HomePod HomePod first impressions

[AustinIllini]

You keep commenting based on what you’ve read. You have zero actual experience. I wish people without experience would go get some. My HomePod does not pause as I move it. Check. But a car is an enclosed space ... that does not change in shape a lot. People getting in and out.. sure. Who knows if rolling would cause it to keep resampling? You don’t. I don’t. You have no clue if it’s meant to be stationary. I just danced with mine, lol, no impact. Its solid. Sure sounds strange to me to put any 110 ac device in a car, but based on my experience so far you could with zero impact

The product shipped today. Stop asking questions to a forum where people got the device two days ago if you don't want an honest guess answer based on our ability to read.

I'm sorry. I misunderstood. I didn't think anyone would honestly try to put the HomePod in their car. Honestly, I'm not that silly. I use products as intended by the manufacturer.


Because you shouldn't put it in your car. That isn't what it is for. I would appreciate a little more respect.

 

[Bagaholic]

Miles Davis “Flamenco Sketches”.

They are in the room, hot damn!!!

I just read this, without turning to my HomePod behind me, said "Hey Siri, play Flamenco Sketches". 2 minutes after I felt the chills.

Thank you!

 

[3rdiguy]

I can AirPlay from iPhone to HomePod, but I cannot AirPlay from my Mac or AppleTV. They each see "Living Room", but they then fail to connect. I rebooted everything without success. I verified all devices are on same network, and settings for that, and no passcode required.

I had the same issue. Wanted to test it out with my MacBook.

 

[G5isAlive]

Need to know how HomePod reacts to movement, does the music pause at all as it adapts to new location? Curious because I am still exploring installing one in car

To test you question I picked mine up and danced with it. Zero impact. Try it. I bet it works. Curious how you plan to get away from its love of the internet? It loves being connected. No Siri without it. I *think* you can stream to it with airplay and no internet but... seems you’d be missing a lot. Buy one, try it, and let us know how it goes. You can return it if you don’t like it... but I bet you keep it

 

[AustinIllini]

"Lean on" by Major Lazer is an awesome sample song for Audio I find.
[doublepost=1518214995][/doublepost]

To test you question I picked mine up and danced with it. Zero impact. Try it. I bet it works. Curious how you plan to get away from its love of the internet? It loves being connected. No Siri without it. I *think* you can stream to it with airplay and no internet but... seems you’d be missing a lot. Buy one, try it, and let us know how it goes. You can return it if you don’t like it... but I bet you keep it

"You have no experience with it in your car, so you don't have an opinion"

 

[certen]

I love bass when it is line with the other frequencies. I have an SVS subwoofer and that thing can sing. I feel that Apple is attempting to jack the higher low frequency range to compensate for the lack of depth and the lack of highs. Mid-range on male vocals is terrible.

I agree with that, some music sound really nice and rich, but others, sound too bassy to me that you miss elements, vocal and instruments to bass

 

[mrderik]

Just received mine and had to try it out at the office. I was wondering what level of control over it you can have with homekit. As I want it to start playing when I give my 'I'm home' command or 'Good Morning' command. So far I only see turn music on, or off - the icon under home app looks sort of like a light switch. I had played 'Guitar' by David Dondero, just to test it but the song ended and it wasn't playing anything, so the icon for the homepod was 'dimmed'. And just like a light switch, I touched the icon, it switched to bright, the homepod woke up and started playing music and it started playing the next song on the David Dondero album. Basically where I left off. But I unplugged it and moved it to a different office. Next time I 'turned it on' under the home app, it started a song from a different artist. Weird. Hopefully we get a little more specific Homekit integration. I'd rather it not start playing Metallica when I say 'Good Morning Siri', at least not until I've had my tea....

