Mastered for iTunes is still lossy is it not?
I already own a ton of music, not interested in paying for it again.
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HomePod Estimated to Have 3 Million Sales and 6% Market Share in United States
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Mastered for iTunes is still lossy is it not?
I already own a ton of music, not interested in paying for it again.
if you read, you can find reviews performed by audio testing labs which demonstrate the sound quality is anything but mediocre. inflexible? I guess you mean it doesn't work well outside apple ecosystem, "I really don't care, do you?" it works great inside, and that is the market they targetted. Expensive? you compared it to competing products like the $400 Google equivalent? Or the Sonos equivalent? I can see you didn't.
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you make no sense.
Or, they just introduce an entry level variant of the HomePod compared to this HomePod at a cheaper price, maybe with some differences, but still boast the quality sound. I can see Apple expanding the HomePod lineup If they have other models available to the consumer.
Sounds like you're not familiar with lossless vs lossy compression and it's effect on music quality.
In short, most recorded music quality keeps dropping (lp>cd>mp3) and most people just say ok fine.
I wouldn't be so sure about that. Until Siri improves, that's the other big problem with HomePod. Meanwhile, Sonos offers their "One" speaker for $199 and it is AirPlay 2 compatible and it works with Alexa (and will supposedly also work with Google Assistant by the end of this year). Both of those "assistants" smoke Siri right now in terms of depth of functionality.
It’s not a matter of that tho
It has an Apple logo and a lot of
People have iPhones and increasingly apple music (not me)
It’s a no brainer throwing more gear into the ‘ecosystem’
At the right price it will sell like gang busters for sound quality
We just got our first the other day. I'm very very impressed with how good it sounds. And siri has been flawless so far. Granted, I'm not making notes, sending texts, etc., I'm just using the basic functionality of playing music and podcasts. Regardless, it's a great little speaker and fits our needs perfectly. Now, if you want to really up the ante, make it be able to distinguish voices and link them to separate apple id's.....then you're really upping the game!
Your argument is a leaky faucet, a half-empty packet of taco sauce. Did you mean the Airpods? They are selling out faster than they can be made. Winning!
What do we compare it to then?
Speakers from Sonos or Bose that can actually play audio from any source service?
Features determine the product category, not the price tag. And homepod is a very, very limited niche product that acts as a siri portal. Just like Echo and Google Home. And so it belongs in the same category.
When I can connect a homepod to my game console and TV (no, not AppleTV), not to mention spotify, we can talk. Of course if that were the case, homepod sales would be much higher and you'd probably want to compare it to other smart speakers which it would be dominating.
Yeah, I'd prefer something more like an Echo Dot. Couldn't care less about sound quality (have a nice stereo for that), just something to tell Siri to turn my lights on/off and other small things. $349 is overkill in that case.
Personally if I want stereo sound I use a amp and speakers and shockingly cables most of the time. I don’t need another smart assistant either. My Sony AF8 OLED TV decided to burst into life with google assistant and it really leaves Siri behind in the usability stakes which was a real surprise. It actually understands what I say and interacts in a much more natural manner. For now that’s as much chat as I want with my home devices anyway.
I’ve been using Siri off and on since it’s introduction and it now feels lacking sadly. So Yes I prefer having a reasonably flowing conversation with the TV (yes it does feel as odd as it sounds) than struggle with my iPhone that says “sorry can you say that again” way to often.
If I want to listen to music away from my hifi my B&W Zeppelin Wireless suits my needs. I can listen to SoundCloud, YouTube and Spotify or anything that uses Bluetooth or a 3.5 mm jack and of course my Wi-Fi. The sound quality of that speaker is superb. For my personal needs HomePods are just to limited for the price asked and that leaves me hanging onto Apple to tightly for my liking at this time.
I’ve been using Siri off and on since it’s introduction and it now feels lacking sadly. So Yes I prefer having a reasonably flowing conversation with the TV (yes it does feel as odd as it sounds) than struggle with my iPhone that says “sorry can you say that again” way to often.
