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HomePod with Apple TV
- Thread starter Ben1l
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I don’t think Apple is really competing against those systems, at any price.
When they introduced the HomePod and revealed the price they put up a slide that said something like “wifi speaker+smart speaker=$” where WiFi speaker means Sonos and smart speaker means “has a Voice Assistant,” but the HomePod is really the first consumer smart loudspeaker in the sense of “computational audio” (“first*” in the sense that the iPhone was the first “modern” smartphone).
*Technically second since Google beat them to market with the Home Max, which adjusts the bass level if you put it near a wall, I think. I’d be curious to know what the devolopment timeline of that product was, since it was announced four months after HomePod and Apple claims to have begun devoloping theirs 6 years ago. (Sonos is halfway there—in theory—with Trueplay.)
But (making some simplyfing assumptions about room size and loudness), I also don’t really think most people would be getting anything much by paying more (within reason) for conventional systems.
For example I went and checked the Wirecutter’s pick for 5.1 speaker package and would definitely advise not buying the $470 Pioneer** set they recommend and perhaps trying their budget $150 Monoprice pick instead (I’m even now considering buying this and the $430 Denon receiver they recommend just to play around with (I’m curious to see what Audyssey can do—one of its founders, Tomlinson Holman, started working at Apple in 2011, around the time they’re supposed to have started developing HomePod), but I can only imagine what the average person would think if you handed them this and some speaker wire and wire strippers for free, much less expected them to pay ~$600 for.)
**Not neccessarily related to my advice but the center channel has a curved bottom that’s designed to sit on two loose curved rubber feet (without which you could rock it up and down) for angling it upward.
try going on an av focussed forum , i'm sure people will guide you
a basic yamaha , denon , onkyo or pioneer av amp plus speakers from the likes of monitor audio , tannoy , mission etc etc
a basic yamaha , denon , onkyo or pioneer av amp plus speakers from the likes of monitor audio , tannoy , mission etc etc
Never forget that ANY 5.1 system is a non starter for the average consumer.
Totally different different market and person who buys this SONOS / HomePod to separates my friend. It's the equivalent of saying to a Chic Lady 'Hey, why do you buy a Fiat 500 when you can buy a gas guzzling SUV with big wheels!'
A person who buys a SONOS is looking for something discreet, easy to use with their iPhone lifestyle often in a open plan apartment. A few loudspeakers with AV amp can look absolutely awful in a contemporary, design led apartment. I for one would never allow an AV amp with cables, boxes & speakers in my house. I had all things like that as a teenager and i've moved on. Now I want super modern Bluetooth speakers, iPhones, Apple TV - tiny, beautifully designed often portable things. Now in my house, my only speaker is a B&O PLAY A1 tiny little thing but I couldn't be happier - music travels with me - i'm not tied down to one room
I think it's clear that people nowadays are listening to music more as an ambience rather than solely critical listening and the same with home cinema or the decline of it in Europe.
I think people need to stop trying to compare the HomePod to AVR setups. Sure the price may be comparable, but it is two totally different goals. The HomePod is mainly about convienece. I would use a HomePod in my living room over a 2.1 setup for music because it is easier to setup and gets the job done for 99% of people. It’s the same reason I am thinking about just using a simple sonos sound bar/sub in my living room. Simple and clean outweighs quality in certain circumstances.
I’m about to move into a new (smallish) place and love the idea of having a HomePod in my living room, as I’m all in on Apple Music, HomeKit, etc. At the same time, I’m also looking to upgrade the eleven year old bookshelf speakers I’ve been using for years with my living room TV.
There’s no way I’m going to buy separate speakers for my TV when a perfectly nice HomePod is sitting right there. I think that if I do get a HomePod, I’ll just use that as my audio output with my TV. It’ll be a huge pain if I need to switch the TV’s input every time I use the HomePod independently, but I’d much rather do that than have two speakers in the same small room.