 

[Patriot24]

Just received mine and had to try it out at the office. I was wondering what level of control over it you can have with homekit. As I want it to start playing when I give my 'I'm home' command or 'Good Morning' command. So far I only see turn music on, or off - the icon under home app looks sort of like a light switch. I had played 'Guitar' by David Dondero, just to test it but the song ended and it wasn't playing anything, so the icon for the homepod was 'dimmed'. And just like a light switch, I touched the icon, it switched to bright, the homepod woke up and started playing music and it started playing the next song on the David Dondero album. Basically where I left off. But I unplugged it and moved it to a different office. Next time I 'turned it on' under the home app, it started a song from a different artist. Weird. Hopefully we get a little more specific Homekit integration. I'd rather it not start playing Metallica when I say 'Good Morning Siri', at least not until I've had my tea....

The ability to play audio through HomePod as part of a HomeKit scene is an obvious roadmap item for the first major feature update. As others have mentioned, the ability to do the same with AppleTV also seems obvious low hanging...fruit.

 

[HQuest]

I am white British male, so I suspect it works better with an American accent, like all assistants

I’m a white non-English native male speaker, and I have no problems using Siri in either British and American English. You might need to calibrate Siri for better voice recognition. I had to do it when I “changed” accents - I’m still far from a native Scottish thought

Hint: don’t pause after the Hey Siri, keep going with what you want. This is not laggy like the original Apple Watch.

 

[Bagaholic]

This thing is so beautifully made.

 

[WhiteHawk]

you’re joking right?

About what? The sound quality? Not in the least.

If that’s the case and you think it sounds amazing like many I have bad news for you, the audio processing part of your brain just isn’t that good, not having a go, just the way it is, some people have a hard time with faces, or doing two different things with each hand, having faster reflexes, etc, I just have the ability like some to notice stuff about sound, not bad with faces either, though not names.

But then maybe it’s good news for you, as your brain is making crap sound reasonable, and no as I said I’m not calling the HomePod crap, if it was it would be going back for sure, but many speakers and headphones have this issue where the sound just seems to be coming from very deep within the device wrapped in a couple of blankets, I just expect a bit more. I’m just used to better and hoped with it’s price tag that this muffled sound wouldn’t effect this speaker.

 

[Patriot24]

About what? The sound quality? Not in the least.

If that’s the case and you think it sounds amazing like many I have bad news for you, the audio processing part of your brain just isn’t that good, not having a go, just the way it is, some people have a hard time with faces, or doing two different things with each hand, having faster reflexes, etc, I just have the ability like some to notice stuff about sound, not bad with faces either, though not names.

But then maybe it’s good news for you, as your brain is making crap sound reasonable, and no as I said I’m not calling the HomePod crap, if it was it would be going back for sure, but many speakers and headphones have this issue where the sound just seems to be coming from very deep within the device wrapped in a couple of blankets, I just expect a bit more. I’m just used to better and hoped with it’s price tag that this muffled sound wouldn’t effect this speaker.

/r/iamverysmart

 

[WhiteHawk]

/r/iamverysmart

Ignorance is bliss they say.

 

[AppleRobert]

About what? The sound quality? Not in the least.

If that’s the case and you think it sounds amazing like many I have bad news for you, the audio processing part of your brain just isn’t that good, not having a go, just the way it is, some people have a hard time with faces, or doing two different things with each hand, having faster reflexes, etc, I just have the ability like some to notice stuff about sound, not bad with faces either, though not names.

But then maybe it’s good news for you, as your brain is making crap sound reasonable, and no as I said I’m not calling the HomePod crap, if it was it would be going back for sure, but many speakers and headphones have this issue where the sound just seems to be coming from very deep within the device wrapped in a couple of blankets, I just expect a bit more. I’m just used to better and hoped with it’s price tag that this muffled sound wouldn’t effect this speaker.

The way you are describing what you are hearing from the HP is not what I am reading from the majority in this thread. Just search my moniker and try some of my recommendations. The sound is anything but.

Flamenco Sketches on a speaker in its category at this size at this cost is outstanding.

 

[cynics]

This are my initial impressions. To be clear I'm not an audiophile and my points of comparison are a Sonos 1 play, Sonos 5 play (1st gen), and Amazon Echo.

Set up was completely effortless. Just plug it in (I instinctively held the phone near the HomePod) and a screen pops up on the phone, press set up, copy settings it gets your Wifi, iCloud logins, etc and thats it.

