Well, We are in average sized apartment, low to medium sound levels. I do like the looks of the Home Pods, but that is not a deciding factor., I will also need 2 speaker stands, we haven't been able to select a set that we both like I have a budget of up to 750-900$. That was one reason I looked into the Pods, 650$ or so for the pair. The TV stand has a shelf under the top, and I think That I won't be able to put a high end sound bar on that shelf, any sound bar that has upfiring speakers will have to go on the same level as the TV. So still investigating the possible solutions. Thanks.
I had a soundbar that couldn’t be used anymore due to some kind of electronics issue. I considered replacing it with a similar one from either Sony or Samsung; it was a Samsung. But the ones that would be comparable ran about $1200-$1500. We already had the necessary ATV, so I just decided to try adding the two HomePods, not minis. Even if I had needed to buy the ATV, it still would have been far less than the soundbars I was looking at. We also live in an apartment and have a high, vaulted ceiling in the main living area.
We first tried placing the HomePods at either end of our tv, a 55-inch Sony OLED. That worked but just wasn’t satisfying enough. We don’t have electrical outlets that we can use near or behind our couch that we watch tv from, so I couldn’t place the pods where they would have had the most surround-sound effect. But, I relocated them to about 8 feet to either side of the tv which places them 8-10 feet from our couch in front of it. That really improved things. My wife hadn’t noticed that I had moved them, and she immediately commented, “Hey, sounds like we have surround sound.” The function is so good that if you’re centered on the couch looking at the tv, dialogue sounds as if it’s coming from the tv itself, while other sound effects sound as if they’re coming from everywhere. So, especially considering overall costs, this has been an excellent choice.
We have had issues, however. Mostly due to software, I believe, as new HomePod updates almost always cause several issues. Even without the updates, we encounter frequent “glitches”. Occasionally, audio will bounce from one pod to the other, sometimes dropping out completely from one or the other. It’s really not possible to isolate an issue to one device or another as all get software updates from time to time. Volume can also irritatingly drop or increase. Some of this is not the fault of the pods, as we have Verizon Fios for tv service, and there can be issues with the feed of the program we’re watching. When the screen momentarily freezes or pixelates, the audio gets wonky. Other times, there is no discernible cause, and I have to resort to restarting all devices, i.e. tv, ATV, Pods, Fios box. I power cycle the other devices, but I found that using the Home app to restart the pods to be the most effective for them. That scenario happens more often than I would like, but once everything is back up, most, if not all, issues have been corrected, and the function is back to being outstanding. Also, the ATV has the audio options to enhance dialogue, which is significantly noticeable as frequently we’ll notice background sounds are somewhat muted while the spoken dialogue is loud and clear. This was always a problem with our previous soundbars, although the higher-priced ones do have similar functions as the ATV. But for simplicity of setup, no separate subwoofer is needed, and relatively inexpensive cost, this is an excellent option.
Oh, it rarely happens, but if for some reason we lose our Wi-Fi, we lose audio also and have to switch back to the tv speakers.
