Played Sting's, Sister Moon with the HomePod 2. it was incredibly bad

[transmaster]

Sister Moon is my favorite song from Sting. The track was not on many playlists back when I still listened to terrestrial radio. I finally got around to playing on the HomePods. The spacial audio was totally bogus. Sister Moon is a very dreamy luscious track. Sting's voice was submerged and almost inaudible in the spatial audio dreaminess the HomePod's were floating out. Again I wish for a separate app for the HomePods so we can tweak the sound of these things.

Play this on your HomePod's do you perceive stings vocal track is submerged, On the Yamaha he is more forward.

 

[vinegarshots]

Sister Moon is my favorite song from Sting. The track was not on many playlists back when I still listened to terrestrial radio. I finally got around to playing on the HomePods. The spacial audio was totally bogus. Sister Moon is a very dreamy luscious track. Sting's voice was submerged and almost inaudible in the spatial audio dreaminess the HomePod's were floating out. Again I wish for a separate app for the HomePods so we can tweak the sound of these things.

Play this on your HomePod's do you perceive stings vocal track is submerged, On the Yamaha he is more forward.

IMO it's the Dolby Atomos that kills it. I've found that Atomos ruins the audio on my Airpods Pro, and on the Homepod as well. The mixes just sound terrible, and the normal non-Atomos versions sound better almost 99% of the time.

Try turning Atomos OFF on your Homepod. It makes a huge difference.
Open Home.app, go to Home Settings, tap on your name under People, choose Apple Music under Media, and then disable Dolby Atmos. You might need to restart the Homepod afterwards as well.