HomePod Should I keep HomePod over Amazon Echo Studio?

[stevescivic]

Has anyone here done a comparison between the Echo Studio and the Homepod? I picked both smart speakers up during the black Friday promo event and was really hoping that the homepod would be the one that trumps them all but I was truly shocked at how much better the studio sounded over the homepod. The homepod's bass without a doubt is tighter and punchier but the lack of midrange and the veiled highs just made Homepod not as engaging and transparent as the Echo. Is this the experience that others have had with Homepod? HomePod at first impressions was very impressive from a relatively diminutive speaker and I thought that was as good as one could get for a speaker at that price point. That all changed when I cracked open the Studio and placed it in the same exact spot as the HomePod and listened to the same music at the same relative volume level. The Studio has deeper (but looser) bass, plays louder (but not necessarily "cleaner" at extreme volumes), has better midrange and highs at a price point that is less than half of the apple homepod! This makes the Echo studio a very compelling speaker and has really got my attention. I played the same songs (that I know very well) repeatedly for literally hours over multiple days doing A/B comparisons and even in different rooms. In nearly every subjective test that I did along with bringing a few family members to listen to that the Studio bested the Homepod in transparency, presence, and the "size" of the sound.

What I am seeking is other's experiences comparing the Homepod with the studio and advice of why or how the homepod may be the superior product. Good audio performance and ease of audio connectivity is a major consideration with smart integration being secondary. I listen to all sorts of music.

I'm quite heavily invested in the apple ecosystem from a computer and mobile hardware standpoint but am not subscribed to any of apple's online services. I subscribe to Spotify and Amazon music basic (comes standard with a prime membership) and to my knowledge, Homepod is tightly tethered to Apple only services, has the weakest virtual assistant (My little kids even know SIRI isn't very good), supports the least # of devices and costs considerably more than other similar smart speakers.

As it stands now, our home is an even mix of Echo dots and google minis + hub(s). Why the two systems? Echo Dots have the 3.5mm audio out jacks that allow my music streaming services to interface with my old vintage listening rigs. The google minis and the hub were giveaways when Google/Nest were promoting their Nest line of security camera that I heavily invested in so I have a bunch of those that are used in all the bedrooms. Both Google and Alexa integrate perfectly with all our smart switches, TVs, home theater system and lighting controls without ANY issues. Sending online music service such as spotify to either alexa or google devices is a simple tap on the app's speaker outputs and they can be iOS or Android devices and they all work the same. Added bonus is bluetooth pairing which HomePod also do not support.

I am trying to find reasons as to why the HomePod would be a better choice over the Echo studio. Basing my decisions heavily on audio performance with smart speaker integration as a secondary reason that I can't really see HomePod besting Amazon's latest smart speaker. Amazon seems to want to do it all and it even supports Apple Music.

Thoughts?

 

[Apple_Robert]

$99 Speaker Showdown: HomePod Mini vs. Amazon Echo and Google Nest Audio

Apple recently released the HomePod mini, a new $99 version of the original HomePod that's smaller, cuter, and, most importantly,...

www.macrumors.com

 

[stevescivic]

$99 Speaker Showdown: HomePod Mini vs. Amazon Echo and Google Nest Audio

Apple recently released the HomePod mini, a new $99 version of the original HomePod that's smaller, cuter, and, most importantly,...

www.macrumors.com

Thanks for the link but that is comparison the minis vs echo dot. The HomePod and studio are in a different league of their own and was hoping that someone here has done their own side by comparison of the large HomePod and studio.

I think I may end up returning the HomePod in favor of the studio. I will give it another couple of weeks of listening but my gut feeling that the sound quality and usability of the HomePod isn’t quite where it needs to be. One thing I will say about Apple is that they likely have the best privacy and security vs google and amazon but I can cite sources that would prove that as all three companies are storing recordings. The use of a smart speaker in our home essentially we are giving up on our privacy...

 

[HarryWild]

Go with what you like! In terms of connectivity, Apple is way behind Amazon which is in 1st place with something like 200,000 devices offering compare to 5K for Apple Homekit. You save $100 with the studio but it only in black and looks cheap! I go with Bose 500 myself if it only for music!

 

[Weaselboy]

I picked both smart speakers up during the black Friday promo event and was really hoping that the homepod would be the one that trumps them all but I was truly shocked at how much better the studio sounded over the homepod.

