The Trouble with HomePod Reviews
mondaynote.com
mondaynote.com
It's a consumer speaker, so why all of a sudden are people demanding full audiophile/studio precision in speaker testing and reviewing?
I love how Apple's product messaging gets people debating the flaws evident in the review and experiences of their product categories because Apple has introduced terminology to people that they a) never cared about previously (though already existing) and b) don't likely understand or appreciably recognise going forward otherwise. Apple are very good at making people suddenly aware of important things they had no idea about, would not recognise/understand, or cared for previously...
Also it's $350, so should logically be compared to speakers that cost $350.
Basically Apple's formula: take something from an 'enthusiast' level of a product. Build a reasonable quality thing around that, slap on a 'upper consumer/lower enthusiast' price on it and market it as the 'the coolest thing of these ever made' and...
You get all the mostly regular consumers suddenly arguing in the between space: they are better than all the other regular consumers but too cool to be an enthusiast nerd. GG Apple.
I don’t see the word “audiophile” appear even once.
> We completely reimagined how music should sound in the home. HomePod combines Apple-engineered audio technology and advanced software to deliver the highest-fidelity sound throughout the room, anywhere it’s placed.
Give me strength. I'd need a bucket to read any more.
The Homepod does not have an aux cord.
The Homepod does not allow you to use its onboard bluetooth 5.0 hardware to play music from another device
The Homepod does not allow you to play spotify, unless you play it from an airplay-equipped device (so not android without a workaround), which means you cannot ask it to play spotify at all, or for that matter, play any other service except their own.
Many reviews are reporting a lack of features in the homepod's Siri, as well as poor performance of existing features.
I agree with you when you say apple is great at getting people to care about things that nobody cared about before. Are you suggesting that those things actually matter? Do you believe apple is getting people to care about these things out of an abundance of compassion and drive to educate the masses? I think it's more plausible that Apple will get their customers to care about whatever leads them to purchase products from Apple.
It's a consumer speaker, priced on par with professional (albeit entry level, but still professional) hardware. It's no wonder apple is offering these at 50% off to employees. That is the only reason there is one sitting at my house right now, because at that price it's worth it as a speaker, despite the shortcomings.
Just not worth it for almost everyone else.
I also think this. Apple definitely do not want to truly educate, as that would lead to people moving off their products into the genuine enthusiast space.
The thing has 7 tweeters and only one woofer to cover the mids and bass. So you are not going to get a good left or right channel. Instead the left and right will be mixed into one woofer, and the reduced by probably 3 db to appear at the same volume.
This is no good for music.
What are your thoughts on the positive reviews?
[1]https://finance.yahoo.com/news/head-head-apple-homepod-reall...
[2]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/02/09...
I am saying for the money you could get a pair of monitors that give you both left and right audio channels and sounds good.
If your playing music, but not really setting up a listening environment why buy a 350 dollar speaker. Let alone one that downmixes stero to mono channel.
A studio/sound engineer needs to hear the full range of frequencies when mixing and working on a track.
If you need more low end than what a set reference monitors can reproduce that woofer in home pod is probably not going to do better.
I have seen how sonos and other wireless products are used - to fill a room with sound. That's it - they aren't looking for stereo separation, they want a nice sounding... pa system.
* It's not repairable
* It's got no aux input, so when they inevitably deprecate and remove the wireless protocol it uses, it's now completely uselss.
Also it won't work for video. For $350 you could buy a complete entry level surround system that would be so much better than this, and have the bonus that it works for video and won't be completely useless when Apple decides they want everyone to buy the latest shiny trinket.
But of course that doesn't fit into the Apple consumers' aesthetic because it has wires and the speakers need to be adequately placed, not one tiny box in a corner. Aesthetics over everything apparently.
Homepod is the epitome of form over function - so far from something I'd consider buying, it's crazy.
Do you think sono's are used as TV audio replacements (aside from the sound bar they now have I guess)?
Every single one I have seen in use is to fill one or multiple rooms with audio without having to run a bunch of wires. That's it.
No one is going to put a stereo system in their kitchen, but they will 100% put a single speaker that fills the room with audio.
(Equivalent because they're marked as LSR-30x, are available only in glossy black finish, and pairs are matched to within 1dB of each other.)
