HomePod WARNING: HomePod 11.3 significantly changes EQ, please read before updating

[maflynn]

They should've given us an option for the audio controls..?

As I stated, it would be nice, but un-apple like and flies in the face of the homepod fully managing the sound to produce an optimum listening experience. I'm personally not worked up about the loss of audio controls, I haven't touched anything in iTunes in years, so I guess I'm the type of consumer the HP is for. I'm happy letting that deal with the settings

 

[Endorphine88]

They should've given us an option for the audio controls..?

It doesn't need to be a full on equalizer - just a setting for enhanced lower frequencies/bass or flatter response.
It can be one single option they can incorporate in the HomePod settings - flip it if you're among the people that liked the original sound signature, don't touch it if you prefer the current one. Everyone's happy!

 

[Buerkletucson]

It has less to do with sound than the room measuring algorithm which THEN adjusts the sound. I wish everyone would stop with APPLE CHANGED THE SOUND. No, they changed the room measuring algorithm. How do I know this? Let me explain...

I tested the HomePod in about 5 different locations in a couple of rooms. In the typical spots that had really boomy bass when I first got the HomePod, it is now indeed toned down. But in spots where it used to sound thinner and less bassy is now a bit more full and bass is a bit more boomy.

This got to be the silliest post I've seen in a long time.....
Do you have a point?

The sound signature has dramatically changed......bass is dramatically reduced, mids and highs are different from when purchased.
I don't give hoot how it gets there, bottom line is APPLE CHANGED THE SOUND with v11.3 updates.

On Apple's request I have returned (2) Homepods to their technical developers to perform some diagnostic testing......
The (2) new replacement Homepods are at 11.2.5 and they are staying there until Apple comes out with a resolution with the next update.

No matter if you like the change or not, it's just plain wrong for Apple to change the sound signature of a speaker after you purchase it and the 14-day return windows is closed........with NO way to go back.

As confirmed by Apple, they have received a ton of negative feedback on this change with v11.3 and they are working on a resolution.....their words not mine.

 

[drasl]

Wonder if this has anything to do with the white rings appearing on certain furniture...

Would a reduced bass reduce such marks from the rubber bottom of the HP.

Pretty far fetched I admit


I wonder if all those youtube folks will redo their HP reviews where they talked about great sound quality. All pre 11.3 reviews are pretty useless and not relevant at this point

 

[afir93]

Wonder if this has anything to do with the white rings appearing on certain furniture...

Would a reduced bass reduce such marks from the rubber bottom of the HP.

Pretty far fetched I admit


I wonder if all those youtube folks will redo their HP reviews where they talked about great sound quality. All pre 11.3 reviews are pretty useless and not relevant at this point

Don‘t the white rings come from the wood chemically reacting with the bottom material of the HomePod? Don‘t think it has any relation to what kind of music the HomePod is playing.

About the reviews, well possibly, but I‘d say there‘s a good chance Apple tweaks the bass again after the backlash they have received now. The reviewers are probably gonna update their reviews/verdicts anyway once AirPlay 2 and stereo support has been released, who knows if we‘re not back to the original sound (or something better) by then.

 

[jonnyb098]

This got to be the silliest post I've seen in a long time.....
Do you have a point?

The sound signature has dramatically changed......bass is dramatically reduced, mids and highs are different from when purchased.
I don't give hoot how it gets there, bottom line is APPLE CHANGED THE SOUND with v11.3 updates.

On Apple's request I have returned (2) Homepods to their technical developers to perform some diagnostic testing......
The (2) new replacement Homepods are at 11.2.5 and they are staying there until Apple comes out with a resolution with the next update.

No matter if you like the change or not, it's just plain wrong for Apple to change the sound signature of a speaker after you purchase it and the 14-day return windows is closed........with NO way to go back.

As confirmed by Apple, they have received a ton of negative feedback on this change with v11.3 and they are working on a resolution.....their words not mine.

Cool, so far two people on macrumors have reported Apple asking for their homepods. Out of the million plus sold. I get it. You’re pissed and you want them to remedy it. I would too if I was upset over the change in sound. I agree Apple shouldn’t be just arbitrarily changing sound without some sort of setting or clarification. Personally I’m on board with many others hoping they just offer a toggle for normal and party mode or something. I for one am just happy I can play my HomePod in the evening at lower volume without it rumbling the room. However right now I’m blasting music at 50 percent and it’s thumping the room. Which is what I expect.

No joke even at 5 percent there was room rumbling bass before. I love bass but that’s just not normal at such a low volume and it always annoyed me. Glad it’s gone.