Hopefully Apple will address this use case in a future update. If they could make it so that the Apple TV automatically takes over the HomePod whenever it’s turned on, that’d be perfect for a lot of us, I think.
There’s no way I’m going to buy separate speakers for my TV when a perfectly nice HomePod is sitting right there. I think that if I do get a HomePod, I’ll just use that as my audio output with my TV. It’ll be a huge pain if I need to switch the TV’s input every time I use the HomePod independently, but I’d much rather do that than have two speakers in the same small room.
Hopefully Apple will address this use case in a future update. If they could make it so that the Apple TV automatically takes over the HomePod whenever it’s turned on, that’d be perfect for a lot of us, I think.
if they can link it seamlessly to any tv i think they'll have a winner on their hands
i haven't heard one yet - for all i know i could be utterly wrong and it might make a normal av system redundant !!
more blood on apple's clickwheel and yet another industry they're about to revolutionise ????
i haven't heard one yet - for all i know i could be utterly wrong and it might make a normal av system redundant !!
more blood on apple's clickwheel and yet another industry they're about to revolutionise ????
In my roamings, I've found 5.1 home theaters very common among friends, relatives & acquaintances. In fact, I'd say they are far more common than any other single brand electronics device. (Only the iPhone would come in a close second, if not a tie!)
I do get your point about the anxiety of wiring speakers. Fortunately for the tech-averse, an increasingly amount of soundbar and similar systems are including wireless subwoofers and surrounds in with the package.
//
Probably more common with home owners. I just hate the extreme amount of cabling that is needed (unless you have pre-wired walls) and it can make a room look so... cluttered. Again, maybe not a big deal for a homeowner with a large media room, but I live in an apartment with limited space.
I looked around for a started system - mainly focusing on a solid receiver that would allow for future expansion but they were pretty damn expensive if I wanted to future proof (add additional speakers, 4K pass through, etc.). I just got turned off by the whole scene.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Wow. I can't believe some of what I read here.
5.1 surround has been a thing since way back in the 1990s (and surround before that). A fair number of homeowners eventually want to build a home theater (or just make a room the theater room, even if that room is the living room), so they go to the trouble of running the wires. When they move, they typically won't un-run the wires, so the next owner can probably leverage the wires left in place by the former owner. In my own situation, I've made the "pre-wired for surround sound" a selling benefit when I've sold my homes.
For apartment people: once again, sometimes apartments are pre-wired. It doesn't make a lot of sense of un-wire after one wires unless the wires are easily removed (meaning, not run through walls, etc). Apartment people usually take advantage of wire runs under rugs and similar to feed their rear channel speakers.
There are ultra-thin wires that can be temporarily run around door ways etc that don't significantly show too. So that's a good option for the rug haters.
However, for the anti-wire aesthetic crowd, there are also wireless solutions for the rears & sub. Lots of 5.1 soundbar sellers make the front channel soundbar wirelessly connect to the subwoofer which can be positioned toward the back of the room. Those subwoofers then own the wired connections for the rear speakers. Thus, in this scenario, there are no wires running front-to-back across a floor to the sub & rears- the rear speaker wires can be run along a rear wall out of the sub instead. Here's a pic to illustrate the concept...
![sound-580x405.png]()
I just set some ("no ugly wires") relatives up with one of these exact things for about the price of 2 HPs. It was "plug & play": didn't even have to do any configuring with their TV, as soon as the HDMI was plugged in, the TV switched sound to the system. This particular one has the extra HDMI jacks to get their other AV equipment plugged in too (what??? extra connections??? why would anyone want to be able to plug other AV sources into their main room speakers). There's no wires from front to rear. Sounds terrific. They can Airplay through their 
TV and/or verbally command Siri through their TV to play through these speakers. They can also leverage free radio apps on the TV like Pandora or iHeartRadio for no Airplay usage. If they wanted a lossless source to feed these speakers, they can opt for the Tidal app on the TV or play lossless CD rips via iTunes Home Sharing.
