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

[johngordon]

I wonder how many folks making comments here have actually bought one?

I’m not an audiophile but I do live sound engineering for a living.

My initial opinion of the HomePod upon hearing it in-store matches my opinion of it once I tried it out at home, in several different positions in different rooms. The CR conclusion is the same one I came to, and I’ll be returning the HomePod. Too much bass (though really nice bass!) and vocals are recessed and vague. It sound like an Echo with a subwoofer and a bigger amp. I tried lifting it and setting it back down to re-initiate the auto sound adjust, and I could hear the EQ change at times, but it never really got better, just different.

I bought one and have been really pleased with it. It is a bit bassy, but it’s good bass, doesn’t distort, doesn’t drown out vocals and overall it just has a good solid, warm sound. To my ears anyway.

I think a lot of the subjectivity comes down to what people are used to listening to.

 

[vahdyx]

I disagree with people saying consumer reports is anti-apple. From my perspective they've always been pro-apple.

That said I couldn't disagree with this review more. Granted I won't ever buy a homepod, I'm way happy with my Sonos I can hear a difference. It's not worth the money especially since I use Spotify.

 

[Machead2012]

I've heard from others that Apple Beats have very different sound profile to Monster Beats. Less exaggerated bass, better mids. I don't own a pair, so I can't personally verify, but something to consider.

If the profile is different I would still say that both pre and post Monster products sound bass heavy and are cheaply made. I have owned several pair and they break way to easy. Branding is what carries them but the quality is garbage.
[doublepost=1518620607][/doublepost]

The only Apple Speaker I love is Steve Jobs. The Woz is pretty good...I guess Phill Schiller is good too. Oh and Scott Forstall, he wasn't a good Apple Speaker but he could get his crews to write really good code.

Post of the year!

 

[MacLoveMacHate]

"Very good" sound rating, "The HomePod will serve many music fans well"

How is CG hating?

 

[Lab4Us]

And now we find out or someone is alleging that the Reddit reviewer made mistakes and the display of his graphs are BS:

https://www.kirkville.com/audiophil...s-out-to-not-know-much-about-measuring-audio/

The graphs weren’t BS, it was just that the vertical scale needed to be expanded to more acurately represent the “flatness” of the speaker. Yes, it was a mistake in that the information should have been presented differently. It was not a mistake in that the results were from measurement, not “feel”. I would still applaud the tester for his/her efforts. Certainly more effort than any of the “professional” reviewers have put in.

 

[Jefe's MacAir]

So I'll grant you that CR could be every bit as crooked as you seem to be trying to imply if you can then grant me the very same scrutiny of the vast majority of the rest of the review sites where the very issues you are trying to suggest may be in play here are much more likely to actually be in play there. Can you do that? Or is only CR suspect, presumably because their review is not the desirable result we so want it to be?

I agree 100%. I don't think I stated anywhere that the other reviews were unbiased and CRs was. It's all questionable. Including CR. Which you claim is unable to have bias due to the fact they don't accept advertising. They have to make money somehow.
[doublepost=1518625127][/doublepost]

Ummmm... this is their revenue model! Have subscriptions so that their reviews aren’t financed by advertising.

There are two ways to finance anything in media: ads or other hidden support, and subscriptions. In the old days newspapers used to have classifieds sections which were also an advertising basis of revenue, but each classified ad was so small that you couldn’t say that it was influencing editorial.

I don’t think this CR review is right for reasons given by other posters, that the HomePod is designed for real life usage in a home, and that it’s smarts make it work really well there, but I don’t think that CR is broken because it charges a subscription fee to stay independent.

Ummmmm... Yes I'm aware. I think you missed my point. That being they are entirely reliant on subscriptions, actually not, and their subscriptions are dropping like flies due to the plethora of free, user based reviews. How are they retaining current subscribers and bringing in new ones? I say they use click bait like this to drive people to their website where they can sell them a subscription. Which I have, BTW.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I don't claim CR is "unable to have bias," just relative to all of the reviewers, the fact that they do NOT depend on ad revenue makes them likely to be more objective. There's a HUGE difference.

