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HomePod HomePod first impressions

It may be the case that they’ll eventually lift the restriction against playing your own local library with stereo-paired HomePods, but I’m up against the clock here — my dedicated music server won’t run Mojave, so if they delay and delay and then make Mojave a prerequisite for stereo playback from your iTunes library, then I’m screwed.
 
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tubular said:
I've got one and I like it a lot. But I've also been looking forward to stereo pairing and getting a second one.

Then comes the news: stereo pairing only works with streamed audio, not with tracks from your own local iTunes library. If you want to play a track you ripped losslessly from your own disc into your own iTunes library, you have to give up true stereo.

It is beyond bizarre. It's like they had a committee meeting asking: what are the strangest and most arbitrary limitations we can build into this thing?
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Really? I can't believe that Apple would do this. I wanted to buy a second HomePod, but reading this really depresses me. Ugh.
 
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Four months in.. UPDATE

I have to say, that I do not use the HomePod as much as I thought I would. In saying that, I guess it depends heavily on the dynamics of your household and where you intend to place it. I have my HomePod in a shared location and a family of four that have very different tastes in music and podcasts. I have also disabled any cloud features to stop my kids from sending messages out from me.

Still loving..
  • the sound quality
  • SIRI working surprisingly well
  • the integration with apple music, podcasts, weather and other simple commands work well
  • ability to throw anything I am listening to on my phone to the HomePod via Control Centre

What I am struggling with...
  • Too expensive if you want stereo sound (To quote my brother "I don't have one ear")
  • Support for other apps nowhere to be seen - would love to see TuneIn radio etc
  • Would be nice if it knew who was talking to it - so it could react accordingly (too much to ask for?)
 
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DocMultimedia said:
Really? I can't believe that Apple would do this. I wanted to buy a second HomePod, but reading this really depresses me. Ugh.
Click to expand...

The glimmer of hope here for me is that, unlike Pages etc., iTunes usually doesn't demand the latest version of MacOS, and is usually comfortable with the most recent two or three. So it may be that the next version of iTunes will give the not-exactly-asking-for-the-world behavior of being able to stream to stereo-paired HomePods without forcing my 2010-era music server into unnecessary and arbitrary retirement.
 
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Not to shoot down your hopes, since it's all speculation, but I think Mojave will be needed. The HomePod is managed via HomeKit and the stereo setup in configured there. OS X had no HomeKit Support until Mojave...

I hope for your sake that my logic is faulty and that it's solely AirPlay 2 that matter thus iTunes, but I think HomeKit or at least the Home.app are also in play here...
 
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jweg said:
A speaker with Bluetooth is versatile and can be used where there's no WiFi. Like in the garden or at a party on the beach. Also, when I have friends over they can easily play their music by connecting with Bluetooth from their mobiles for example, no matter if it's an Android or iPhone or something else, as long as they support Bluetooth...
I use an Echo Dot with a JBL Xtreme that I bought 3 years ago for that versatility,
Click to expand...

You do realize that Bluetooth to your speaker will never compare to playing native music from Apple Music or via AirPlay. Bluetooth losses sound quality due to its own limitations. I can play my HomePod inside or outside with no issue as I have strong WiFi signal all around my house. And if my friends want to play music I am sure 90% or more is on Apple Music.
 
BlankStar said:
Not to shoot down your hopes, since it's all speculation, but I think Mojave will be needed. The HomePod is managed via HomeKit and the stereo setup in configured there. OS X had no HomeKit Support until Mojave...
Click to expand...

That’s what I’m afraid of. It would be a big kick in the teeth if the only way to get stereo playback from my iTunes collection on this server would be to move it to Windows thanks entirely to the ongoing HomePod/Airport2 delays.
 
ApeBot said:
Four months in.. UPDATE

I have to say, that I do not use the HomePod as much as I thought I would. In saying that, I guess it depends heavily on the dynamics of your household and where you intend to place it. I have my HomePod in a shared location and a family of four that have very different tastes in music and podcasts. I have also disabled any cloud features to stop my kids from sending messages out from me.

