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New HomePod Reviews Offer Hands-On Look at Sound Quality, Siri, and More

jctevere said:
They had an opportunity to innovate and actually compete in the home theater market or portable speaker area but failed once again to effectively compete in either.
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Apple is not serious about home audio and never has been. Anyone looking to Apple for home audio isn't serious about home audio. A complete home audio solution requires a mix of products, from portable speakers to surround-sound configurations. Also, ETHERNET! I don't ever see Apple going there.

jctevere said:
The screen up top is useless, make an upfiring speaker for better atmos, and allow pairing of 4 for actual surround sound. Alternatively (or additionally) they could have offered portability to compete with Sonos by having a battery and wireless or mag safe charging but didn’t.
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I find it strange that, for a company that revolutionized how we buy and listen to music, they have such crap audio offerings. They could have easily bested Sonos back in the day, yet for some reason they never took the plunge. If one's audio needs are modest and/or one is a diehard Apple fanboy, HomePod is surely "good enough". For everyone else, it's a bizarre dead-end product full of compromises.

jctevere said:
Instead they removed speakers, microphones and downgraded wifi to offer the same exact subpar experience that doesn’t target any specific market and will flop once again.
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I think it does target a specific market. It's a "me too" product aimed at their diehard fanboy audience who would buy poop on a stick if it came with an Apple logo. Anyone objective would not buy a HomePod. There are better speakers from a sound quality perspective. Amazon and Google offer vastly superior assistants. Sonos offers a complete home audio solution from single speakers to surround-sound. HomePod is inferior on every level, but it has an Apple logo!

There's a small percentage of Apple customers who basically want everything Apple. When the iPhone 14 was announced with Satellite SOS, these forums had plenty of people gushing about how they now felt safe on a backpacking trip or on remote stretches of highway, etc. The fact that Garmin, SPOT, etc. have offered more effective satellite emergency beacons for DECADES didn't matter to these fanboys. I remember reading one post where the author talked about how he was getting one for his wife in case her car broke down and all I could think was, if you really cared that much about your wife's safety, you would have bought a beacon a long time ago. No, the only thing he cares about is the Apple Logo. That guy is your market for the HomePod.

jctevere said:
I was lookin for any excuse to buy these, but they didn’t provide a single one. The addition of a temperature and humidity sensor is relatively worthless too since most people have nests or smart thermostats that already provide this information…
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Temperature and humidity are gimmicks at best. 99.9% of prospective customer won't care. The fact that you're looking for "any excuse" to buy a HomePod tells me you already know you don't want one.

jctevere said:
I had high hopes given Apple seemed to actually be listening to customers and offering better products lately, but this HomePod rehash just leaves me scratching my head wondering why?
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I think the why is pretty easy to see. All of the other big tech companies offer these speaker/spy devices. Apple wants to plant a flag in that market too.
 
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I have an 0G. Bought it in 2018 when BestBuy had a sale on it because I knew instantly it was going to be one of those classic rose colored glasses Apple products. Still works. Will probably pick one of these up for a different room.
 
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Naraxus said:
Surprise surprise. The spiritual successor to Rene Richie & Jim Dalrymple - iJustine - gushes over a free, prerelease bribe, er "review unit" from Apple.

I'll wait for more objective reviews thanks.
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Bro come on, I'm not sure anyone, even iJustine, could match the level of pissantry fart sniffing that Rene Ritchie did. Not even DED from AppleInsider was as bad as Rene.
 
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My guess is that this one is cheaper to build than the previous generation, yet still seems to maintain the quality. The only good reason for stopping sales of the first gen had to be cost to build vs. revenue.

What‘s really strange to me is that Apple is usually very good at offering a range of products for different budgets. HomePods have a $100 version and a $300 version. Why no $200 version? I think a decent quality $200 version could sell very well.

At the end of the day, however, I still believe it’s better to buy a stereo system rather than one of these so-called “smart” speakers. It will be more flexible, probably better quality audio, and upgradeable. Use the phone as a “smart“ speaker instead.
 
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User 6502 said:
That being said the inflation comment is just ridiculous. You can’t apply general inflation to tech products, as prices tend to go down not up in this field. It’s not a bread loaf, making it today costs less than it did 5 years ago, especially considering they are using a cheaper chip, less speakers and less microphones.
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No one calculates inflation adjusted pricing when making a buying decision. It's so silly and laughable to even bring it up. That's purely fanboy misdirection. Whenever I see that argument, I know to completely disregard that person's opinions on everything.
 
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I think what people are missing here is that the original HomePod frequently went on sale for $199. This cost optimized version should easily be able to hit that mark then. From what I'm seeing about its performance in home theater, I'll certainly scoop up a pair for $400 if/when the time comes. Seems like a way better value than a Beam.
 
