My suggestion would be to you, why don’t you purchase the HomePod risk-free for 14 Days (If you don’t like it, return it). Place it somewhere in your home that you find it to be the most suitable option and try it out, see what you think if it’s _worth_ keeping or not. I really think when it comes to home audio and smart speakers, that’s really what you have to do is find the appropriate placement, and the HomePod is about the audio, and it might sound totally different in your house depending on the acoustics with your ceilings, spacing, room size, etc.