If I want to listen to music away from my hifi my B&W Zeppelin Wireless suits my needs. I can listen to SoundCloud, YouTube and Spotify or anything that uses Bluetooth or a 3.5 mm jack and of course my Wi-Fi. The sound quality of that speaker is superb. For my personal needs HomePods are just to limited for the price asked and that leaves me hanging onto Apple to tightly for my liking at this time.
I never said it wasn’t worth the price. I was simply explaining where I would buy one personally. The sound is fantastic, but $350 is too much to ask for those who desire the features more than the sound. Especially when I already have a great stereo system with Apple Music hooked up to it. The sound quality just isn’t my top need, that’s all.
Apple wouldn't sell 1/2 of what they do right now if it weren't for financing. This message board is made up of mostly "well off" enthusiasts who can walk in and pay cash for most Apple products. Out in the big world it doesn't work quite like that.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Where did I say "no one likes"? My post was mostly HP positive, though acknowledging room for improvement. Are your rosy colored glasses so thick you believe it is a perfect smart speaker in every way?
I think it is great for what is. But as a consumer who can "think different," I'm able to see room for improvement. Certainly, I am not the only one with such a capability. Look through this very thread mostly made up of Apple fans so passionate about Apple anything, they spend lots of time on a forum talking about a corporation and it's products.
Good for you... but not everyone is you. Shocker I know, but other people will have other opinions.
Spin it as you wish, but the objective among us seem to desire the flexibility to use it in ways beyond what Apple chose to offer in this version. If it was less "constrained," people that share your opinion could still get every bit of the same out of it. But those other people could get what they want out of it too. And frankly, Apple wants their money just as much as it wants yours... and their dollars are as good as your dollars.
Not one bit of that has to change with less "lock in." Apparently our definitions of what "lock in" means are differing here? In my version, I'd like it to keep everything that is great about it now PLUS DO MORE in the next version. If that was realized, it wouldn't affect your usage of it at all.
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Don’t really care about Bluetooth because the HomePod is a good enough speaker and doesn’t need to be connected to another speaker. The things it can’t do for me can all be brought via software updates. Apple have already added calander support and will be adding phone calls and the ability to find your iPhone in a few months.
There are also all of the improvements to Siri that will come with iOS 12. So in a few months HomePod will become infinitely more useful and that’s without touching the hardware.
Those are great selling points but fewer wires implies that it has great capabilities in terms of wireless support which it does not.
As has been pointed out many times since its release, the lack of Bluetooth severely hampers the use of Homepod with non-Apple products. It's really unfortunate. My wife and I are going to be converting a room to a home theater in a few months and I immediately looked into getting a Homepod to connect to the TV we're getting. Because there is no Bluetooth, there is no place for a Homepod in a home theater set up unless I also want to invest in an Apple TV unit.
Tell me how to use Homepod as an external speaker for a smart TV without purchasing an Apple TV. Other speakers can accomplish this. The lack of Bluetooth cuts the Homepod off at the knees. No idea what Apple was thinking. I prefer Apple products generally speaking but I won't be buying a Homepod.
It connects to the Apple TV and that’s probably all Apple care about. They’ve never been known to go out of their way to make their devices compatible with non Apple products.
I already have a few Apple TVs and do about 99% of my viewing via the Apple TV even though I have a cable subscription.
If his name comes from being a fan of Naim audio equipment it would definitely sound mediocre in comparison, as it should as the HomePod costs a fraction of the price of their top end audio gear.
The HomePod is only for people that are fully invested in Apple.
Yes, it is lossy. However, lossless files in CD resolution may sound worse.
The mastering of the recording is often more import than the insignificant difference between 256k AAC and ALAC/FLAC. The loudness wars have been at play since the first CD was brought to market and that is often the source for the lossless file you are describing. Personally, I would love Apple Music to use the lossless 24 bit files that are typically used for MFiT, but even at 256k, you can hear a difference in a superior master versus a CD that has almost no dynamic range and/or flattened wave peaks.
I do agree that it would be nice to have Home Sharing built into the HomePod like you get with iOS/AppleTV, though.
is it? How? it's quicker to say a command than to bloop around on screen and do it.