New HomePod Can't Be Stereo Paired With First-Generation HomePod

[roar08]

Spend the extra $80 and get 2 Sonos One SLs:

Two Room Set with Era 100 | Sonos

Transform up to two rooms with two next-gen Era 100 speakers and a smart soundbar. Place the speakers in different parts of your home for multiroom listening, or pair them in the same room. Get high-definition stereo sound, deep bass, and voice control in this set from Sonos.

www.sonos.com

 

[IowaAppleGuy]

I don’t understand the people defending this. If you don’t want to pair them because you think they’ll sound vastly different then don’t do it. No one is forcing you to pair them.

To make someone who wants all their HPods in stereo mode, who lives in a 500 sq foot apartment and already owns 3 HomePods, buy two new HomePods is ludicrous.

 

[dumastudetto]

I suspect they’ll be killing off the 1st gen from software updates pretty soon. Which means they’d want to avoid the complexity of allowing pairing of old and new when old will be stuck on old firmware. Also the hardware charges/downgrades in the new model might make stereo pairing with the old sound weird.

 

[IowaAppleGuy]

WOW! This is very scary. I wouldn't touch this thing with a ten foot pole...

Apple downgrades their product and people defend it as innovation and a reason not to pair with first generation. Unbelievable.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

In (quality) stereo audio, it is absolutely mandatory to use two identical speakers. So even if pairing gen 1 and 2 would be possible, it would still be a bad idea.

That being said, I‘m very curious how the sound of these will compare. I‘m using a pair of first gen HomePods every day and they still sound awesome, especially for the size (and price).

Here’s exactly why you can’t. If you could, then Apple would have to deal with the customers complaining about the sound imbalance 🙄

 

[ProfessionalFan]

Spend the extra $80 and get 2 Sonos One SLs:

Two Room Set with Era 100 | Sonos

Transform up to two rooms with two next-gen Era 100 speakers and a smart soundbar. Place the speakers in different parts of your home for multiroom listening, or pair them in the same room. Get high-definition stereo sound, deep bass, and voice control in this set from Sonos.

www.sonos.com

You should go ahead and do that if you want to, why do you care what others buy?

 

[thadoggfather]

First gen peasants need to cough up or shut up

I wonder if the pairing would even sound good, since probably different signatures but .. thats still kinda lame

 

[Oscar_440]

It's magic!
Well done Apple. Working hard for its users

 

[jaw04005]

Isn't it amazing how only Apple can make your current hardware obsolete? Is there a single Apple product that is either not repairable or chip /OS version dependant, meaning not supported after they no longer want it to be supported?

Apple has made it unnecessarily hard to support older products. Their support Web site alone has tons of dead links to firmware updates, software updates and support articles.

For example, go try to find the proper Boot Camp drivers for your 2014 Mac mini (that they sold for 4 years) or download a full version of Mojave on an M1 Mac to create a USB install key. PITA.

They're a trillion dollar company that's supposed to have a positive environmental mission.

They can do better.

 

[IowaAppleGuy]

First gen peasants need to cough up or shut up

I wonder if the pairing would even sound good, since probably different signatures but .. thats still kinda lame

They easily could have designed it to match the first gen sound profile though. It still falls on Apple.

I’ll be the first one to eat my own words if it’s proven these 2nd gen’s sound quality is vastly superior.

If not, the choice to differentiate them to not stereo pair was clearly to make people purchase the new one’s. Not because of sound quality improvements.

 

[nicolas_s]

Aren't speakers supposed to be exactly the same when they're in a stereo configuration?

Doesn't make sense to pair a 2nd gen with a 1st gen if the hardware is different, the result would be unbalanced

Would you use a 2nd gen AirPod in one ear, and a 1st gen in the other ear?

 

[Lampekap]

Welcome to the eco-system.

Thanks.

 

[haincha]

I loved my original HomePod pair when they worked. Some TV apps like Hulu and notoriously SlingTV hated working with them as the default sound output. I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy these, but I'll eventually pick up a pair. They're amazing for house parties, they're pretty darn good for default TV sound if you're using an TV, and the sound is phenomenal. I still think they should be priced closer to $200-$250, but it's Apple...