Conceptually, CR could be more biased than any other reviewer. However, just think about the money. Think about how "reviewers" are paid. Separate a review from Apple so that our brand halo doesn't cloud our consideration of this topic. Let's sub in a product that Apple doesn't make. How about a toaster:

1. A prominent toaster manufacturer puts on a demo for their new toaster, resulting in hand-picked invitees writing up glowing "reviews" of the new toaster before it is released.
2. The toaster manufacturer shares the new toaster with a small subset of the press before it's general release and they write up generally glowing "reviews" of the toaster just before it's released.
3. After the toaster is released, some other "reviewers" have to actually buy one, put it through standard testing protocols they use for all other brands of toasters and then they write up their opinions.
4. One of those reviewers does not sell ads, so the desire to keep advertising dollars rolling in from this or competitor toaster manufacturers has nill potential to bias their opinion.

Which seems likely to yield the most objective opinions of that toaster?

I'm perfectly cool with poking at CR in terms of questioning their objectivity. But for every single poster who has done that in this thread (and WOW have they!!!), if they shined the very same light on the other reviews, they would find plenty more fodder to question the objectivity of those in the #1-#3 ponds too. Where is all of THAT intense scrutiny?

Again, CR has very positive report much like this one, where they crown the Apple Watch superior AND Apple Service best. Conceptually, every thing wrong about CR highlighted in this thread should be slung when one of their reports DOES crown Apple stuff best. Yet, you won't find this kind of thread when they do that. So CR is very right when they crown Apple best but so very wrong when they place it second or third on what could be 30 of 50 or 100 competing products reviews? All we have to do here is just think about that for a moment... and then draw our own conclusions.

 

[mi7chy]

Interesting that Sonos founder and former CEO John MacFarlane rated the HP as handily beating a single Sonos One, but not as good a pair of Sonos Ones.
http://bgr.com/2018/02/12/apple-homepod-review-from-sonos-founder/

Simple reason why he's favorable to the HP is because he doesn't want to upset Apple and get Sonos yanked from the Apple store while critical of the Google Home Max because it's a better Sonos 5 with Google Assistant AI.

 

[jkdsteve]

Never heard a Google product but I'd be very surprised if the Sonos is better. I have two Sonoslay 3 in a stereo pair and they don't really match the HomePod audio.

 

[69650]

All these wireless speakers sound bad because they are still pumping out low quality compressed music.

 

[HomePod]

Consumer Reports wants attention.

 

[SeaFox]

So do industry reviewers prefer to only say good things, even if they aren't true, even if they get found out and their reputation suffers?

Do industry reviewers really never say anything bad about anything, ever?

There are grey areas outside your seemingly polar perception of reviews.

• You can only say good things that are true, and downplay the bad things.
• You can praise how Product A does something, and remain quiet about how bad Product B's implementation of the same feature is.
• You can talk about other points of interest on a device and distract from problem areas. Manufacturers themselves already do that: using words like "simple" when a product is low in features. You can also rate things as "Good"/"Better"/"Best" to avoid having to use the word "Poor".
• You can use "weasel words" to describe a characteristic. Saying something as "not quite as good", "a little harder", "confused us a bit". There's all sorts of ways to say something wasn't the best while not outright saying they were bad, even when it was the best descriptor. I can talk about the Product A's durability because the casing is __ mm thick, then describe the other using only it's lower physical characteristic and not giving a perceptual statement.

 

[Legionnaire]

All I know is, sonos ones are an amazing speaker for the price point. bought all mine open box'd off Best Buy for like 120 and they gave me brand new boxes to boot when I picked them up. Have had one in shower, kitchen, and non heat regulated garage for 4 years now without fail. Never unplugged except once or twice to move around. Still sounds amazing. (I dont have the new play ones)

 

[prasand]

... To quote Wikipedia;
Home Max also includes "Smart Sound", an adaptive audio system that uses machine learning to automatically adjust sound output based on factors such as the environment (including placement and sources of noise) and time of day.
----
I was actually surprised after seeing those teenie-tiny tweeters.

