Look in the mirror. A dollar is worth what people are willing to part with it for, and that is driven by the free market.
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HomePod's Sound Continues to Receive Top Marks After Listening Demos in New York and London
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Look in the mirror. A dollar is worth what people are willing to part with it for, and that is driven by the free market.
I get the point, but let’s be fair, price is driven by many things beyond just the “free market”, what people are willing to part with for an item is heavily marketed and influenced, very few people give thought to how much something costs, especially the more of it they have to spend.
B&W is everything. I have a zeppelin air, zeppelin wireless, P5, MM1 and panorama. I love this company!
It can play ALAC, AIFF and WAV, or do you mean iTunes needs to start selling lossless quality? On that I agree. Maybe then I’ll start to buy from them again (it’s been years). Until then, I can’t see the point in buying lossy AACs from Apple when I can almost always buy lossless FLACs (or equivalent) for less elsewhere; much less even sometimes - or in higher res, which blow Apple’s AACs out of the water in quality.
XLD is a much-loved audio converter on the Mac that handles FLAC. I highly recommend it for converting from FLAC to any other format. It takes all of 10 seconds to convert a typical album from FLAC to AIFF or ALAC for use in iTunes.
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They make some great stuff for sure.
The MM-1s especially are awesome. I’ve had mine for 10 years and they’ve never skipped a beat (Airport Express has, but that’s another story!). They’re not designed for room-filling sound, but they do a damn decent job in smaller spaces anyway. Not once in 10 years have I regretted the purchase.
I’ve been expecting them to make upgraded or larger MM-2s, but they haven’t yet. Not only that it seems they’ve discontinued the MM-1s. They had a good run and mine still run flawlessly.
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Via A deep dive into HomePod's adaptive audio, beamforming and why it needs an A8 processor
"There is a ton of stuff happening automatically in order to offer you a smart speaker that sounds good and works well regardless of where you are in your home," Hines declares. "Elegant simplicity is the hardest thing to build by far."
This is Apple's forte.
I find it hard to believe that anyone is expecting to be confronted with a dozen EQ settings menus when they consider purchasing a HomePod.
I assume you‘re right. I guess those restrictions only encounter once no Mac or iOS device is near to stream to it. Any confirmation on this?
When you give verbal commands to a digital assistant that's sitting in a room and not inches from your face, wouldn't the relative sophistication of the microphone array contribute to the quality of the experience? I think that's part of what you're missing when you say "what problem is it solving". Apple didn't really design that microphone array for music only.
Was waiting for a response like this. What’s the point in spending money on any high end stereo system when all you play is compressed music. I wonder how many of the posters here have never played anything but compressed formats...
I consider myself an audiophile, and own a semi high end Quad system with a pair of Quad speakers, and some B&W Matrixes as well. For both, when you play mp3’s on them, they sound just like many other reasonable speakers, definately not worth paying for. But if you go lossless, clarity and definition in the sound just jumps in your face (or ear
). Those who have compared will know what I mean...So for homepod, I really can’t judge from these “reviews” if they’re worth spending on... or at least more worth it than something half the price.
I guess you can stream everything via AirPlay 2 onto a HomePod. AppleMusic is embedded when nothing else is around.
Nope, no BT streaming even though the speaker has bt. It's airplay only and limited to devices that can only do that. There's no modular building of a tv sound system either. The best Apple is promising later is two homepods in stereo (no center and no sub) which isn't exactly spectacular for a tv sound system.
If you need one or two speakers, desire better sound than an echo, some integration with your personal icloud only, an easy way to play from your apple music sub, and a weak AI, then this is your speaker. Maybe you guys sit around the kitchen table with a speaker in the middle..who knows..lol
That all said, I still one want to screw around with. So I don't blame you for ordering it to try out but I'm in no rush. It's not as if Apple is going to fall behind weeks selling out of this and the price is too much. Wait til it's slashed.
It does? I'm not an audiophile but I know you won't get decent sound for $350. And as they said, "The consensus is that the HomePod sounds very good, although some felt the quality isn't exactly worth the price.".
My current set costs quite a bit more even though it's very inexpensive one. Then again, it also sounds much, MUCH better. I wish I could afford to upgrade it, though. Fell in love with a set I listened to in the store the last time.
I would assume people who think HomePod sounds amazing are the same ones who claim Macbook Pro sounds excellent and AirPods are the best thing you can stick in your ears.
I am holding on for now on my
http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/ipod_and_computer_speakers/ipod_and_computer_speakers/zeppelin_air/
Best speaker I ever encountered at this pricepoint - the sound is just... amazing (bass included).
I'll look forward to hear the Homepods but I doubt they can deliver better.
http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/ipod_and_computer_speakers/ipod_and_computer_speakers/zeppelin_air/
Best speaker I ever encountered at this pricepoint - the sound is just... amazing (bass included).
I'll look forward to hear the Homepods but I doubt they can deliver better.
Is it fair to say that Apple has created a Beats-product with some competing smarthome-functionality instead of a direct competitor to the products from Amazon and Google? Something must justify the price, the more I read the interested I get but with Sonos jumping on Airplay2 and for half the money (!).... I am in doubt .
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you‘re right. but why would anybody buy a smart speaker, if he has to use a smart device to stream to it? there are already bluetooth speakers with more features (more i/o, useable by everyone who got a bluetooth device, batteries, stereo,...) and compareable sound out there for the same or less money. so far it looks like the homepod‘s potential audience is limited to single individuals who have an apple music subscription and live in a small flat.
That's debatable. There apparently are improvements, but afaik Apple chose to restrict that for its newest iOS (for a server-based service...) and maybe devices (HomePod?) for various purposes.
Most of which seem commercial, presumably.
