So basically its better at being a speaker than being smart. Ok, so why should I buy this over a dedicated audio company's speakers? Like UE, or Bose, or JBL, or Sony or Klipsch or Polk Audio or Bang & Olufsen? All of those companies have decades of experience with audio. If I wanted good sound I could just use those speakers instead.
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HomePod Reviews: Outstanding Sound Quality, but Siri 'Struggles at Smart'
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It's simple really. If the speaker can't reproduce the sound (i.e. has poor frequency response) it will never be capable of delivering the music the way the musician created it. Car horns can play music too. Look at the frequency response and it'll tell you everything you need to know about the quality of the music reproduction they have. All these HomePod reviewers so far have been smart phone reviewers who have no clue about the music and sound. That and also they are Apple lapdogs who do regular Apple device reviews with universally high praise. And if they deviate, Apple stops giving them devices for early reviews.
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The mast critical limitations are all hardware. No aux input, small size, low power, no mid range drivers - these limitations can't be fixed in software.
That is literally problem number 1, 2 and 3 in most all Apple review circles at this point (and really in the last 5+ years).
You're lying about the reviewers so I'll consider everything else you say as a lie. But, hey, go on, you love the sound of your own voice.
This one works with Apple Music/Podcast apps by voice. Controls Homekit devices and works with AirPlay. It will get updated for multiroom audio and AirPlay 2 Control. Conventional speakers can be great, but fill a different role. I won’t be selling my conventional speakers, but there are a lot of times I would listen to music if it was a lot more convenient to access.
Also, the small footprint and circular design gives it much more flexibility in placement than an amp and stereo speakers. It takes up less than 6 inches of shelf space.
All the reviewers? You mean like TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino? Did you even read his review?
Frequency response tells you nothing. It can’t tell you if the bass is well controlled or loose. It can’t tell you if the highs are clear or harsh. It gives you no idea how much distortion the speaker produces. It can’t tell you the transient response of a driver. And so on...
Here’s three speakers. Which sounds better?
A: 41-22,000 Hz
B: 38-20,000 Hz
C: 25-30,000 Hz
Maybe frequency response won't tell you how tight the bass is but it will definitely tell you if there is any bass or not. And with HomePod we are not past this point yet. And I am pretty sure that with 4.5" woofer and the size of this speaker the bass will be lousy.
And you are fooling yourself if you think HomePod has the low frequencies anywhere near the examples you gave. You'll be lucky if you get 100Hz.
While that is true and it’s also what Apple has been pushing, I am kind of glad they are receiving a kicking over this. Whilst that focus may seem unfair from the point of Apple, I hope they use this feedback to kick the smarts up a notch.
Since we are now firmly into the second half of a decade of voice, I firmly believe that voice interfaces excel at a few focused things:
At home: Setting timers; controlling lights and appliances; controlling music; setting reminders, alarms and calendar events; getting sport scores
On the go: navigation; dictating messages
There are very few non-novelty scenarios outside of this that have taken off in a major way. On a regular basis: Do people use their Alexa to do online shopping? Do people go around asking their Google Home random trivia?
In this, it wouldn’t take much for Siri to catch up. Obviously it needs to recognise more than one voice and have a multi user setup. But other than that my only real complaint would be that it can’t set multiple timers and add calendar events. And the lack of being able to initiate phone calls is also baffling.
Software wise we are very much in the Watch OS 1.0 phase here. And we saw monumental jumps with 2 and 3. Let’s hope the software side catches up to the hardware rapidly.
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When the iPhone launched there were other, cheaper smartphones already in the market.
I use Google Assistant now along with Alexa! Google Assistant is more personable if you want to have a more conversational talk. If you are serious, Alexa is more direct in manners and approach! I alway try out Siri at the Apple Store just to see how it is progressing but it still "stupid" as can be! LOL!
Aux input was obviously intentional and I doubt HomePod will ever get it. I’m not sure what you mean by low power. I haven’t read all the reviews. Have they complained about no mid range drivers? Or is this just an audio snob who thinks the wrong people reviewed the device. If a high end audio publication gives it good marks for sound quality will you tag them as an Apple lapdog?
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So you don’t have one, haven’t heard it yet but you’re an expert on it’s sound? Oh and by the way practically every HomePod review has a big BUT in it with some saying there are better options. I wouldn’t say the device overall is getting universally high praise.
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Yep! They have already told us some of the stuff they will add, so we know it will get future updates.
As I mentioned before, I will just keep my Dots around for a couple skills ( they only take up about 3 inches of space) and mainly use the HomePod for audio, Homekit and AirPlay (and Airplay 2 Control when the update happens). It doesn't have to be an either/or situation. A Dot + a HomePod is still cheaper than the Google Max, which by all accounts sounds worse than the HomePod. I plan to use a couple Dot skills with the HomePod, so I am looking forward to trying that out, too.
Amazon's master stroke with Alexa was introducing it on a stationary device with a far-field mic array. Half the problem with voice assistants is hearing the user; Siri can't understand what it can't hear. My experience with using Siri for Apple Music (or anything else, actually) on the iPhone is terrible, but it's much better with CarPlay, where the mic is stationary, positioned behind the steering wheel.
