HomePod's Sound Continues to Receive Top Marks After Listening Demos in New York and London

[bernuli]

No. I don't think I mentioned anything about buying music from the iTunes Store ?! All the music I buy nowadays is lossless and ends up being managed and played back by iTunes. Yet none of it comes from the iTunes Store.

That sounds like a lot of work to get it to play on an overpriced mono speaker.

 

[Baymowe335]

I’m glad MR called these listening demos. I don’t think anyone is doubting the HomePod sounds good. But what problem is it solving?

Terrible audio from smart speakers. Apple ecosystem.
[doublepost=1517117785][/doublepost]

No one knows about audio *except* those in the audio business that deal with sound perfection ob speakers all day, every day..

These are the ones who should be testing stuff from Apple as well. not just limited to these companies. Since their impressions will only be good for them, since they may not b be able to hear what experts hear.

However Homepod is not really designed to be that perfect either as far as sound goes, so it probably balances it out,

If an audiophile reviews the HomePod, no one will understand what they’re talking about.

 

[leman]

I have to say that I am still a bit sceptical. Sure, if you compare it to Sonos or any Google-powered speaker... I would never say that I am an audiophile, and I am certainly not picky in that regard, but there is a difference in speaker quality which is quite perceivable. When I was looking for some speakers I tried out a bunch before finally settling on a pair of Audioengine's HD6. This is probably one of the best price/quality speakers on the market. Its heavy, has a decent amplifier and produces a really nice well balanced sound. And yet even at the rather low price range, the pair comes at a price tag very close to that of two HomePods. And each speaker is about 4 times larger then the HomePod. If Apple can deliver comparable quality, I'd buy it in the instant. But somehow I doubt it that they can make such small speakers sound good.

 

[bobob]

HomePod is Garbage.

QFT

(To be revisited a year from now...)

 

[DakotaGuy]

This is a device to sell Apple Music subscriptions. Without an Apple Music subscription the device is pointless unless you just want to stream everything. In that case there are better and cheaper options. No audio inputs really keep things locked down. Google and Amazon work great with iOS and Android, but this is iOS only.

The believers keep saying that within a few months this will be another Apple success story and do significant damage to Amazon and Google’s marketshare in the voice assistant speaker market. I guess we’ll have to wait and see, but I’m not seeing it right now. I’m seeing this as an Apple TV “hobby” product right now.

 

[iClone]

What will Nilay from the The Verge cry about next if this is a success?

He will say the HomePod clashes with his bracelet.

 

[Applebot1]

Nice product if you have Apple Music as your main streaming service and want to have an Apple centric system.

For the rest of us there are are more flexible solutions that don’t limit you.

 

[BuddyTronic]

I don't bother with garbage that doesn't let me tailor EQ to environment.

HomePod is Garbage.

If they ever add a graphic or parametric EQ get back to me.

Take a blind test and see if you can tell the difference. Maybe you can, but who knows? Also consider that HomePod is probably not going to be the "best speakers the world has ever heard" - but probably they will satisfy most of us.
[doublepost=1517121194][/doublepost]

Nice product if you have Apple Music as your main streaming service and want to have an Apple centric system.

For the rest of us there are are more flexible solutions that don’t limit you.

No doubt there are many hobbyists who have home stereo rigs that will be better, but for someone who just wants something good and simple - this could be the way to go. I think Apple studied the market and this will be the sweet spot for their business. Better is the enemy of Good. HomePod is a known price solution - click click done. If you want something better with supposed "no limits" - I think that becomes a time consuming task - hopefully a hobby you enjoy.
[doublepost=1517121758][/doublepost]

Guarantee you people will think it sounds great.

There just aren’t mass marketed speakers out there besides Bose, and people think those are outstanding. They are crap in reality.

Hardly anyone knows about audio. The masses listen to music through a $10 pair of headphones and think Bose/Beats are high quality audio. They think surround sound is a $200 sound bar.

I say this sitting in a room with $15,000 worth of audio equipment.

Yes, but some guys have a house with $200K of home decor around them, and $15K of stereo equipment probably needs $20K of cabinetry to hide that stereo stuff or my wife is gonna give me trouble.

