I believe at least some if not most of the people composing here have not used one and bring up things they on;y believe won’t work
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HomePod Hands-On: Unboxing and Overview
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I believe at least some if not most of the people composing here have not used one and bring up things they on;y believe won’t work
tears? visit a good audio store.
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I've used Sonos 1, 5 against it at my friends house and it's better in most uses and placement.
That's the thing, this thing is tiny and can be placed in many places other good speakers cannot and it also has a wider place were it sounds good, which is great in places like kitchens, hallways, bathrooms, etc.
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Maybe you need a new set of ears unless you hover in the Sonos's sweet spots (in between 2) then maybe, but even then I'm not seeing it and I;m ot alone with that. And yes, I've compared them to actual Sonos 1 and 5.
Sonos is on trial because Apple is entering the same space. It is not competing against the crap that Amazon is putting out for sure.
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He's ingenuousness, actual consensus everywhere up to now (except dumbasses like Patel) is it's great but I wouldn't trust anything the guy you're commenting about anyway considering his posting history on the subject till now.
Actually, no one outside Apple knows how stereo will be designed for the HomePod. Clearly it will not be like traditional two-channel stereo with the early-60’s style separation (no train chugging across the soundstage). There will be no equilateral sweet spot for your head either—the illusion of depth and breadth is said to be effective in many locations. In any event, the market offers each of us and our individual hearing senses and wetwear processing systems a broad range of devices from which to choose. Read the results of the Pogue test: You’ll see what it’s foolish to claim that any particular sound system is “best” for everyone. Listen to all the well-regarded devices in your price range and listening environment and pick the one that pleases you the most for reproducing the genre of sound you listen to most often.
I am very pleased with the HomePod, and expecting that the dual speaker setup will be even better.
Oh wow, I'm actually surprised it's so well-received by audiophiles. Just finished reading the entire reddit thread, thanks for sharing. Subjectively I think my Bang & Olufsen gear matches the HomePod (despite that I don't think that my particular B&O gear is audiophile level), and beats my Harman/Kardon equipment in clarity ... but now I'm thinking that objectively the HomePod might also destroy my B&O gear in a flat comparison.
And interesting @ BMR. So they actually aren't tweeters, and cover the high to about the lower-middle of the mid range with each speaker, and the "woofer" covers much of the subwoofer range down to 40Hz (which interestingly would put it in THX approved range, lol). I imagine the audiophile test results will leave a lot of people feeling sour.
What is a good material to have the HomePod sitting on? Also, is it bad acoustically to have it sitting on a windowsill? I'm imagining that a window wouldn't adequately reflect the rear, but do not know.
-- edit --
Decided to go with the extra thick white (translucent) silicone mats on Amazon. Will do multiple layers, to dampen the vibrations on my metal windowsill.
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For the folks who asked about accessing NPR - if you just say “play NPR” you get the headlines, but I found that lots of stations can be accessed directly from the HomePod. You have to figure out what they’re called in Apple Music (call letters alone won’t work). I went into the music app and searched in the Radio tab til I found the station I wanted, then asked Siri for it on the HomePod. In my case the full name is “NPR news - KUER Salt Lake City” but asking Siri for NPR Salt Lake City works perfectly.
Long time reader, first time poster.
I pre-ordered two HomePods and received both on Friday. After a full day of use, I can say I am pleased with my purchase.
I am a 40ish male with a wife that abhors technology and two teenagers (boy and girl) on the verge of College. We did not currently have a sound system in our living room, however the last one we had was a Bose Lifestyle system. The second HomePod went in my daughter's room and was her requested Christmas gift. The other speakers in my home consist of Bose 251 outdoor speakers by the pool, a Bose acoustic sound machine in our basement, and a Bose Sound Link Mini in the office.
As far as sound goes, I am more than pleased with this product. I feel the $350 price tag is worth it alone to say "hey Siri, play ..." and have it work with Apple Music.
After 12 hours of playtime, I found myself using it more than I thought. At one point in the evening our teenagers were in different parts of the house and my wife and I were trying to plan the next day. As we discussed what we needed to do, I found myself adding items to our family calendar to plan the next day. I also used it to text my kids to see if certain times worked for them and to ask questions about what they had planned already. In 5 minutes we had the whole day planned with ease. It turned out to be a useful tool.
Using it to set scenes with Hue lights is outstanding. I have nine Hue lightbulbs and feel like this was the missing link for our nascent "connected home".
