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This is infuriating. I have 3 original HomePods in my studio apartment. 2 of them are in stereo mode and I’ve been waiting for them to drop a new HomePod for years now to pair my 3rd one into stereo as well.

I will not be buying a new one.

At least put the first generation back on sale so people who have been waiting can still form their stereo pairs.

And to all the people who say “you can’t put two different speakers into stereo mode” then that reveals to me their marketing for how the HomePods adjust to their surroundings is BS.

I obviously understand you can’t put two different speakers into stereo but my god, these look almost identical to the first generation, this is laughable.
 
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This is infuriating. I have 3 original HomePods in my studio apartment. 2 of them are in stereo mode and I’ve been waiting for them to drop a new HomePod for years now to pair my 3rd one into studio as well.

I will not be buying a new one.

At least put the first generation back on sale so people who have been waiting can still form their studio pairs.

And to all the people who say “you can’t put two different speakers into studio mode” then that reveals to me their marketing for how the HomePods adjust to their surroundings is BS.
It's not BS though, it's just not doing what you want it to do. It's adjusting itself to sound better in the room it's in. Not to match it to other speakers in the room. I can't pair different Sonos speakers for the same reason.
 
It's not BS though, it's just not doing what you want it to do. It's adjusting itself to sound better in the room it's in. Not to match it to other speakers in the room. I can't pair different Sonos speakers for the same reason.
There is no possible way the average user would be able to tell a difference. Just make it an option to stereo pair them. If people think they sound too different then you can unpair them.
 
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It looked like hardware-wise it's a downgrade, the number of twitter units and mics both reduced from 7 to 5, as well as wifi from 802.11ac with MIMO to 802.11n. I'm fine with wifi but losing the number of twitter units might decrease the sound quality. Aside from the downgrades, we know the upgrades of new sensors as well as new chips, but the sound quality should be the first and foremost priority. I wonder how they'll sound and I'll wait for the reviews. MSRP wise I'm sure they'll make more money off of this homepod than the original ones! lol!
 
I bought my Mackie studio monitors for $150, and I guarantee you, they sound better than the HomePod will.
I have Mackie CR3s in my office on the gaming monitor.

It is easily better than a HomePod Mini stereo pair. The OG HomePod stereo pair may compete but you can't beat the price. I got mine for a little under 100 dollars a year or so ago.
 
There's probably a bit of a difference in sound between 1st generation and 2nd generation. Apple wants uniformity I'm sure.

Now, whether that's a good stance is definitely in question. Seems like you could easily buy a new one to pair with 1st gen and the pair would make users more than happy.

But, the differences of spatial audio and all that, Apple doesn't want different sound coming from different speakers in a pair. And certainly enough for Apple to not support it.
 
There is no possible way the average user would be able to tell a difference. Just make it an option to stereo pair them. If people think they sound too different then you can unpair them.
I don't necessarily disagree with you, I wouldn't have a problem if they did that honestly. But they are keeping control of the device, just like find me the EQ settings for the Homepod. Sonos has it, Apple doesn't.
 
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It's part of the plan. About 2 years old now since they last made the original one, time to buy a pair of new ones. lol.. so ridiculous. If you buy this again, you are just rewarding the bad behaviour.
 
There is no possible way the average user would be able to tell a difference. Just make it an option to stereo pair them. If people think they sound too different then you can unpair them.
Not true. Imagine the whine-fests here, likely of epic proportions, when people whine about their speakers in a stereo pair sounding differently and sub-par.

Apple would never offer a "Degraded Sound Mode" option. That would be reputation killing.
 
The original HomePod sounded great, despite Siri being pretty damn poor. I got a second as I thought a pair would sound better, and louder. They did. But the software is so utterly appallingly awful that the glitch in so many ways as a pair (on various different networks with different routers), that I ended up hating them. I won't buy completely wireless speakers again, from any company. Apple completely burnt me.

By the way, Apple claims these will sound better despite being a bit smaller, a bit lighter, and having fewer tweeters.... hmmm... we'll leave that up for reviewers to determine, but I'm dubious.
 
It looked like hardware-wise it's a downgrade, the number of twitter units and mics both reduced from 7 to 5, as well as wifi from 802.11ac with MIMO to 802.11n. I'm fine with wifi but losing the number of twitter units might decrease the sound quality. Aside from the downgrades, we know the upgrades of new sensors as well as new chips, but the sound quality should be the first and foremost priority. I wonder how they'll sound and I'll wait for the reviews. MSRP wise I'm sure they'll make more money off of this homepod than the original ones! lol!
WOW! This is very scary. I wouldn't touch this thing with a ten foot pole...
 
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