Believe me, I'd love a $50K stereo for the living room, and I have heard some at CES shows in the past, but there is a balance in life. Before I criticize anyone's gear, I'd think about what suits them first. One of the good things about home pods is that they don't have to interfere with the home decor too much - that's my point. I wonder what your room looks like loaded up with that $15K stereo equipment? I envision a lot of wires and dust, sorry, that's just what goes through my head when I think about guys with the big stereo's. If you are going for a show home decor - it's hard to hide that stereo gear sometimes. I just did some remodelling to make my TV install look clean - it was a lot of work. Speaker wires in the walls, cabinets, lots of custom work.

 

[unobtainium]

Not everyone is on as tight of a budget as you. $700 is not really expensive to me.

It is expensive for 7” portable speakers. If you want to get up toward $1000 for your sound system I have no idea why you would choose the HomePod.

Also, thanks for stating the obvious..
[doublepost=1517123678][/doublepost]

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.

Ridiculous and outdated statement. People love the noise cancelling in Bose QC 35s.

 

[44267547]

It is funny that the chips inside these speakers are faster than what’s in Mac mini.

More specifically, Same A8 processor used in the iPhone 6/6 Plus.

 

[viperdriver1]

You get what you pay for.

OK, so I can say hey siri to my phone or use it on my watch and get whatever this speaker can do. If I want sound for music when I am cleaning the house or watching TV WHATEVER why would a person not just use a home theater system and airplay spotify, mp3 collection or anything else to the receiver. Ill take the bass from my PSA dual 18" subwoofer.

I LOVE Apple but for the life of me I cannot understand why they made this speaker. I actually had pre-ordered one and I started thinking how much I use siri i general and I would never listen to music through it so I went ahead and canceled the order today.

 

[kentsydney]

I’m getting two HomePos. I hope the update that will allow for pairing two of them is not too far ahead from February 9th...

I’d like two but it’s expensivel ..

I have 2 minirigs with the minirig sub woofer connected to one of my three airport expresses.

Sounds amazing with stereo sound too.

I have a feeling the airport express will be discontinued to stop us connecting our own speakers to the airplay system. Hope I’m wrong - I’d be amazed if they allow use of airplay 2 multiroom with AE but please Apple come on

 

[viperdriver1]

The speaker has been on sale for 2 days now and still available for launch day. I thought the iPad would be a huge hit and have owned every generation even though there were a ton of people saying its a joke from the name of it and so on. Bought the first gen apple watch and now have the cellular version and have absolutely loved it from day one. Airpods I wanted to love and it killed me to send them back but for the life of me I could not keep them in my ears but what a cool product.

I figure with the speaker I would save apple the the return shipping label as I think it would be fun to try but I know I would not keep it.

 

[H2SO4]

Look, the Homepod is going to sound good. It is, let's be honest. Why well Apple do things well on the whole. They do products well, they do smoke and mirrors well and some times they do both together.
What I do find odd is that none of those first impression are from publications that deal exclusively with sound and vision like What Hifi.

To me that says this time there may be a lot of smoke and mirrors.
[doublepost=1517126209][/doublepost]

I don't really consider these "Reviews." These are more hands on or first impressions by demoing. None the less, I would say the HomePod has some initial positive feedback thus far. I expect user reviews to be very promising, which I to prefer user reviews Over journalists or critics.

Question. How are user reviews, (on a predominantly pro Apple forum), to be trusted any more than journos or critics? Remember lot's of these users will be the same people that for example denied Apple were slowing phones and then when Apple admitted it, changed tack to say it was for our own good - all the while never admitting they had been wrong in the first place.

 

[44267547]

Question. How are user reviews, (on a predominantly pro Apple forum), to be trusted any more than journos or critics

Answer: Who said anything about reading reviews on an "Apple forum"? I could really user reviews on any tech site, good or bad, because having inside from both perspectives at least gives the user the advantages or disadvantages with the HomePod experience. Not everything has to be said good about the HomePod, every product has its flaws. But I'm still willing to believe that the "Users" will have more positive things to say the negative.

 

[H2SO4]

Answer: Who said anything about reading reviews on an "Apple forum"? I could really user reviews on any tech site, good or bad, because having inside from both perspectives at least gives the user the advantages or disadvantages with the HomePod experience. Not everything has to be said good about the HomePod, every product has its flaws. But I'm still willing to believe that the "Users" will have more positive things to say the negative.