Acoustically HomePod is fantastic. The biggest limitation is Siri. While better, it's still Siri. More on that later. After more than 12 hours with 2 HomePods I already see their potential and have created my wishlist for Apple. (Excluded in this list is having Siri place a phone call. I am assuming that is coming and coming soon. It just has to happen)
1. While watching Apple TV tonight, I caught myself on several occasions wanting Siri to interact with my TV. I want a home without a remote and I think that is where Apple is headed. I want to say "what did they say" related to what is playing on my TV or "Hey Siri, play Rick and Morty in the living Room" without having to touch anything. I also want that to apply to live TV or a subscription plan of some sort. I think this is coming.
2. I want voice recognition. I want HomePod to know the difference between me, my wife, my son and daughter. When I say "Siri, send a text to..." I want it to know who "I" is.
3. When my Philip Hue sensors are triggered in my home entrance, I would like to be able to program HomePod with a custom welcome. I would love to be able to play "I'm too sexy" when my wife arrives home. from work. (Whatever, I think it's funny)
4. I would like to say "Hey Siri, find Alex" and have it locate my son in the house. (Beacons maybe?) That would be neat.
5. Full integration into my other connected devices would be cool. When my Ring doorbell detects motion, it would be cool if HomePod told me and I could reply "show me the video on the basement TV" and have it done via Apple TV. Even better, if HomePod knew where I was by using their beacon technology and displayed it automatically on the closest connected device when asked.
5. Lastly, as I welcome Siri into our home, I would like to change how I interact with it. I don't like saying "Hey" first. It's inefficient. I would prefer to just say "Siri, turn the lights on". But ideally, I would prefer to not have to say Siri at all. The name doesn't flow. I would like Apple to rebrand and find a name that is more personal. Siri is robotic, Alexa is more personal. There is room for improvement there. Siri doesn't exactly have a platinum reputation anyway. Siri still does not function nearly as well as it should by now. It still gets things wrong that it shouldn't by now. While it is good at picking up commands, it sometimes doesn't understand the comment. I am still optimistic that Apple has a plan in this arena. When Apple (hopefully) improves Siri's functionality, I hope they use the opportunity to rebrand. Just a wish list, what do I know?
My 2 cents based upon my current needs. Hope it was useful to someone.
-Steven
I pre-ordered two HomePods and received both on Friday. After a full day of use, I can say I am pleased with my purchase.
I am a 40ish male with a wife that abhors technology and two teenagers (boy and girl) on the verge of College. We did not currently have a sound system in our living room, however the last one we had was a Bose Lifestyle system. The second HomePod went in my daughter's room and was her requested Christmas gift. The other speakers in my home consist of Bose 251 outdoor speakers by the pool, a Bose acoustic sound machine in our basement, and a Bose Sound Link Mini in the office.
As far as sound goes, I am more than pleased with this product. I feel the $350 price tag is worth it alone to say "hey Siri, play ..." and have it work with Apple Music.
After 12 hours of playtime, I found myself using it more than I thought. At one point in the evening our teenagers were in different parts of the house and my wife and I were trying to plan the next day. As we discussed what we needed to do, I found myself adding items to our family calendar to plan the next day. I also used it to text my kids to see if certain times worked for them and to ask questions about what they had planned already. In 5 minutes we had the whole day planned with ease. It turned out to be a useful tool.
Using it to set scenes with Hue lights is outstanding. I have nine Hue lightbulbs and feel like this was the missing link for our nascent "connected home".
Acoustically HomePod is fantastic. The biggest limitation is Siri. While better, it's still Siri. More on that later. After more than 12 hours with 2 HomePods I already see their potential and have created my wishlist for Apple. (Excluded in this list is having Siri place a phone call. I am assuming that is coming and coming soon. It just has to happen)
1. While watching Apple TV tonight, I caught myself on several occasions wanting Siri to interact with my TV. I want a home without a remote and I think that is where Apple is headed. I want to say "what did they say" related to what is playing on my TV or "Hey Siri, play Rick and Morty in the living Room" without having to touch anything. I also want that to apply to live TV or a subscription plan of some sort. I think this is coming.
2. I want voice recognition. I want HomePod to know the difference between me, my wife, my son and daughter. When I say "Siri, send a text to..." I want it to know who "I" is.
3. When my Philip Hue sensors are triggered in my home entrance, I would like to be able to program HomePod with a custom welcome. I would love to be able to play "I'm too sexy" when my wife arrives home. from work. (Whatever, I think it's funny)
4. I would like to say "Hey Siri, find Alex" and have it locate my son in the house. (Beacons maybe?) That would be neat.
