Yeah, this is the first I'm hearing of this, and I was planning to buy two minis for this exact purpose. We've got an AppleTV connected to a Panasonic LCD and the built-in speaker not only sounds like crap, but we have to turn the volume all the way up to hear it. We have the system connected to a home theatre setup as well, but it's too much effort to turn the stereo on, switch inputs, turn the volume down on the TV, etc. I wanted the HomePods to simply serve as the everyday output for the AppleTV. I wonder what the odds will be of Apple adding the feature if enough people complain?
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First Impressions From HomePod Mini Customers: 'The Sound Quality is Great'
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Yeah, this is the first I'm hearing of this, and I was planning to buy two minis for this exact purpose. We've got an AppleTV connected to a Panasonic LCD and the built-in speaker not only sounds like crap, but we have to turn the volume all the way up to hear it. We have the system connected to a home theatre setup as well, but it's too much effort to turn the stereo on, switch inputs, turn the volume down on the TV, etc. I wanted the HomePods to simply serve as the everyday output for the AppleTV. I wonder what the odds will be of Apple adding the feature if enough people complain?
There's always "that guy", and there he is.
Tiny speakers just don't/can't sound great.
They can be top of the line in the tiny speaker category but physical limitations apply.
They can be top of the line in the tiny speaker category but physical limitations apply.
regarding the absence of a battery; for the identical sound output, the speaker would have to be larger, and heavier, to have room for a 10-15 hr battery. There are plenty of battery powered bluetooth speakers out there already. This is really more a wifi speaker and for most people, would therefore be tethered to your "home" (even if that is in the garden
. Its multi-room connect features, streaming, intercom, etc make this just fine to not be battery powered. And a battery would add cost as well. I will take the small and affordable path Apple chose, so I can easily sneak this into my home and have them essentially unseen. This is so much for flexible and affordable than a whole-house wired audio system.
. Its multi-room connect features, streaming, intercom, etc make this just fine to not be battery powered. And a battery would add cost as well. I will take the small and affordable path Apple chose, so I can easily sneak this into my home and have them essentially unseen. This is so much for flexible and affordable than a whole-house wired audio system.Just get a Harmony remote to take that pain away and get good audio all the time.
Can I ask why you'd rather spend $200 on two of these rather than on a sound bar, which will have far better sound? Genuinely interested to hear some use-cases here, not being snarky, although I do find it odd.
I dont find Siri much dumber than the competitors. They often can answer random questions better but their comprehension of directions still seems just as bad.
Siri fares fine in this comparison. Not number one but not an obvious loser.
Just got mine a little while ago. I think it's great for the price! Can finally throw away the garbage Google Mini
The answer for mobility is the Libratone Zipp 2. I really think Apple licensed their tech for the speakers from them and just added improvements cause it seems the same. Biggest difference is the HomePod automatically adjusts while the Zipp needs to manually triggered to adjust for the room. The Zipp is portable and has airplay 2 and with the latest iOS update it will auto play when I ask Siri to play in the entire house, didn’t before had to add manually.
Yep, works just fineHave any reviewers/new owners tried plugging the USB-C cord into a large battery pack yet? It's kludgy, but perhaps not as bad as dragging the iMac to the coffee shop.
Not sure that logic floats. There are speakers bigger than the regular HomePod that have batteries, but that doesn’t mean the regular HomePod should have batteries. It’s just not designed for that. These homepods, even the mini, require a lot of power due to two or three things: the airplay protocol, the bigger higher quality drivers, and the computational audio. Once you add in a battery big enough to power the device for a decent period of time, it will significantly increase the size of the device. Apple could make a battery-powered speaker in the future, but it would likely ditch the computational audio, use the lower bandwidth Bluetooth protocol, and the actual speakers inside would be much smaller to make room for the battery, resulting in significantly worse sound quality. You’d end up with something not very special. You’d end up with the Beats Pill, which one can buy today.
- Because your ATV is hooked up to a monitor with no speakers.
- Because your ATV is hooked up to a TV with terrible speakers.
- Because you don't want to have two pairs of speakers in the same room, one for music/smart functions and one for TV.
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Mine arrives tomorrow and I’m absolutely buzzing for it. Am I expecting it to blow my mind in terms of sound - absolutely not. But for 100 quid, I think it’ll be great. I have a wonderboom and if it sounds better than that I’ll be happy.
I work from home so to have that in the room opposite my desk is going to be great. I’m taking it and will enjoy it for what it is - a small smart speaker that packs a decent punch and is very capable for day to day listening. The added stuff like Siri, intercom etc is just a bonus for me.
I work from home so to have that in the room opposite my desk is going to be great. I’m taking it and will enjoy it for what it is - a small smart speaker that packs a decent punch and is very capable for day to day listening. The added stuff like Siri, intercom etc is just a bonus for me.
Because bigger, more carefully thought out, and better placed speakers than those included in many modern TVs? A few TVs see sound as a selling point while many others figure that anybody that cares will use a sound bar.
Now I want to see a shoulder case for the Pro Display XDR, and a special leash for pulling your wheel-equipped Mac Pro.
Yea he seems a tad dramatic and unable to understand the difference between two products and that many people make decisions based on cost. Sure if we all had a money tree in the back yard we’d go with the bigger better HomePod. I think we all know there is going to be a tradeoff.
I have this question too. I tried using a HomePad for that (and intended to get a second for stereo). However, it was never in synch with video. I did a bit of research online, and people generally said that was inevitable and it is not designed to be used like that. So, I sold mine.
I always found it hilarious when theyd run TV ads on TV - if you look at it and think, “wow, that picture on their screen looks amazing”, then you don’t need it.
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I know Siri will reply something like “Now playing Heart Radio 90s from TuneIn” but am fairly sure a couple of years back the BBC revoked access to TuneIn so that could well explain why.