First Impressions From New HomePod Owners: Siri's Voice Detection is 'Phenomenal,' Audio Quality is 'Immediately Evident'

[ersan191]

LOL. It's widely known Siri and home integration is terrible on it right now. It's too bad that Apple won't allow third-party apps to run and control the Homepod. Third-party apps always seem to outshine stock Apple software.

It really isn't - native device support isn't what it should be but Siri/HomeKit are far more advanced than Google and Alexa's implementation.

If your devices aren't supported natively you can always use https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge which has plugins for nearly every device you can think of. Many many more than Alexa and Google combined.

People who think Alexa or Google are better for home automation are probably not very technical or are just uninformed.

 

[The Game 161]

LOL. It's widely known Siri and home integration is terrible on it right now. It's too bad that Apple won't allow third-party apps to run and control the Homepod. Third-party apps always seem to outshine stock Apple software.

Completely false.

Siri with homekit is fantasic and works flawlessly.

 

[VictorTango777]

Hmmm idk. I think I would rather read reviews and opinions from people who haven’t listened to it nor have even seen 1 in person. There’s something about those posts that are sooo helpful.

Especially those reviews stating "it sounds as the artist/audio engineer intended" without actually being the person who performed or recorded the track.

 

[Gav Mack]

This dude is "EU Editor for 9to5Mac". One has to expect some bias there.

He did say the HomePod wasn’t in the same league as the Naim Mu So and as an owner of both types of mu so I totally agree. But they are much more expensive, just like my naim pre power system blows away my mu so with playback of the same lossless tidal streams.

For the money I think the HomePod is pretty good sonically for Apple Music people and having listened to all the Sonos range it’s got some serious competition in the marketplace.

 

[prasand]

Just received my HomePod, and it sounds ... okay.

Don't get me wrong, dynamically it sounds great. But I guess I was expecting more enveloping sound, but in my opinion this doesn't have that. Though it sounds the same no matter where in the room I am (a small room), it doesn't sound like music is coming from everywhere. Perhaps that was an unrealistic expectation. To see what I mean, stand with your back towards the HomePod ... then take a few steps to the left. The sound of the HomePod, although not sounding any worse (thus no sweet spot), it won't sound like it's still coming from directly behind you, nor from any location other than where it is placed. The sound is directional.

I don't feel it was a waste though. I guess I was just wanting something too magical, lol.

Apple Music is steadily getting more subscribers. It's only a matter of time. There was an article saying that Apple Music is growing at a faster pace than Spotify.

I think those perceptions of growth are a bit skewed. When you have a small userbase, lets say 1 user ... it's very easy to claim 100% user growth when you have 2 users. The larger a service is, the relatively smaller the growth potential will be. This isn't to say that Apple Music "can't" catch up. Nah, it might be able to, but I'm pretty sure that if it does its growth potential will similarly dwindle.

To everyone saying “oh they’ll add Spotify support eventually” you need to understand how big and complicated a project that would be.

Not meant as an attack or anything, as I appreciate your replies and the info you share.

Just wanted to clarify that adding Spotify support isn't that complicated. @Rogifan's statements of Apple needing to add a "music/podcasts" domain are accurate. However, I would instead prefer to call that a "media" domain. Once Apple allows more types of app developers to be able to define their data in a manner that Siri can handle (giving Siri greater app insight), it's just a matter of Siri processing the voice request, submitting a query to the Developer's app and then the Developer's app handling the rest (or spitting a response back to Siri). -- HomePod can adequately handle songs being AirPlayed. Therefore, deep integration is not necessary for HomePod to optimize a Spotify track. Granted, deep integration could afford a track to play better, but it's not necessary. The only thing required is for Siri to know what each Developer's App can do from the set of domains that Apple has defined (aka app insight). It's a relatively small undertaking, the core work has already been done. It's just about defining a "media" domain in a sufficient way.

My new HomePod just arrived this morning and after just a couple of hours of use I have to say I'm delighted with it. I'm so happy to be replacing my over-priced, underwhelming Bang & Olufsen A6 with something that not only sounds better but that's significantly more compact and is a third of the price.

Thanks for sharing. I agree it performs favorably / on par with my B&O, and better than my Harman/Kardon gear.

 

[SuperMatt]

Ironically, that's exactly what we thought a few years back when Siri was introduced on the phone.