The lights are the top are cool, almost pleasant to look at. There brightness increases and decreases with ambient light. The tap gesture is neat but not something I'll likely be using a lot.

Connectivity. Well, it sucks. I knew some of this going in like it not having an external input. However I just assumed it would have BT connectivity for music from random devices, but it does not. Android users need not apply, this is a device for Apple users and the more Apple products you have the better (plus Apple Music which I do have). Its disappointing that if a friend that has Android comes over he couldn't connect to it. However with Apple Music thats a moot point.

"Hey Siri"....simple wow. This thing can hear me through other sounds and anywhere within line of sight it will hear me say Hey Siri at less than normal talking volume. In other rooms I only need to slightly raise my voice. I'm in my office, it is down a very short hallway around a corner and sitting on a counter top. I only need to tilt my head toward the door for it to hear me at normal talking volume. I've never experienced voice recognition this good.

Sound quality. Like I said I'm not an audiophile and I'm going to need to use it for a few days to come to a firm conclusion.

-Spaciousness. This is probably the most noticeable thing for me at this point. The reason I immediately noticed this is because the I'm in my office, its down a short all and around a corner. For sound to be this loud and clear at this distance the Sonos speakers would need to be overly loud at the speaker. Matter of fact since I live in a condo and dont want to disturb the neighbors I've literally gotten up and walked to the speaker 3 times just to make sure its not too loud.

-Frequency range. For its size it sounds great. Easily better than my Sonos 1 matter of fact its on par with my Sonos 5. I would say it was even better if I didn't adjust the EQ on the Sonos for the music. Growing up listening to cheap speakers I know a few songs that highlight issues and the HomePod sounds good through them all.

-Audio Processing. AirPlaying through iTunes I haven't needed to adjust the EQ for any type of music. As someone that listens to all genres of music I can usually find something offensive that I'll want to adjust (not fix but adjust) EQ, too much bass, not enough treble, etc. I believe its doing some type of audio processing and for me its doing a very good job.

-Volume. I found this impressive. Its no surprise when small speakers get loud however that usually comes with distortion, poor clarity and loss of range. And I guess I'm just so used to cheaper speakers that when I cranked the HomePod up I was floored with not only how loud but more importantly how it retained sound quality. The Sonos 5 can do this too IMO but its a lot bigger.

-Bass. I feel I should mention this. Its a small woofer in a small device. Bass is very present but your only going to be hearing it, not feeling it.

Features. This thing is relatively featureless. There was no "oh thats cool!" feature when I got it. It just a smart speaker that also acts as a home hub for homekit.

I do have a silly gripe. I feel the HomePod should have its own app or just be in settings somewhere NOT in the Home app (except for under hubs). Currently it feels like a cheap attempt to lure them into the app they never use and I'm saying that as someone that has 25+ homekit devices. Someone may argue "its a home hub" well so is the AppleTV and its not a listed device or "Its a multiform device" again so is the AppleTV. And the only reason I bring this up is because I thought to myself I could add an automation for it (ex. wake up to music, get home music starts, etc) however unless my Home app is bugged you can't automate the HomePod...so its a device, in the home app, that can't be used with automations?

I would recommend the HomePod but only to a specific type of person. They need to be heavily into the Apple ecosystem and happy with it, preferably with Apple Music. Definitely someone with an open floor plan in a condo/apt/townhouse (anywhere loud music could bother people). Someone using Homekit that wants a central hub for barking commands at.

 

[csurfr]

This thing is so beautifully made.

Nice look you have there.

 

[WhiteHawk]

Connectivity. Well, it sucks. I knew some of this going in like it not having an external input. However I just assumed it would have BT connectivity for music from random devices, but it does not. Android users need not apply, this is a device for Apple users and the more Apple products you have the better (plus Apple Music which I do have). Its disappointing that if a friend that has Android comes over he couldn't connect to it. However with Apple Music thats a moot point.

I don’t have android devices apart from a nVidia Shield, but I’ve seen that there are some free and paid apps that can allow them to Use AirPlay, DoubleTwist being one example, of course the person that comes over might not bother but there may be options.

