Consumer Reports: Google Home Max and Sonos One Sound Better Than HomePod

[Michael Goff]

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.

iMac Pro isn’t twice as expensive, don’t know where you’re getting that idea.

Also, you’re pretending benchmarks reign supreme when buying a computer. Screen quality, OS quality, basic look and feel, are all subjective reasons to want a certain computer. If you want a computer that just handles video rendering? The iMac Pro with a Final Cut Pro X is probably faster than a Windows computer running Adobe.

 

[gnomeisland]

I respect what Consumer Reports does (or tries to do) but this feels like saying the original iPhone is a failure because it doesn't work like a Treo or a Blackberry. I do agree that at times—compared to my near-field monitors set up in a near-ideal listening environment—the HomePod doesn't sound as neutral and a times the bass is a bit much. If you're sitting down, in one ideal, spot, in a treated room, to just listen to music HomePod would NOT be my top choice either. But that isn't what it, or any of these speakers, were built to do now is it?

 

[thewogster]

“Sounds better” is always subjective. Only the user can decide what product sounds best to them. None the less, the HomePod is a huge contender in the audio department and the reviews for the audio have been substantially positive throughout.

I totally agree. I was going to buy a Sonos 1 and thought it sounded like crap. The bigger ones were much better (3 and 5), but still wasn't sold for the space I wanted it in. I bought the HomePod and couldn't be happier. We've been falling asleep to a stereoscopic 3d app, that is basically different types of storms, and it sounds so real it's unbelievable. The sound is insane. I would agree a bit that on some songs it is a little base heavy, but I love the overall sound. I wouldn't compare it to the sonos one, maybe the 3 is a bit closer.

 

[Naraxus]

CR is a rag and nothing more

 

[steve knight]

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.

good post I am too lazy to compare them I would have to separate the sonos ones to do it. my wife agrees with you the sonos 5's blow it away. but she has some well rate floor standing speakers that only cost around 600 or 900 with the sub that blow away the sonos 5 pair with the sub at about 1/2 the price if you don't include the sonos amp. the home pod keeps having siri issues where it won't respond any all.

 

[AdamJD]

InB4 Macrumors memebers' head start spinning.

Edit: Too late

Only replying because you have a Dexter icon...that in itself deserves a mention.

 

[fpnc]

Simply put, the HomePod is a small speaker that sounds good for its size. You can't really say much beyond that since listeners will have individual preferences in terms of sound quality and in any case a room's acoustics might favor one product over another.

 

[chiefsilverback]

Says who? Schiller says put it in the middle of a room or on a shelf. It will adjust either way.

Are you disputing that the HomePod uses beam forming and bounces audio off of the surfaces behind it? If not then the laws of physics dictate that those surfaces need to be acoustically reflective otherwise no sound can be reflected and the output from the 3 or 4 tweeters facing away from the listener would obsolete.

Similarly the HomePod uses microphones to analyse the reflection of the audio it is playing to calibrate itself. If no sound is reflected it can’t calibrate itself.

Again you need to distinquish between Apple doing testing and development in a controlled environment and the logic that the product is therefore optimised the function in that environment.

 

[fpnc]

CR and the other testers may or may not be right, it's kind of personal.

 

[Mtmspa]

Got my HomePod today and did comparisons with my Sonos Play5 gen 1 that cost me almost twice as much. The HomePod definitely has a brighter clearer sound for most music I tested. In a couple instances I preferred the Sonos, but overall, the HomePod sounds better to me.

 

[kildraik]

I heard the HomePod. It’s a piece of crap. The people who are astounded doesn’t know what quality audio is.

Sure, my comment is subjective, but as an audio pro, my ears are better than yours.

Consumers are easily entertained. Hahaha!

 

[Michael Goff]

I heard the HomePod. It’s a piece of crap. The people who are astounded doesn’t know what quality audio is.

Sure, my comment is subjective, but as an audio pro, my ears are better than yours.

Consumers are easily entertained. Hahaha!

And your pro level ears aren’t on my head and as such I’m going to judge based on what I think sounds good. Also, on whether or not the other speaker that’s coming in keeps dropping audio like my HomePod does when listening to YouTube.

 

[ColdShadow]

sound quality aside,Homepod has very little chance of success without even supporting Bluetooth..why so restrictive? Apple must be delusional if they really think Apple Music is strong enough..this thing is extremely restricted..and Siri sucks compared to other assistants..
AirPods were successful and a really great product because they were not tied to Apple eco-system..imagin if AirPods were only compatible with Apple Music and AirPlay..lol..instant flop..same thing is happening to HomePod..
they should have given people choices..Bluetooth is a necessity..it's not 2005 anymore and iPod and iTune days are long gone and over.