5. Full integration into my other connected devices would be cool. When my Ring doorbell detects motion, it would be cool if HomePod told me and I could reply "show me the video on the basement TV" and have it done via Apple TV. Even better, if HomePod knew where I was by using their beacon technology and displayed it automatically on the closest connected device when asked.
5. Lastly, as I welcome Siri into our home, I would like to change how I interact with it. I don't like saying "Hey" first. It's inefficient. I would prefer to just say "Siri, turn the lights on". But ideally, I would prefer to not have to say Siri at all. The name doesn't flow. I would like Apple to rebrand and find a name that is more personal. Siri is robotic, Alexa is more personal. There is room for improvement there. Siri doesn't exactly have a platinum reputation anyway. Siri still does not function nearly as well as it should by now. It still gets things wrong that it shouldn't by now. While it is good at picking up commands, it sometimes doesn't understand the comment. I am still optimistic that Apple has a plan in this arena. When Apple (hopefully) improves Siri's functionality, I hope they use the opportunity to rebrand. Just a wish list, what do I know?
My 2 cents based upon my current needs. Hope it was useful to someone.
-Steven
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You're right, call letters don't work. On the iPhone I discovered that you can ask Siri for NPR One and it gives you an opportunity to select your local station and stream it (they ask you to create an account in order to keep track of your listening preferences). How would any of this be done from the HomePod? Will it work if you are not an Apple Music subscriber?
EDIT: You don't have to be an Apple Music subscriber. The stations can be found on the iTMS.
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I don’t know if a subscription is needed - I’ve been a subscriber long enough that I don’t remember what was free and what showed up when I started paying. If you have access to radio stations in Apple’s music app on your phone, it should work on the HomePod.
Try just adding your station’s city to the HomePod request and see if Siri finds it. I know when I tried NPR Utah, Siri said it couldn’t find it but when I said NPR and the name of the city that worked. If not you can always use airplay to send NPR One audio to the HomePod. Good luck!
After airplaying several hours of music from my iphone se to the homepod I then turned off the homepod and started airplaying video to my atv with the tv app. But the videos were very jittery. Very strange because they were fine before I used the homepod. I thought at first it might have been file corruption with one particular file. But it wasn't. I tried a few more videos and the same thing happened.
So I reset both the iphone and the atv. That solved it. All the videos play nicely now. So somehow my previous extensive use of the homepod had compromised my devices (probably my iphone, not my atv). I suspect it's a RAM thing.
But this could be quite a nuisance if I have to reset devices every time I switch between the homepod and other devices.
I accept that fancier phones like the iphone x may have more ram and might not experience this bug. But I have never been a fan of big phones and so am generally happy with the se. I would be interested if other iphone se people have experienced similar bugs when switching airplay from homepod to other devices.
So I reset both the iphone and the atv. That solved it. All the videos play nicely now. So somehow my previous extensive use of the homepod had compromised my devices (probably my iphone, not my atv). I suspect it's a RAM thing.
But this could be quite a nuisance if I have to reset devices every time I switch between the homepod and other devices.
I accept that fancier phones like the iphone x may have more ram and might not experience this bug. But I have never been a fan of big phones and so am generally happy with the se. I would be interested if other iphone se people have experienced similar bugs when switching airplay from homepod to other devices.
Great link - thanks!
(I'm looking forward to his results when he posts them today.)
What?
Do you understand that, what you have just wrote, is an utter nonsense? If you are that picky of a perfectionist, I would love to see your set up.
The stereo sound works “as intended by the musicians” ONLY if you don’t move whatsoever, have speakers fixed in the correct level, EQ set perfectly (and I mean, it literally) have an exact acoustic room properties as the room the album recorded in.
EQ
Do you change EQ all the time you change a genre or even artist or even artist’s CD?
Do you change the walls for acoustic purposes while you change the record? You cannot have the same EQ or acoustic setting for Jazz, classical music and rock and dance music. They are mastered differently. The orchestra with 100 musicians does not have the same properties with 4 blokes rock band. The sound as artist truly intended is almost impossible to set up perfectly and makes music more of a work than relax.
You can only have a true “artist intended” experience by sitting on your ass on that one precise spot. Once you turn around or walk, it is already not as it was intended by musician. Same as 5.1 or 7.1 is useless if you are not exactly at that one “perfect spot”. Other place than that one spot are already the musically blind spots. For example, if you turn around, the panning reverses, bass comes from back, ... (naturally already all wrong) same thing standing sideways.