I realize that part of this thread is about a dream of making HPs work. So, getting past the concept of Apple not pushing HPs as 5.1 surround sound setup speakers themselves, if Apple decides to make that possible and support making rears work as rears in the traditional sense, all the wire-haters still have the issue of the power cable coming out of every single HP, something the traditional 5.1 wiring setup does NOT have to worry about.
Odds are probably fair-to-good that many rooms would not have electric sockets distributed such that even if HPs already paired up for a full 5.1 surround setup, there's probably not sockets in a 5.1-supporting layout to plug in 3-5 HPs to do this anyway. Imagine it yourself and look at your TV room. Can you find easily accessible plugs for front left, right, center and rear left & right too? Or will that require at least 1+ of those speakers being hooked into an extension cable and running across the floor to the nearest available socket?
Those taking some great issue with the aesthetics issue of seeing wires will not escape what is a thicker, prominent wire that is the HP power cord.
Basically: where there's a will, there's a way. People have been hooking up 5.1 or better surround sound setups in their main TV rooms since way back into the 1990's. Someone wanting to do it will find a way. I've personally done it when I lived in apartments and since I've lived in homes. Yes, the one-time hassle of figuring out a way to get speakers wired in the right locations can indeed be a hassle, but the wiring task is a ONE-TIME challenge. Get it done that one time and then you don't have to deal with it again until maybe you move (if you CHOOSE to move to an apartment or home not already wired for it).
If you don't mind a few rugs, you can keep speaker wires out of the walls and run them along the edges of walls, using rugs or similar where they need to cross a doorway and you don't want to go to the trouble of carefully running them up and around the doorway to make them as invisible as possible. If you have an accessible attic or basement, the task is significantly simplified by taking advantage of either or both. If you are all sealed in (no attic or basement), the near invisible wires and/or a few well-placed rugs can overcome most of the aesthetics issues.
The dream of real wireless surround sound is still only a dream. All speakers need a power source. Every HP unit comes with a wire to connect to one. "Think Different!"
5.1 surround has been a thing since way back in the 1990s (and surround before that). A fair number of homeowners eventually want to build a home theater (or just make a room the theater room, even if that room is the living room), so they go to the trouble of running the wires. When they move, they typically won't un-run the wires, so the next owner can probably leverage the wires left in place by the former owner. In my own situation, I've made the "pre-wired for surround sound" a selling benefit when I've sold my homes.
For apartment people: once again, sometimes apartments are pre-wired. It doesn't make a lot of sense of un-wire after one wires unless the wires are easily removed (meaning, not run through walls, etc). Apartment people usually take advantage of wire runs under rugs and similar to feed their rear channel speakers.
There are ultra-thin wires that can be temporarily run around door ways etc that don't significantly show too. So that's a good option for the rug haters.
However, for the anti-wire aesthetic crowd, there are also wireless solutions for the rears & sub. Lots of 5.1 soundbar sellers make the front channel soundbar wirelessly connect to the subwoofer which can be positioned toward the back of the room. Those subwoofers then own the wired connections for the rear speakers. Thus, in this scenario, there are no wires running front-to-back across a floor to the sub & rears- the rear speaker wires can be run along a rear wall out of the sub instead. Here's a pic to illustrate the concept...
I just set some ("no ugly wires") relatives up with one of these exact things for about the price of 2 HPs. It was "plug & play": didn't even have to do any configuring with their TV, as soon as the HDMI was plugged in, the TV switched sound to the system. This particular one has the extra HDMI jacks to get their other AV equipment plugged in too (what??? extra connections??? why would anyone want to be able to plug other AV sources into their main room speakers
). There's no wires from front to rear. Sounds terrific. They can Airplay through their TV and/or verbally command Siri through their TV to play through these speakers. They can also leverage free radio apps on the TV like Pandora or iHeartRadio for no Airplay usage. If they wanted a lossless source to feed these speakers, they can opt for the Tidal app on the TV or play lossless CD rips via iTunes Home Sharing.I realize that part of this thread is about a dream of making HPs work. So, getting past the concept of Apple not pushing HPs as 5.1 surround sound setup speakers themselves, if Apple decides to make that possible and support making rears work as rears in the traditional sense, all the wire-haters still have the issue of the power cable coming out of every single HP, something the traditional 5.1 wiring setup does NOT have to worry about.