Siri might not be all that we want, but it is far more capable than when it first debuted. It supports 3rd party apps now, so it won't be hard for the HomePod to implement that when Apple figures out what types of apps they want to allow.
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If Apple ever allowed Amazon to do it, I believe it would, yes. Make no mistake, I think the HomePod is promising, but intentionally hamstrung for those not firmly in Apple's camp. I'm plenty Apple loyal (iPhone X, MacBook Pro from work, personal 27" iMac, kids have an iPad mini, wife has a MacBook), but they've created a product that if you don't subscribe to Apple Music, is largely worthless - the watch is similar, useless without an iPhone.

Apple Music is available on Android...

 

[ersan191]

Not meant as an attack or anything, as I appreciate your replies and the info you share.

Just wanted to clarify that adding Spotify support isn't that complicated. @Rogifan's statements of Apple needing to add a "music/podcasts" domain are accurate. However, I would instead prefer to call that a "media" domain. Once Apple allows more types of app developers to be able to define their data in a manner that Siri can handle (giving Siri greater app insight), it's just a matter of Siri processing the voice request, submitting a query to the Developer's app and then the Developer's app handling the rest (or spitting a response back to Siri). -- HomePod can adequately handle songs being AirPlayed. Therefore, deep integration is not necessary for HomePod to optimize a Spotify track. Granted, deep integration could afford a track to play better, but it's not necessary. The only thing required is for Siri to know what each Developer's App can do from the set of domains that Apple has defined (aka app insight). It's a relatively small undertaking, the core work has already been done. It's just about defining a "media" domain in a sufficient way.

Adequately, I guess, but playing Spotify over AirPlay to the HomePod sounds much worse than Apple Music songs - very flat - presumably because of the EQ analytics that Eddy Cue was referring to.

Unless they build a catalog that matches Apple Music songs to Spotify songs it's not going to get that EQ info. Which in turn will make the HomePod look bad because it won't sound as good when playing Spotify.

And this completely ignores my point about multiroom AirPlay 2, which still stands. Amazon had to account for this when they added their own multi-room support to the Echo. Spotify support came much later.

Could they implement Spotify support with no EQ and no multi-room? Yeah, I guess, but everyone would just complain and they probably aren't going to anyway.

 

[dbe]

This is disappointing...

http://appleinsider.com/articles/18...oes-not-work-within-custom-triggers-or-scenes

I'm confident an update will change this but I have to agree that Apple wanted to get this out the door now despite lacking certain features.

 

[EvilEvil]

Completely false.

Siri with homekit is fantasic and works flawlessly.

Uh huh...

http://appleinsider.com/articles/18...oes-not-work-within-custom-triggers-or-scenes

 

[ersan191]

This is disappointing...

http://appleinsider.com/articles/18...oes-not-work-within-custom-triggers-or-scenes

I'm confident an update will change this but I have to agree that Apple wanted to get this out the door now despite lacking certain features.

They'll probably add this later, seems low priority.
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Uh huh...

http://appleinsider.com/articles/18...oes-not-work-within-custom-triggers-or-scenes

Do you even understand what this article is saying? This isn't something that is supported by any other competing device - it's just a nice to have feature.

 

[dbe]

Uh huh...

http://appleinsider.com/articles/18...oes-not-work-within-custom-triggers-or-scenes

I just linked that article. Yes it is disappointing that the HomePod isn't capable of custom triggers and scenes at this time. I'm sure it will be with an update. As for Siri and HomeKit... it works near flawlessly for me. I switched to Apple primarily because I decided to go with HomeKit as my home automation platform. It's far superior than any other platform at this time.

 

[The Game 161]

Uh huh...

http://appleinsider.com/articles/18...oes-not-work-within-custom-triggers-or-scenes

and?

You can still control everything in your house via homepod. Why would you want music to still be playing when you aren't there?

If the homepod can control everything you need it to using siri then it works great and does what it's suppose to do.

 

[smoledman]

Amazon Echo voice detection is phenomenal, I know I've been using it for a couple of days now. I hardly have to speak above a whisper and it works every time.
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The speech recognition and hit rate is fine. What makes it feel crap for me is:

- Not being sure if you should wait for the beep tone, after saying Hey Siri
- Being interrupted by the beep tone
- Not being sure if it is actively listening for the second query
- Seemingly inconsistent behaviour after the Siri command. Such as whether music will resume automatically, and if so how many seconds before it does

These whole experience refinements are where Alexa performs much better.