The fact that the sound of HomePod feels like it is following you is a huge thing. You are always in the spot. It may not be a stereo, but for that, surprisinglyyou would need 2 speakers, which, again, if not fixed to “sweet spot” are “not as artist intended”
One speaker will not give you an impressive “artist intended” stereo sound all over the room anyway, at least not evenly.
Dude, with stereo it's not a "spot". It's a zone. And yes if you leave it you do not get the optimal sound. With HomePod you do not get optimal sound (as intended by musician) anywhere. What you get (supposedly) is the same sound anywhere in the room (technically not feasible but the speaker may do better or worse job trying to achieve this goal).
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The comparisons may be strongly influenced by the placement of the speakers, music choices and personal preferences. Also, when people try describing the sound it's really difficult to understand what they mean (because of the nature of the subject). I think simple expression of preferences (preferably for various types of music) as in "which speaker(s) sound better" would be the best.
It may be too that a reciprocal problem may occur requiring a reset of the homepod itself.
If you need to reset the homepod you can do this 2 ways:
Via homepod:
- Unplug HomePod, then plug it back in.
- Press and hold the top of HomePod. Make sure that you keep your finger on the top of HomePod the entire time. If you lift your finger, you'll need to start over.
- As you press the top of HomePod, the white spinning light will turn red and Siri will say that your HomePod is about to reset.
- Keep pressing the top of HomePod untill you hear three beeps.
- On your iOS device, open the Home app. Make sure that your iOS device is signed in with the Apple ID that you used to set up your HomePod.
- In the Home or Rooms tab, press and hold HomePod, then tap Details.
- Scroll to the bottom and tap Remove Accessory.
Since there's a sweet spot for getting the right stereo image when listening to conventional stereo speakers I assume this is pod is basically a "fill the room with music speaker". For example a drum set is in mixed with a stereo field in mind the hi-hat is not when the floor-tom is for example. How does he pod reproduce that? I work with audio and it would be really interesting to test the pod as a speaker for mixing compared to my studio setup
Edit: This guy talks just that
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If I hear an exceptional sonic performance, I get goosebumps. The HomePods gave me goosebumps.
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This is an exceptional list.
[doublepost=1518345870][/doublepost]Having 8 people come around tonight and demo the homepod (not why they come over, but they are all interested in good audio and new products), some takeaways:
- Apple Music is shockingly better than anything AirPlayed, the EQ/pre-processing is a must to bring out the best sonic qualities. This is a shame for anyone who curates a large, high definition collection of music on iTunes. Or want to play from Spotify.
- Siri is extremely hit and miss for understanding Australian/overseas accents
- Siri is extremely hit and miss for understanding natural language/slang (“turn it up a bit” works; “turn that **** off” works, but with an admonishment that there’s no need for that language but most colloquial ways of asking siri to turn up or down the volume was met with confusion)
- Siri is astonishingly bad at separating house genres, or understanding what “chill” means. APPLE HIRE SOMEONE WHO KNOWS ELECTRONIC MUSIC FFS. It’s never just EDM or Pop Tropical House. Jesus.
- Siri is just **** at picking good music for people with broad tastes, period. Just because I listen to a lot of Beatles, don’t make my “personal channel” a ****ing classic rock radio station.
- This is my fault, but I listen to a lot of sci fi and movie sound tracks while I play XCOM, that does not mean I want to hear random OST tracks in my regular listening
- It’s not tuned for TV listening at all, YouTube clips especially sounds shrill and awful.
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I have read (and enjoyed) your various posts particularly your jousting with others about HP playing in stereo. You and others following these discussions will enjoy this http://tingilinde.typepad.com/omenti/2018/02/the-next-step-in-home-audio.html
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Anyone worried that the homepod will be a scratching post for your cat?
Today's the official launch day of the HomePod, Apple's new Siri-powered smart speaker. As of now, the HomePod is available in all three launch countries -- the United States, UK, and Australia.
The first orders have gone out to customers who purchased a HomePod starting on January 26, and Apple retail stores also have plenty of supply for walk-in purchases.
We picked up a couple of HomePods this morning, and MacRumors videographer Dan has spent the last few hours testing out the sound quality, the Siri integration, the HomeKit controls, the touch gesture integration, and more.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Design wise, the HomePod is deceptively small, but it's also heavy and has a solid build. It's covered in a soft, pliable mesh material meant to enhance sound, and there's a fabric-covered cable at the back.
