"Blown away" by a demo of stereo sound...Good Grief. Pass me the puke bucket.
The HomePod is a competitor to the Sonos play/1So and this is a honest question. Is that any different from 2 Sonos 5 that would cost over $1000.00 with tax?
I agree with this and your other posts.There was no getting units at all. They came into a room and listened to an Apple-managed demo. They very likely went home without HPs.
If they did get to take one home, they signed papers promising not to provide fully objective reviews until after some date chosen by Apple.
My speakers cost €88,000 and are made from platinum, petrified swamp ash and the skin of newborn babies. Please don't try to strike up a conversation.My $10,000 Martin Logan Static Dryer Sheet powered speakers would like to have a word with you.
/s
I agree with this and your other posts.
But one thing that is lost in the discussion in favor of the HomePod:
This is Apple's hands-fee, home-automation hub -- the HomeKit Hub.
Those vested in the Apple HomeKit world, will consider the HomePod to be the go-to device, and AppleMusic player/speakers just extra gravy.
And, Siri conversational skills, or lack thereof, when compared to others be dammed.
Wow we agree on something. Bose sounds like garbage.Bose makes some of the most overpriced and below average products you can buy. People think Apple is overpriced, but at least it’s good quality. Bose is utterly junk and hated in the audio community. No one even talks about them seriously or considers their products.
"Blown away" by a demo of stereo sound...Good Grief. Pass me the puke bucket.
I get what you are saying - if you are playing compressed music, then there will probably be diminishing returns if you start spending some serious money on top end separates.
But even with compressed music, I think its worth spending a reasonable amount, as you can certainly appreciate a difference. I know music on my phone sounds way better on my Bowers and Wilkins P3s compared to the supplied EarPods. And similarly I'm prepared to bet I would appreciate a difference between something like an Echo or a cheap speaker, and something like a Sonos or the HomePod.
Now to a proper audiophile who is used to much better quality and clarity of lossless through high end separates, a Sonos or HomePod will probably sound less good to them. But if you're not used to that, and just want something better than a really cheap $50 speaker, then the Sonos or HomePod will certainly sound better.
It would be great if Apple started to offer lossless on Apple Music - heck, they must have the financial and server clout to do so by now, and if in the HomePod they have a speaker that can really take advantage of that, then who knows.
Not quite: the Apple TV is not hands-free (unless you carry the remote with you *grin*).I guess. ButTV has long been pitched exactly for that too. For all the time since HomeKit has been out, IT has been spun as the homekit hub. Here's Apple doing that themselves in their own words: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207057
My speakers cost €88,000 and are made from platinum, petrified swamp ash and the skin of newborn babies. Please don't try to strike up a conversation.
/serious
___________________________________________My $10,000 Martin Logan Static Dryer Sheet powered speakers would like to have a word with you.
/s
If you don't mind airplay, you can throw your Spotify playback to HP (but not use Siri to control it- in this scenario YOU become the "smarts" part of the equation).
If you really want a smart speaker that uses it's smarts to manage Spotify playback without engaging Airplay, the other players are not so locked into AM as the sole source of audio.
Not quite: the Apple TV is not hands-free (unless you carry the remote with you *grin*).
You’ll have to wait until you hear them in person to form your own subjective opinion. Which will be worthless to to anyone who isn’t you.Not much better; due to multiple reasons, people who have bought the product aren't the most reliable source for info either. For one, many have a love affair with their purchase and can be prepositioned to neglect flaws, few have good comparisons points, etc... List is long.
From my perspective there are at least 2 still-not-(much)-covered big upsides (maybe even "one more thing"-type upsides) that might come from the release of HomePod:
- How much did Apple smarten up Siri to better compete with the generally perceived smarter VAs of key competitors? Assuming the answer is at least some, a smarter Siri probably comes to the rest of the Apple line-up soon.
- Given the overwhelming focus on better quality sound, near-term objective reviews are probably going to hammer away at the "limitation" of only AM as a Siri-controlled source and poke at the conflict of spinning superior sound hardware fed by a compressed audio source. If the hardware is as superior as spun- and that's probably true to some degree- it is maximized by the best quality source audio that can be fed to it. Conceptually- for now- that means it's going to sound better when someone is airplaying it Tidal or lossless rips than using the "smarts" part to play 256kbps AAC Plus. That might put some pressure on Apple to offer higher quality or maybe even lossless versions of the library to feed HP higher quality music sources, much as one can buy or rent iTunes store videos at SD, 720p, 1080p and now 4K versions. Maybe Apple is moved to offer 256kpbs versions and lossless versions via Apple Music too? There is a logic here: Apple is the one pushing quality of sound so hard to help sell this product. A million dollar Apple speaker would be limited by the quality of the source fed to it.
If any of that was true why are Apple selling it as a high quality speaker?I agree with this and your other posts.
But one thing that is lost in the discussion in favor of the HomePod:
This is Apple's hands-free, home-automation hub -- the HomeKit Hub.
Those vested in the Apple HomeKit world, will consider the HomePod to be the go-to device, and AppleMusic player/speakers just extra gravy.
And, Siri conversational skills, or lack thereof, when compared to others be dammed.
How abt the sound quality? do u think the editors are just exaggerating?
That Denon receiver is Bluetooth only. The model that includes WiFi is $400+.
But will it sound as good as 2 HomePods? Or a dedicated wireless stereo speaker that costs $700-$1000? Highly unlikely.
I do think Apple offers their version of lossless via Apple Music. My Apple Music files that are downloaded to my phone are a bit large in file size. The average 3-4 minute song is about 8MB. Other songs that are 6,7,8 minutes long minutes long are up to 19MB in file size.
Not absolutely sure if this is their losses, but it sounds absolutely amazing on my zeppelin wireless. Will tidal sound much better on this?