Admittedly these problems are solved using Siri on the Apple TV as the button method gives more consistency. But Siri on the Apple TV is very limited.

Agreed. What amazes me about the Echo is there is no lag between saying 'Hey Alexa' and the rest of my command. No need to wait for a beep, you just say "Hey Alexa, do this...". That's amazing.

 

[ersan191]

Amazon Echo voice detection is phenomenal, I know I've been using it for a couple of days now. I hardly have to speak above a whisper and it works every time.
[doublepost=1518211434][/doublepost]

Agreed. What amazes me about the Echo is there is no lag between saying 'Hey Alexa' and the rest of my command. No need to wait for a beep, you just say "Hey Alexa, do this...". That's amazing.

Having used both, HomePod is better at hearing me over loud ambient noise, and in general.

It is odd, however, that the HomePod waits a few seconds to lower the volume when it detects "hey siri". You can just talk naturally though and it will hear you, just as you said with the Alexa command (you also don't need to say 'hey' alexa, just alexa is fine).

 

[dbe]

and?

You can still control everything in your house via homepod. Why would you want music to still be playing when you aren't there?

If the homepod can control everything you need it to using siri then it works great and does what it's suppose to do.

If the HomePod could be included in custom scenes and triggers then you could perhaps have it playing a certain playlist upon your arrival home from work. You could have music stop with "He Siri Goodnight". and who knows what else.

Apple needs to pay attention to all the details to make this speaker stand out.

 

[trip1ex]

Got my HomePod and I was very interested in using it with an Apple TV, here are some notes to anyone considering it:

When the Apple TV is connected, you can issue play/pause/skip forward/skip back commands to the HomePod handsfree and it will work on the Apple TV. I haven't figured out all of these commands yet - I just discovered you can say "Hey siri, skip forward 45 seconds" and it works. I'm sure there are a bunch.

For anything other than Music and Videos (Games for example) the sound will get GRATUITOUSLY out of sync. By up to 5 seconds for me. Videos are delayed by the software so that they are in sync with the audio - this can't be done for games.

The volume when playing videos on the Apple TV is not particularly loud, even when completely maxed out. Music is much much louder than videos. I have to turn the volume down significantly if I start playing a song after I've been watching video.

Forwarding sound from the Apple TV sounds a bit strange as there's no stereo separation. Going from the crappy built in TV speakers to the HomePod is almost a downgrade, but there's obviously a lot more bass. It sounds truly mono this way. This doesn't apply when playing music through the Apple TV, only video content.

Also in iTunes when you're playing something on the Apple TV through the HomePod it will group the two devices together, and anything you tell it to play will play on the Apple TV, which is fantastic.

HOWEVER, if you issue a voice command to play music through the HomePod (NOT for any other request, it won't disconnect if you ask it the weather for example) it will disconnect from the Apple TV and become its own device again which means you'll have to reconnect it to use it with the ATV again. I think maybe Apple could forward HomePod requests to Siri on the Apple TV in the future which would fix this problem and keep them merged as one device at all times, but I don't know for certain. This would have the added benefit of being able to use the Apple TV remote to control playback on the HomePod, even if the TV isn't necessarily turned on, as well as issuing Apple TV-specific commands with onscreen visual feedback handsfree.

thanks for the info. probably will hold off for now. i liked the idea of having it work seamless with atv but seems like it isn't quite there yet.

 

[The Game 161]

If the HomePod could be included in custom scenes and triggers then you could perhaps have it playing a certain playlist upon your arrival home from work. You could have music stop with "He Siri Goodnight". and who knows what else.

Apple needs to pay attention to all the details to make this speaker stand out.

Of course if there are ways to improve it they should and I get that might be ideal for some but playing music as I head to bed isn't something I would ever want to do personally. Each to their own.

All I know is the homepod does all my smart move lights e.t.c just perfectly and does whats required.

 

[Jax44]

Just got mine.
Super easy setup via iPhone.

Listening to Seven Bridges Road right now.

Awesome sound!

 

[MrX8503]

Just got my HomePod and it exudes quality.

The fabric is awesome. It’s firm and is a double weave. Kind of hard to explain, but it looks and feels good.

Sound quality is excellent. Gets really loud with little to no distortion. I haven’t tested 100% volume yet because of neighbors.

