HomePod First Listen Impressions: 'Incredible' Audio With Bass-Heavy Sound That Easily Beats Echo

[WatchFromAfar]

^ I love that photo caption!


Next up:

Refrigerator requires constant AC power for food cooling

I think they're spinning the fact it has no internal battery thus isn't a portable music solution.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

I love the idea that it learns the acoustic environment during each start-up. It makes total sense for moving around the house into the varied sonic spaces like the kitchen, laundry room, bedroom, living room, workshop, garage.

My concern is will it also be end user tweak-able once it establishes a base line for a particular room - as in "SIRI, please lower the bass by 3 db's." Living only in the "BEATS-Zone" would be a deal breaker for me.

Knowing Siri, with that command, Siri will probably wind up playing the Bee Gee's instead! (db's...Bee Gee's...get it?) The Homepod (i hate even writing that name) should have a LED light array on top that projects sound actuated light patterns on the ceiling...like a mirror ball. Perfect to go with the Bee Gee's!

 

[macduke]

I'm not too excited about this. I'd rather have one that has less fancy speakers but can do more for that price. Not everyone in my house wants to listen to the same music. Apple also doesn't do a good job at disabling explicit music, as we have young children. Their approach is either to block it entirely or allow it entirely by diving into parental controls that are difficult to toggle on and off throughout the day. Most other services that I use will offer the radio edit version instead. Apple Music doesn't for whatever reason. I'd rather have a $199 box that does what this one does, without the fancy speakers, and with mesh Wi-Fi network capabilities. Then I could have one upstairs, and one downstairs, and better Wi-Fi in my house and easy access to Siri. But do I even want easier access to Siri? I thought Siri was getting overhauled and it doesn't seem like they did very much. I'd go with a competitor if I didn't have concerns about privacy.

 

[OneMike]

Still would take the competition over this for price if nothing else.

The echo dot sound is good enough for the ways I use such a device. Hook to my external system for anything heavy. For the price you can just get so much more even if you don't currently have any type of system.

 

[LordQ]

Based on the new natural language and iCloud features of Siri, and how Siri is used to control the HomePod/Apple Music, the expansion is a fact. Whether or not it can do multilingual awareness like your example would be my assumption. I would assume they would learn your library (machine learning on the chip) to know what you've added at least.

Fair enough.

 

[itguy06]

Would be interesting to see how they compare to other speakers, like the Vizio Crave series as all reports are that those sound great. And at $199/299 they are more affordable and in the case of the Crave 360 portable as it has a battery.

 

[sputnikv]

Are they sure this device can exclusively stream Apple Music? It doesn't support Airplay to allow streaming stuff from an iPhone or a Mac?
What if the internet connection is not working and I want to play music, or I don't want to pay for the subscription since I have spotify or other music services?

it most certainly supports airplay 2

 

[DakotaGuy]

airpods all over again...
people before purchase ..meeh too expensive they look weird
people after purchase...best, i love them, my new toy, apple magical experience

The difference is you can listen to anything you want with AirPods. This is Apple Music only and it doesn't even have an aux input jack. So yeah it probably has AirPlay, but without an Apple Music subscription it's just an awfully expensive "dumb" speaker. It's also missing an Apple logo so how will your friends know that you spent a lot of money on "the brand" which is important to so many.

 

[tazinlwfl]

Faux stereo will not match real stereo...

That's a very limited understanding of acoustics and what "stereo" is. It's certainly not "2.1", but if you have a room filling speaker that knows exactly how loud each of the 7 radial speakers need to be in order to reflect the sound waves around the room (like a lot of more expensive home theater receivers), it can easily split a 2-channel stereo input into 8 different channels and handle it better than most HTiB/ PC speakers with their very limited processing hardware.

 

[philip456]

It would be so good it there's an Ethernet port at the back.

Wireless is one thing, but if you have Ethernet connectivity where the HomePod is going to be situated, it will be that much more reliable, faster and with less latency.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

I can't wait to see it.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

But is it $200 better sounding? Is it twice as better as Echo?

We won't get an objective review toward answering this type of question until objective reviewers outside of WWDC can do some head-to-head tests. And even then, who can determine "$200 better sounding" except on an individual, ear-of-the-beholder basis? My guess is that since Apple keyed the main thrust of the spin around better quality of sound, these probably will sound better than existing smart speaker competition (for now). Will that difference be enough to warrant $200 more? Ear of the beholder.

If Apple's does sound best, how hard will it be for competitors to react? This is not like an iOS advantage, where the challenge of building a whole OS does constrain many competitors. Sound is just sound. Dramatically improving the sound of speakers is mostly a matter of upgrading parts & configuration. Take less margin and put more money into those parts and you may deliver more value for the same money.

Besides, $349 will buy a LOT of speaker products. Will these sound superior to all speakers priced $349 and below? Probably not. But those shopping for a "smart speaker" now has a new option to consider that, at least for the moment, is being spun as having the best sounding audio of this group of products. Competition is good.

