And a few other types.
You can get amazing brightness from nicely made 4w bulbs

 

[Martyimac]

Nope I'm 100%

I have these:
https://www.valuelights.co.uk/minis...ILpgmS72aPBYIHcH_TguN-luuSuzanscaApF5EALw_wcB

And these:
https://www.valuelights.co.uk/minisun-high-power-4w-led-bc-b22-golfball-light-bulb-warm-white.html

Some like this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Light-Halogen-Equivalent-Recessed-Lighting/dp/B00LN0RH70/ref=sr_1_5?s=lighting&ie=UTF8&qid=1516999433&sr=1-5&refinements=p_n_feature_three_browse-bin:250340031

And a few other types.
You can get amazing brightness from nicely made 4w bulbs

Impressive, not sure I can get that brand here in USA but will look for them.

 

[dannys1]

Apple does sell the cables individually.
[doublepost=1516995032][/doublepost]

read the entire article.
[doublepost=1516995225][/doublepost]

What “niche” devices has Apple made????

iMac Pro, Apple Watch and now the HomePod would all be considered "niche" compared to Macs, iPads and iPhone - but of course if it's not a market leader or doesn't generate billions on here it's considered a "failure"
[doublepost=1517000393][/doublepost]

Wasn't really complaining about anything. I don't care if people want to buy more. It just seemed like a weird thing Apple would sell off the shelf in their stores since they're not doing it for their other peripherals. I hadn't considered the "contact support for repair parts" angle. Was more just confused why MR thought they would be selling them individually.

I presume looking at photos it has it's own moulding around an IEC connector (like the iMac) to fit flush with the device. The Airport and Apple TV just have generic IEC C7 connectors so there wouldn't be much point in selling spares of them.

 

[newyorksole]

Just because I said the HomePod doesn't seem very useful doesn't mean that I think the UE MegaBoom is useful. As I've said before on these forums several times, any time I say "Hey Siri" several devices within range of me light up. My wife couldn't even use the HomePod to access her things as it would only recognize me. The point of a communal smart speaker is that more than one person could use it. This is zero different than any other Apple product that I own except that it has a nicer speaker inside. That might be useful to some who don't already have a speaker, but it's only kind of useful. Most people already own several speakers.

Then, when you factor in how much worse Siri is in many situations answering basic questions compared to competing platforms, you have to wonder why a regular person would buy this. I like that it has better security and privacy behind it, which is why I refuse to buy another brand of smart speaker. But in it's current state, the HomePod is not worth purchasing IMO. And I'm the guy who owns every Apple thing. Hopefully software updates will make it more useful in the future. Most people would be better served buying an Apple TV for less than half the cost and plugging it into their sound bar. Most people aren't audiophiles. Then they get a nice TV experience and can stream Apple Music and whatever else to their sound bar easily. I just don't see this thing gaining much traction for a long time. I'm usually pretty optimistic about new Apple products but I just don't see it here.

Good points. But alsooo... Just because it isn’t very useful to you doesn’t mean it won’t be useful to others. If you said “this doesn’t seem useful for me and my situation” I wouldn’t have quoted you, but your post was kind of just a general “this sucks why buy?” kinda post.

I’m excited to get mine and hope it improves over time so other people can find usefulness in it too.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

If that's true, at $350, it should have battery power built in.

Introducing RoadPod, the HomePod for the traveler.

Now exclusively with Airplay 3 plus an additional tweeter supporting new 4D multi-beaming emoji mode.

Available in Martian Sunset Red and Twilight Cataract Mauve.
[doublepost=1517002043][/doublepost]

I thought Apple had already stated that it will respond to more than one voice.

Per a MacWorld article, apparently is does respond to ANY voices in the household, but a lot of the "assistant" things it can do are limited to a single iCloud account.

 

[JTR555]

Color coordinated power cords? Count me in!!! /sarc

 

[TimWillz]

That’s very impressive.

 

[jav6454]

Such as the level of your physics edu

I hope you know how to power speakers and how signal amplification works.

