Indeed, this ABSOLUTELY needs to get fixed within the first couple months or mine will probably get returned. It's so un-Apple.
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First Impressions From New HomePod Owners: Siri's Voice Detection is 'Phenomenal,' Audio Quality is 'Immediately Evident'
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Got mine this afternoon and the sound blew me away, even after testing various genres for the last hour and a half. I'd say it's best and likely to have been finely tuned for vocals (both pop/jazz and classical), but personally I find the base is a bit over heavy for many pop/rock tracks. Very deep and rich base but a bit too much. Now, need to find where I can adjust the EQ on it... Nothing obvious so far.
Apple is first and foremost a marketing company. Actual products and everything else come later.
Can someone please explain clearly if the HomePod can be properly used as a speaker for the AppleTV?
I was excited about the launch but for as far as I see, right now, the Home Pod is just a dumb Siri on an excellent sound creating speaker.
The use case for me would be:
- use the HomePod for some music
- use HomePod for ATV as a speaker
I don't care about AirPlay crap - every time I turn on the ATV I need to manually connect the speaker... that is just lame.
Any explanation is highly appreciated - I don't want to preorder when this will be available and find I overpaid for a dumb Siri and and a good speaker.
P.S. I have Apple Music subscription and I do listen music.
I was excited about the launch but for as far as I see, right now, the Home Pod is just a dumb Siri on an excellent sound creating speaker.
The use case for me would be:
- use the HomePod for some music
- use HomePod for ATV as a speaker
I don't care about AirPlay crap - every time I turn on the ATV I need to manually connect the speaker... that is just lame.
Any explanation is highly appreciated - I don't want to preorder when this will be available and find I overpaid for a dumb Siri and and a good speaker.
P.S. I have Apple Music subscription and I do listen music.
It seems pretty clear that you've already decided it's terrible, and no new information will convince you otherwise. What criteria, exactly, would it have to meet before you would be willing to say, "okay, maybe it is good"? How about going and actually listening to and interacting with one before deciding that it's a terrible device?
This is an issue with the actual recordings, I think, as I get the same problem from iPhone in my car.
For HP I believe there's an option "Sound Check" under the HP device in the Home app to "smooth" the volume of different tracks - not sure how well it works. There's the same option on iPhone in Settings->Music, but I've never tried it.
If that's your argument that their "Actual products and everything else comes later", how do you explain they are most successful tech company in the world? I would say their marketing is very aggressive and unique, but their products are so well-made, that they have such a reputation with their hardware standards and customer service. I think it's all relative and they all these ingredients make this company successful as a whole.
Just hold and push the play/ pause button in home screen or in the TV app. That’s a quite fast way to switch between input. Instead of going all the way to menus. I learned this way just a few days ago.
Awesome... Well then if it's that easy then I will look into it when ordering will be possible in Eu.
Thanks a lot!
I am loving the overbearing focus on sound quality; while it's certainly important to have decent audio quality, it's not the main motive for getting a smart speaker.
Things like "is it useful?" or "has Siri been improved" answered by "who cares, it sounds amazing!" do nothing to convince me I should get one.
Things like "is it useful?" or "has Siri been improved" answered by "who cares, it sounds amazing!" do nothing to convince me I should get one.
Any opinions on reproduction of classical music, i.e. orchestral, chamber, piano?
It is an AirPlay speaker just like any other. It can be used with Apple TV but when you ask the HomePod to play something else it will disconnect and must be reconnected.
It's not really that hard to reconnect (you hold down play/pause on the home screen), but it isn't user friendly at all. I assume if enough people complain Apple will come out with a fix.
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This is just not true at all.
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I really appreciate you sharing that playlist. I saved it and will be using it to test out my HomePod hopefully this weekend if I can walk in and buy one.
Completely agree with your inclusion of ‘Sea Wall’ track from BLADE RUNNER 2049. Not only one of my favourite soundtrack tracks of last year, but one of my favourite tracks OF the year. Great sound. And loved the movie.
Thanks for sharing the playlist...
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I thought about that, but then realized all I would be doing is depriving myself of fantastic sound and features for a few months when I could buy the HomePod now and have those months of enjoyment. Siri already does most of what I would use it for, and I will enjoy the updates that will keep coming as Apple rolls them out in coming months and years. Thank heavens for that A8 processor and over the air updates.
The fact that it’s “amaze balls” and “has a really nice power cable”certainly spurned me to get down the bank later and remortgage the house to get one. I don’t care what it sounds like that “glossy and smooth” surface sold it for me!
Beat that Bang and Olufsen!
Beat that Bang and Olufsen!
I agree. I have a Sonos, and it is great for it's intended purpose. I am sure the HomePod will sound great, and I am looking forward to auditioning one.
I would be skeptical of anyone talking about a portable speaker and claiming to be an audiophile in the same sentence. As an audiophile, if signal processing and a mono speaker wows you I would take issue.
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Wow, I literally just found that setting before reading this, and had no idea what it did after enabling it.
There is absolutely no information about that setting I could find - and actually left it on and forgot about it.
Cheers! Lets hope it does what you suggest, though the name certainly doesn't give that away lol.
What difference is that going to make?
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.
I usually wait til gen2 before I buy something but this looks intriguing. I leveled some shade at this so I'd be happy to see if I was wrong. It wouldn't be the first time