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Apple's Early Version of HomePod Stood Three Feet Tall and Packed Dozens of Speakers
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Aaaah yeah, because people in 2017 want to run ethernet around their house to run a speaker.
If only some type of wireless protocol existed which allowed us to stream audio. You're talking about less than $5 in wifi components to support 802.11n/a and yet, Sonos couldn't be bothered and instead went with parts from 2002, throwing in a 802.11b/g wireless board.
I personally like the sound of Bose. They are expensive, but the quality of their sound is pleasing to me. I do not own any of their stand alone speakers, but their QC-35 headphones are a close second to the B&W PX from my personal experience. The rest are not even close.
$350 is a lot for a speaker of the Homepod's kind. Stereo audio through one enclosure is never truly high quality. And especially considering that I just recently built up a stereo setup with the Elac B6's, Onkyo A9010 amplifier, and an Echo Dot for only $450 you could say that the Homepod is even more of a ****** deal. The sound quality I get out of that setup is far far higher than what the Homepod could deliver in my estimation.
Agreed, lots of people would be intrigued by a really good sounding "intelligent" speaker from Apple, many would have been gifts (I'm not saying I would have given any - too rich for my blood - but I can certainly see that happening). It's a shame they missed the window this year.
Devil's Advocate: circa 2005-2006, "how hard is it to get a phone to market, just source a reference design (flip phone or candybar, with a decent keyboard for T9 text entry) and slap an Apple logo on it". But clearly they didn't do that, rethought most of the bits from the ground up... perhaps they have done that here too. We'll see, once it's released.
"The Siri team was told that the HomePod was about music and quality sound, one of the people said. Yes, the speaker would be voice-activated but it wouldn't be positioned as a personal assistant."
Thank God. Because if it was about using Siri, or relying on it, it'd be a disaster. Siri is brain-dead - and getting worse with every new iOS release.
Thank God. Because if it was about using Siri, or relying on it, it'd be a disaster. Siri is brain-dead - and getting worse with every new iOS release.
How much did you spend on your receiver and speakers? If you didn't already have that, you might be Apple's ideal HomePod customer. HomePod is also designed for consumers already entrenched in Apple's ecosystem (Apple Music, Airplay, Apple TV, etc.) who do not already have an existing premium quality solution for music.
This hits the nail on the head. At $350 I would rather buy an echo dot for ~$35 and then piece together something solely for audio that I connect the dot too. I am getting the smart home set up that I want, but much much better sound.
I love how these types of articles constantly overlook Sonos because they're actually the competition.
I recommend to anyone I talk to to get Sonos. High quality and an insane bang for you buck. Homepod from what we know so far is going to be a closed down system. Sound quality is still unknown, and is quite a bit more expensive than a Sonos.
Honestly, I have no idea why people are so on board with this speaker. You have no idea what it's like yet. And of course someone is going to say, "well neither do you". But I have the history of Apple speakers to go off of and all I'm seeing is HiFi 2.0
I recommend to anyone I talk to to get Sonos. High quality and an insane bang for you buck. Homepod from what we know so far is going to be a closed down system. Sound quality is still unknown, and is quite a bit more expensive than a Sonos.
Honestly, I have no idea why people are so on board with this speaker. You have no idea what it's like yet. And of course someone is going to say, "well neither do you". But I have the history of Apple speakers to go off of and all I'm seeing is HiFi 2.0
The main point of the person you quoted is that for $350 you can get insane sound quality, and then connect a cheap dot to it.
I did. You seem to be saying adding adaptive beamforming, adaptive spectrum equalization, and a six element microphone array to control that, as well as handling Siri commands, to greatly enhance sound and listening experience, is not innovation. Thus my question. Does Sonos offer that level of innovation and technology.
I understand Sonos is a good sounding speaker. So are a lot of others that use basically an amplifier and speaker for creating sound.
I'm still enjoying my original Apple HiFi speaker fed by an Apple Express. The soundstage of the HiFi is excellent. I'm looking forward to the new HomePod.
As an engineer, it always annoys me when the scenario in this article happens.
Engineer - Hey boss, wouldn't it be cool if we could build one of these...
Management - Meh, not sure I see the appeal I'll think about it.
.
.
Management - Oh look! Our competitor is releasing one of those. We have to make one too, ASAP!
So... basically you respect/trust the engineers and management of your competitors more than you trust your own...
I manage engineers and to be fair it’s not wrong to think that. Engineers are not trained to define product roadmap. Getting thing right once does not mean we should give them the job of product management.
Looking forward to the spin apples marketing team and Apple enthusiasts will produce to convince people a single speaker is better than anything that has come out before. Notch evangelists unite!
Cue people here who know what was going on in the heads of Apple engineers just based on random gut feelings
In Sonos's defense, it's not the speakers that make Sonos what it is. It's their amp (that you can connect any speaker you want - I even have a pair of Totem Mani-2's connected and they play quite nicely) and amp-less server (where you can connect your own DAC and amp - mine a Berkeley Alpha DAC, SimAudio monoblocks and Aerial Acoustics Model 9s) that can really make things rip. Sonos' software (until this last upgrade) used to be bar-none better than anything on the market. Sonos only introduced speakers after many asked for them.
Personally, apple is offering it's speaker and quietly thinking you will need to buy two and place them in stereo to get adequate sound quality. I would rather have speakers as intended - in stereo and front firing for proper imaging of the sound - not a round speaker to fill a room with noise.
Yes, I am too. I'm speculating that the HomePod will tailor its sound to the acoustics of the room. It may even tailor the sound to where you are located in the room.
Aaaah yeah, because people in 2017 want to run ethernet around their house to run a speaker.
my entire house is wired with cat 6. 32 drops total. also youre drastically overstating any negatives
A lot of people misunderstand exactly how — and how much — an 802.11b device slows down a newer network. Some people believe that having an 802.11b device on an 802.11g or 802.11n network will slow that network all the way down to 802.11b speeds for compatibility reasons.
This is false. Even if you have an 802.11b device on your Wi-Fi network, those newer 802.11g and n devices won’t slow all the way down to 802.11b speeds. It’s not as bad as some of the myths make it out to be.
if youre really worried about it, put all of your other devices on 5 ghz. youre neighbors old wifi devices can also slow you down if the channels over lap
alexa works, unlike siri and most want to listen to one of the 50 music services that work with it, not just apple music. oh and apple music is one of those 50 lol
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I've heard insane sound quality. You can't get it for $350. For that you can get nice sound quality.
Really? Because I've already got something that's better at music by plugging my echo dot into my HiFi.
I think the entire focus and purpose of the device is (as is frequently the case with Apple) to sell an inferior version of something that has existed for quite a while already for 5x the cost.