I don't own a HomePod, so cannot help you compare, but I'm glad to see your comment since I ordered the Studio during a recent sale for $159 based on an Engadget review that made the same observation as you on the sound quality.

I own a couple of the older Echo devices already, and like @HarryWild mentioned, I think they offer a wider range of compatible devices. I should receive the new Studio in about a month.

The new Studio has a Zigbee hub built in, if that sort of thing interests you. I have a Hubitat device for most of my home automation, and can control it from the Echo devices.

 

[stevescivic]

Go with what you like! In terms of connectivity, Apple is way behind Amazon which is in 1st place with something like 200,000 devices offering compare to 5K for Apple Homekit. You save $100 with the studio but it only in black and looks cheap! I go with Bose 500 myself if it only for music!

Yeah my feeling is the studio has apple beat big time in the audio and connectivity department. YouTube reviewers spend so much time trying to record the differences between the studio and HomePod and really the way the recorded their test is hard to tell which one actually sounds better. and oddly vote that HomePod sounds better. HomePod isn’t terrible in audio, probably the best when it was released but amazon and others have caught up in a hurry and are making speakers comparable in audio performance at a significantly lower price point.

if Apple just opened up their ecosystem a little bit more I’d probably keep the HomePod but having to AirPlay everything to it blows.

 

[stevescivic]

I don't own a HomePod, so cannot help you compare, but I'm glad to see your comment since I ordered the Studio during a recent sale for $159 based on an Engadget review that made the same observation as you on the sound quality.

I own a couple of the older Echo devices already, and like @HarryWild mentioned, I think they offer a wider range of compatible devices. I should receive the new Studio in about a month.

The new Studio has a Zigbee hub built in, if that sort of thing interests you. I have a Hubitat device for most of my home automation, and can control it from the Echo devices.

I was trying very hard to find reasons to go with HomePod since our family is quite invested in the apple ecosystem but not necessarily in apple services. Homepod's biggest achilles' heel is the LACK of integration with 3rd party devices and applications. I just wanted some basic things like Spotify support and its been literally YEARS and Apple/Spotify have made no progress to allow HomePod to work on its own without the need for another Apple device to tell it what to do. Don't get me wrong, I think Apple makes a lot of great things but HomePod has got me scratching my head. It seems to follow similar marketing strategy as their ill fated Apple HiFi where they made a decent performing speaker but marketed it at ludicrous prices. At least Apple is still adding enhancements to HomePod but it still costs a mint for something that works with apple services only, doesn't support bluetooth streaming AND can only work with other apple devices. I WANT to like the HomePod and in some ways I do - nice build, minimalist design but they're in a losing battle in this space when google and amazon are just killing it with devices that are not AS sexy but are cross functionally superior. I guess HomePod WAS the best performing speaker up until fall 2019 when Amazon's Studio came out. Apple's got to react a bit quicker. Support the popular services and swallow their own pride, drop the price or build something so compelling that it justifies the steep premium.

I am waiting for the day that apple opens up their ecosystem just a little bit to the outside world to make their great products EVEN better than what they are today. So much missed potential with this specific product.

I'm very confident you'll like the Studio. Placement like any speaker, does play a significant role in how it sounds. I've literally been messing around with HomePod and Studio for days and days trying out different music, placement, rooms, the surfaces that they sit on just to see how much of that plays into changing the sound.

Regarding the Zigbee hub - YES I'm SOO glad that the Studio has that tossed in but I wonder why Amazon didn't bother including Z-WAVE in there too. Probably licensing or cost issues but nonetheless, something is better than nothing! I've had a new philips Hue bulb sitting in my drawer for YEARS that I haven't used b/c it requires zigbee to work. I guess I'll be putting that to the test in the upcoming days.

Have fun with the Studio (BTW why does it take a month to get to you?), I truly believe most users will like the sound from it and for the price that Amazon sells them for during the blitz sales that you really can't EVER go wrong buying one.

 

[Weaselboy]

BTW why does it take a month to get to you?

I think they sold out with the big sale, so it is out of stock until the end of the month.

I noticed the Studio comes with 90 free days of Amazon Music HD. I use regular Amazon Prime Music now, and I'm wondering if you have tried out the higher bitrate Music HD and if you can tell the difference. The Engadget review wad very complimentary of the Music HD service.

