Apple's Early Version of HomePod Stood Three Feet Tall and Packed Dozens of Speakers

[itguy06]

Have you used Alexa? As in daily? It’s amazing. Especially with a connected home. I don’t mind Siri but Apple has got a long, long, way to go.

You should try Google Assistant. Easily the best of them all and better natural language than both. Siri is really bad at stuff that GA gets right the first time.

 

[ersan191]

I really hope whoever is providing the quotes for this article has old information or doesn’t work at Apple any more or something. If they really don’t intend to build out voice assistant features, even if they don’t overhaul Siri, I’m out.

I also hope the delay on the HomePod is because Apple realized most people aren’t buying the Echo or Home or even the new Sonos play one just to listen to music, and they are trying to make it a better voice assistant rather than just waiting for the Home Max or something to come out to make sure the HomePod sounds better than the competition.

I’m sure the HomePod will sound amazing but I’m not buying one just for that I’m buying one (or more) to replace my Echos because I’m invested in the Apple ecosystem and I want something that will tie into it rather than work around it.

 

[Uofmtiger]

Have you used Alexa? As in daily? It’s amazing. Especially with a connected home. I don’t mind Siri but Apple has got a long, long, way to go.

Check out MKBHD's video with a side by side comparison and Alexa comes up short. I use both daily and they both do what I need. Though, Apple can control Apple Music and Alexa can't. Which is a problem for my use case and the 30 million other people using Apple Music.

 

[longpath]

My sincere hope is that the delay is in order to work out either making the HomePod a proper HomeKit hub/controller, or letting it hand off requests to AppleTVs. The idea of it depending upon an iOS device that might not be home does not sit well with me and seems like a poor choice, given the competition.

 

[LinusR]

HA! Actually I raced a stripped Stage II Civic on the track and couldn't quite get past the bugger (and I was trying moderately hard)... so I'd put that on the track

Did you drive a fuel economical Jeep Wrangler 4x4 perhaps?

 

[Phonephreak]

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.

The thing is all the sound forming beam forming stuff changes the sound. Best way to listen to music is source>amp>speakers. No eqing

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

This is all fine but a single small cube is not going to sound better than a small pair of bookshelf speakers. For a person who music is important HomePod isn’t it.

Those people aren't the target of the HomePod. The HomePod is targeted at the 99% of music lovers who want good quality sound in a convenient package that's simple to use.

Audiophiles are not part of that target market and will be much better served by their silly systems where they can nerd out and tell everyone how much better their music sounds in frequency ranges science has confirmed we can't hear anyways.

 

[Regime2008]

They may use it for voice control of their iTunes Lossless library (Home Sharing) and sending the audio stream to their main system that has an Airplay/Airplay 2 device. Then when they just want to hear background music while they make their coffee in the morning, they will be happier with the HomePod than many of the other small footprint speakers out there.

I don't really think there would be a large crowd of people with lossless audio files, that don't already own better-than-average speakers. The average-Joe is going to be listening to mp3 streams.

 

[Phonephreak]

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.

Nice equipment. You know what good sound is. SimAudio and Aerial speakers great match.

 

[Uofmtiger]

I don't really think there would be a large crowd of people with lossless audio files, that don't already own better-than-average speakers. The average-Joe is going to be listening to mp3 streams.

I was responding to someone that was specifically referring to those with above average speakers. Those people, like myself, have lossless files and will also use the HomePod (in addition to listening to it directly for casual use) to stream lossless files to Airplay 2 devices that are connected or a part of their higher end systems.

 

[Regime2008]

Those people aren't the target of the HomePod. The HomePod is targeted at the 99% of music lovers who want good quality sound in a convenient package that's simple to use.

Audiophiles are not part of that target market and will be much better served by their silly systems where they can nerd out and tell everyone how much better their music sounds in frequency ranges science has confirmed we can't hear anyways.

Ouch, silly systems? I hate to sound like an ***, but that is an ignorant thing to say. Spending a couple hundred dollars on a optical cable on the other hand, could definitely be considered silly. But there is a reason why some sets of bookshelves can be purchased for as little as $20 for a set, and there are some that cost hundreds, if not thousands. Some can appreciate the eargasm from quality equipment, and there's some that simply don't care for it and can jam out to an inexpensive system. Good quality doesn't always equate to expensive either. Some costly equipment are priced way too high, just because of brand loyalty. Too each their own, but to call it silly, is just plain ignorant.

 

[tardegrade]

You're missing the point of the HomePod if you think it's about Siri. ...

I don't think so. I think it's Apple that have missed the point.

Apple are a technology company. They already have a digital assistant and home automation software in Siri and HomeKit. If you're going to build a speaker these three things naturally come together. The Bloomberg article is spot on. Apple built a speaker when they should have built a rival to Echo and Google Home. And they can't do that because at the moment Siri just doesn't cut it.

They have been blind sided, they've missed the boat and it's going to take them time to catch up. They will have to do so though. It's not like Amazon and Google are going to stand still on this. Expect the next Echo and Google Home products to have better audio and more tricks similar to beam forming, and they'll only get better. If Apple don't sort Siri out and make it a central point of the HomePod then they'll have no advantage in this market.