Still loving..
  • the sound quality
  • SIRI working surprisingly well
  • the integration with apple music, podcasts, weather and other simple commands work well
  • ability to throw anything I am listening to on my phone to the HomePod via Control Centre

What I am struggling with...
  • Too expensive if you want stereo sound (To quote my brother "I don't have one ear")
  • Support for other apps nowhere to be seen - would love to see TuneIn radio etc
  • Would be nice if it knew who was talking to it - so it could react accordingly (too much to ask for?)
Click to expand...

I'm using mine a bit more lately beyond just music since i relocated it to my bedroom.

"hey siri wake me up <whenever>" works well

also
"hey siri, stop!" to stop the alarm if i can't be bothered moving :D
 
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Wasn't interested but bought one from Best Buy and immediately had buyer's remorse. But I have a two-week return window. After a few days, I think I'm probably not going to return it. I've been listening to music whenever I get home every day in the background (mostly classical). I kind of forgot how much I love music.

My biggest pet peeve so far is you can't control the volume level of alerts. Also, I wish there was a HomePod remote.
 
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jasonklee said:
My biggest pet peeve so far is you can't control the volume level of alerts. Also, I wish there was a HomePod remote.
Click to expand...

Try this: "Hey Siri, set your volume to ten percent."

Since Airplay is a lossless transmission, since I've had my HomePod I've been on a mad reripping jag, taking discs I'd previously ripped at 256KBs and reripping them losslessly. No compression on the rip and no compression on the transmission means I'm getting CD quality directly out of the speaker. For classical, with its huge dynamic range, that's a good thing. My lossless rip stack is edging toward

Also, while I'm nattering on, I use the Remote app that Apple makes and pair it with my iTunes-running machine. You can configure that to, among other things, give you a list of the composers in your iTunes library. Alas, what you'll discover is that, although it's getting better, Apple's classical metadata is not very consistent, does not use the Sort Composer tag, and you should expect "Ludwig van Beethoven" to be alphabetized under "L" not "B".

So if you're willing to spend time getting your metadata in order, iTunes + HomePod + the Remote app make a nice combination. I can pick up my iPad, scroll a list, touch i.e. Erik Satie, get an alphabetized list of his works (or at least, the ones I've ripped), and choose to play the one I want. And all it takes is an absolute eternity editing metadata, and making sure the machine that you're running iTunes from is not signed in to Apple Music in any way, because if so their metadata quite rudely elbows aside your metadata.
 
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tubular said:
Try this: "Hey Siri, set your volume to ten percent."

Since Airplay is a lossless transmission, since I've had my HomePod I've been on a mad reripping jag, taking discs I'd previously ripped at 256KBs and reripping them losslessly. No compression on the rip and no compression on the transmission means I'm getting CD quality directly out of the speaker. For classical, with its huge dynamic range, that's a good thing. My lossless rip stack is edging toward

Also, while I'm nattering on, I use the Remote app that Apple makes and pair it with my iTunes-running machine. You can configure that to, among other things, give you a list of the composers in your iTunes library. Alas, what you'll discover is that, although it's getting better, Apple's classical metadata is not very consistent, does not use the Sort Composer tag, and you should expect "Ludwig van Beethoven" to be alphabetized under "L" not "B".

So if you're willing to spend time getting your metadata in order, iTunes + HomePod + the Remote app make a nice combination. I can pick up my iPad, scroll a list, touch i.e. Erik Satie, get an alphabetized list of his works (or at least, the ones I've ripped), and choose to play the one I want. And all it takes is an absolute eternity editing metadata, and making sure the machine that you're running iTunes from is not signed in to Apple Music in any way, because if so their metadata quite rudely elbows aside your metadata.
Click to expand...

I’ve tried that but that seems to affect the music volume, not alarms/timers.
 