 

[mrderik]

"And the only reason I bring this up is because I thought to myself I could add an automation for it (ex. wake up to music, get home music starts, etc) however unless my Home app is bugged you can't automate the HomePod..."

That is super chintzy - I just tried to set an automation, and you're right, it doesn't show as a device that you can 'switch' on or off. Even though it does show like any other and you can control (play or pause basically) from the 'Room' or 'Home' screens. Sheesh..... But as Patriot24 mentioned, I'm sure it will be added in the future. Probably the next 'model' so I'll have to buy another one next year...

 

[DiscoBatman]

Been messing with mine for an hour. Not at all impressed with the sound and I've moved it all over the room. Has a very dark sound. And I don't think it gets very loud at all. It certainly sounds far better than any other smart speaker, but it doesn't sound anywhere near as good as the reviews have led us to believe.

 

[Rogifan]

So my HomePod came this afternoon. It sounds really good, I’m noticing especially with live music. Just very crisp and clear no muddiness at all. I thought my Bose Soundlink mini was good but HomePod is much better. I’ll still keep the Soundlink mini because it doesn’t require dedicated power. I have an LG sound bar with separate subwoofer. That definitely has a deeper and richer bass sound but it’s not nearly as crisp and clean as HomePod. I’ll probably still use the sound bar with Apple TV but for music listening it will be HomePod all the way.

Just a couple annoying things: Siri struggles with items I have in iCloud Music Library that aren’t in iTunes or Apple Music. I’ll ask Siri to play a song from a specific album and she’ll say she can’t find it. Hopefully that will improve over time. The second annoyance is when I asked about the weather Siri gave it to me and then said my weather data comes from the Weather Channel. I don’t know if she’s hinting that we will be able to change that in the future (set defaults)? If not I hope she doesn’t do it often or there’s a way to turn it off.

 

[8CoreWhore]

I had the same issue. Wanted to test it out with my MacBook.

I just fixed it. I had to set speaker access to everyone...(in iPhone Home app) and with passcode... then connect with mac, put that pass code in... then connect with apple tv and put that passcode in....

 

[G5isAlive]

The product shipped today. Stop asking questions to a forum where people got the device two days ago if you don't want an honest guess answer based on our ability to read.

I'm sorry. I misunderstood. I didn't think anyone would honestly try to put the HomePod in their car. Honestly, I'm not that silly. I use products as intended by the manufacturer.


Because you shouldn't put it in your car. That isn't what it is for. I would appreciate a little more respect.

Say what? Shouldn’t put it in a car? Excuse me lol. Who made you the great decider? Pretty sure I didn’t see any disclaimer from Apple saying don’t use it in a car. Nor will I apologize for you acting as an authority in a thread about first impressions when you have no direct experience. Respect is earned. Start a thread, ‘people who want to talk authoritively about the home pod but who have never tried one.’

 

[AustinIllini]

Say what? Shouldn’t put it in a car? Excuse me lol. Who made you the great decider? Pretty sure I didn’t see any disclaimer from Apple saying don’t use it in a car. Nor will I apologize for you acting as an authority in a thread about first impressions when you have no direct experience. Respect is earned. Start a thread, ‘people who want to talk authoritively about the home pod but who have never tried one.’

It's not a car speaker. Sorry dude. I don't need authority to tell you your idea is a silly one.

You wouldn't wipe your behind with an iPhone, you shouldn't try to use homepod as a car speaker.

 

[firewire9000]

Is it possible to navigate through the library using your iPhone and play it in the HomePod by itself? I mean not using AirPlay. More like iTunes Remote.

 

[Mercury7]

I still just simply believe the Apple design and small size would work very well in a car, I was only asking questions to find any roadblocks...... it’s most going to appeal to those of us with older cars without good option for after market streaming.... Can’t say more til I try it but the design in that small of a space might actually beat door mounted options
And btw, you are connected to the internet via cellular but your streaming via Wi-Fi so you should be able to use Spotify, Amazon etc while cruising.... almost like free xm, a win