Interesting @ "Smart Sound" ... I imagine the output is still conical so I wonder how that would look, if the wave field or sound area was drawn. I'm trying to imagine it, and for some reason I can't. I imagine it works though, just can't imagine it, lol.

@ tweeters ... probably because they aren't the standard tweeters, but Balanced Mode Radiators. They have more power and range than typical tweeters of similar size.

Glad that you're enjoying your HomePod. If you haven't done so already, you might want to place the HomePod on something minimize vibrations, and reflections. It would improve the sound. If interested you can check out my comment here: #513.

 

[smoledman]

All these wireless speakers sound crap because they are still pumping out compressed ****.

Were you seriously expecting the typical HomePod buyer to care about lossless audio? Real audiophiles invest in real speakers(Klipsch anyone), powerful amps and vinyl records.

 

[Shark5150]

https://forums.appleinsider.com/dis...al-of-homepod-a-familiar-tale-to-apple-fans-u

 

[The Game 161]

https://forums.appleinsider.com/dis...al-of-homepod-a-familiar-tale-to-apple-fans-u

says it all really.

 

[prasand]

https://forums.appleinsider.com/dis...al-of-homepod-a-familiar-tale-to-apple-fans-u

Oh wow, did you see CR's rebuttal to that article? Before, I had nothing against CR, but it seems like the pro / con Apple war of the forums even extends to the publication level, lol.

CR claims that they explained their testing methods, but that explanation wasn't a real explanation, it was a brief overview of what they did. Which again was, they optimized all of the other speaker's settings, but just plopped the HomePod amongst the others, and let it do its own thing. So the other speakers were controlled, to precise desires, and the HomePod was left to fight against conditioned machines (configured to their biased preferences to meet those biases). They should have at the very minimal tested and seen what optimal position away from the wall would have been better, smh. That's like me taking a painting, adjusting it to the colors I like, then taking another painting without colors adjusted to my preferences, and saying "I like the first one more." Well, duh.

I am not a fan of the HomePod, it's cool, I have one, but I think it's okay / not better than my B&Os. So I say none of this as a HomePod lover. I really have no stock in Apple winning a test, I only care about adequate comparisons, and what CR did was very skewed ... putting optimized speakers against a HomePod without optimization. That is skewed.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

says it all really.

No it doesn't. It's the same as many of the biased posts of this very thread. Here AppleInsider is isolating ONLY the times that CR has said negative things about Apple products. Of course, that's going to be well-received by Apple fans on an Apple fan website... a nearly literal example of "preaching to the choir."

What's not in there? How about:
CR's very positive review of the Apple Watch
CR's very positive review of Apple service
Etc.

Where's that part of the story? Reputable press is supposed to ACTUALLY be "fair & balanced" in their reporting. Isolate only the positive or only the negatives and one can make pretty much anything sound good or bad- pick a topic, do a little research that supports your slant, write it up and make ANYTHING sound great or terrible. But the press is supposed to know better- dig in and tell a whole story, not just feed a side.

Interestingly enough, AppleInsider themselves also highlighted CR rating Apple so highly for service apparently taking no issue with CR when they rated something from Apple so positively. What do we make of THAT if AI thinks CR is so biased against Apple?

It's like we're functioning like politicians or PR reps, grabbing bits & pieces that support one argument but ignoring the counterpoint that doesn't support the message we personally support.

Once again, CR did not rate HP as terrible. All 3 of the speakers referenced rated THE SAME by CR, all getting what CR calls "very good". A numerical score made the other 2 rate slightly higher than HP. Again the analog would be having 3 children all getting a B in a class. The underlying scores are 89, 88 and 87. Is the kid with with the 87 being called idiotic, stupid, lacking any value whatsoever and doomed while the kid with the 89 is the genius, superior is every way? No, they all are B students... all with room to improve but with a lot of positive points to earn a grade so high.

