As usual the “experts” here are trashing the HomePod. Reviewers are dead wrong, audiophiles are paid shills, the HomePod has been pre-failed on MacRumors. Just another day in this forum.
Whether this article is true or not, most studio monitors are still going to blow the HomePod's music quality out of the water. Also Apple has never used premium-grade audio converters in their equipment, and Beats never made anything other than consumer-grade over-priced products as far as I'm aware.
It's a high-end smart consumer hi-fi that isn't going to be flat nor transparent, but rather have the classic HI-FI EQ 'smiley face' i.e. boosted bass and treble. Which then drown out certain mid-range frequencies (as has been said in some reviews).
That's not what some people here want to hear!
As usual the “experts” here are trashing the HomePod. Reviewers are dead wrong, audiophiles are paid shills, the HomePod has been pre-failed on MacRumors. Just another day in this forum.
Based on reading his review, and your response, I'm going to guess you are the "tit" in this situation.
Would you care to use data to prove your point? Maybe take his graphs and show us why he is so wrong? Maybe compare it to other speakers? Also, according to the OP, he said NEAR-perfectly flat, and yet here you quote him as perfectly flat and prove he's wrong by talking about ten thousand dollar speakers.
Congratulations proving why people roll their eyes at audiophiles.
How does one become an audiophile? Is it something you go to school for or does it apply to anyone who spends a lot of money on audio gear?
This graph is expensive in the Audio world! Just stunning.This graph alone to me is pretty impressive.
![]()
"His actual graphs show anything but perfectly flat, they show huge peaks and troughs everywhere" - have you seeen a "perfectly flat curve" for other speakers ?
Which for strange reasons, you keep coming back to.Just another day on this forum.
![]()
How does one become an audiophile? Is it something you go to school for or does it apply to anyone who spends a lot of money on audio gear?
Based on reading his review, and your response, I'm going to guess you are the "tit" in this situation.
Would you care to use data to prove your point? Maybe take his graphs and show us why he is so wrong? Maybe compare it to other speakers? Also, according to the OP, he said NEAR-perfectly flat, and yet here you quote him as perfectly flat and prove he's wrong by talking about ten thousand dollar speakers.
Congratulations proving why people roll their eyes at audiophiles.
Because I know what i'm talking about - if you don't understand it - don't worry about it.
I explain quite clearly that it's not intended to have a flat response.
Studio monitors are designed to have a flat response and even they have small peaks and dips in places - the Sennheiser HD800's I mentioned even have a peak at 4khz.
But the HomePods are MILES out of being neutral, you don't need measuring gear to hear that, your ears can tell you.
Which for strange reasons, you keep coming back to.
As usual, the "cheerleaders" here are crowning the HomePod supreme best of all speakers. Positive reviews (or only cherry-picked positive comments within reviews) are the only reviews that are right, fans offering glowing praise are the only legitimate judges, the HomePod has been pre-perfectioned on MacRumors, even long before any ears could hear it. Just another day on this forum.
![]()
This is why he says, HomePod deserves a standing ovation. Not because it will replace your studio monitors in your studio. Nobody said that and HomePod is actually a terrible choise for that because of so many reasons.
How does one become an audiophile? Is it something you go to school for or does it apply to anyone who spends a lot of money on audio gear?
Someone went out and found a more expensive speaker that sounds worse than a HomePod. Imagine that.
I'd like to listen to the song the way it was intended acoustically. Not an Apple engineer's version.
**** review but I'm being more and more tempted. I'm a tech junkie and the whole "smart tweeter array" is looking really neat.
Go to the concert then. Problem solved
Good speaker sound nice, but they are not “the live band, as intended”
As I said before, this Still isn't going to compare with a real audio setup. I have several different amps, different preamps, and lots of speakers (change them out every so often)
Measurements are important, but artificially changing the frequency response to sound "better" is another thing. The HomePod can't hold a candle to my old Ohm C2s, Boston Acoustics VR-M90, VR-M60, VR-40s, etc. Keep in mind the source. HomePod streams mp3s from Apple Music. I'm playing aiff/wav files, and some even higher (from HD Tracks) directly to my stereo. I tried a HomePod at the Apple Store last night and was not impressed with how loud and clear it was, but the bass and treble were a bit overpowering with the mids sounding a little lacking.
Probably a great speaker for MOST people though.