Sure if they want to leave it at just a speaker then I'm sure that they'll sell a few million of them but the competition, particularly Amazon, are selling many millions more of a product that is going to become a staple in peoples homes. Is that something that Apple will be comfortable loosing out on?

 

[Cigsm]

So Apple was playing catch-up with Sonos five years ago even though Sonos didn’t have anything remotely similar? Oh ok

What a bogus article. I smell something foul!

The engineer's didn't laugh when they heard Amazon had launched Echo... The apple engineers where copying Sonos all along. That was their focus. Amazon just beat apple at their usual game - take a product out there, add and improvement and call it innovation. You know, the stuff where apple fans like to say, "apple just took their time to 'get it right'. Yeah, right....

Anyone looking back at this can see this.

 

[Phonephreak]

Ouch, silly systems? I hate to sound like an ***, but that is an ignorant thing to say. Spending a couple hundred dollars on a optical cable on the other hand, could definitely be considered silly. But there is a reason why some sets of bookshelves can be purchased for as little as $20 for a set, and there are some that cost hundreds, if not thousands. Some can appreciate the eargasm from quality equipment, and there's some that simply don't care for it and can jam out to an inexpensive system. Good quality doesn't always equate to expensive either. Some costly equipment are priced way too high, just because of brand loyalty. Too each their own, but to call it silly, is just plain ignorant.

Wow. This sounds a lot like Apple.

 

[citysnaps]

The thing is all the sound forming beam forming stuff changes the sound. Best way to listen to music is source>amp>speakers. No eqing

Sure, if you have awesome and expensive equipment and speakers (or heaphones), and an acoustically outstanding (or treated) listening room.

However, if you want a relatively inexpensive hassle-free speaker that sounds great no matter where you place it (kitchen, bedroom, office, living room, etc) employing adaptive beamforming and equalization to compensate for variable room acoustics, then this will be an outstanding choice.

That's Apple's target market. Not audiophiles willing to spend $9.8K for a pair of Nordost 2 meter interconnects, or $7K for a power cord.

 

[Frosties]

HomePod Plus

HomePod PRO

 

[eyeseeyou]

HomePod PRO

HomePod X with notch

 

[Uofmtiger]

Sure, if you have awesome and expensive equipment and speakers (or heaphones), and an acoustically outstanding (or treated) listening room.

However, if you want a relatively inexpensive hassle-free speaker that sounds great no matter where you place it (kitchen, bedroom, office, living room, etc) employing adaptive beamforming and equalization to compensate for variable room acoustics, then this will be an outstanding choice.

That's Apple's target market. Not audiophiles willing to spend $9.8K for a pair of Nordost 2 meter interconnects, or $7K for a power cord.

Even those audiophiles with multi-thousand dollar cables may want one of these just for the kitchen. Most audiophiles (of this variety) have dedicated rooms, but that doesn't mean that all of them want to make their coffee and eggs in silence. A little background music in the kitchen, from a decent sounding speaker, may be tolerable for some of them (and $350 is cheaper than the block of wood they use to keep their cables from touching the floor). I know some of them won't even listen to music in their cars, so they won't get that market, but it is so small it is irrelevant.

 

[Tec972]

I'd like the 3 foot tall prototype please

 

[4jasontv]

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.

It was an iTunes logo, and yeah, they did try that.

 

[citysnaps]

Even those audiophiles with multi-thousand dollar cables may want one of these just for the kitchen. Most audiophiles (of this variety) have dedicated rooms, but that doesn't mean that all of them want to make their coffee and eggs in silence. A little background music in the kitchen, from a decent sounding speaker, may be tolerable for some of them. I know some of them won't even listen to music in their cars, so they won't get that market, but it is so small it is irrelevant.

Exactly... I see HomePod as an inexpensive speaker that delivers really good sound no matter where you place it.

Set it somewhere, power it on, and it then generates (and listens to room reflected) a short set of calibration signals to determine the room acoustics, and then creates a filter to account for acoustics and placement. Move HomePod to a different room and it performs another calibration for the new room and speaker placement.

Is it perfect? No. Can it compare with an expensive audiophile system in a treated room? Of course not.

Will it be demonstrably better than any other modest-cost uncalibrated amplifier/speaker that can be moved from room to room hassle-free? Absolutely.

 

[George Dawes]

mike fremer - a dear lovely guy on yt.... /s

will happily sell you audiophools a pint of snake oil or 2

 

[rowspaxe]

For those people, it's an awesome option to allow them to enjoy music even more in their home.

Do people really listen to music much in their homes? I don't know...just something that occurred to me when thinking about this product

 

[Regime2008]

mike fremer - a dear lovely guy on yt.... /s

will happily sell you audiophools a pint of snake oil or 2

There is a difference between a smart audiophile, and a foolish audiophile. One will spend vast amounts of money, and buy anything you can possibly market. The smart one on the other hand, will do research and extensive listening to make conclusions. Not everyone who values "good sound" is a fool. Some people like expensive scotch, some like the cheaper stuff. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[RickInHouston]

So Apple was playing catch-up with Sonos five years ago even though Sonos didn’t have anything remotely similar? Oh ok

I guess you can't understand what I wrote. Please read with comprehension in mind.