So for half the cost of a HomePod, you get really nice stereo speakers, with built-in amplification, but no room correction, no Siri, and no built-in networking or microphones listening to you.
I am a happy owner.
The future is tiny speakers crammed in a tiny box in the corner of the room, "beamforming" 7 tweeters worth of tinny sound in every direction for $350!!
Get out of here with your properly placed stereo speakers!!
Not arguing it's a good or bad speaker. Haven't heard it and already have a nice speaker setup in my LR. Would be nice if the homepod had a sub out.
The HomePod sounds good across two rooms with a volume of about 150 cubic meters. That’s pretty amazing. (80% open between the rooms)
A single HomePod gives an interesting stereo experience. There is some separation in the middle and high end. Lows don’t separate well. It is a pleasant listening experience, but not the same as well placed stereo gear with a listener in the sweet spot.
Going from point source to multiple sources makes a very substantial difference.
I'm very curious about just how much DSP magic the HomePod is doing (as opposed to what's physical enclosure magic), since in playing with my Sonoses I can't spot a huge effect from their TruePlay tuning in most configurations I've tried out. It's there, but minor sounding for most typical arrangements - perhaps it would be greater if I tried more and more sub-optimal placements, but trying to sabotage my setup isn't my ultimate goal. ;)
If Apple let the DSP be shut off so it could be measured that would be interesting from a technical perspective, but should it actually affect the reviews? If anything, the HomePod makes reviews better if now reviewers are actively aware that they should think about what it'll sound like in the user's room vs in an ideal layout.
2. AirPlay2 will support multiple units.
3. All of the magic behind the HomePod is in the software. Otherwise it is just a bunch of tweeters in a circular shape and a woofer. It's the software that determines what each tweeter is going to output and the strength of the woofer output.
4. The reviews I've read have been careful about not just testing the HomePod in ideal conditions. Since the ability to "just work" in non ideal conditions is what the entire device is designed for.
Anyway all of this is moot. Sound quality is important but more so this is an ecosystem play. HomePod reinforces investments in HomeKit and iOS.
I've seen a lot of talk about stereo AirPlay but not about surround. What would you use as the center channel, another homepod? That would look awkward, though sound fine.
The enclosure has always been a huge part of speaker design. The software side, ever since the computing power got cheap enough to enable stuff like Audyssey, has been a newer but not unheard-of part. Apple would be fools if they didn't optimize the physical design of the speaker as much as the software side.
Ecosystem lock in only works if you have a reason for me to buy a HomePod to use with my iPad instead of a Sonos in the first place. Sonos+Alexa+iPad works perfectly fine for me, so...
One of those programmable universal remotes might help as well? So it's one button to get to tunes.
A cheap Android phone plugged into the speakers? You can "OK google" that.
a wife has no time nor tolerance for half ass home baked tech.
Lol, another experienced married man on hn! :)
Apparently wives differ, because my partner has proved to be capable of pressing a couple of buttons on a remote, and is rewarded with better quality sound from better speakers.
Also that comes with the added bonus that I don't have to buy a $350 device that is going to be completely useless in a couple of years when Apple decides it won't support the only proprietary, closed way to persuade it to actually perform it's sole function which is to emit music, so all the lucky s̶h̶e̶e̶p customers are forced to purchase the next shiny disposable trinket.
Homepod is a completely throwaway product, something that embodies the worst aspects of our society, a disposable object for a myopic consumer.
I think of the home pod much like air pods just serve a different function. Sure there are better sounding headphones for 160$ but I personally still use them all the time over my studio headphones because of the better usability, form factor, and aesthetics.
I took advantage of holiday sales to replace the girlfriend’s pair of Dots and outfit every room of our homes with better Alexa-enabled speakers. Everyone in our households are listening to music more often and the sound experience is alright as each speaker is covering a smaller space, but more importantly, we’ve got everything Alexa offers, everywhere.
I’m curious to see what Apple’s ultimate strategy is. Will they push into lower-end products to get Siri into more places, open Siri up to 3rd-party devices, or is an expensive music player that happens to also be a voice assistant be as far as they go?
As invested as I now am in Alexa hardware, I’m willing to give Siri a shot. $350 for a HomePod in rooms I consider most important isn’t terrible... but to me it’s a non-starter without less premium options for other rooms. I want one voice assistant to rule my home.