Voice assistants make much more sense on devices that are halfway across the room than devices that are in your hand. The HomePod experience should be relatively better than iPhone as far as Siri is concerned.
If you’re not taking into account future updates when you purchase, you’re doing it wrong these days.
Ok. Whatever. I’m old and also still call Photos iPhoto. But you obviously understood what I was saying. But I wouldn’t say NOBODY uses it. I’m assuming you are using hyperbole to bolster your point unless you have some access to Apple’s data.
So why complain when Apple won’t let other services in or won’t allow acces to their services on other’s hardware. It should be a non issue if the situation is so “expected” and fixed. Its just the way it is.
Did anyone claim that frequency response is the only metric that matters? If they did they’re wrong, but I didn’t see that claim so maybe I just missed it. Just because it’s not the be-all-end-all though doesn’t mean it doesn’t tell us anything. If the FR falls off a cliff at 70 Hz, we know we aren’t going to be getting much bass.
You’re all over the place with your comments, changing your position with each rebuttal. Let’s take this most recent comment about bass to show you how wrong you are.
First off the 100Hz comment is absolutely false. I’ve always used PSB Speakers, so I looked at their current offerings. They have a bookshelf called the Imagine mini. It has a 4” bass and 1” tweeter. Its frequency response is rated at 55-23,000 Hz +/- 3dB. It’s also a multiple award winner.
http://www.psbspeakers.com/products/bookshelf-speakers/Imagine-mini
See that bottom number? 55Hz. So much for 4” drivers not being able to produce anything below 100Hz. And this was literally the first speaker I found with a 4” driver.
I’m convinced the HomePod will not only go lower still, but will have greater output. First off, refer to the attached picture of a typical bass driver.
Speaker operation is pretty basic. You pass an electrical current (audio) through the voice coil which creates an electromagnetic field. Since the voice coil is located within a circular permanent magnet, it will move forward or backward in response to this electrical current.
In order for the voice coil to move it has to overcome three opposing forces. The most obvious one is air - to produce bass you need to move air and this requires energy. The other two are the spider and the surround.
Speaker designers always make decisions (trade-offs) in the construction of the spider and surround. If they are very flexible and easy to move then the speaker is more efficient. For a given amount of energy passed through the voice coil, less is required to overcome the physical resistance of the spider and surround which leaves more energy to actually move the air. If they are very stiff, then it requires greater energy to overcome the spider and surround, leaving less available to move air. The speaker is less efficient.
Now you might wonder why someone would make a speaker with a stiffer spider/surround, if it makes the speaker less efficient. The problem with a highly flexible suspension is that the speaker tends to be “sloppy”. Without any resistance it moves so easily that it can “overshoot” where it’s supposed to move to before being driven back in the opposite direction. This results in muddy/sloppy bass. A stiffer suspension does the opposite - the bass will be tighter and well controlled.
One method engineers do to tighten up the bass is to use a speaker with a flexible suspension, but put it into a sealed enclosure. In order for the speaker to move it now has to overcome the air pressure within the enclosure. However, this again reduces efficiency. These are the decisions engineers have to think about when designing speakers. Nothing is free and there are always tradeoffs.
Enter the HomePod. It has a very high excursion bass driver. It also has no enclosure. If it has a stiff suspension it will be inefficient. If it has a flexible suspension then the bass will be sloppy. Or will it?
The HomePod has one unique feature that’s not talked about much. It has a single dedicated microphone whose sole purpose is to monitor the movement of the bass driver and make real-time corrections. This is why I think the HomePod bass driver has a flexible suspension to allow for higher efficiency and greater bass output. The microphone is used to make sure the bass isn’t sloppy by correcting the driver movements. So you get a flexible suspension AND tighter more controlled bass.
Will it rock your house like a 12” subwoofer? Of course not. But it will have pretty damn good bass for it’s size, and will most certainly go well below your claim of 100Hz.
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Ha did you seriously edit what I wrote to make a snarky comment? For those unable to grasp, try this:
The competition is making home assistants. People seem to want them. Apple’s response to that is to enter the market with a speaker that has a secondary home assistant to it. Siri is a bit lacking but this seems like a point where they could have made a leap. Instead, we get premium sound. I’m sure it sounds great and will be a great product for its intended purpose. My opinion is just that they may have missed the mark.
So you’re saying there’ll be a non-early review any day now that will contradict those findings, right?
Or does your conspiracy theory go even deeper?
To be fair, you’re comparing the 4” driver in a nearly $800 pair of bookshelves in the PSB’s to the one in the HomePod. I think PSB had a little more room to work with in regards to quality of materials going into their woofer compared to Apple. Especially considering all the electronics Apple had to cost in their speaker. I don’t think we should be purporting that Apple’s 4” woofer will be performing the same or better than PSB’s. But yes, the idea of the HomePod not even going down to 100 Hz was likely very wrong.
I’ll believe that when I see it, especially at the industry standard of +/-3dB. The 40 Hz figure is getting well into floor standing speaker territory. I still haven’t seen that figure corroborated anywhere else. We’ll find out soon enough as people will surely be testing it on Friday and over the weekend.