There are limitations. However, as another poster replied, Apple might have well posted Power consumption at the low volumes. We won’t know until we dissect a HomePod

 

[Allyance]

When you go up 3 db in sound pressure level, then you will need double the amount of power. So, if you have a rock band with a tractor trailer full of sound gear, you will need another tractor trailer worth of gear to be 3 db louder! Need to see SPL at 1 watt, 1 meter at 1000Hz (normal measurement) using the amount of power the HomePod is rated at. "Music Playback" is not a spec. Need to see actually frequency response of speaker array. The fundamental bass produced by a 4" speaker is limited. Loudspeakers are electric motors that drive pistons (cones) that move the air. 4" speaker have limited excursions, as compared to 10, 12 or 15" speakers. If you want to reproduce fundamental bass, the you got move a lot of air! Bose tried to pull the wool over our eyes years ago with the 901 speakers, they had 9 4" speakers and could not produce fundamental bass with out a bass boast equalizer that sucked a lot of power.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Wow one has to be pretty desperate to enter the Smart Speaker market, not mention how smart it is, but try and show how little power it uses.

And less than the average LED lightbulb when playing?
STOP LYING APPLE.

I replaced all my lights at home with LED's and they are all in the 3, 4, 5 watt category.
I don't have ANY LED's that would use 9.25 watts

Sounds like you're uptight and need a hug. If you don't like hugs, then how about a beer?

Apple is anything but desperate. They are also not lying. Here in the United States, a 60W LED light bulb uses approx 9 watts. I understand things may be different in the UK, but we're not that lucky here.

Cheer up and grab that hug or sip on a cold beer!

 

[MentalFloss]

I just realized that I had the weird assumption that it would run on an internal battery. I have no idea why I had that assumption... perhaps I thought this thing would be at least as useful as my UE Boom or other wireless speakers. Now it turns out that no, it‘s not. A speaker that I can‘t position freely and that is tethered to a power cable is in fact absolutely useless to me. And the fact that it answers to „Hey Siri“ doesn‘t change that, because the iPad my UE Boom is connected to does the same.

So Apple is selling a wireless speaker that is not wireless. For lots of money. And while I feel dumb for realizing that only now, my excuse is that it is still too dumb for me to believe.

Usually, I don‘t need much convincing when it comes to buying new Apple products, but this thing just continually makes me go „Huh?!?“

 

[Partron22]

Seven inch "woofer" is not going to kick butt, even if it is "high excursion".
Where are the frequency response graphs?
I'd bet 100Hz is considered "base".
12-14" is the usual for decent sound down near 40Hz.

 

[AppleCare33]

Wow one has to be pretty desperate to enter the Smart Speaker market, not mention how smart it is, but try and show how little power it uses.

And less than the average LED lightbulb when playing?
STOP LYING APPLE.

I replaced all my lights at home with LED's and they are all in the 3, 4, 5 watt category.
I don't have ANY LED's that would use 9.25 watts

Depends on what the watt equivalent is to a typical bulb. Unless you don’t have 60 watt equivalent bulbs like most people do for normal fixtures, the usage of the typical LED 60 watt equivalent bulb is like 8.5 watts, so not to much more than the HomePod. However, it all depends on the brand and the efficiency’s. I have Phillips bulbs.

 

[fairuz]

I would be if said current stereo were ALWAYS ON.

It's the reason I turn off my A/V receiver when I'm done watching movies. The thing is a power hog.

Newer ones are smart enough to disable the amps when there's no input so they don't waste power amplifying cable noise all day, but yeah, it's a huge issue for many. And a lot of devices in general still use more energy in sleep mode than they really should. I have all my stuff on a power strip that I just turn off so there's no BS.

 

[Allyance]

Seven inch "woofer" is not going to kick butt, even if it is "high excursion".
Where are the frequency response graphs?
I'd bet 100Hz is considered "base".
12-14" is the usual for decent sound down near 40Hz.

Unfortunately it can't be a 7" woofer because it is only 5 1/2 inches wide, which makes your point even more valid.
Second, the woofer is un-baffeled, making it a dipole radiator which will cause the lower frequencies to cancel out at certain locations. Doesn't mean HomePod won't sound bad, but I wouldn't replace my home theater system with one.

 

[CarlJ]

And less than the average LED lightbulb when playing?
STOP LYING APPLE.

I replaced all my lights at home with LED's and they are all in the 3, 4, 5 watt category.
I don't have ANY LED's that would use 9.25 watts

Congratulations, you're using light bulbs that put out around 400 lumens - about half of what is considered average. So yeah, your bulbs use about half as much power (and you need a bunch of them to light a room).
STOP SHOUTING AT APPLE TO STOP LYING WHEN THEY AREN'T LYING.

They were talking about the energy usage of the typical LED bulbs used in the US, which are rated in the 9-10 watt range, and often pull a bit more (for a bulb putting out 800+ lumens). Their comparison is reasonable.

Maybe look around for more reasonable explanations first before SHOUTING THAT SOMEBODY IS LYING?