I have 4 HomePods spread across two installations—both in stereo pairs attached to an Apple TV in home theater setups. The OG HomePod is amazing but the problem was always that it is too small. They work for me only because I have very small rooms.
The quality of the HomePod falls apart really fast as soon as you put it in a big room. In a small room, with the correct stand or table and at the correct distance it sounds amazing. Doubly so when they are in a stereo pair. They easily sound as good as speakers or setups 2-3x their cost. The problem is that once the room gets to even a moderate size, or if you can't get them close to the listener, or if you don't have the right kind of stand or table… they end up sounding just okay. The range of quality relative to your specific setup is just massive. They are not nearly as adaptable as they claimed them to be. Sure, you can stick it anywhere and in any size room… but it may sound like trash. With the wrong setup it sounds like any other $200 smart speaker, or maybe worse in some cases.
It seems to me like the design of the HomePod scales. If they just scaled it up to maybe 2-3x, and created a proper stand for it, it would be more usable. I feel like that's essentially what the Syng is and it works wonderfully, but it's 8x the price. Feels like there some room between $300 and $2400.
The quality of the HomePod falls apart really fast as soon as you put it in a big room. In a small room, with the correct stand or table and at the correct distance it sounds amazing. Doubly so when they are in a stereo pair. They easily sound as good as speakers or setups 2-3x their cost. The problem is that once the room gets to even a moderate size, or if you can't get them close to the listener, or if you don't have the right kind of stand or table… they end up sounding just okay. The range of quality relative to your specific setup is just massive. They are not nearly as adaptable as they claimed them to be. Sure, you can stick it anywhere and in any size room… but it may sound like trash. With the wrong setup it sounds like any other $200 smart speaker, or maybe worse in some cases.
It seems to me like the design of the HomePod scales. If they just scaled it up to maybe 2-3x, and created a proper stand for it, it would be more usable. I feel like that's essentially what the Syng is and it works wonderfully, but it's 8x the price. Feels like there some room between $300 and $2400.
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