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I bought at launch for 349. Loved the sound until they crippled the EQ, then started using Airfoil. I still love the speaker but got into a Sonos system last year w/ a Playbase and a handful of One SLs (no microphone). Last month Sonos ran a special where you could get the One SL for 129 ... so two for the price of one HomePod (before the drop to 199). Knowing what I know now, and really liking my HomePod, I wish I had two One SLs in my office instead of my HomePod. Sonos sound quality is fantastic and in a pair, stunning. Don't get me wrong - I really like the HomePod. But I think Apple missed the pricing mark w/ their first foray into the speaker market; if it had been 199 at launch I think they would have sold a lot more. I bet they'll get it closer to "right" the second time around. Kind of wondering if I should sell my HomePod. Any takers? Pristine and has the original packaging :).
 
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I love the current sound quality of the HomePod. I hope the lower cost version doesn’t trade of sound quality for cost, though I’m sure it will.

You’re like only one commenting on the sound, which is the full intent of execution with a product like this. I suspect you’re correct though, the sound probably won’t be on the level the OG HomePod has, but you have the more/discreet portable factor coupes with other technology improvements coming.
 
If the new one is a smaller unit that focuses more on Siri interface and less on sound quality, then it sounds like it is not replacing the original - just adding to the product line.

I am happy with grabbing two of the original ones at the discount.
 
K. Just bought another one. Hopefully the stereo sound pairing that people keep raving about impresses me. :)

Will be interested to hear your feedback on this, as someone who has been rolling with 1 for a while (presumably).

Please let us know your impressions.
 
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I'm an Apple Zealot as much as anybody here, but they flat out missed the boat in terms of Smart Homes-- at least for me.

Nest Thermostat was my gateway drug. Now I'm a full-blown Google Home addict with:

6 Mini's
2 Thermostats
2 Detect Smoke Alarms
1 Hello Doorbell
1 Home Hub Max

and countless smart plugs & bulbs.

It would cost 10x the amount of money for a similar setup w/ HomePods + HomeKit :(

Apple needs to get serious about this---3 years ago....
 
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Will be interested to hear your feedback on this, as someone who has been rolling with 1 for a while (presumably).

Please let us know your impressions.

I'm tempted as well. Right now I have four HomePods, but in different rooms. I should do an experiment with two of them in one room as a stereo pair. If a pair sounds significantly better, I'll likely purchase a 5th HomePod.
 
The big change i'd like to see with the HomePod is the inclusion of a battery and replacement of the power cord with a charging station like cordless kettles use, With additional stations sold extra then have the charging station override the HomePods room/group setting.

That way a HomePod can be picked up, taken from one room to another and placed down on a charging station. The battery would only need to be powerful enough to keep the compute system running not the speakers, so you don't have to wait for a restart when moving.

WiFi 6 is a no-brainer if the hardware is being updated anyway.

View attachment 916334

This would be very cool. Might push me to get one instead of a Sonos Move (pricey).
 
The real iPod break-through occurred when it opened up to the PC/Windows world. Present HomePod it's too stuck in the middle of Apple golden walled garden. It is over-directed to Apple products users. The rest of the world is way bigger
 
I'm an Apple Zealot as much as anybody here, but they flat out missed the boat in terms of Smart Homes-- at least for me.

Nest Thermostat was my gateway drug. Now I'm a full-blown Google Home addict with:

6 Mini's
2 Thermostats
2 Detect Smoke Alarms
1 Hello Doorbell
1 Home Hub Max

and countless smart plugs & bulbs.

It would cost 10x the amount of money for a similar setup w/ HomePods + HomeKit :(

Apple needs to get serious about this---3 years ago....

I put homebridge on a cheap raspberry pi (I'm no programmer btw), by simply putting an image on an SD card. This allows non-homekit devices to be recognized and work with homekit. Once I loaded in, I added my nest thermostat and other non-homekit devices. Now I am able to control the temp on the nest thermostat with Siri, no problem. Got rid of my echo device in the living room, and bought this HomePod on sale last week.

