HomePod Is Homepod worth it for a Spotify user?

[jmpage2]

We are an Apple household with a huge pile of Apple devices but I prefer Spotify for my music listening. I have an Alexa echo dot that we currently use for casual music listening and I recently integrated it to Spotify which seems to work marginally well.

The Echo Dot sounds horrible and I want to upgrade it. The most logical option is to go with a Sonos One since it supports Alexa and can be integrated with Spotify.

The Homepod though sounds a whole heck of a lot better and is currently only $30 more.

How well will the Homepod work in a multi-user household with Spotify users? Is it possible to have the Homepod recognize multiple users and play music from each of their Spotify accounts so my main Spotify account doesn't get infected with the terrible music tastes of others in the house?

 

[JBaby]

No. HomePod still only works with Music natively. Everything else must be AirPlayed. If you’re good with that I say go for it. For me though I wouldn’t. Don’t get me wrong though I AirPlay to HomePod all the time. But it’s not annoying because I’m AirPlaying audiobooks. I wouldn’t do it for music. I like using voice commands. With music you’ll be giving a lot of commands. I don’t mind AirPlaying books because you aren’t doing many things. There isn’t a lot of skipping around because it’s mostly play/pause.

TLDR: HomePod with Music is still the best experience. Spotify must be Airplayed.

 

[jmpage2]

No. HomePod still only works with Music natively. Everything else must be AirPlayed. If you’re good with that I say go for it. For me though I wouldn’t. Don’t get me wrong though I AirPlay to HomePod all the time. But it’s not annoying because I’m AirPlaying audiobooks. I wouldn’t do it for music. I like using voice commands. With music you’ll be giving a lot of commands. I don’t mind AirPlaying books because you aren’t doing many things. There isn’t a lot of skipping around because it’s mostly play/pause.

TLDR: HomePod with Music is still the best experience. Spotify must be Airplayed.

Apple started allowing Siri to work with 3rd party music apps in 13.2. I just don't know how well it works in real use or how it works with multi-user.

You can now ask Siri to play Spotify music on iOS 13, Spotify debuts Apple TV app - 9to5Mac

Spotify has today released its iOS 13 update, which allows users to ask Siri to play albums and playlists using...

9to5mac.com

 

[JBaby]

Apple started allowing Siri to work with 3rd party music apps in 13.2. I just don't know how well it works in real use or how it works with multi-user.

You can now ask Siri to play Spotify music on iOS 13, Spotify debuts Apple TV app - 9to5Mac

Spotify has today released its iOS 13 update, which allows users to ask Siri to play albums and playlists using...

9to5mac.com

True. But it doesn’t work well. I see a lot of complaints about it not working on the HomePod subreddit. Plus, you still have to AirPlay. So that means you still have to deal with the 1-2 delay.

 

[jmpage2]

Honestly I might just buy the Homepod to try it out and if I can't make it work the way I want then return it.

 

[JBaby]

Honestly I might just buy the Homepod to try it out and if I can't make it work the way I want then return it.

Go for it. I just think it’s way to much money to not get all the benefits out of it.

 

[jkozlow3]

The Homepod though sounds a whole heck of a lot better and is currently only $30 more.

I'm not a HomePod owner, but the Sonos One sounds surprisingly good - at least to me. It also has a crazy amount of bass capabilities for a speaker its size when used in a small room like a small/mid-size bedroom or office.

I'd take a stereo pair of Sonos Ones over a single HomePod any day. Some reviews I read when the HomePod was first released even favored the Sonos One for sound quality and suggested that the HomePod had a tendency to make things too bassy/muddied sounding with certain types of music and that the Sonos One was sometimes better for vocals, etc. Of course, other reviews give the edge to the HomePod for SQ. It obviously depends on personal taste, type of music, etc. I'm sure they both sound great - just a little different.

I also really like the Sonos app on my iPhone and how it integrates with all the music services. It's easy to play Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, etc. from the Sonos app and choose exactly which Sonos speakers to stream to. This is great if you ever end up expanding your system. For example, I use the Sonos Playbase as the living room sound bar for my TV and it's fantastic for both TV and music. I then have Sonos One in the bedroom/office, etc. and can stream to any/all devices quite easily as desired by selecting/deselecting the desired devices in the app.

Hope this helps!

 

[JBaby]

I'm not a HomePod owner, but the Sonos One sounds surprisingly good - at least to me. It also has a crazy amount of bass capabilities for a speaker its size when used in a small room like a small/mid-size bedroom or office.