 

[Clearwave]

I did a review of Consumer Reports and found that just about everyother review site is better.
My review site tests are conducted in a dedicated review site reviewing room

Consumer Reports has conducted some early audio testing of the HomePod, and while the full evaluation isn't yet finished, the site believes that both the $400 Google Home Max and the $200 Sonos One sound better than Apple's new $349 smart speaker.

The HomePod received a "Very Good" sound quality rating, as did the Sonos One and the Google Home Max, but the latter two speakers also received higher overall sound quality scores.

Consumer Reports says that its speaker tests are conducted in a dedicated listening room, with experienced testers who compare each model with "high-quality reference speakers." In the case of the HomePod, testers found a few issues.

The bass was "boomy and overemphasized," while midrange tones were "somewhat hazy," and treble sounds were "underemphasized." Overall, Consumer Reports found the HomePod's sound to be "a bit muddy" when played next to the Sonos One and the Google Home Max.All three smart speakers "fall significantly short" of other wireless speakers Consumer Reports has tested, like the Edifier S1000DB, priced at $350.

The HomePod's sound has been highly praised both by new HomePod owners and by media sites that tested the device ahead of its release. While Consumer Reports doesn't believe the HomePod outshines the Google Home Max and the Sonos One, other reviews have disagreed, including an extensive, in-depth review published by a self-professed audiophile earlier this morning.

Article Link: Consumer Reports: Google Home Max and Sonos One Sound Better Than HomePod

 

[mackinmike]

Uh oh, in 3, 2, 1... here comes the Apple cheerleading squad ready to defend Apple's products.

 

[BornAgainMac]

What does that say about that $1,000 speaker system that HomePod beat?

 

[Fozziebear71]

I didn’t even know that Consumer Reports was a thing that people even paid attention too anymore.

 

[falainber]

I didn’t even know that Consumer Reports was a thing that people even paid attention too anymore.

And now you know.

 

[rbailerum1]

Why would CR hate anyone? They call it how it is because they are not paid off by Apple (or other companies) like most internet reviewers.

Ok, excuse me, but do better research before just posting your gut.

If you had read the majority of reviews, you will see that though they all praise the sound quality of the HomePod as superior to all others in its class (almost to a man), you’ll ALSO see that they almost all criticize Siri and it’s inabilty to do even basic tasks, like read your calendar, hail an Uber and other things that even the iPhone will do (which clearly Apple kept out of HomePod for their own reasons). You’ll also see them criticize that Siri is simply inferior to Alexa and Google Assistant. You’ll ALSO see them talk about the price being “not worth it”. Only a tiny a fraction of the reviews are positive all around, and even those don’t fail to point out the failings.

So, if these reviewers are “paid off by Apple”, then are they just not understanding at what it means to be paid off, or is there a chance that they are just, I don’t know, doing their job?

Sorry for the sarcasm, but you have GOT to be kidding me. You really think that every single d$&@ review of the HomePod was positive (they weren’t, not even close) because Apple paid them off?

 

[Mtmspa]

Got my HomePod today and did comparisons with my Sonos Play5 gen 1 that cost me almost twice as much. The HomePod definitely has a brighter clearer sound for most music I tested. In a couple instances I preferred the Sonos, but overall, the HomePod sounds better to me.

 

[typecase]

Dang, CR really has it out for Apple as of late.

Maybe they're actually actually calling it as they see it. Maybe the the Emperor has no clothes. I love Apple and my home is full of its products but recently, this company seems to be making some poor choices. Dongles, Dongles, Dongles, less ports, deleting the headphone jack and abandoning almost all their pro-level software and hardware make me wonder where that old Apple magic is. I miss it and want it back. I really want a new Mac Pro, a new macbook pro and hell even a monitor to replace my aging Thunderbolt display. All of what I have right now seems better than the current offerings.

 

[forerunnerg34]

Some fans going crazy when someone says that another devices is subjectively better, relax is not that HomePod is bad. You know what... just buy a HomePod, convince yourself is the best and first of its class device to prove them all wrong! Don't delve in reviews that say that suggest other products may be better.

On a serious note: nobody can tell us which sound is better except ourselves, I suppose they all sound good, but it is an individual choice to say which is better for my ears.

 

[grjj]

With Apple's controlled environment they could test various patterns of sound emissions and since they control the whole widget simulate the feedback of various rooms programmatically and listen to the unadulterated output.
Similarly you may design a car and test/tune all the components in a lab but no-one would consider a static lab test of engine power or suspension performance as meaningful; you need the car on a road.