Fine. Users on the whole though, regardless of where they are from are no more trustworthy than anybody else. The sound wlll be good, I said that above my reply to you. I just think it's telling that Apple used select reviewers.

 

[jdillings]

Apple stresses the audio quality of the HomePod.........but doesn't invite any audio publications

 

[gnasher729]

The method for true sound reproduction is simple: the more speakers the better. Two speakers is not a lot but it is two time more than HomePod. The beamforming is an attempt to compensate for lack of speakers. As any simulation it's inferior to the real thing.

And you know that how? Did you listen to them? Or are you just speculating?

Actually, you are completely wrong. The method for true sound reproduction is hard: Beam forming. Two speakers are just an attempt to compensate for the lack of beam forming. As any simulation of beam forming, it's inferior to the real thing.

 

[henrikhelmers]

I think Apple would have done better had they built two units, one cheaper for voice control (the one they released?) and something larger and more directional for music playback.

Something I'm curious about is what happens if you place one in each room—how does Siri work when there are say six stereo pairs in a house. Reviews needed...
[doublepost=1517128157][/doublepost]

The method for true sound reproduction is hard: Beam forming. Two speakers are just an attempt to compensate for the lack of beam forming. As any simulation of beam forming, it's inferior to the real thing.

But as long as the microphones are on the unit itself, how will it know to shape the beams? For this to make sense the microphones should be at the location(s) of the listener(s). Maybe there is some setup involved as with Sonos Trueplay.

 

[gnasher729]

The irony is, no matter how good the quality, 99% of people will be pumping mp3's through these which is sub par quality wise anyway. iTunes needs FLAC support!

AAC at 256 kbit/sec is pretty good. If you see music marked as "made for iTunes", that's AAC derived from originals at 24bit / 192 KHz, which can in extreme cases be better than CD quality, especially in quiet passages. And of course there is ALAC, same thing as FLAC, which has been available for many, many years. So FLAC is really not needed.

 

[SteveJUAE]

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about a possible pleasent sounding smart speaker thats easy to use in the Apple Eco

I do not see it as a competitor to say Google or Amazon offerings being a more multi room aid that are scalable with any of your existing or new entertainment system

Sure the less informed may make a mistake or opt for its simplicity but that does not detract that its a nice niche speaker that is limited.

I think the error for most is because of the name and this association with more flexible options from others

 

[Delgibbons]

Here we go again, another round of journalists who wouldn’t dare taint the good name of Apple in order to secure future invitations and therefore advertising dollars. In this 21st century, do we really need to listen to bunch of paid media outlets tell us it’s good, or can we wait until real people start giving real reviews.

For me personally, I will not be getting a HomePod. It’s not because I don’t appreciate a good quality speaker, but that Siri is a joke when it compared to Alexa and Google. I’ve never used a Windows PC, but I bet that Microsoft girl, umm, Cortana?, is better than Siri. Apple needs to fix Miss Cannotunderstandhalfofwhatyousaid.

Siri is complete crap.

All I ever get is "here's what I found on the web"

 

[Der Keyser]

If we ignore the “single geek living alone” situation for a while, I would like to know:

1: How does homepod siri handle multiple users? Will anyone in my home be able to create appointments, timers, shopping lists and so on In my iCloud persona only (syncˋed to my devices) because my account was used for setup?

2: How will my wife or kids create the same in their iCloud persona? Does the homepod distinguish between multiple users based on voice recognition?

 

[44267547]

Siri is complete crap.

Your Post Offers zero insight. My experience with Siri is used everyday With dictating Notes, Messages, emails, HomeKit, Apple Watch commands, AirPod commands, etc. Siri isn't perfect, but for what it does, it makes things quicker and much more convenient, which has improved over the years.

 

[Delgibbons]

Your Post Offers zero insight. My experience with Siri is used everyday With dictating Notes, Messages, emails, HomeKit, Apple Watch commands, AirPod commands, etc. Siri isn't perfect, but for what it does, it makes things quicker and much more convenient, which has improved over the years.

Try google assistant and come back to me