HomePod HomePods 2 - rumbling sound

[colmaclean]

I’ve been using a pair of HomePod 2s for the last few days and have noticed a rather annoying low rumble which seems to accompany a lot of TV or films I‘ve watched.

For instance, watching the Ted Lasso advert on Apple TV, every couple of seconds there’s another rumble. Even watching TV news if there’s an outside broadcast, the rumble seems to be triggered if there’s the slightest wind.

It’s the same rumble every time, not nuanced in any way based on sounds happening on-screen and is quite jarring.

I’ve tried the HomePods unpaired and both seem to exhibit the same rumble, so I guess it’s by design.

The only way to mitigate it is to switch on the “Reduce Bass” option but this diminishes a lot of the sound “depth” which kind of negates the point of using these speakers!

Anyone else experiencing this?

 

[sparky672]

The only way to mitigate it is to switch on the “Reduce Bass” option

Have you tried moving them? The lower frequencies may be causing some nearby object(s) to vibrate in sync with the bass. Have you tried lowering volume to see if it has any affect?

 

[Freewheelin_jack]

Yes, I have the same thing in my living room. Once you've heard it it's hard to un-hear. My OG HomePod stereo pair in the kitchen is fine. I think what you're experiencing is 'room mode' or 'standing wave' in audiophile parlance. It's to do with the size, shape and materials of your room. My bass rumble is at around 45hz, and, while the HomePod room correction smarts does a great job at everything else, it can't seem to sort this problem out. It will probably be worse in the corners and close to the walls, so if your listening position is there it might be worth moving your sofa/chair. Moving the HomePods themselves doesn't seem to make much difference from my experience. Apart from spending lots of time and money investing on physical bass traps and room treatments, which might not work anyway, I'm not sure what the solution is. If you sort it out I'd be interested to know!

 

[iAssimilated]

This definitely sounds like something vibrating from the bass. One of our OG Homepods in my wife's office sits next to her brother printer (due to space) and if the Homepod's volume is turned up past a certain point, the printer will vibrate. Our "current" fix is to set a textbook on the printer (which fixes the issue).