Apple HomePod (1 Viewer)

[dpippel]

Shots fired!
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[Raul Marquez]

Bought my second Sonos One today. Love it!

No complaints whatsoever.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thought I’d post a few thoughts after 6 days with the HomePod. I have no Apple Music or iTunes Match. I’m only streaming from my iPhone and a couple of times via iTunes from my Mac Pro.

Since i’ve never had a smart speaker or multi-speaker set-up like those from Sonos, this is a first for me. It took some doing but I got over my initial impression of getting used to listening to one speaker verse my stereo set-ups. It’s pretty fun to come home from work and listen to music as I prepare dinner. Also had fun listening to a PBS app for my local station. I was able to finish listening to a Fresh Air episode I was listening to in the car as I drove home.

As far as sound goes, it does sound pretty darn good. I tried a few mono recordings, the Beatles mono sets from 2009. I figured that made more sense as some testing material. But I mostly listened to stereo recordings from Jazz, rock, classical and alternative. There are recordings like Dire Straits Dire Straits debut album. I’m used to the stereo separations in that recording so it took a bit of mind work to let that go. There was one recording of The Planets by Holst that lacked the same visceral feeling I get from listening to it on my main system. But I knew this can’t be expected from the HomePod. But it seemed anemic, especially when I played a track from Coldplay, Don’t Panic. It very well demonstrated its ability to render the range of that song. Lots of brightness and lows and midrange. So to me, that was a more engaging listen. Maybe the HomePod is better geared to pop/rock then classical. Or the recording I have of The Planets wasn’t that great. I have two others recorded by other conductors and with different orchestras so i’ll check those out too. I did listen to a re-recording of the score of The Bride of Frankenstein and that was terrific sounding. It’s a great score. Same with the original recording for the score of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. So it can’t be classical.

Right now the HomePod is on my counter between the kitchen and family room and it works well as I get Music from all sides. I can move around and get the same experience.

The only glitch I’ve had is sometimes when I change to a different song or track, the timing is off and the song will start a few seconds in. Or another time, I pick a different album and each track will play through in less then a second and flash through the whole album in a couple of seconds. I don’t hear anything. I’ve since just disconnected the iPhone airplay connection to the HomePod and that seems to fix it. It seems to be related to Airplay. I haven’t found anyone else mentioning this before on the web. One other time the song just stops midway through. I’ll be curious what’s causing this.

Siri in it’s limited capacity works ok too. I even asked how the Olympics are going and she gave me a medal count for each country. Other then the few glitches, so far, I’m pretty happy with the HomePod.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Bought my second Sonos One today. Love it!

No complaints whatsoever.

Raul, congrats! They are great speakers.

Slowly, you will find yourself integrating more Sonos speakers in your home.

I have four Play:5 speakers, two subs, and a Playbase. Exceptional quality from all speakers.

 

[Mark Booth]

I'm really curious how two HomePods in a "stereo pair" are going to sound. If the "sweet spot" becomes nearly the entire room that will be fantastic.

Mark

 

[Carlo_M]

I'm really curious how two HomePods in a "stereo pair" are going to sound. If the "sweet spot" becomes nearly the entire room that will be fantastic.

Mark

If only Apple would release that software update. I keep checking my Pods software version and it’s still the launch version and no further one is available.

 

[Mark Booth]

Create stereo pair of HomePods via AirPlay using Airfoil:



Mark

 

[Carlo_M]

Thanks, but I'll wait for the official software update. If it were as simple as channeling L/R I'm sure Apple would have released it by now. I'm guessing there's further "room acoustic sensing/adjusting" parameters that will be included in the software update that doesn't just route L/R to the appropriate HomePod, but also dynamically adjusts based on the room measurements that each Pod registers.

 

[Ted Todorov]

My mom, who loves her two HomePods so much (one downstairs in the living room downstairs, one in the TV room upstairs, and yes they can lay simultaneously from iTunes on her iMac via the current AirPlay), that she gave us one HomePod as well.

Most impressed: Siri hearing instructions no matter where I am in our apartment, which direction I'm facing and how loud the music is.
Most useful vs. our nice receivers/speakers: listening to podcast or music radio such as Delphine Blue's "The Rest is Noise" https://www.mixcloud.com/delphineblue/playlists/little-water-radio/ just play from my iPhone via AirPlay to the HomePod. Podcasts can also be played directly by Siri on the HomePod. It was certainly doable via the my receivers, but there were too many extra steps, which resulted in my only listening to podcasts/radio when I'm out walking the dogs.

Also, my wife who tends to be very unwilling to accept doing things differently/new things shocked me when I came home on day 2 of our HomePod - she was listening to music chosen for her by Siri and complemented how she had liked all the songs. We'll see how often the HomePod is used vs our traditional sound system.

Re the music quality - most has been accurately expressed already by some of us and various reviews. To add: very impressed by how far a single HomePod can be heard sounding great. Especially good - solo piano, acoustic bass, speech vs music - my receiver sound system is great for music but news radio on it sounds ridiculously over-bassed. The HomePod clearly adjusts appropriately for either one.

 

[Mark Booth]

A fellow on MacRumors forum wrote that he listened to the HomePod and compared it to his Bose SoundLink Mini and he felt the SoundLink Mini sounded better. Well, I did the same test (with identical vintage of SoundLink Mini) and the contest wasn't even close. The HomePod has VASTLY superior sound. I would have just let his comments go but the thing that boggled my mind was his statement that the SoundLink Mini had better bass. WTF?!

The SoundLink Mini has two tiny little speakers (they are about 1.5-inches in diameter). Bose uses some acoustic tricks in the enclosure to givet it more bass than the speakers would otherwise be able to reproduce but physics is physics. The HomePod has a 4-inch high excursion subwoofer. The amount of air that HomePod's subwoofer can move DWARFS what the SoundLink Mini is capable of.