The interaction of sound waves is powerful. If HomePod can put out a certain frequency and then know how long it takes to reflect back then it can attenuate or amplify the reflected waved as needed with a secondary signal timed appropriately. You sort of get a second chance to amplify some frequencies without needing to increase the raw amplifier output. If you put out 500hz and you know it takes 1/200th of a second for that frequency to reflect off the nearby wall, you can then put out that same 500hz signal again such that the reflected and new waves' are in phase and they add together to increase the total amplitude. Likewise if you don't want the reflected sound to head back in to the room you can offset a new signal by ½ a waveform to attenuate/nullify the reflected sound.You can do this offset by smaller fractions of a waveform to produce all manner of additional effects. (see flanging or comb filter)

It's quite possible that the dead "midrange" that CR mentions is because HomePod can't take advantage of any of those processes in their non-reflective environments. I know in my standard rooms in my house I don't think there's any lack of midrange.
Buy yea, for some tracks I would argue the bass is a little punchy at times. More than a few times I've been like "what was that?" as HomePod put out quite a bit of low end at low volumes.

I'm not sure I understand the objections to the testing procedure by everyone. If the HomePod can adjust to a regular room, why wouldn't it be able to adjust to a controlled environment? Apple themselves showed it being tuned in a soundproof room with sound deadening egg crates everywhere. Why would this not be a proper venue for testing?

The point of the controlled environment is to remove as many factors from contaminating the ear as possible and get proper readings on what the output of the speaker is without any reverberation. Surely the HomePod can handle that environment and doesn't rely on cavernous hardwood floors or the random couch to sound good.

 

[ani4ani]

One really important competitive feature of the HomePod is that it analyses the listening environment and corrects for it. If you put it in a perfectly neutral environment, it loses its competitive advantage. This is an unrealistic test environment. Their result is not going to be what anyone should expect unless they live in a sound deadening chamber, which is probably why everyone else is saying the opposite of what CR is saying.

Also, remember the Apple MacBook battery life drama when CR yanked it off the recommended list, an action which hit all the tech websites? Well they had Safari in developer mode. The battery life bug was only in developer mode, and only existed in one specific point version of Safari. CR didn't question that battery life was fine when not in developer mode. They didn't question that battery life was fine in developer mode in all previous versions of Safari. They didn't bother to ask Apple why there is a huge discrepancy. They simply went for the headlines and everyone thought Apple MacBook battery life sucked. But normal people in real life use cases didn't experience the abysmal battery life claimed by CR, because normal people do not use Safari in developer mode, and even developers who do use developer mode would have only been hit by that bug in that one specific version.

So twice Apple was slammed for something that was due to an unrealistic test that was engineered, run, and interpreted by CR staff, who seem to ignore glaring problems with their own tests.

In contrast, the CR report on the MS Surface reliability is based on survey results of real-world MS Surface owners, not an artificial test designed by CR staff.

This idea that the HP analyses it’s environment, e.g there’s a sofa in the room and then somehow magically makes the sound EVEN better because there’s a sofa in the room is tosh. It “copes” with the sofa in the room and mitigates for it. This idea that unless there’s junk the room the HP won’t sound any good, is again tosh. If that was the case it would sound the best in a cardboard box! Every speaker on the planet is subject to the environment it is in and sounds better or worse depending what is is sat on, where it is placed, what is in front of it, the HP is no different. Apple uses those mics to help “fill the room,” that is judge by reflections where to increase the level (direction) of the sound. I think people confuse loud with refinement. I listened to a HP in a pretty poor environment (no sofa) and it sounded ok, like the Play 3 sounded ok in that particular environment (I have a lot of Sonos at home and the 1 and 3 are pretty decent, but are no where near as good as the 5, subjective I know, but how can they be?). I think £320 for the HP is steep for something that it represents. To me it’s a marginal buy for convenience and simplicity, but when you consider how much a pair of these will cost, then to me for the same money ( I have spent a lot more] there is much better to be had.

 

[scotth23]

Are you disputing that the HomePod uses beam forming and bounces audio off of the surfaces behind it? If not then the laws of physics dictate that those surfaces need to be acoustically reflective otherwise no sound can be reflected and the output from the 3 or 4 tweeters facing away from the listener would obsolete.

Similarly the HomePod uses microphones to analyse the reflection of the audio it is playing to calibrate itself. If no sound is reflected it can’t calibrate itself.

Again you need to distinquish between Apple doing testing and development in a controlled environment and the logic that the product is therefore optimised the function in that environment.

Not disputing what it does. You are speaking in absolutes that the speaker is “optimized” to play under specific conditions. I don’t believe anybody except for Apple knows what the optimal position for it is and I don’t think they’re telling anyone.

There is a big difference between saying something can compensate for being in a corner and tuning itself to reflect off of walls and saying that is the optimal position. I haven’t seen anything from Apple or anyone else to suggest placing the HomePod in any position except with a wall near it will yield lesser results.

But the insistence on these comments seem to be that the ONLY way to judge this speaker is by sticking it next to a wall. My point is, it is not. I believe Apple thinks they made a good speaker in itself that also has the ability to adapt to those positionings. If it were left in the middle of a room where little compensation were needed, Apple will have designed the speaker to also work well there.

That is why I think the argument that testing in the quiet chamber yielded false results is ludicrous. I’m not sure I agree with CR baseline style of judging things but I don’t think the room they used was somehow unfair.