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Consumer Reports: Google Home Max and Sonos One Sound Better Than HomePod
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The second half of your comment has nothing to do with either the first half or the article...
I’ve taken my time and test both the Sonos One and HomePod. I plan on putting the winner in my office for music on my work from home days.
To test I placed both speakers in the same location and played the same songs from Apple Music. So keeping my tests as close to the same made for some interesting results.
At 50% volume I think both speakers sound their best for the type of music I listen to. I feel that by 70% both started to get in trouble and the sound wasn’t being reproduced well. By 90% it was too loud for my room and the distortion was awful.
Overall for sound both of these speakers sound very similar. The HP does have slightly more low end but it’s only slight.
My plan is to return the HomePod and hold out for an updated play 3.
For a side note I also own a play 5. Anyone who claims the sound is close to a HP is full of it. The 5 out shines the HP in every playback scenario possible. Since most people are talking out their backsides I’ve attached a picture of the two speakers sitting on the shelf in my office.
To test I placed both speakers in the same location and played the same songs from Apple Music. So keeping my tests as close to the same made for some interesting results.
At 50% volume I think both speakers sound their best for the type of music I listen to. I feel that by 70% both started to get in trouble and the sound wasn’t being reproduced well. By 90% it was too loud for my room and the distortion was awful.
Overall for sound both of these speakers sound very similar. The HP does have slightly more low end but it’s only slight.
My plan is to return the HomePod and hold out for an updated play 3.
For a side note I also own a play 5. Anyone who claims the sound is close to a HP is full of it. The 5 out shines the HP in every playback scenario possible. Since most people are talking out their backsides I’ve attached a picture of the two speakers sitting on the shelf in my office.
Attachments
They’ve been quite fond of many apple products. Look up their video on the Apple Watch Series 2.
Exactly. $350 is really nothing in the audiophile world. My subwoofer alone was in the $3k range, it only plays bass, and it’s not even what I would consider top of the line.
wait, consumer reports is still a thing? i thought everyone just went to thewirecutter.com these days...
The vast majority of reputable sites get review units for testing, and purchase them if they decide to keep them. Any site that doesn't do that shouldn't be trusted.
No, there are a fair number of middling reviews out there and a handful of negative ones.
I don't like CR either, but there are absolutely scientific methods to measure how good/bad a speaker is.
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Care to cite them? I haven't seen a single other review (of the sound) that can be classified as either "middling" or negative.
This is going to be an unpopular opinion but I agree with CR. I have both Sonos 1 and got the HomePod today to try given the rave reviews. The HomePod bass is soooooooooo lacking. I'm not sure what CR is taking about saying the bass is over emphasized as I think there's not enough. The Sonos sounds better to me. But it's all just an opinion. Others may love it.
Hi? Yes, it’s Consumer Reports.. we’re going to wait until the news headlines have died down...
*few days wait*
“it’s not as good as the Max or One!”
*few days wait*
“it’s not as good as the Max or One!”
Says who? Schiller says put it in the middle of a room or on a shelf. It will adjust either way.
As an owner of a HomePod... but not an owner of any google or sonos products... but an owner of large speakers with sub woofer; I'd say... HomePod is good but not amazing. Definitely lacks in the mid tones.
People that bitched about all the 'locked down' issues with the iPhone, I hope had all their stuff stolen by the scads of malware available on the Google Official Store.
I lost my address book so many times, I stopped trying to keep it! OUCH!!!
As an owner of a HomePod... but not an owner of any google or sonos products... but an owner of large speakers with sub woofer; I'd say... HomePod is good but not amazing. Definitely lacks in the mid tones.
each to their own I guess but for me the HomePod sound is incredible and after comparing it with my dads google max it's noticeable better in overall sound.
I don’t think the HomePod sounds very good either. My amazon echo sounds much better. It has good sound quality in the highs, mids, and bass. Better then the HomePod. Also I find Alexa to be a better voice and better at recognizing and answering my questions than Siri. Apple better kick it into high gear. How much are they spending on R&D? The future is voice recognition. If Apple really wants to get ahead of the game they need to spend a lot in developing much better voice recognition/speech technology. In fact what they REALLY need to do is develop a chip specifically for voice recognition/speech technology. Sometimes I wish I worked there so I could help stear the ship, so to speak. If your going to be a successful company then you HAVE to have leadership with long term thinking. You need to have vision of were your going to take the company but you also have to have the smarts in knowing how to plan things out technologically/financially/developmentally wise. It seems like Apple has lost that.
Until Consumer Reports test the Sonus Faber sf16, they don't know nothing about top end counter top speakers. https://www.paragonsns.com/product/sonus-faber-sf16-wireless-system/
YouTube? Really? Any review that begins with, “Hey guys...”, is immediately disqualified...ie YouTube and all the kids “reviewing” products.
A) No, benchmarks aren't subjective. If it takes 2 hours to render a video and 1 hour on another computer, this isn't subjective.
B) Mac Pro. iMac Pro. Both of these computers are a slap to the face with performance to price ratio.
May have already been posted, but here is an extremely in-depth review with graphs, charts, pictures, and empirical evidence to contrast with CRs measly little writeup and clickbait headline:
https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/7wwtqy/apple_homepod_the_audiophile_perspective/
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It's been shown multiple times that the iMac Pro is priced very competitively with a custom-built machine using the same/equivalent parts. So not quite sure what you're talking about.
https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/7wwtqy/apple_homepod_the_audiophile_perspective/
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It's been shown multiple times that the iMac Pro is priced very competitively with a custom-built machine using the same/equivalent parts. So not quite sure what you're talking about.