On a separate note testing the HomePod now in various spots sound much better now than it did when testing when I first got it, more bass, mids , just overall even fuller sound than before even though it never sounded bad per say. Sorry but I don’t think this is some mistake or coincidence.

That fact is that Apple did screw up a bit on this. What makes it such a debate on this forum is sound is so highly subjective that any change both positive or negative will be obvious and cause alarm.

 

[csurfr]

The HomePod still sounds fantastic and now I can hear the vocals over the bass. I’ll take that any day, and have ordered a second one. If anyone that hates theirs now wants to sell me a 3rd space gray, I’ll take it! I could use one in the bedroom.

 

[SoGood]

Those who are unhappy with Apple’s sound correction have been drowned out by the number who are over the moon with a much more balanced sound reproduction. Apple will keep this as the default and may provide the minority with a button switch if they behave well.

 

[robjulo]

Why would a new sound profile be needed? When this thing was released, all I heard, over and over from those justifying the ridiculous price, was how magical the sound was due to Apple’s highly technical sound beam measuring process to get the sound exactly perfect? A change should have not been needed.

 

[afir93]

Why would a new sound profile be needed? When this thing was released, all I heard, over and over from those justifying the ridiculous price, was how magical the sound was due to Apple’s highly technical sound beam measuring process to get the sound exactly perfect? A change should have not been needed.

A "perfect" sound is hard to quantify. Fundamentally I'm not opposed to small sound tweaks in software updates as long as they make the sound experience better – you can love the way it sounds and still yearn for improvements. There are people who think that the iPhone X is a perfect phone, but do they want it not to receive anymore software updates because of that? No, of course not.

The problem here is that Apple tweaked the sound in a way that reportedly made it worse, it changed an excellent sound experience to something less excellent, at least that seems to be the general opinion. If Apple tweaked the sound in a way that made it better, then it wouldn't really upset anyone.

 

[Z3man]

I have been thinking and have had an idea, i think its quite a good idea even if i do say so myself, so i hope Apple are reading this thread.

If Apple don't want to offer any EQ settings or presets because it goes against their advertised guidelines. They could disguise them as settings called Large Room, Medium Room and Small Room.

Large Room would be the original setting on 11.2.5 with plenty of bass.

Medium Room would be the current setting on 11.3, with medium bass which the majority seem to prefer.

Small Room would have less bass than the current setting on 11.3, this would be good for late night listening and for people who just don't like a lot of bass.

Whether Apple actually change the EQ settings or the Detection Algorithm doesn't really matter as only Apple will know what they have changed, and no one would be that bothered anyway.

This would be a good way of Apple getting out of the hole they are digging themselves and would end up pleasing everyone, and it will just look like room settings which no one is going to question because it seems quite logical to have them, seems very sensible too me.

 

[Hoerb]

My HP is pretty much back to normal after a week of disbelieve, moving and resetting it several times. Maybe a bit of bass is still missing but the songs that suddenly lacked depth and just sounded like out of a cheap stereo now sound great again. Maybe a bit more of moving it around and having it readjust will work for the ones that are affected too.

 

[SoGood]

On EQ setting. Has anyone tried the different EQ settings under Settings -> Music in iOS or iTunes when playing back to HomePod?

Does it not work?

 

[Z3man]

Y

On EQ setting. Has anyone tried the different EQ settings under Settings -> Music in iOS or iTunes when playing back to HomePod?

Does it not work?

In iTunes from a Mac they work very well, they make quite a difference, you can get a really good sound out of the HP using them.

You can do it from your IOS device as well but it's no quite as easy, but they still make a big difference. Each time you change the setting in the EQ you have to disconnect from the HP and the connect back again for it to be applied. Whereas from the Mac you just change the setting wait a few seconds then it changes while you are still listening to the track.

 

[SoGood]

Y

In iTunes from a Mac they work very well, they make quite a difference, you can get a really good sound out of the HP using them.

You can do it from your IOS device as well but it's no quite as easy, but they still make a big difference. Each time you change the setting in the EQ you have to disconnect from the HP and the connect back again for it to be applied. Whereas from the Mac you just change the setting wait a few seconds then it changes while you are still listening to the track.

Thanks! So the problem has been solved. Don’t understand what people are complaining about unless one only streams their music from the net.

 

[Z3man]

Thanks! So the problem has been solved. Don’t understand what people are complaining about unless one only streams their music from the net.

These EQ settings only work when Airplaying to the HP, which is not really the main function of the HP, you can get better Airplay speakers for less money.

When using the HP as stand alone device and controlling it using Siri which is its intended purpose, like when streaming from Apple Music, you cant use these EQ settings, you have no control over the sound quality.