I’ve bought two of them and man, the sound is astonishing. One HomePod sound pretty cool but two in thereo is another level. You can be whenever you want in the room that sounds almost perfect, there is no sweet spot. In addition of this, the sound is spacious, it seems that is coming from everywhere. They have a pretty good bass but not in excess. Sounds are clear, great dynamic range. I love them.
 
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dukebound85 said:
HomePod couldn't even make it 5 years
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HomePod was designed to sell Apple Music subscriptions. The Mini does that at a fraction of the price. It is conceivable that Apple is working on a HomePod Pro and/or a home theater solution involving Mini's and a wi-fi subwoofer accessory to be launched in the future once the Mini slows.

Either way, it generated a whopping $4.5 billion dollars in revenue, there are around 15,000,000 of them in circulation, and plenty of them to go around to those who want them. I love mine. I use them daily.
 
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boltjames said:
HomePod was designed to sell Apple Music subscriptions.
Click to expand...
That single minded focus combined with Siri still being bagage and no Google Assistant support is why the Homepod Pro hasn't sold well enough to justify its continued existence to Apple.

My brother just moved into his first flat. As a move gift I bought him a Sonos Beam Soundbar. It roughly 30% more expensive but head and shoulders more versatile and future proof.
 
boltjames said:
HomePod was designed to sell Apple Music subscriptions. The Mini does that at a fraction of the price. It is conceivable that Apple is working on a HomePod Pro and/or a home theater solution involving Mini's and a wi-fi subwoofer accessory to be launched in the future once the Mini slows.

Either way, it generated a whopping $4.5 billion dollars in revenue, there are around 15,000,000 of them in circulation, and plenty of them to go around to those who want them. I love mine. I use them daily.
Click to expand...
I just picked up two more HomePods today, the last of what I needed bringing my total to nine. They’re getting very difficult to obtain since the announcement yesterday, especially in Space Gray. My nearest Apple Store (Nanuet, NY) only had one left and I had to drive to a Best Buy about 40 miles away (American Dream Mall, East Rutherford) to get the second which also only had one left. I love them too. It’s evident by how many I have but I would bet anything a HomePod Pro is not on the Radar. Apple pretty much said they’re done with it and focusing on the Mini. An Apple home theater with Siri support would be something though... but I highly doubt that too.
 
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I must say that I'm hoping for a HomePod with a display attached to it like the competition had. They have all the tech inhouse to attach an older iPad mini to a HomePod so it's realistic they might release it one day... And as a HomePod and Homekit enthusiast I sure hope they will.
 
BlankStar said:
I must say that I'm hoping for a HomePod with a display attached to it like the competition had. They have all the tech inhouse to attach an older iPad mini to a HomePod so it's realistic they might release it one day... And as a HomePod and Homekit enthusiast I sure hope they will.
Click to expand...
A display could be useful for some situations, but I have a couple homepods that I don’t ever need displays for and I like them to be as inconspicuous as possible (plus it would add unnecessary expense), so I’d hope a display model would be an addition in the lineup rather than a replacement. Or better yet, it would be ideal if a display was modular. That way they wouldn’t need multiple HomePod SKUs, and the display (or iPad if used as the display) wouldn’t be anchored to the HomePod—one could position the display and HomePod separately for easier access if needed.
 
BlankStar said:
I must say that I'm hoping for a HomePod with a display attached to it like the competition had. They have all the tech inhouse to attach an older iPad mini to a HomePod so it's realistic they might release it one day... And as a HomePod and Homekit enthusiast I sure hope they will.
Click to expand...
I feel that a HomePod+ Screen is the biggest missed opportunity of this product line.

For software then they have the Apps, the video store, their own streaming service and a Home app. And for hardware they already perfected screens, touch, audio and specs. As much as people will claim “Duh, just use an old iPad“, the iMac has proven that integrating products increase simplicity and usage.

Anyway, its sad to see this product continue to get ignored. The potential was there, Apple just wasnt very interested.
 
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