When I compared the two the SoundLink sounded like a toy. Don't get me wrong, I'm impressed with what Bose was able to achieve in a highly portable battery-powered speaker. Mine was a gift (from Mazda) and it's a perfect little accessory to take to the beach or on a picnic.

But to suggest or actually believe that SoundLink Mini sounds better than a HomePod (including the bass)... balderdash, poppycock, and total inconceivable. The difference is HUGE and it's not in the SoundLink Mini's favor.

No wonder some of the reviewers picked the Sonos ONE over the HomePod for sound quality... it appears there are HALF DEAF people evaluating these things. Not to mention people that don't understand science.

Mark

 

[Nelson Au]

The HomePod scared me the other night as I’m not used to having a Smart speaker around. I hadn’t used it all day and that evening I asked Siri on the iPad a question, forgetting the HomePod is listening. The iPad said, hmm , I’m not sure I can help you, or words to that effect. But the HomePod answered simultaneously and gave me the correct answer. The HomePod scared me because I wasn’t expecting it to answer, and it was at night and I was alone. It’s also cool Siri is a little better on the Homepod.

 

[Ted Todorov]

My mom has a large(r) size Bose SoundLink in the kitchen, and is talking about giving it away after spending a week with the HomePods. Not the same ballpark

 

[Mark Booth]

A fellow on MacRumors posted that HomePods were available as open box returns at Best Buy for $30 off the list price. I planned to pick up one or two at my local Best Buy today but the two open box ones (1 space gray and 1 white) were priced at $338.99. I whopping savings of $11. Ah, no thanks. I'll wait for my EPP discount to apply to HomePod. It will be greater than $11.

Mark

 

[Carlo_M]

Yeah that's a pretty lame discount for a returned item.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey guys,

I signed up for the 3 month trial for Apple Music last night. Thought it would be a good thing to really fully test out the HomePod.

First impressions from my short time is that it’s pretty smart and mostly got the songs I asked for. Not surprisingly it couldn’t get something like the full soundtrack for Star Trek The Motion Picture which is from a small label that specializes in movie soundtracks.

I did have to specify a conductor for a specific classical recording I’m familiar with and it had it.

Though one thing I’m curious how to do. I took it to work to try with the group and to see how it sounds in the space I work in. What I’m not seeing is how to tell what songs have been streaming. I checked the iTunes app on my iPhone. It shows radio stations I set up and played. Any insight would be appreciated. By the way, I know I can ask Siri, but I was curious if iTunes would show a list of the tracks played.

Of course my Android colleague said his system is better and has deeper functionality. But we know that. He just likes to take digs at Apple.

 

[Sam Posten]

Seems like a lot of us are having trouble with Homepod and Apple Music. Mine has gone completely braindead and signs are pointing to it being a problem for those of us who have both Apple Music and Music Match...
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8278346

 

[Nelson Au]

Thought I’d post about something odd with my HomePod. As I posted above, I brought mine to work to try in the new office space my group works in. This is a brand new high tech building in Silicon Valley. When I set it up, I had to reset it as it couldn’t find its home network, my house network I guess. I set it up using the WiFi connection my iPhone has to the company network. It seemed ok and was working with Apple Music. But I couldn’t get AirPlay to work from my iPad or iPhone. In the afternoon, my younger colleagues were goofing with it asking Siri silly questions. It was ok. But a little later the volume suddenly went up by itself. I manually lowered the volume by the buttons on top of it. Then it happened again an hour later. Went up and then all the way down, by itself.

I have no idea why. A friend suggested this building probably has multiple WiFi nodes. He figured that would explain why my iPad and iPhone could not do Airplay to the HomePod. But he had no idea why the volume was going up and down.

When I took it home and reset the HomePod to my home network, it was working fine. Airplay worked from my iPad and iPhone. Apple Music worked fine.

Our best guess is someone was whispering to the HomePod to raise the volume and lower it. Someone was playing a prank and wanted to make it look bad. But that’s a long shot. I’ll be curious to figure this one out.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Nelson,
Do you have the Star Trek soundtrack album already in some other format? If you install it on your iTunes, and are on Apple Music, Siri will play it on your HomePod. Just tried yesterday: “Hey Siri, play Maria EXcommunikata” (a late ‘80s NYC band that broke up after releasing a single home produced EP - that was never released on the internet, etc. - unless you got the CD directly from the band, you didn’t get it). Yes, it worked fine (I put my entire CD collection on iTunes in Apple Lossless more than a decade ago).

Siri has been vastly more accurate on my HomePod than any other media so far. The one comical mistake so far: “Hey Siri, play The Who” resulted in Kool & The Gang - I do indeed love disco, so I didn’t object - but how one got translated to the other is too advanced a bug for me to figure out

 

[Ted Todorov]

Always fun to watch one of the Lauren Goode vs. Lauren Goode reviews: https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/1/1...peaker-vs-versus-sonos-one-alexa-lauren-goode

 

[Nelson Au]

Ted, thanks for the reply. I do have the Star Trek The Motion Picture audio CD, 3 discs all ripped into iTunes at Apple Lossless resolution. I am currently on the 3 month trial period if that makes a difference. What I did not do is iTunes Match. So I don’t think the library in my iTunes has been scanned by Apple Music.

So what you’re saying Ted is that even without iTunes Match, the tracks in my iTunes library can be seen by HomePod and played? I imagine the Mac with the songs that Apple Music does not have would see them in my library and play them? And that Mac has to be on.

So I guess no one has heard anything about the HomePod going nuts and changing the volume by itself like I experienced yesterday?