 

[urkel]

The "Music Box" angle is brilliant. People are so caught up in the marketing of a "Better than Average" speaker that they're completely ignoring the limitations of HomeKit and the fact that Siri is so far behind.

BTW. Before anyone gets angry then I've got this on my holiday shopping list already. It may be overly focused on Music now, but we have 6months before the product ships so I'm really hoping they can shift focus to the actual reason people buy these "Lady in a Canister" devices. To supplement a smart home. (The worry for me is that if Apple doesnt ship this "perfect" then it will likely fall into their bin of "Hobby products that we'll get around to updating in 3 years. Apple really has become awful with post-release improvements)

 

[profmjh]

Apple has done a remarkably good job.But the price is a bit high!

You could say that about everything Apple makes!

 

[ZipZap]

Is the sound really the point of this device. I thought it was to be an assistant. When I play music through Alexa it sounds great. Do I need Fidelity from a device like this? Do you?

Perhaps this is really about excessive revenue for Apple. At $200+ more than Amazon, I would be hard pressed to buy. Is it really that much better?

I expected Apple to complete with the others and offer something truly fantastic at a competitive price.

 

[ZipZap]

The "Music Box" angle is brilliant. People are so caught up in the marketing of a "Better than Average" speaker that they're completely ignoring the limitations of HomeKit and the fact that Siri is so far behind.

BTW. Before anyone gets angry then I've got this on my holiday shopping list already. It may be overly focused on Music now, but we have 6months before the product ships so I'm really hoping they can shift focus to the actual reason people buy these "Lady in a Canister" devices. To supplement a smart home. (The worry for me is that if Apple doesnt ship this "perfect" then it will likely fall into their bin of "Hobby products that we'll get around to updating in 3 years. Apple really has become awful with post-release improvements)

I am not inclined to spend top dollar to be a beta tester. Apple has had more than enough time to make this fantastic especially since they say they have been working on this for a long time. Just more overpriced high profit stuff.

 

[jimbobb24]

Why would having Apple Music matter. These people never heard of iTunes?

Beating the Echo? Big deal. Beating the Sonos? Ok. You have my attention.

 

[timborama]

"Incredible"... maybe, but not "mind blowing".

 

[Koodauw]

The iPod Hi-fi, re-imagined for the times.

 

[ZipZap]

The iPod Hi-fi, re-imagined for the times.

I think that will fit in my pocket.

 

[Eduardo1971]

Nobody want this trash bin, where will you ***** put it in your house?

The best choice would have been something to put on the ceiling, to replace the ugly light buble we all have, so we could imagine stuff like change color of the room based on the mood of the music, and detecting movements no matter where you are

This is so much old school, nobody would want to buy a fat trash bin, this is a stupid product as it is

So much anger for a speaker? Frightening.

 

[nt5672]

Sure... pitch it against the Play 3... the worst of all the Sonos speakers. I want to know how it sounds compared with the Play 5!

To clarify; I've been waiting for a multi-room speaker system I can invest in and fill my house with... I don't mind paying more, I just want it to sound amazing!

Isn't that apples motto? build the best, charge the most, then kit it out with new sports bands?

Not any more, Apple new motto is market it as the best and a lot of people will buy it regardless of its quality and performance.

 

[doelcm82]

While I'm glad Apple rolled out one of these (mostly on hope that it somewhat presses them to make significant investments in "catching up" Siri), I suspect we're only about 2 days MAX away from the usual crowd rallying hard around how quality of sound is paramount as part of being able to now spin all smart speaker competition as junk.

Come on. The usual crowds are already choosing their respective talking points to rally around. Everyone is part of a usual crowd. There's even a usual crowd of people with relatively nuanced opinions (my peeps!).

I predict:

• The usual crowds will argue about which set of features is most important for a smart speaker.
• These will sell out on release, and the usual crowds will argue about what that means.
• Apple will not announce sales figures for these, and the usual crowds will argue about what that means.
• Apple will produce slick commercials for HomePod, and the usual crowds will argue about the quality, effectiveness, and appropriateness of those commercials.
• There will be a usual crowd saying, "it doesn't do X, so I'm out." Not really a prediction. More of an observation.
• Apple will be fine.

 

[lwells1441]

you compare a 5 setup speakers or 7 to 1? compare your setup with 5 of these

In a heartbeat! It's not about number of speakers. You only have two ears anyway. Some of the worlds best systems are only two towers.

If you have the chance, demo a full electrostatic setup like the OP is describing. Electrostatic speakers are quite special.

 

[profmjh]

I'm looking forward to own one, maybe by January.

Is this your first rodeo?

In September, Cook will triumphantly announce orders will be taken in mid-October.

Ordering will in fact open in the second week of December. Shipping times will slip to two months within 10 minutes of the first orders being placed.