Do you have it yet? Can you offer any thoughts on the sound quality vs. the original HomePod?
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Old vs. New HomePod Buyer's Guide
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Do you have it yet? Can you offer any thoughts on the sound quality vs. the original HomePod?
The chip was already manufacture. Kinda like extra inventory
I’ve been looking everywhere for this answer, can I put a pair of HomePod OGs up front and a pair of minis at the back and hear the same signal from the front and back with each speaker doing its thing and have them not have horrible time delays everywhere? My dream really is to have three HomePod OGs upfront and three or two Minis in the rear, and have some semblance of Atmos handled in software.
LOVE that movie. A perfect weekend watching party is that, Any Given Sunday and Step Into Liquid.
I should get it early February. I ordered as soon as I heard the news. I will be ordering a second one shortly too.
The Wi-Fi was not a separate component that Apple spec’d. They upgraded the processor to the S7 used in the Watch. that processor happens to use Wi-Fi 4 when the older processor in the OG HomePod had Wi-fi 5 built in. The differences are minor and have little effect on the operation of the HomePods. It just wasn’t worthwhile engineering a whole new processor with Wi-fi 6 for the Homepod when all it is doing is receiving audio streams.
The S7 has newer and faster cores from the 2019 A13. The previous processor was the old A8 from the iPhone 6 in 2012. It’s not clear why Apple still uses Wi-Fi 4 in the watch, but that is what is built in so far. Perhaps, when they move the Watch SOC to 3nm, they will upgrade to a newer Wi-Fi version.
FYI @DeepIn2U
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We don’t know that the new HP has worse sound. Still waiting on more in-depth reviews. Yes, the number of tweeters was reduced. Maybe that impacts the audio or maybe they redesigned the speaker array to work better together. That is still an open question.
I think even if there is a difference, normal people wouldn't be able to tell. We can see when reviews come out, but that is what I expect.
Regardless, from my point of view that is happy with the mini but wants something more powerful, as long as its better than the mini I am happy.
Not really. The microphones are for processing verbal requests and are not exposed to external hosts like video conference apps. They don’t have any built-in VOIP functions, either.
Oh me too. Its a mandatory watch for me every year at the beginning of summer.
I never had any problems with my original HomePods. What problems did you have?
Hardware is good but if the software is anything like it was for the GEN-1, then the GEN-2 has no chance. 🙄
The new electronics are an updated version of the HP Mini so at least it will be more responsive.
Yes, but the new version has the ability to use other Apple hardware as a peer and the speed of N networking is plenty for Audio anyway.
Usually, in the days just before they’re available for purchase in the stores. In this case, purchase date is Feb 3rd, so most likely Feb 2nd. Possibly the first, but unlikely.
For example, the new MBP’s were announced to be available on Jan 24, all the reviews from all the various sites were posted January 23rd.
Ok thanks. Feels like the embargo on other items was much earlier than the purchase availability date. Maybe I’m wrong!
No. It feels that way because of all the “Here’s what I think of it” posts before people even have them, making folks think the embargo is over because it HAS to be over, it’s in a YouTube video right? Nope, the video includes pictures that are of the last products and maybe a screenshot or two of old rumor tweets.
Ha! Well, I'll disagree in that not a single post or YouTube video has discussed anything about sound quality, so there's not been a single post about HP2 that's been worth reading. Not even ones started from the MR folk. I've not put any stock into anything I've read or listened to yet.No. It feels that way because of all the “Here’s what I think of it” posts before people even have them, making folks think the embargo is over because it HAS to be over, it’s in a YouTube video right? Nope, the video includes pictures that are of the last products and maybe a screenshot or two of old rumor tweets.
I think another thing is: this is the first "new" product release I've looked forward to in a long time, so that might be why it feels like it's taking "forever" to see a good review. For other product releases that don't interest me, I don't notice the delays in concrete reviews showing up. Plus, I'm thinking for whatever reason that it was only a week or so after any announcement that reviews start to show up, but maybe I'm wrong there.
I do like my HomePod mini's (when accompanied with a subwoofer) and can't wait to add a pair of HP2's to the living room. And as an engineer I'm further intrigued to hear some objective discussion about performance differences between the two versions given the hardware changes.
The only “reviews” I saw were a few where some people had been shown the new HP in a controlled setting by Apple and while they could listen to it, there was no way to compare it to the OG HP or anything else. Their time was also likely limited.
Usually, actual hands-on reviews are embargoed until the product is ready to ship to customers, which AFAIK is Feb 3.
That’s what I have. If I AirPlay to them, I can just select both sets of speakers and have two lots of left speakers and two lots of right speakers (with all the bass being produced by the two OGs at the front - but in practice, you can’t tell where it’s coming from, you just benefit from a much wider soundstage - something I never even realised I was missing until I plugged the Minis in and… suddenly I had sound coming from all round me in a really nice way).
If you ask Siri to play something, it may or may not play out of all 4, and if you want all four to play from Apple TV you have to select them in the Apple TV preferences every time you use it, otherwise it just reverts to the two main HomePods.
Re: Atmos - I know what you mean. I can’t believe that with all the years they’ve spent developing these, they can’t be used to output multi-channel TV sound which they tout as being a benefit of the Apple TV which they themselves sell!
We may not need the speed, but AFAICS it means the WiFi AP will need to be configured to not require WPA3. It looks to me that a problem with the IOT insistence on older WiFi standards is deacrased security, unless I‘m missing something?