 

[SoGood]

These EQ settings only work when Airplaying to the HP, which is not really the main function of the HP, you can get better Airplay speakers for less money.

When using the HP as stand alone device and controlling it using Sir which is its intended purpose, like when streaming from Apple Music, you cant use these EQ settings, you have no control over the sound quality.

I wonder what proportion of users don’t stream and control via their iOS device/s?

 

[Z3man]

I wonder what proportion of users don’t stream and control via their iOS device/s?

I would have though most will stream as that is the whole point of the HP. There are hundreds of speakers out there to choose form if you just want a speaker to Airplay or Bluetooth to.

 

[tywebb13]

no way to switch back.

Have you guys used airfoil? It's pretty cool software and if you have 2 homepods you can use it to already get stereo homepods - and an EQ.

Or if you only have 1 homepod you can use the EQ for that too.

Here is how I set them up:

Bedroom is the left signal homepod and Bedroom 2 is the right signal homepod:

It is pretty awesome and sounds even better after apple's update. But although the bass was reduced I still wanted to reduce it further as you can see in my EQ settings.

You can play music from your computer like this with airfoil or if you also install something like reflector you can play music from your iphone too.

So when you say no way to switch back, I think there is if you use airfoil to tweak the EQ however you want.

 

[SoGood]

I would have though most will stream as that is the whole point of the HP. There are hundreds of speakers out there to choose form if you just want a speaker to Airplay or Bluetooth to.

Not necessarily. Not all music are available for streaming and with home automation, it’s common to AirPlay music from the iPad controller, Hifi system or from any family members’ iOS device. The permutation is endless.

 

[_wli]

I do, but it seems like a waste for me currently. I really only want it for HomeKit stuff because I have my high end stereo system in the same room hooked to my Apple TV. Everything sounds great about it, but I just feel like it's a waste of money for me.

You can get an iPad as a HomeKit / Siri controller, but I think the HomePod is actually cheaper.
With the iPad, you have an additional screen for you to interact with the HomeKit settings (instead of just relying on voice).

 

[Z3man]

Not necessarily. Not all music are available for streaming and with home automation, it’s common to AirPlay music from the iPad controller, Hifi system or from any family members’ iOS device. The permutation is endless.

Very true i have been Airplaying through my Airport Express for years and it works great, but it's definitely not what i bought the HP for. My Airport express is connected to a much better sound system than the HP so it would be pointless for me to buy it as and Airplay speaker.

 

[DNichter]

You can get an iPad as a HomeKit / Siri controller, but I think the HomePod is actually cheaper.
With the iPad, you have an additional screen for you to interact with the HomeKit settings (instead of just relying on voice).

Yea I have an iPad for the hub currently, but I’ll probably check out a HomePod once there are some sales. It’s not an important purchase for me.

 

[robjulo]

My point is, if you bought into Apple’s hype machine, the sound isn’t supposed to need tweaking. It is supposed to be perfect out of the box because of all the magical technology packed in, exactly measuring the room and getting the sound exactly perfect.

In fact, many here dismissed the Pogue blind testing as being faulty because there was a curtain in front, interfering with the sound beams (not exagerating, check out some of the excuses).

A "perfect" sound is hard to quantify. Fundamentally I'm not opposed to small sound tweaks in software updates as long as they make the sound experience better – you can love the way it sounds and still yearn for improvements. There are people who think that the iPhone X is a perfect phone, but do they want it not to receive anymore software updates because of that? No, of course not.

The problem here is that Apple tweaked the sound in a way that reportedly made it worse, it changed an excellent sound experience to something less excellent, at least that seems to be the general opinion. If Apple tweaked the sound in a way that made it better, then it wouldn't really upset anyone.

 

[jonnyb098]

A "perfect" sound is hard to quantify. Fundamentally I'm not opposed to small sound tweaks in software updates as long as they make the sound experience better – you can love the way it sounds and still yearn for improvements. There are people who think that the iPhone X is a perfect phone, but do they want it not to receive anymore software updates because of that? No, of course not.

The problem here is that Apple tweaked the sound in a way that reportedly made it worse, it changed an excellent sound experience to something less excellent, at least that seems to be the general opinion. If Apple tweaked the sound in a way that made it better, then it wouldn't really upset anyone.

Sound, like design (remember the complaining about iOS 7?) is VERY SUBJECTIVE. Seriously loads of people including myself complained about certain design elements when Apple changed everything. And guess what ? People either got used to it or it wasn’t as big of a deal for 99 percent of people to want to stop using Apple devices. I think this whole discussion will go the same way after a while. So saying the new sound is worse is not an accurate statement. Since some think it’s worse, some think it’s better and some hear no difference. Who knows how Apple will handle it going forward.