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Audiophile Review: HomePod 'Sounds Better' Than $999 KEF X300A Digital Hi-Fi Speakers
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So for the AI side of things for your home you would rather go with Alexa? I’m a Apple user myself but I’m on the fence about buying more products for HomeKit because of the lack of smarts from Siri..if I hear Apple is in fact sending a few bags to the Siri engineers to get it on par with Alexa I would buy the HomePod..and continue to outfit my home with Siri..but it feels like Apple may not win the assistant war. And I absolutely hate having to say “hey” before Siri starts listening. That’s the first thing I would like to see changed.
It's not clear he spent hours on the off axis measurements, and he is pretty explicit in stating it's omnidirectional. The 12" reference points seems pretty clearly to check null points for dispersion, whereas most of the measurements were done at 5'. Are you sure you've read his piece"
Except disabling the processing wouldn't actually tell us anything, since it would have no relation to actual use
That's not really an objective claim
Honestly a blind test is the only thing that I really care about. I wish I could do a blind test in stores to decide what I want too.
Can you with a straight face talk about how coloring the edges of your CD's with a green Sharpie makes the sound better?
Can you with a straight face discuss how elevating your speaker wires off the floor, in a serpentine shape, balanced on racquetballs cut in half, makes the sound better?
Then you might be an Audiophile!
Both Mu so models I own sound much better to my ear than the HomePod but they cost an awful lot more.
I could be described as an audiophile with a Naim separates setup but I think the HP sounds terrific for the money and I'd have it over any Sonos I've heard.
Amusing reading this thread, I know some audiophiles who have wasted insane money with audiophile mains and optical cables. Not me lol.
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Actually A.C. cables make an obvious sonic difference. What defines "waste" is a matter of opinion. Many here would say "separates" are an "insane waste of money". Others would say "what the heck is Naim"? As a Naim person, you are surely aware of the "insane" attention they pay to many issues most people think can never affect sound quality.
I used to own a Linn Sondek, Naim non stop for 30 years now and I used to own a Nakamichi CR-7 which sounded better than the dragon and the TD-1200 cassette deck in my car.
My Roksan Xerxes turntable I've boxed away since I bought a Naim preamp with Tidal hifi, no room for the vinyl besides plus the kids wrecked two very expensive moving coils playing DJ! I barely even use my CD player now.
And I think the homepod is great ;-)
I tried mains cables such as the Kimbers and didn't notice a thing from a standard high quality mains plug to an IEC plug! Naim power supply upgrades do work but the cost is totally mad for the degree of improvement. Spending a fortune on a fibre optic toslink cable is the most nuts!
I'm totally aware of the insanity and lengths some of my ilk go to, fortunately I'm not one of them. No green felt tips on my CD's in my house lol!
Thanks for correctly my brain fart. My original point though is outside of curiosity what does it matter what DAC is being used in the HomePod? That should not be a decision maker for buying a HomePod.
Correct and neither does playing sine waves out of context - where the speaker will be using it's microphone and insane processing Apple is using to try and balance everything all over the place.
So we can agree, the entire thing is a waste of time and tells us nothing.
It's not flat, and you'd be mad to think it is. It's hifi for christ sake.
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Hey this fella has some Kef speakers on a messy apartment desk and an account on Reddit...
I agree, and the same holds true in any hobby.
I've been in the audiophile world for a long time (I ain't that young) but the level of ridiculous pricing and snake oil products has increased over time, maybe to make up for revenues lost because the community seems to be shrinking, not growing, I don't know. I have no qualms disparaging the ridiculous aspect of the audiophile world: "an audiophool and his money is soon parted" and all too easily. And don't get me started on money grubbing initiatives like MQA... anyone still reading who doesn't know what MQA is, I say forget you just read that.
Here is the actual response, there's a big peak at 200, thats the psycho-acoustic modelling pumping more perceived bass out of a small speaker - and after 3k you can see it roll off dramatically, which is exactly what I hear.
I know nothing about audio, but I appreciate what I've been learning both from the /r/audiophile review and from your views here in the forum. One question, though...
It sounded like they arrived at those curves by cranking the volume of the HomePod to the max, then feeding lower-amplitude signals in an effort to 'trick' the speaker into not applying equal loudness curve compensation. But that's not how most people will listen to the speaker. Why do you point to this set of curves from the review as the actual frequency response, instead of this other one where they were ostensibly using it in a more "normal" fashion?