In a perfect world, I'd replace the nest and all of my other smart home products with non-google, non-amazon products. This is just to avoid an Amazon or Google 'always-listening' device. But to replace every smart product is expensive, or there aren't good enough replacements yet. So homebridge is a good way to save on some cost, while not having to replace/be patient.

This was the guide that I used: https://techtechandmoretech.com/guides/homebridge-2020/

It's not a solution or even an issue for those that are happily using echo or google mini devices. If it's working for you, keep it up. But it's great for someone like me slowly moving away from Google and Amazon products, one step at a time.
 
...Which would abruptly end your tenure there. There are agreements and restrictions that come with those employee prices. It’s a great way to get fired.

I highly doubt they are going to notice if you bought 10 and slowly sold one or two each month on Craigslist. Tim Apple isn’t gonna be checking out my home to look for them.
 
When I got my 1st HomePod, I ranted on another post about the set-up being very un-Apple like (having to reset them to set them back up) & wasn’t convinced by the sound - it appears earlier that Apple gimped the EQ option.

A month or so later I bought another as price was cheap. On one hand I think the reason the EQ is gimped is so that all HomePods sound identical i.e same sound signature but on the other the bass these put out is way too much for my property & there is no way to adjust it, so they’re permanently on low. (I’m waiting for you’re placing them wrong kinda statements - when u lift them off the floor u get less bass etc.)

I’m not sure how much ‘value’ I get from them as half the time Siri doesn’t answer / internet drops on both (way more than any other Apple device I have) & as mentioned Apple Music is a must (until no doubt Spotify etc. is allowed)

At first I wasn’t too bothered by the lack of Jack & Bluetooth, I knew what I was buying. OTOH, I’d tried unsuccessfully to let a friend play music thru it - with a Bluetooth/Jack not a problem, HomePod said I had to sign into my Apple a/c to grant them access. Now I understand that this is prob because of my “personal requests” being there & maybe security, but WTF seriously “it just works”? I think not!😬

As a stereo pair I’m not convinced & it was mentioned earlier about the iPod Hi-Fi. Funnily enough I’ve also got that plugged into the TV & (IMO) I still get a great sound from it, better than HP? Maybe not soundstage wise, but every day listening & zero hassle, it can’t be beat.

I guess that when it comes to HomePod mini, I’ll maybe hold back unless the hardware & software is seriously given a major overhaul, if not I won’t be buying them & may even be tempted to eBay the current ones, as with everything YMMV.
 
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Too bad in Europe their price is basically immutable. No discounts no nothing. I wouldn’t mind grabbing a couple more otherwise.

Maybe after it’s discontinued.
It’s been down to £199 in UK for the past week at all major retailers. Thinking of picking another to make up a stereo pair with the one I picked up back in March. Can also get 30% off roughly and have some nectar vouchers which would literally make it £100.
 
I can’t imagine they’re gonna replace this with another speaker in the same price point. Even at $299, these things didn’t sell that well. Retailers routinely knocked these down to $199 to clear inventory.

They may very will be killing this speaker altogether and releasing a lower cost replacement at $199 that doesn’t sound as good but has a couple new features.

But quite honestly, the sound quality was the only reason to get a HomePod. If they bring it down and don’t improve Siri, the only selling point is for fanboys to stay in the ecosystem.
 
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I’ve got even more than 6. I was an early adopter and got the first gen before public release, and have been upgrading over time to Echo Show 5’s as an alarm clock. They’re awesome as home “intercom” systems.

I also have an investment in Sonos so there is literally zero need for the HomePod for me.
Can the homepod act as an intercom system?
 
It’s been down to £199 in UK for the past week at all major retailers. Thinking of picking another to make up a stereo pair with the one I picked up back in March. Can also get 30% off roughly and have some nectar vouchers which would literally make it £100.
Anyone want to grab two of these and ship them to Europe? 😁 #brexit
 
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It’s been down to £199 in UK for the past week at all major retailers. Thinking of picking another to make up a stereo pair with the one I picked up back in March. Can also get 30% off roughly and have some nectar vouchers which would literally make it £100.