 

[mikeyy00]

I can’t wait for this to fail. Expensive stereo system that has a terrible virtual assistant and glitches 24/7. Trillion dollar company that can’t get it right. Embarrassing

Well at least they're not losing 10billion like Amazon? Also I'll take Siri being Siri for local home control (vs. the alternatives).

 

[IowaAppleGuy]

Aren't speakers supposed to be exactly the same when they're in a stereo configuration?

Doesn't make sense to pair a 2nd gen with a 1st gen if the hardware is different, the result would be unbalanced

Would you use a 2nd gen AirPod in one ear, and a 1st gen in the other ear?

In this example they actually made distinguishable and listed improvements between the 1st and 2nd gen Airpods. They seemingly DOWNgraded the HomePods here to make them not be able to pair with 1st gen HomePods.

 

[nutmac]

I expected nothing less 😂

To be fair, the first and second generation HomePods have a different number of drivers and some might be different entirely. Expecting Apple (or anyone else for that matter) to match the timbre of two different speakers in a stereo configuration is just unrealistic.

 

[nicolas_s]

In this example they actually made distinguishable and listed improvements between the 1st and 2nd gen Airpods. They seemingly DOWNgraded the HomePods here to make them not be able to pair with 1st gen HomePods.

But what's the point on having a $500 worth sound system where the 2 speakers aren't even fully identical?

I don't understand they want to achieve by doing that, really

 

[jaw04005]

In this example they actually made distinguishable and listed improvements between the 1st and 2nd gen Airpods. They seemingly DOWNgraded the HomePods here to make them not be able to pair with 1st gen HomePods.

If they would have dramatically changed the design (as rumored), it wouldn't be as big of a deal. You wouldn't expect them to pair. However, since they essentially just released a spec downed version of the March 2021 HomePod in the same shell — it's kind of a thing.

They changed their end of life policy back a few years ago. Pretty sure they only count when a product was introduced now (Feb 2018), instead of when they stopped selling the product (March 2021).

Watch them cut the original HomePod off from software updates and Apple music authorization next.

 

[WaterOz]

My OG pair still sound amazing, so no need for these right now. Although if they add a feature that will allow them to also pair with a pair of minis as rear speakers and making it so the Dolby Atmos is even better... I'd be in.

 

[sjsharksfan12]

View attachment 2144280

First gen peasants need to cough up or shut up

I wonder if the pairing would even sound good, since probably different signatures but .. thats still kinda lame

It's not my fault Apple decided to discontinue a product a few months after I bought that product. I didn't know at the time. Now Apple wants me to fork over over money for a product with a huge limitation on it. To me, that is basically Apple saying we don't want your money. I'll happily oblige.

 

[roar08]

You should go ahead and do that if you want to, why do you care what others buy?

Man, I wish. I have 20 right now and nowhere else to put them until our remodel/extension is complete. I may buy them now since they're slightly on sale, but I've been waiting/hoping they return to the Sonos refurb store.

I actually don't care at all what people buy, but as others have suggested, simply weighing in that Sonos speakers have great quality and are less expensive. I've been a huge Apple fan since the mid-90s and have many tens of thousands of dollars worth of Apple products, but — for me — the HomePod platform just falls short in the speaker market.

So yeah — I totally don't care what others do. I guess I figured it was OK to post an opinion/thought.

Why do you care what others post/think?

 

[coachgq]

I suspect they’ll be killing off the 1st gen from software updates pretty soon. Which means they’d want to avoid the complexity of allowing pairing of old and new when old will be stuck on old firmware. Also the hardware charges/downgrades in the new model might make stereo pairing with the old sound weird.

That’s actually a reasonable idea.

 

[coachgq]

My OG pair still sound amazing, so no need for these right now. Although if they add a feature that will allow them to also pair with a pair of minis as rear speakers and making it so the Dolby Atmos is even better... I'd be in.

That’s what I’m waiting for. That would be pretty awesome.

 

[happydude]

No! YOU CAN"T BE PAIRED WITH A FIRST GEN HOMEPOD.

planned obsolescence at its finest. absolutely ridiculous.

 

[IowaAppleGuy]

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