I'm not trying to be critical or anything like that; genuinely curious and willing to learn.
Thanks.
I'll raise your MQA with 'Peter Belt'. Now that era was truly nuts ;-)
In the sense that any measurement of speakers is tones played out of context, yes. But that doesn't mean that measurements tell us nothing. Playing tones through the processing that will be in place when listening is closer to reality, though.
Your suggestion is akin to removing a crossover on a conventional speaker before testing
I'm not inclined to take your word for it. Many hifi speakers don't exhibit the hyped sound you keep insisting on. And your preference for a clinical, hyper-revealing sound isn't a good gauge for what is "flat".
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I think the one you posted is with volume maxed and one level of signal fed in. The other is with different levels *and* adjusted for the compensation being applied
I think the comparison to the KEF actually gives us the clearest picture of the response in context, though it also shows some obvious room issues
His writing is a bit unclear about the actual process, I had to triple check while reading
Looking a bit closer at the these two images...
Is the red line in both the same data set? Is the only real difference the level of smoothing applied (1/12 vs 1/3)? Just eyeballing the curves it's hard to believe, but the information in the tabs on the left seem to suggest this may be the case. Can anyone confirm with the actual data they supplied?
Ya know, you're right! I didn't read closely enough!
But here are some Apps (and Applications!) that let you stream AirPlay from various non-Apple devices:
Android - There are several solutions:
https://gizmodo.com/how-to-stream-anything-from-android-to-airplay-1578516449
Windows - There are some here, also:
http://www.airsquirrels.com/airparrot/
http://www.tuneblade.com/
http://www.airmypc.com/
https://www.5kplayer.com/airplay/airplay-pc-to-apple-tv.htm
...And Linux (They seem to absolutely ESCHEW "easy") :
http://www.instructables.com/id/Airplay-to-AppleTV-From-Linux-PC/
https://www.tecmint.com/stream-movies-from-linux-terminal-to-apple-tv/
https://www.cultofmac.com/73962/airplay-support-is-hacked-into-linux-and-windows-is-next/
https://github.com/jamesdlow/open-airplay
The point is the KEF Loudspeakers are only going to sound as good as the equipment they are used in conjunction with. Used with a mediocre Amplifier then the resulting sound will not show a Loudspeakers true capabilities.
And it will blow away many bookshelf speakers. Got a pair of $80,000 Beomasters? It does many of the same things, though not automatically. But each weighs about 600 pounds, and the sheer mass makes it more likely it can reproduce the impact of a symphony orchestra.
Oh, now you done it... budding audiophiles please look away. Pleeez
It's an active KEF airplay speaker with its built in amp using the same Apple Music source.
Though source quality for my ears anyway is crucial. With complex music in particular I can hear the compression artifacts of the Apple Music AAC stream of the same track compared to Tidal lossless on my iPad Pro via bluetooth to a Big Jambox!
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They really should look lol. I remember going to my old Naim dealer back in the day who thought it all worked. I burst out laughing when I left
I know nothing about audio, but I appreciate what I've been learning both from the /r/audiophile review and from your views here in the forum. One question, though...
It sounded like they arrived at those curves by cranking the volume of the HomePod to the max, then feeding lower-amplitude signals in an effort to 'trick' the speaker into not applying equal loudness curve compensation. But that's not how most people will listen to the speaker. Why do you point to this set of curves from the review as the actual frequency response, instead of this other one where they were ostensibly using it in a more "normal" fashion?
I'm not trying to be critical or anything like that; genuinely curious and willing to learn.
Thanks.
Honestly I don't really think there's much point to any of his tests and i'd rather wait until a professional does it rather than a random bloke from Reddit in his bedroom.
Even then I think the HomePod is impossible to measure in the traditional sense because of the amount of processing it'd be doing to the frequencies as they come in. Normal speakers and amps don't do that - on the HomePod you've got microphones and all the processing Apple have told us about constantly adapting the sound in real time - so you're getting a measurement of a sine wave out of context. You could almost do with sending a full frequency sound through the speaker and seeing how it balances that.
But again, it's all irrelevant - turn it on, it's a 4inch mid range woofer that's kicking out bass like it has a dedicated 8 inch subwoofer attached to it - it's tuned to WOW not be accurate.
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I agree totally how on earth can you measure it accurately perhaps only in an anechoic chamber - it's an adaptive and active speaker, reactive even.