Dude, no offense. But are you self-declared member of the Apple Defense Force? From Singapore nevertheless?Talks about waiting for reviews while dismissing the hands-in experiences of people who have actually interacted with it; proceeds to pre-form their own opinions on a product despite never actually having used it in real life.
The comments that you disregarded have validity.
- These free invites are driven by Apple marketing which no doubt keeps tab of friends and foes, affecting future invites.
- Then he questions the functionality of Siri when compared to other personal assistants on the market.
Just R.E.L.A.X. We get it. You love all things apple.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
An Apple-controlled, Apple-hosted demo is very far from independent reviews. I bet AFTER HP is in the wild, some of these very same players will offer full objective reviews and the collective glowing praise will evolve into a mix of glowing praise and a variety of issues/complaints.
A story about demos: when I was in college I worked for a national electronics retailer. One line of products we sold was televisions. TVs the corp. wanted to push- that is, those with the biggest commissions/spiffs on them- got the maximum demo treatment. For example, they got the very best version of the demo video while the other TVs got a lessor version of the same demo. This made the favored TVs look like they had the best picture. Commissions motivated salespeople to go in and optimize the settings for the TVs to be sold and far-from-optimize the TVs that were not as favorable to push. This way, if prospective buyers brought in any source video (in case they didn't trust "our" house video demo ("how dare they not trust the sellers!"), the TVs to be sold would still have the best picture). Etc. Basically, the product to be sold got the best of everything. The corp controlled the narrative, the presentation, the optimization, the source files, etc. Net result: we sold many more of the TVs we wanted to sell than the others, exactly as desired by the corp. If, in the next month or quarter, some other brand sweetened their deal with the corp to become the favored TVs to push, the best video got redirected to them, optimizations & de-optimizations shifted to their sets and then THEY became the TVs that sold the easiest... until some other manufacturer sweetened their arrangement.
Now think about how the very same story elements could apply here. I'm not saying it wasn't a fair fight- I don't know for sure as I wasn't there- but I do know that whoever controlled the demo fully controlled the focus of the comparisons, the media to be compared, the emphasis of variables to be compared, etc. If that's not clear enough, take a look at this "demo" and how an audience can be moved to perceive value that is not actually there...
None of the above is putting down HP- just a caveat emptor. Now we have- what- about 20 individual faux (non) reviews to which to point, all seeming to crown HP king. However, so far, ALL of them have been wooed to present that crown by the corp doing demos that could be optimized to favor their product, that could be using different quality of sources (what if the favored product is fed lossless while the others got 64kpbs?), with complete control of the narrative in which all focus could be on only the tangible strengths of the product to be sold here.
Questions: did any of these "reviewers" get to:
Imagine what would have happened if after Apple got to do their demo, Amazon got to come in behind them and do the same demo with Amazon's narrative, sample audio files, time for tweaking settings to make their's sound most flattering, etc. Then Google came in and got to do a Google demo with Google narrative. Then Sonos. If so, would the "reviews" come out to be about the same? Would the focus points of the "reviews" still be limited to only the focus points shared in these stories? etc.
A story about demos: when I was in college I worked for a national electronics retailer. One line of products we sold was televisions. TVs the corp. wanted to push- that is, those with the biggest commissions/spiffs on them- got the maximum demo treatment. For example, they got the very best version of the demo video while the other TVs got a lessor version of the same demo. This made the favored TVs look like they had the best picture. Commissions motivated salespeople to go in and optimize the settings for the TVs to be sold and far-from-optimize the TVs that were not as favorable to push. This way, if prospective buyers brought in any source video (in case they didn't trust "our" house video demo ("how dare they not trust the sellers!"), the TVs to be sold would still have the best picture). Etc. Basically, the product to be sold got the best of everything. The corp controlled the narrative, the presentation, the optimization, the source files, etc. Net result: we sold many more of the TVs we wanted to sell than the others, exactly as desired by the corp. If, in the next month or quarter, some other brand sweetened their deal with the corp to become the favored TVs to push, the best video got redirected to them, optimizations & de-optimizations shifted to their sets and then THEY became the TVs that sold the easiest... until some other manufacturer sweetened their arrangement.
Now think about how the very same story elements could apply here. I'm not saying it wasn't a fair fight- I don't know for sure as I wasn't there- but I do know that whoever controlled the demo fully controlled the focus of the comparisons, the media to be compared, the emphasis of variables to be compared, etc. If that's not clear enough, take a look at this "demo" and how an audience can be moved to perceive value that is not actually there...
Questions: did any of these "reviewers" get to:
- test their own audio track selections?
- make sure settings were as fair & equal as possible across devices?
- take an HP back to their offices/labs and really put it through the paces?
- ask common questions "we" consumers have been asking all along, so we could get solid answers to those questions in these "reviews"?
- Etc.
Imagine what would have happened if after Apple got to do their demo, Amazon got to come in behind them and do the same demo with Amazon's narrative, sample audio files, time for tweaking settings to make their's sound most flattering, etc. Then Google came in and got to do a Google demo with Google narrative. Then Sonos. If so, would the "reviews" come out to be about the same? Would the focus points of the "reviews" still be limited to only the focus points shared in these stories? etc.
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I have Definitive Technology speakers, but I bought the HomePod anyway. I didn't buy it for the sound, but to check out the other features. I hope that Apple has put or will put a ton of helpful stuff in there.
Why do products need to solve a problem?
But since you asked, I can drop one of these in the kitchen, and use my phone to cue up and play music, without having to go and fiddle with the iPod currently sat in a dock connected to a little Sony thing.
Sure, its a First World Problem, but its still going to be less hassle and more convenient. And if they sound as good as they reportedly do, then I'm in.