Odds are probably fair-to-good that many rooms would not have electric sockets distributed such that even if HPs already paired up for a full 5.1 surround setup, there's probably not sockets in a 5.1-supporting layout to plug in 3-5 HPs to do this anyway. Imagine it yourself and look at your TV room. Can you find easily accessible plugs for front left, right, center and rear left & right too? Or will that require at least 1+ of those speakers being hooked into an extension cable and running across the floor to the nearest available socket?
Those taking some great issue with the aesthetics issue of seeing wires will not escape what is a thicker, prominent wire that is the HP power cord.
Basically: where there's a will, there's a way. People have been hooking up 5.1 or better surround sound setups in their main TV rooms since way back into the 1990's. Someone wanting to do it will find a way. I've personally done it when I lived in apartments and since I've lived in homes. Yes, the one-time hassle of figuring out a way to get speakers wired in the right locations can indeed be a hassle, but the wiring task is a ONE-TIME challenge. Get it done that one time and then you don't have to deal with it again until maybe you move (if you CHOOSE to move to an apartment or home not already wired for it).
If you don't mind a few rugs, you can keep speaker wires out of the walls and run them along the edges of walls, using rugs or similar where they need to cross a doorway and you don't want to go to the trouble of carefully running them up and around the doorway to make them as invisible as possible. If you have an accessible attic or basement, the task is significantly simplified by taking advantage of either or both. If you are all sealed in (no attic or basement), the near invisible wires and/or a few well-placed rugs can overcome most of the aesthetics issues.
The dream of real wireless surround sound is still only a dream. All speakers need a power source. Every HP unit comes with a wire to connect to one. "Think Different!"
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Yupp. It's a one-time challenge and for those who like discreteness, there are many 5.1 choices with small black or white satellites that sound fantastic.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Right, no one should be confused into believing I'm endorsing that one option linked- there are MANY such options available... especially if anyone imagines HPs in quantities of 5 ($1,745) to 7 ($2,443). That example I referenced cost about what only 2 HPs cost. It was a good match for the relative's situation and wants but there are certainly MANY other great options for about any budget.
Wow. I can't believe some of what I read here.
5.1 surround has been a thing since way back in the 1990s (and surround before that). A fair number of homeowners eventually want to build a home theater (or just make a room the theater room, even if that room is the living room), so they go to the trouble of running the wires. When they move, they typically won't un-run the wires, so the next owner can probably leverage the wires left in place by the former owner. In my own situation, I've made the "pre-wired for surround sound" a selling benefit when I've sold my homes.
For apartment people: once again, sometimes apartments are pre-wired. It doesn't make a lot of sense of un-wire after one wires unless the wires are easily removed (meaning, not run through walls, etc). Apartment people usually take advantage of wire runs under rugs and similar to feed their rear channel speakers.
There are ultra-thin wires that can be temporarily run around door ways etc that don't significantly show too. So that's a good option for the rug haters.
However, for the anti-wire aesthetic crowd, there are also wireless solutions for the rears & sub. Lots of 5.1 soundbar sellers make the front channel soundbar wirelessly connect to the subwoofer which can be positioned toward the back of the room. Those subwoofers then own the wired connections for the rear speakers. Thus, in this scenario, there are no wires running front-to-back across a floor to the sub & rears- the rear speaker wires can be run along a rear wall out of the sub instead. Here's a pic to illustrate the concept...