...then again: is UK still Europe?
 
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All the HomePod, including the two I just bought, not working in my house makes more sense now...
 
Apple products always seem to be discounted in the US, but here in New Zealand, they basically never are.
 
I'm an Apple Zealot as much as anybody here, but they flat out missed the boat in terms of Smart Homes-- at least for me.

Nest Thermostat was my gateway drug. Now I'm a full-blown Google Home addict with:

6 Mini's
2 Thermostats
2 Detect Smoke Alarms
1 Hello Doorbell
1 Home Hub Max

and countless smart plugs & bulbs.

It would cost 10x the amount of money for a similar setup w/ HomePods + HomeKit :(

Apple needs to get serious about this---3 years ago....

I agree. I’m almost at the tipping point with HomeKit. I’ve spent, rough estimate, 5-6 grand on HomeKit over they years just for it all to work when it wants to. Just two days ago had to swap out my Lyric T5 for an ecobee3 lite because it just stopped responding in Home and nothing would get it to stay connected more then a few mins.
 
What I want is something that can sit on my desk and handle phone calls, siri, and the occassional music. A partner to the iPhone.

WIth the move to work from home, this is much needed. The bluetooth speakers leave little to be desired.
 
Another Tim Apple flop. $350 for a speaker with no auxiliary input or Bluetooth and locked to Apple Music and Siri. Tempted to buy 2 at $199 and move my dedicated stereo out of my bedroom. It would work for me since I can AirPlay my iTunes library with lossless high res audio files.
I’ll wait till they drop below $200

If I worked at Apple, I’d buy 10 at $150 a pop and sell 8 of them for profit.
Sell would imply that someone would purchase. Which by the looks of it you’d have no takers. But you can pay me $199 to have one.
 
works here and has done for ages
I’ve successfully done just that. Sounds like you have a glitch, as it’s not a feature limitation or anything.

In Home app on iPhone, set up two as stereo pair. Play AppleMusic from them directly and anything I want streamed to them from my iPhone and Apple TV.

The sound is awesome for all of the above.

My only gripes really are:

(1) that the connection is a little unreliable - sometimes I have to go in and re-tell the Apple TV to use them after having the iPhone or something else use them for a bit. I think this is a side effect of the fact that I’m using them as audio from multiple devices so I suppose it’s not a whole lot different from the old days of an amp with a “source” switch or dial or whatever or telling a TV what source/input it should be using at any given moment. And at least when I do ask it to connect it does so immediately instead of the usual hassle with things like standard Bluetooth speakers.

(2) Raw macOS doesn’t support AirPlay 2??? Go figure. So I can play to these from certain apps on my Mac(Music, etc) that have Airplay 2 support but can’t select a stereo pair of HomePods as standard macOS output in system prefs (can select one or the other but not the pair). Hopefully that’s coming in a macOS update...?

Aside from those two issues these things are freaking awesome.
Interesting... I wonder where my problem is. I have them both routed through my guest network to partition the smart home stuff from anything sensitive. If I set up one, then I can see it from any iOS device and can stream music to it through AirPlay. If I set them up as a stereo pair, I can only see them if I'm connected to the guest network-- no matter how I have the sharing options setup.

I've reset and set them up a few times now with no change in behavior. Maybe it's time to try again.
 
I hope they still sell the original, bigger HomePod in the future, because I’d like to purchase a couple for when I move out to my own apartment. However, many retailers are discounting it (not in Europe tho, as always), so maybe they could stop selling the Homepod if they see it isn’t profitable... A pity honestly.

By the way, I’d like to know how the HomePod compares with the Sonos Play 3, sound wise. I bet the quality sound of the Sonos Play 3 is better... But I’m not sure in investing on Sonos ecosystem.
 
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