 

[MacManTexas56]

Has anyone here done a comparison between the Echo Studio and the Homepod? I picked both smart speakers up during the black Friday promo event and was really hoping that the homepod would be the one that trumps them all but I was truly shocked at how much better the studio sounded over the homepod. The homepod's bass without a doubt is tighter and punchier but the lack of midrange and the veiled highs just made Homepod not as engaging and transparent as the Echo. Is this the experience that others have had with Homepod? HomePod at first impressions was very impressive from a relatively diminutive speaker and I thought that was as good as one could get for a speaker at that price point. That all changed when I cracked open the Studio and placed it in the same exact spot as the HomePod and listened to the same music at the same relative volume level. The Studio has deeper (but looser) bass, plays louder (but not necessarily "cleaner" at extreme volumes), has better midrange and highs at a price point that is less than half of the apple homepod! This makes the Echo studio a very compelling speaker and has really got my attention. I played the same songs (that I know very well) repeatedly for literally hours over multiple days doing A/B comparisons and even in different rooms. In nearly every subjective test that I did along with bringing a few family members to listen to that the Studio bested the Homepod in transparency, presence, and the "size" of the sound.

What I am seeking is other's experiences comparing the Homepod with the studio and advice of why or how the homepod may be the superior product. Good audio performance and ease of audio connectivity is a major consideration with smart integration being secondary. I listen to all sorts of music.

I'm quite heavily invested in the apple ecosystem from a computer and mobile hardware standpoint but am not subscribed to any of apple's online services. I subscribe to Spotify and Amazon music basic (comes standard with a prime membership) and to my knowledge, Homepod is tightly tethered to Apple only services, has the weakest virtual assistant (My little kids even know SIRI isn't very good), supports the least # of devices and costs considerably more than other similar smart speakers.

As it stands now, our home is an even mix of Echo dots and google minis + hub(s). Why the two systems? Echo Dots have the 3.5mm audio out jacks that allow my music streaming services to interface with my old vintage listening rigs. The google minis and the hub were giveaways when Google/Nest were promoting their Nest line of security camera that I heavily invested in so I have a bunch of those that are used in all the bedrooms. Both Google and Alexa integrate perfectly with all our smart switches, TVs, home theater system and lighting controls without ANY issues. Sending online music service such as spotify to either alexa or google devices is a simple tap on the app's speaker outputs and they can be iOS or Android devices and they all work the same. Added bonus is bluetooth pairing which HomePod also do not support.

I am trying to find reasons as to why the HomePod would be a better choice over the Echo studio. Basing my decisions heavily on audio performance with smart speaker integration as a secondary reason that I can't really see HomePod besting Amazon's latest smart speaker. Amazon seems to want to do it all and it even supports Apple Music.

Thoughts?

I don't have any experience with the high end amazon speakers at all, but I can tell you from a usage stand point as I've been heavily invested in "smart home" stuff since the original echo came out. So I've had a ton of amazon echo's as well as a ton of google homes when they came out in 2016. I like you, had a mix of google and amazon and also HomePods as well. All the lights in our house are Philips hue, inside and out and we have garage door opener, sprinkler system, thermostats, and plugs etc. In regards to the sheer number of items that are compatible with amazon...no question they are the leader in numbers. But I will say, quality, I don't agree. Quantity isn't always better than quality. I'd have a heck of a time just getting Alexa to understand half the time and if she did, just turning off the lights were extremely slow and they would turn off 1 by 1. We had it set up for music and it was more consistent than google was in that way. We had more luck with google with home automation and things working more effectively than with amazon. Then just one period about 1.5 to 2 years ago, something changed with google and we just had constant problems. Part of it could be the number of items we have in our house including google speakers, but the music would have problems connecting to them all and playing around the house. So we scrapped google completely.

I had also had HomeKit going around this time and doing testing etc. and it was always the fastest and most accurate in regards to our smart home stuff. Amazon was always the worst out of the 3 in our experience with accuracy of how smart home stuff was handled. So we got rid of amazon completely. The one thing I'll say is if you are looking for a speaker to answer questions etc. then HomePod is an absolute terrible choice. Since all the privacy concerns have come out, I didn't really care to ask our smart speakers questions anymore, so having the HomePod for music and for HomeKit control didn't bother me at all....it all made sense. I ended up having 9 HomePods around the house, several airport express with sound systems set up with them, but I ended up having problems with that many of them. It got harder to control and for volumes to sync when you have that many going.