![sound-580x405.png]()
I just set some ("no ugly wires") relatives up with one of these exact things for about the price of 2 HPs. It was "plug & play": didn't even have to do any configuring with their TV, as soon as the HDMI was plugged in, the TV switched sound to the system. This particular one has the extra HDMI jacks to get their other AV equipment plugged in too (what??? extra connections??? why would anyone want to be able to plug other AV sources into their main room speakers
I realize that part of this thread is about a dream of making HPs work. So, getting past the concept of Apple not pushing HPs as 5.1 surround sound setup speakers themselves, if Apple decides to make that possible and support making rears work as rears in the traditional sense, all the wire-haters still have the issue of the power cable coming out of every single HP, something the traditional 5.1 wiring setup does NOT have to worry about.
Odds are probably fair-to-good that many rooms would not have electric sockets distributed such that even if HPs already paired up for a full 5.1 surround setup, there's probably not sockets in a 5.1-supporting layout to plug in 3-5 HPs to do this anyway. Imagine it yourself and look at your TV room. Can you find easily accessible plugs for front left, right, center and rear left & right too? Or will that require at least 1+ of those speakers being hooked into an extension cable and running across the floor to the nearest available socket?
Those taking some great issue with the aesthetics issue of seeing wires will not escape what is a thicker, prominent wire that is the HP power cord.
Basically: where there's a will, there's a way. People have been hooking up 5.1 or better surround sound setups in their main TV rooms since way back into the 1990's. Someone wanting to do it will find a way. I've personally done it when I lived in apartments and since I've lived in homes. Yes, the one-time hassle of figuring out a way to get speakers wired in the right locations can indeed be a hassle, but the wiring task is a ONE-TIME challenge. Get it done that one time and then you don't have to deal with it again until maybe you move (if you CHOOSE to move to an apartment or home not already wired for it).
If you don't mind a few rugs, you can keep speaker wires out of the walls and run them along the edges of walls, using rugs or similar where they need to cross a doorway and you don't want to go to the trouble of carefully running them up and around the doorway to make them as invisible as possible. If you have an accessible attic or basement, the task is significantly simplified by taking advantage of either or both. If you are all sealed in (no attic or basement), the near invisible wires and/or a few well-placed rugs can overcome most of the aesthetics issues.
The dream of real wireless surround sound is still only a dream. All speakers need a power source. Every HP unit comes with a wire to connect to one. "Think Different!"
You are in the USA. It's a very very market. People live on TV there. Home cinema simply is not popular in the UK in 2018. Hence why all of the TVs with those little extra rear speakers died a death at the end of the 1900s. It's very easy for Americans to think that the rest of the world is like the USA with trends when it really is not.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Yes I am in the USA. And I'm certainly not saying that the ONLY way for all to go is with dedicated home theater equipment. What I am saying is that the ONLY way for all to go is also NOT exclusively the HP way either. For the money, there are options for all. HP is just one such option but the same money can buy a lot of great alternatives too.
This thread seems to be trying to make HPs "fit" this particular application. Even Apple themselves are NOT pushing HPs for this particular application. Perhaps Apple will eventually opt to evolve HPs or HP software to embrace 5.1+ home theater use too but, right now, that's not the case. In fact, Apple is still working on linking up 2 of them for a "stereo-like" experience, whatever that means.
Those who go the HP way for this- enjoy. I hope you get MAX enjoyment out of your HPs. For those reading this thread thinking about home theater sound, hopefully the cumulative posts paint a fairly clear picture that there is a ton of ways to accomplish this objective... and that this one product from Apple is not even principally aimed at this particular target. Can it link up with anTV and do some of this? Sure. But so can many others, which can also double for the rest of the functionality of a HP. Choose wisely.
This thread seems to be trying to make HPs "fit" this particular application. Even Apple themselves are NOT pushing HPs for this particular application. Perhaps Apple will eventually opt to evolve HPs or HP software to embrace 5.1+ home theater use too but, right now, that's not the case. In fact, Apple is still working on linking up 2 of them for a "stereo-like" experience, whatever that means.
