Yeah, I know. I'm saying the speakers don't simply fire into the plastic and then reflect upwards.
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HomePod For those who think HomePod sounds like it's got a low pass filter on it...
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Yeah, I know. I'm saying the speakers don't simply fire into the plastic and then reflect upwards.
I thought the tweeters were found to not be BMRs after all.
Besides, if their sound is supposed to be channeled upwards by the plastic tube, then what's with all the "it detects if it's near a wall and bounces sound off it intelligently" stuff?
Nah, man... plastic tube is plastic tube, and that certainly makes sense, given how the highs sound.
Besides, if their sound is supposed to be channeled upwards by the plastic tube, then what's with all the "it detects if it's near a wall and bounces sound off it intelligently" stuff?
Nah, man... plastic tube is plastic tube, and that certainly makes sense, given how the highs sound.
Who confirmed they aren't BMRs?? Either way, it's designed as a system, and Apple could have obviously vented the plastic if that made it sound better. The sound still radiates out of the top of the thing.
Where exactly is your HomePod placed that it's sounding so bad?
Whether or not they’re BMRs was inconclusive after ifixit’s teardown. They called them tweeters, but perhaps they were just using Apple’s nomenclature. If the crossover really is somewhere between 200 Hz and 500 Hz, I’d have to lean toward them being BMRs.
Beg to differ, I was in the retail and professional audio contracting for many years; sub-woofers whether 10", 12" or 15" are optimize loudspeakers and enclosures to reproduce extremely low frequencies less than 100 Hz. Full range systems are designed for a much wider range and are normally deficient in the extreme low end.
All individual loudspeakers have what is call their "free air resonance" the smaller and/or stiffer cones have a higher FAR, acoustic suspension woofers rely on the air in a sealed enclosure to provide the force to control the cone, a great way to get low bass out of a bookshelf size speaker. Henry Kloss designed the first acoustic suspension speakers by Acoustic Research, then KLH, and finally Advent. Most woofers are optimized by "tuning" the enclosure with a bass port to flatten out the peak at the free air resonance point. For large systems the woofer can loaded by a front or rear horn design to increase efficiency but low end suffers.
I am sure Apple has done all it can to optimize it's 4" woofer in the HP, but just isn't going to reproduce fundamental bass.
The countered the smaller size by using a high excursion of 20mm. It moves quite a bit.
Haven't heard one yet, but all the technical discussions aside, if it sounds good to you for the type of music you listen to, then it has done it's job. All loudspeakers are compromises in design, there is no system that is perfect. Also depends the intended function, sound re-inforcement, studio monitor, home theater or high quality stereo. An "Audiophile" system? afraid not, just enjoy it for what it is.
I’m not sure what it is you’re begging to differ with me on? I appear to agree with you...
One of the three people credited for that /r/audiophile review where they had initially claimed they were BMRs.
(Source)
"Confirmed" they weren't is probably a little strong, but they certainly walked back the claim that they were.
Maybe I mis-understood, but there are many speaker systems that have 12" woofers that are not sub-woofers (by my definition). The 12" generally handle frequencies from the bottom end to 1-2KHz. One famous system was the JBL 4311 control monitors (L100 in the consumer version)
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Audiophiles tend to listen to the equipment not the music!
Yes of course you're right and there are Function One sound systems, but there aren't that many people who have home speakers with full range 12" woofers.
I would expect anything over 7" in 90% of homes is a sub.
I would probably even argue the amount of homes now that have speakers with 7" woofers on them is pretty small
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Nope - the vented but is at the top, presumably for the air from the woofer. It's really weird, the tweeters really are tripped in the bottom and seem to fire or rebound upwards out of the top of the device too.
The photo above that shows those slats/ports is the very bottom of the HP with the rubber boot removed. Not sure if the tweeters are open to that and firing straight down. If not then they are firing at a plastic wall. LOL. That would be weird. But each tweeter is enclosed in its own plastic pod inside the larger mother plastic pod.
I don't think the tweeters are porting out the bottom, the bottom port is the bass port. The tweeters are just completely trapped. So bizaro. I think Apple designed themselves into a corner.
EDIT: OK, here is the rear of the tweeter pod... the rear of it is ported and facing down towards the bottom ports. LOL. This photo shows it held upside-down. (actually, I can't quite tell if the bottom ports is adjacent to tweeter opening or not). Bottom port might only handle bass. Why are the tweeters so trapped like this? I wish someone would cut an opening for them. : )
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That's definitely the top mate, where the Siri screen is. The bottom where the tweeters are is sealed - and then they're sealed in plastic cases too...it's really weird.
Edit, ignore that, there are slats on the top and bottom - so yeah I guess the tweeters are firing out of the bottom at least. Out of their plastic houses.
The video showed each individual tweeter housing had a hole on the bottom, aimed down toward the bottom vents. So it looks like tweeters go down and bounce off the table surface, while the woofer goes up into the air. I really wonder where the mics are positioned, though.
If you look at the side of the plastic cylinder, you can see little "vents" where the mics must be. The vents for the tweeter pods are at the back of the tweeter and at right angle to rear of tweeter.
yes I agree.we thought it was pretty good till we compared it to our floor standing speakers (600) a pair or our pair of sonos 5's. but for the price it is pretty good. but it is not magical. but it does sound good in a far larger range of placements then most speakers.
With that in mind, how are they going to implement stereo mode? How directional can this thing get?
I'm not a rocket surgeon but I don't think these can really be stereo as we know it. For instance, one by itself is not really mono. It it getting both channels, processing them and sending it out in all directions, not just 360 degrees, but more like a sphere. Two of these Apple calls "Full Room." It's just double what one gives you and it's for bigger rooms, not for creating a stage like 2 traditional speakers would. BTW, I tried it as a soundbar for the TV and the vocals were way too boomy for that.
I believe that article was updated with Apple’s denial of the name “full room”. On the Apple website, it does mention stereo specifically (“create stereo sound with a second HomePod”), but the language it uses to describe what that means leaves a lot of room for interpretation. I’m very curious as to how two (or more?) homepods will handle left/right channels myself. In any case, I think it will be much more than just duplicating the sound on a second homepod since that’s something that can already be done now, at least from iTunes.
*sighs* I hope they add EQ to the Home App soon. I'm a bit too used to the HomePod voice controls to mess with iTunes, but it's good to know it's there, works, and forces it to AirPlay instead of download. Good catch / find!
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Well it'll be able to recreate the stereo spectrum properly in the woofer range at least - currently, as an example, Justin Timberlake's "Filthy" has a live bass line hard panned left, but of course it's all in the middle in the HomePod as the tweeters, no matter of full range they seem to be, don't have the capacity to throw that around (which makes me think they're not as full range as people think and the woofer has quite a high crossover point)
I imagine with two it'll continue continue to treat the highs the same and respect anything that is panned left and right and play it in that speaker specifically. I'm sure they'll throw some extra processing into the mix to try and make it sound 'bigger' too.