We seem to be taking it like it's best #1 or complete failure- there is no middle ground. If anyone knows how CR actually works, they might ultimately rank 30 or 50 or 100 speakers, against which HP could end in the "top ranked" (very good) group, though technically third on a numerical ranking just to put all of them in some kind of sorted order. Olympians earning a bronze medal right now are certainly not being called miserable failures, nor are they doomed... nor are their parents/creators considered doomed for making a kid that can only finish ranked third best in the whole world at a particular point in time.

 

[Lilok]

Interesting @ "Smart Sound" ... I imagine the output is still conical so I wonder how that would look, if the wave field or sound area was drawn. I'm trying to imagine it, and for some reason I can't. I imagine it works though, just can't imagine it, lol.

I have the same feeling. I believe them that it works somehow as they promise, but I can't wrap my head around it either ^^ Neither with the hp nor the max.

Especially, why would it adjust to the day of time?!
Im sure there is something behind it, it's just sad that there is so less information from the manufacturers.
In the end, it could all be marketing mambojumbo for the non-audio people (so basically everyone) with no actual benefits for the user.

@ tweeters ... probably because they aren't the standard tweeters, but Balanced Mode Radiators. They have more power and range than typical tweeters of similar size.

Very, very interesting, thanks for the link. But since I don't have that much knowledge about audio, I'm always very careful about those things.
I mean, I believe it, but I would have to dig deeper in this particular subject, since I don't understand it yet.
Sources are appreciated.
Now it makes more sense now to me where the mid-range is coming now

Glad that you're enjoying your HomePod. If you haven't done so already, you might want to place the HomePod on something minimize vibrations, and reflections. It would improve the sound. If interested you can check out my comment here: #513.

,

Thanks, but that's a misunderstanding. I was able to listen to the homepod at a friend of mine.
I still have to wait until "smart assistants" are able to truly benefit me, until then I just can't justify that purchase.

I have some musicians and audio-setup fanatics in my family and thus and their knowledge I could never buy a speaker with that much limitations like the hp.

Nobody can guarantee that it doesn't turn into a paperweight into a few years, and with no audio-in its basically useless for me.
The Google Max also, even though it has audio-in, just because I wouldn't pay a penny for any voice Assistent.
Whereas normal, good 'ol quality speaker last for years and years to come and I can play everything on them


BUT, i'm happy for everyone who is happy with these kind of things, but luckily I'm satisfied with my audio set-up as it is

 

[mi7chy]

https://forums.appleinsider.com/dis...al-of-homepod-a-familiar-tale-to-apple-fans-u

Don't know why AI are crying. CR made it obvious that it was an initial by ear impression while they're completing the measurements and final review.

 

[Ploki]

If you’re going to buy a HomePod, I have some advice. Don’t buy it to be an AirPlay speaker for videos. Almost want to return it already because it just keeps dropping. AirPlay is bad.

right.
no wired connection whatsoever. means latency compensation has to be active on both ends and realtime content such as games is out of the question.

 

[maflynn]

https://forums.appleinsider.com/dis...al-of-homepod-a-familiar-tale-to-apple-fans-u

says it all really.

All it says is that some people cannot accept CR's testing methods and instead put brand loyaty above independant testing. Also as noted in other replies CR has provided positive reviews to Apple products when it was warrented. I may very well get the HomePod, but that doesn't negate that CR's test shows its not as good as other speakers within the confines of their testing methodology

 

[Shark5150]

All it says is that some people cannot accept CR's testing methods and instead put brand loyaty above independant testing. Also as noted in other replies CR has provided positive reviews to Apple products when it was warrented. I may very well get the HomePod, but that doesn't negate that CR's test shows its not as good as other speakers within the confines of their testing methodology

Ok.

 

[Michael Goff]

right.
no wired connection whatsoever. means latency compensation has to be active on both ends and realtime content such as games is out of the question.

I mean AirPlay is dropping for me at times and for reasons BT never did.