Those who go the HP way for this- enjoy. I hope you get MAX enjoyment out of your HPs. For those reading this thread thinking about home theater sound, hopefully the cumulative posts paint a fairly clear picture that there is a ton of ways to accomplish this objective... and that this one product from Apple is not even principally aimed at this particular target. Can it link up with an
TV and do some of this? Sure. But so can many others, which can also double for the rest of the functionality of a HP. Choose wisely.
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Man I have lived in a ton of apartments over the years - new and old and have never run into a place that had wires run. That would be ideal for sure... no way in hell I would do it myself in an apartment though - too many unknowns behind/in apartment walls.
For a 5.1 experience... one should definitely install an actual 5.1... a lot of the threads I am seeing have more to do with 2.0 systems (HomePod x2). HomePod x5 is ridiculous I agree.We should be careful about over-crediting the the HP. It's not the only speaker that offers good sound quality. Walk into an audio store and there won't be a shortage of options whether the priority is music or a soundbar/AV-system for the TV. Neither will the HP be good enough for people with large homes.
Let's not forget that some people can afford a HP but find it and similar priced speakers an overkill for a bedroom or small kitchen. Hence why the Amazon echo is "good enough" for many and affordable enough for several to be purchased.
Lastly, there is the echo dot and Google Home that can turn any existing system into a "smart speaker.
What we can expect to see going forward is that "dumb" speakers are going to start dying and consumers will expect speakers or receivers to have either Alexa, Google Home or Siri built-in.
Wow a few people seriously considering homepod to be paired with Apple TV and hoping it would completely replace a discreet surround sytem?
Whoa hold your breath there. HP was never meant to do so. It's a little, personal sanctuary for a small to medium sized bedrooms. It sounds great but not great enough to eventually replace a 7.1 TrueHD/Atmos system. What more insane is if you bought 7 HPs and praying that it would compete with 7.1 system.
Seven homepods cost you just below $2500! That's an expensive system because with that, you can buy a full fledged AV receiver with floorstanding speakers for the money. Oh and one, or two 12" subwoofers to go along with it. Surely as smart as Homepod may, it couldn't replicate the boom you'll get from a real subwoofer.
I have one in my system, and it does Airplay + Bluetooth pretty well. The only gripe is that it doesn't have Siri or any virtual assistant. And I wouldn't trade my system with 7 homepods. Too restrictive and the speakers are too small for my taste. Not loud enough for dynamic range required in film soundtracks.
Whoa hold your breath there. HP was never meant to do so. It's a little, personal sanctuary for a small to medium sized bedrooms. It sounds great but not great enough to eventually replace a 7.1 TrueHD/Atmos system. What more insane is if you bought 7 HPs and praying that it would compete with 7.1 system.
Seven homepods cost you just below $2500! That's an expensive system because with that, you can buy a full fledged AV receiver with floorstanding speakers for the money. Oh and one, or two 12" subwoofers to go along with it. Surely as smart as Homepod may, it couldn't replicate the boom you'll get from a real subwoofer.
I have one in my system, and it does Airplay + Bluetooth pretty well. The only gripe is that it doesn't have Siri or any virtual assistant. And I wouldn't trade my system with 7 homepods. Too restrictive and the speakers are too small for my taste. Not loud enough for dynamic range required in film soundtracks.
I could care less about stereo surround sound. I just want some way to simply say hey Siri open Netflix. Or hey Siri, pause. Without it breaking my bank. Just like I do with my echo tap, and Alexa.
Right now I do that with Alexa and the Fire tv. And it was pretty inexpensive to do it. I’m hoping that in a future update. Apple let’s you use Siri much the same way. I can be doing chores and say hey Alexa open Netflix etc. It can’t be that hard for Apple to enable this through the HomePod.
It doesn't sound hard in theory, however in practice could be different. For example my gf is watching netflix right now, I'm listening to Apple Music on the HomePod. How could she fast forward? The device name maybe? But Hey AppleTV, would that effect the other AppleTV? It also couldn't control the volume on the receiver?
How would you implement it? I'm sure there is a way but I think dealing with conflict would cause a lot of rethinking things for a very small market segment.