I had been wanting a new tv setup so at the beginning of covid, Sonos had a big sale and I got the beam, subwoofer, and 2 Sonos one's. I ended up loving them so much that I decided to get rid of my HomePods completely and go the Sonos route. When you are talking about usability, I think amazon and google just can't compare to apple or Sonos with how you can control music etc. I always found it a terrible experience if you wanted to control things in their apps (amazon and google). I was okay going all in on Sonos bc they can also use airplay 2 and I'm heavily invested in apple ecosystem as we have 5 Apple TV's as well. It has by far been the best choice and if I decide I don't like using the Sonos app, I just use the speakers as airplay 2 speakers. I ended up ordering several HomePod mini's to handle our smart home stuff by voice and my wife uses them to play music all around the house including all the Sonos speakers.

With that said, I think Sonos is the absolute best choice, bc they've put themselves in a position to work with every company they can and not limit themselves at all. So if you got Sonos, you can add in all your services and they will all connect. You can also use Alexa with it if you'd like. We have siriusxm, Apple Music, pandora, amazon prime music and did have YouTube music and all of them were linked inside Sonos. The best part, is you can use the speakers as airplay 2 speakers as well....so kinda the best all around without locking yourself specifically into 1 service.

I know that doesn't directly answer your question, but hopefully my experience can help you in some way.

 

[stevescivic]

@rmhop81 - interesting perspective regarding the Sonos. I have heard the very popular sonos one only in the store and have not made the effort to buy one and bring it home to try in my specific listening environment. You make a VERY valid point on the Sonos speaker being able to work with essentially all three platforms. I think for me to make the switch to pure Sonos would be quite costly and it still doesn't quite solve my issue with needing a speaker that has a 3.5mm analog out for my vintage listening rigs which I believe Sonos does not have on their speakers. The nice thing about the amazon system is that they're inherently inexpensive and gets the job done. This is actually why I have Alexa in the first place, because they're Dots are cheap and work well and have 3.5mm out. Google is a result of the nest cams where I need to "See" them on screen and thus in certain rooms there are Google/nest hubs. In the end I ended up keeping the Echo studio since it integrates well into the existing devices I have now and it was the cheapest of all the choices. Even a sonos one on promo is $200+ CAD where as the Studio was $200 all in after taxes and it sounds great and even has 3.5mm/optical audio in so if I wanted to use it as a dumb speaker that I could without having to need to hook it up to wifi or anything to make it work.

Good points and something I would suggest to my friends in the future if they're deciding on building out a smart speaker'ed home.

 

[MacManTexas56]

@rmhop81 - interesting perspective regarding the Sonos. I have heard the very popular sonos one only in the store and have not made the effort to buy one and bring it home to try in my specific listening environment. You make a VERY valid point on the Sonos speaker being able to work with essentially all three platforms. I think for me to make the switch to pure Sonos would be quite costly and it still doesn't quite solve my issue with needing a speaker that has a 3.5mm analog out for my vintage listening rigs which I believe Sonos does not have on their speakers. The nice thing about the amazon system is that they're inherently inexpensive and gets the job done. This is actually why I have Alexa in the first place, because they're Dots are cheap and work well and have 3.5mm out. Google is a result of the nest cams where I need to "See" them on screen and thus in certain rooms there are Google/nest hubs. In the end I ended up keeping the Echo studio since it integrates well into the existing devices I have now and it was the cheapest of all the choices. Even a sonos one on promo is $200+ CAD where as the Studio was $200 all in after taxes and it sounds great and even has 3.5mm/optical audio in so if I wanted to use it as a dumb speaker that I could without having to need to hook it up to wifi or anything to make it work.

Good points and something I would suggest to my friends in the future if they're deciding on building out a smart speaker'ed home.

glad to help man. i know it wasn't what you specifically asked, but hopefully provided an extra view.

the homepod DOES sound better overall than the sonos one if you are wanting to compare the differences. so to compare those, it's not a fair comparison. Sonos Five, which i also bought, is a good comparison to homepod IMO.

I see where you're at and the problem i had as well, 1 company does not provide everything you need so you have to stitch things together lol. Switching to sonos was a pretty penny, but i also had 9 homepods to sell to offset the cost.