After a bit of a snafu with the setup process, which appears to be related to HomeKit and iCloud keychain and is something we'll need to investigate further, we had the HomePod up and running with an alternate Apple ID.
Sound, as previous reviews and impressions have suggested, is incredible. Music is crisp and clear, with the HomePod highlighting and separating every element of a song. Even if you're not an audiophile, you're going to notice the high-quality sound of the HomePod right away.
We tested HomePod with Apple Music, which is how HomePod is meant to be used, but you can also play music from other third-party music services like Spotify using AirPlay.
HomePod's voice detection works impressively well, with Siri able to pick up a "Hey Siri" command from across the room even with music playing loudly. Siri is useful for playing content from Apple Music and controlling your HomeKit devices, but if you're used to something like Amazon Alexa, you're going to notice a few shortcomings.
Siri on HomePod is basically like Siri on the iPhone, and the personal assistant has almost the same feature set on both devices. Apple didn't make major improvements to Siri for the HomePod, and that's definitely one of the most disappointing aspects of the device.
For HomePod owners out there, how are you liking the HomePod so far? Let us know in the comments. Make sure to check out our HomePod roundup if you're new to HomePod or planning to purchase one -- it's got everything you need to know about HomePod along with a running list of our HomePod how tos.
Article Link: HomePod Hands-On: Unboxing and Overview
And especially for all the smart-a**es that thought there is no way the power cable was removable, a little video:
Well written post. Something that happened recently ...iOS source code leaks and I came on macrumors to see what members here are saying and there was barely any discussion about it. What was said we're mostly members saying its no big deal. But it's the biggest security risk if that happened to a competitor.You apparently don't know how things work here. As soon as Apple steps into ANY pond, all of the long-established players in that pond suddenly collapse into crap. Every possible thing that can be spun up as wrong with them (and then some... and then some stuff we might even make up or outright lie about and try to sneak through) will become VERY IMPORTANT features/issues unless Apple's cut at something is lacking there too.
There was a time that we completely LOVED Google Maps, until Apple Maps came along and then the former suddenly had flaws. We used to collectively LOVE Spotify and similar. Then Apple rolls out AM and Spotify suddenly became crap. Even when we have to really stretch to make such stuff appear to be crap, we'll go as far as spinning up profitability & viability as if that should be in the way of consumer enjoyment today. Just anything & everything we can say to try to help Apple sell their entrant against established players is what must be said.
And things that are hard to argue- such as the relative "smarts" in this case will be marginalized away as barely important at best and/or we'll start pounding away that they are no smarter and/or in fact dumber than Apple's cut. We'll also hide behind the ultimate crutch: "just one software update away" even if we know that sometimes the particular things imagined to be on the other side of such updates never actually arrive. In other words, we're happy to imply the hypothetical "what it could become" while holding all competitors to "what they are" (or "were" in some cases).
Specs won't matter unless some Apple spec is superior and then that particular spec will matter. However, let Samsung roll out a HousePod clone with an extra tweeter and/or a bigger sub and then the tweeter count and sub size will no longer matter in future discussions. In fact, we'll probably just flip that to Apple superiority based on "thinner" or "smaller." And note: the Samsung tweeters will be inferior even if they are sourced from the very same place and are in fact the very same tweeters. If that becomes too obvious such that it's hard to argue something different, we'll just promptly stop talking about tweeters altogether other than griping about Samsung's copycat ways.
It's like a rule. Apple could roll out Salsa or TP or Air and all Salsas would suddenly taste rancid, all TP would completely lose it's effectiveness and a number of people here would smother if they ran out of Apple air vs. daring to resume breathing normal air. We are collectively AMAZING that way.
Step back a few weeks and let this HP be a Samsung new product rollout and the collective take- even if it was exactly the same product- would be dramatically different. It's weaknesses would headline most ever post. It's strengths would be beat down as not so strong. What a difference a (brand) name can make.
I got mine on Friday. I like it but I do think it's bass heavy. I listen to mostly rock, and the bass drowns out the vocals.
Tried to Siri some local cities' NPR stations on my iPhone. No go. However if I Siri "Play NPR One" on my iPhone, it defaults to the live stream of the local station I set up previously. Then I need to tap play to actually hear it. I suppose I'd need to buy a HomePod just to find out if this works the same way as on another iDevice. Could you try asking your HomePod to play NPR One? I'd be really interested in the results!