I'd take a stereo pair of Sonos Ones over a single HomePod any day. Some reviews I read when the HomePod was first released even favored the Sonos One for sound quality and suggested that the HomePod had a tendency to make things too bassy/muddied sounding with certain types of music and that the Sonos One was sometimes better for vocals, etc. Of course, other reviews give the edge to the HomePod for SQ. It obviously depends on personal taste, type of music, etc.

I also really like the Sonos app on my iPhone and how it integrates with all the music services. It's easy to play Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, etc. from the Sonos app and choose exactly which Sonos speakers to stream to. This is great if you ever end up expanding your system. For example, I use the Sonos Playbase as the living room sound bar for my TV and it's fantastic for both TV and music. I then have Sonos One in the bedroom/office, etc. and can stream to any/all devices quite easily as desired by selecting/deselecting the desired devices in the app.

Hope this helps!

If I were a Spotify user I’d go with Sonos too. In fact I have a Sonos Beam for the TV in the living room. Love it. The app is awesome! And I can still play Music there.

 

[jmpage2]

I'm not a HomePod owner, but the Sonos One sounds surprisingly good - at least to me. It also has a crazy amount of bass capabilities for a speaker its size when used in a small room like a small/mid-size bedroom or office.

I'd take a stereo pair of Sonos Ones over a single HomePod any day. Some reviews I read when the HomePod was first released even favored the Sonos One for sound quality and suggested that the HomePod had a tendency to make things too bassy/muddied sounding with certain types of music and that the Sonos One was sometimes better for vocals, etc. Of course, other reviews give the edge to the HomePod for SQ. It obviously depends on personal taste, type of music, etc. I'm sure they both sound great - just a little different.

I also really like the Sonos app on my iPhone and how it integrates with all the music services. It's easy to play Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, etc. from the Sonos app and choose exactly which Sonos speakers to stream to. This is great if you ever end up expanding your system. For example, I use the Sonos Playbase as the living room sound bar for my TV and it's fantastic for both TV and music. I then have Sonos One in the bedroom/office, etc. and can stream to any/all devices quite easily as desired by selecting/deselecting the desired devices in the app.

Hope this helps!

I'm pretty comfortable with Sonos as I have deployed it into my wife's business. Most comparisons indicate the Homepod sounds a whole lot better and it's only $30 more but you make a valid point and of course if the integration is crippled due to Apple's reluctance to open their walled garden a bit then the better sound quality might not matter.

 

[jkozlow3]

I'm pretty comfortable with Sonos as I have deployed it into my wife's business. Most comparisons indicate the Homepod sounds a whole lot better and it's only $30 more but you make a valid point and of course if the integration is crippled due to Apple's reluctance to open their walled garden a bit then the better sound quality might not matter.

Places like Target, Costco, etc. have REALLY good return policies - maybe buy both and compare. Or at least buy the Sonos One to start with and return it if you don't like it.

If you are doing casual background music listening, the Sonos One will sound great - even better if you get a pair and/or if you are using them in a small room. Waaaaaaaaaay better than the Echo Dot (I own one as well).

If you are using in a large room, listening at really loud volumes, using a single Sonos One (vs. a pair), etc. then you may not have as good of experience - not sure as I haven't used it in this type of situation. But if you are using in a smaller room at lower/medium volumes, the Sonos One really does sound great - even a single speaker.

 

[jmpage2]

FYI, another reason I consider the Homepod is that this speaker is going into a large family room that extends into a kitchen and eating area. Total square footage probably in excess of 900 sq ft. I have a fairly high end system in the family room itself that consists of a full 7.1 system powered by a Denon AVR but integrating it into these casual listening services is an enormous pain.

I figured the Homepod would just do a better job filling this space at a low listening volume compared to the Sonos, especially as the device will go on a low book case in the middle of the large area and I desire decent 360 degree listening from this location.

Maybe just buy both devices, have a bake-off where I experiment for a week or two and then return the loser.

 

[jkozlow3]

If you're dead set on only getting 1 speaker, and you like the Sonos ecosystem, maybe consider the Play 5. It will certainly best the HomePod.

Otherwise, I'd get a pair of Sonos 1.

As you said, buy them both and try them out and return the loser.

Here's a good discussion:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/b9v309

 

[jmpage2]

My wife reminds me that our son's name starts with an 'S' and talking to him has repeatedly resulted in inadvertent activation of Siri.

So that in and of itself might have made this decision for me.