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Rogifan said:
So Apple can’t make a sound bar that utilizes their chip technology? It would only work in a cylindrical speaker?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1620422803748175872
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Why would a sound bar form factor be an improvement?

And Marques Brownlee makes a completely ridiculous comment at the beginning of that video you linked to: that HomePod mini was a "much smaller version of the same exact thing". Nope! HomePod mini is not even close to having the same speaker/microphone set up as the HomePod. It also doesn't do any of the sophisticated noise cancelling etc. that the full size HomePod does.
 
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I have 4 of the OG HomePods, 7 Minis, 7 ATVs, and over 65 HomeKit devices. So please understand, I have some experience when I say the following:

Siri/HomeKit is a stinking pile of 💩 some days. Some days it's useless. Some days you want to kill it or throw it through a window. When it works, it's very nice! Those days are not as often as I'd like.

$299 is too expensive for a glorified Siri speaker. Period. I bought mine when they were on sale for $199. $199 is the sweet spot for the large HomePod. I don't care what changes they made to it, nothing they changed, will resolve the issues that plague HomeKit.

Until that gets sorted, there will be no speaker upgrades from me. The time of Apple making a couple changes and selling the same thing again and again, are over. It must be SUBSTANTIAL.

Glad all the "rave reviews" from those that got the product free are going well. We all know if you talk bad about an Apple product, you will be shunned forever.
 
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BadMacRumours said:
The thing that’s bugging me the most, the biggest issue I have…

Is people comparing the price. “It’s only $50 cheaper!” No. It’s not. Go do some math and calculate inflation compared to 2018.

You’ll find it’s much more than $50 cheaper than the previous model.
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Hey we're not allowed to bring logic into the conversation, this is a comments section. LOL :)
 
gnipgnop said:
Home theater = dumb speakers that don't do anything beyond project sound. That's why you need so many different specialized speakers.
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I have no problem with that. Do you see movie theaters using soundbars? No cause they are virtual, not real audio attacking you from all sides. I expect the same with my smart speaker. HiFi hence Apple onlyHigh end audio on everything or nothing.
 
AtomicDusk said:
Hey we're not allowed to bring logic into the conversation, this is a comments section. LOL :)
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It's also logical to assume that Apple has a lot more sales/pricing info from the original HomePod. If they priced it at $299, it's safe to assume that price point has a lot of data behind it.
 
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XboxEvolved said:
Hm didn't know that was possible. How do you do that?
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you need a TV with an eARC HDMI port and an Apple TV made within the last 2 gens, if I remember correctly. Plug your Apple TV into the eARC slot, and set your TV to run sound to there. I have this set up on my TV for my consoles and it's brilliant.

Only downside is that if you're not on Apple TV as your video source, e.g. playing PS5, you won't see on screen volume controls. I mean that's fine, volume you is something you hear, not see, but some people like the TV way of "My tv should be at volume 25."
 
nrose101 said:
And I have no problem with that. And if I want the best sounding smart speaker....It's Apple. High end audio on everything or nothing.
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I don't have a problem with it either. I just don't understand why people think a dumb speaker format would be the best thing for Apple to do.
 
gnipgnop said:
I don't have a problem with it either. I just don't understand why people think a dumb speaker format would be the best thing for Apple to do.
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I don't think they should either...Leave that to Infinity, Denon, Klipsh, etc. I just don't think soundbars cut it at all.
 
AtomicDusk said:
you need a TV with an eARC HDMI port and an Apple TV made within the last 2 gens, if I remember correctly. Plug your Apple TV into the eARC slot, and set your TV to run sound to there. I have this set up on my TV for my consoles and it's brilliant.

Only downside is that if you're not on Apple TV as your video source, e.g. playing PS5, you won't see on screen volume controls. I mean that's fine, volume you is something you hear, not see, but some people like the TV way of "My tv should be at volume 25."
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How is the latency with this?
 
gnipgnop said:
I think what you're missing here is that surround systems do not involve any computer chips or processing. That's why they need so many different specialized speakers: all they do is project sound. There's no sound cancelling going on like the HomePods do in order to optimize how the sound waves reflect and interact within the room. Apple wants to use their chip technology in ways that enhance the experience, not just produce standard speakers.
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It's just marketing. They do this for something to sell. They aren't manipulating sound in any significant way.
 
Uofmtiger said:
I think these would be more popular if they also worked as Atmos speakers that you could configure the way you want. It seems like it would be possible to send regular 5.1 to an amp from the Apple TV and configure these in multiple ways to add Atmos to the setup via Airplay. It would add convenience for those using their living rooms as home theaters. Also, you would get the added benefit of getting pretty decent sound when you just want to play music using Siri.
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Or, you could just get into Sonos and have everything.

Home Pod =/= Home Theater.
 
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