This is exactly what I want in a home speaker. If you’re invested in Apple, this is the speaker to get.

 

[prasand]

Adequately, I guess, but playing Spotify over AirPlay to the HomePod sounds much worse than Apple Music songs - very flat - presumably because of the EQ analytics that Eddy Cue was referring to.

Unless they build a catalog that matches Apple Music songs to Spotify songs it's not going to get that EQ info. Which in turn will make the HomePod look bad because it won't sound as good when playing Spotify.

And this completely ignores my point about multiroom AirPlay 2, which still stands. Amazon had to account for this when they added their own multi-room support to the Echo.

The ability to match already exists with their iTunes Match functionality, which was extended in their iCloud Music, and their Shazam acquisition would also complement that. That aside, where did Eddy Cue indicate that the EQ analytics are "still" being matched against a centralized database? Perhaps I missed something, from what I've seen / to my understanding, they fed Siri many tracks from their database so that Siri could create a profile of how certain tracks perform in certain rooms and certain placements. But after that seed data Siri should be able to perform the analytics live on data not previously profiled, that's the point of an A.I. seed / learning data set and how A.I. is taught.

It's like feeding an AI various photos of faces so that it can understand the characteristics of a face, but then would be able to identify "a face" not already seen.

In regard to the multi-room support, that's a limited view. Even if Siri is given a "media" domain for Developers to use, I doubt Spotify or other apps will be allowed to be installed on HomePod. Therefore, HomePod will need to interact with the iOS device that has the app. So you are looking at it from the perspective of what Apple potentially does to get it to work, but not what developers would need to do to get it to work. Basically it would require something which is equivalent of AirPlay 2 (or possibly use AirPlay 2 itself), pushed from one device. There's no synchronization or any such thing required, outside of what AirPlay 2 is inherently designed to do.

You're muddling the matter by thinking that AirPlay 2 connects to the internet. AirPlay 2 merely connects to local (wifi) devices, the HomePod then identifies the stream and sees "this is coming from Apple Music on that device, cool, I can play this directly" which then the HomePod plays it directly, but that is not an AirPlay 2 thing. AirPlay 2 is merely a multi-point protocol similar to Bluetooth multipoint. Inherently one device can stream to multiple devices. Downloading from the internet is just separate functionality of HomePod itself, not AirPlay 2. So in the case of iOS device apps playing on a HomePod it would just use AirPlay 2 or something more seamless but based on it, and doesn't require the internet at all (wifi yes, but not the internet).

The building blocks are already there.

 

[dbe]

Of course if there are ways to improve it they should and I get that might be ideal for some but playing music as I head to bed isn't something I would ever want to do personally. Each to their own.

All I know is the homepod does all my smart move lights e.t.c just perfectly and does whats required.

Don't get me wrong, I'm eager to get home and play with my HomePod. I'm also trying to decide if I want a second one. There are a number of Apple Store employees selling the one they got for half price at a decent discount not far from where I live. Anyway, I'm sure the HomePod will work well with the numerous devices in my HomeKit setup. I just want Apple to let me use their speaker in every way possible to make my "Smart Home" as smart as possible.

 

[neoelectronaut]

I'm a little bummed that I bought a set of Klipsch R-15PMs like a week prior to the release date announcement, but at least those allowed me to get into vinyl records so I guess it all works out.

 

[Derekeys]

I literally started my post with, “I’m happy for those whom this fits...”

How did you misconstrue my first sentence?

I wish I could thumb down your post...



Or could it be that that is all there is, is good, positive reviews....??



In other words “I hate you all. I have built my castle upon this rock and I willn’t move it! I hope NONE of you are happy with the HP, because if you are and I see too much positivity, then I have to set aside to my pride and buy a HP!”

 

[falainber]

I'm a little bummed that I bought a set of Klipsch R-15PMs like a week prior to the release date announcement, but at least those allowed me to get into vinyl records so I guess it all works out.

If you are listening to vinyl you must be serious about music. In this case, Klipsch is probably a better choice (better sound)

 

[casik]

I'm curious to know how some reviews say Siri is as dumb as a brick, and then in other reviews they say Siri works amazing. This seems to be the hardest device to gauge from reviews.
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Completely false.

Siri with homekit is fantasic and works flawlessly.

I have found this too. HomeKit is far superior to home automation with Google Home and Alexa.