Seems like Apple has an opportunity to here to create the "CenterPod" designed to combine with two HomePods to create a decent 2.1 surround system. Center channel speakers have a psecific design in order to reproduce vocals (and other center channel content) properly and with correct directionality. HomePods are not suited for this functiuon.
Apple needs to make an 8" HomePod woofer for the perfect 2.1 they would not need a dedicated centre speaker for voice because Apple controls all that magic with an A8 processor.
Though others have trashed your comment, I completely agree.
Do you seriously not understand that if most people took your (and bdkennedy's) stupid advice, there would never be a second generation of anything?
Apple has a long history of making good first gen products and great 2nd gen products. As was pointed out, the iPad 2 was significantly better than iPad 1. The same goes for Apple Watch and the iPhone.
I could turn your comment around to say ‘spend your money on an unpolished or unevolved product with fewer features to make sure Apple has sales numbers to justify further development so others can get a better product for the same money.” I’m more than happy to let the technophiles spend their money on first gen products and wait for the more refined second generation.
Ultimately, the only reason anyone should buy something is because they like the product & features and think they justify the price. (Well, excluding reviewers, at least.) With tech you are virtually always better off waiting for V2, if you can.
This was another good comparison of the HomePod audio quality to dedicated speakers systems. And, as should have been expected, the little Homepod did well, but not well enough to beat the dedicated systems (even a fairly cheap one).
Why was this surprising to anyone?
It all stemmed from a comment by Apple that HomePod provided High Fidelity (or some similar type term) and the Apple faithful took it to mean that Apple had, once again, defied the laws of physics. It's almost like Apple produced a Porsche sized car and people believe if they can use it to pick up a yard of top soil at their garden supply center.
That's not to trash HomePods -- they were designed for their own purpose and seem to do that pretty well even when crossing over into audiophile territory. But they still don't replace a true audiophile system and never will.
But they still don't replace a true audiophile system and never will.
Um... really? There’s actually someone out there that expects to pay a few hundred dollars and get “a true audiophile system”?
If you know this person, please send along his contact details. I’ve got some beachfront property in Arizona that I am willing to sell cheap. Really cheap.
Can you now play your cable TV programs through your HomePods as I assume you could with your soundbar
Great question. If not, the Home pods are worthless for anything not produced via Air Play 2. Thus a sound bar sounds infinitely better for cable TV>
Perfect for me, as I don’t have cable and HP isn’t a home theater solution. Best sounding wifi shelf speaker i’ve ever owned, tho, which is my primary use case. I use an ATV for nearly all over content so they’re an added bonus as a simple speaker that’s better than the TV. I gave up my Anthony Gallo 5.1 system and don’t really miss all the hassle.
But they still don't replace a true audiophile system and never will.
Um... really? There’s actually someone out there that expects to pay a few hundred dollars and get “a true audiophile system”?
If you know this person, please send along his contact details. I’ve got some beachfront property in Arizona that I am willing to sell cheap. Really cheap.
If there weren't any questions or confusion ai would not have done 2 comparisons to audiophile components.
Because I have a relatively small living room, I bought a pair of HomePods to serve as both music and TV speakers. For music, they're really superb--the computational audio makes a huge difference in staging when you're not at liberty to rearrange the room to suit the speakers. I find most audio systems designed for TV to be far too bright at one end of the frequency range, and far too boomy at the other end. The HomePods are more neutral-sounding to my ear, and seem to more accurately represent transient bass/treble peaks while not at the same time muffling sounds which fall into the more normal dynamic range of, say, intimate conversations between characters. I do agree, though, that HomePods as TV speakers are just not loud enough overall, although the trick of switching from automatic to stereo sound playback on the Apple TV pretty much solved the volume issue for me. (Thanks, Appleinsider staff and editors, for once again going the extra mile for your readers.)
Seems like Apple has an opportunity to here to create the "CenterPod" designed to combine with two HomePods to create a decent 2.1 surround system. Center channel speakers have a psecific design in order to reproduce vocals (and other center channel content) properly and with correct directionality. HomePods are not suited for this functiuon.
Some of us feel strongly that a centre speaker should sound exactly the same as the left and right, and would never consider a system that deliberately makes the centre channel sound different.
"Optimizing" the centre channel for dialog means if anything pans across the front, like from left to centre to right, it's gonna be distracting as the character of the sound changes while passing through the centre. The same is true of surrounds, as certain sounds frequently move between the front and rear. When that happens, the difference in sound between full-range L/R and crappy satellite surrounds becomes obvious and distracting.
Obviously some people won't care and others won't even notice, but prioritizing one aspect of the surround experience at the expense of others isn't a particularly good starting point.
What I got from this is that a $180 SoundBar is comparable to a $700 dual HomePod system. Not as good in some ways, just as good in others. All for around 1/4 the price.
This doesn’t seem like a fair comparison. Soundbars are generally directional while the Homepods are omni directional. I'm sure if the Homepods speakers were arranged in a straight line (like the soundbar) it would be plenty loud.
Because I have a relatively small living room, I bought a pair of HomePods to serve as both music and TV speakers. For music, they're really superb--the computational audio makes a huge difference in staging when you're not at liberty to rearrange the room to suit the speakers. I find most audio systems designed for TV to be far too bright at one end of the frequency range, and far too boomy at the other end. The HomePods are more neutral-sounding to my ear, and seem to more accurately represent transient bass/treble peaks while not at the same time muffling sounds which fall into the more normal dynamic range of, say, intimate conversations between characters. I do agree, though, that HomePods as TV speakers are just not loud enough overall, although the trick of switching from automatic to stereo sound playback on the Apple TV pretty much solved the volume issue for me. (Thanks, Appleinsider staff and editors, for once again going the extra mile for your readers.)
You bring up a good point about small rooms: I live in the house that I grew up in, built in 1950 when people and houses were smaller. It limits your ability to place large speakers strategically which limits their audio quality -- which makes a case for the Homepod speakers which are reportedly not as fussy about placement.
I normally don't use extra sound system in my living room with KURO as the quality and loudness is a lot more than enough for everyday use, unless I turn on my 11.2 channel home theatre system that delivers 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos or DTS:X for serious enjoyment. But for day-to-day watching, TV's own left/right speakers are reasonably good quality in KURO 151FD. So why utilise the extra space and put additional speakers. Not to mention it gives a messy/crowded look to AV setup.
I bought another HomePod just to have some casual two channel stereo listening for convenience's sake though and no doubt HomePods when paired, sound fantastic. HomePod is all about quality of sound not the loudness. Especially, when you listen to it at max 75% of volume.
That's not what the article said. The point was that the HomePods are not loud enough to provide a comfortable listening level when watching a movie, even though they're fine when listening to music. The "quality" of the sound is made irrelevant by the volume being too low to enjoy it. The point of comparing it to the soundbar was just to demonstrate that the volume of a pair of HomePods playing a movie is even lower than a cheap alternative.
This doesn’t seem like a fair comparison. Soundbars are generally directional while the Homepods are omni directional. I'm sure if the Homepods speakers were arranged in a straight line (like the soundbar) it would be plenty loud.
How is it a more fair comparison to speculate about what a HomePod may or may not be capable of if it were something completely different than what it is? Even if you're right that directionality affects loudness, it's a moot point unless you're planning on taking apart your HomePods and rearranging the drivers.
Seems like Apple has an opportunity to here to create the "CenterPod" designed to combine with two HomePods to create a decent 2.1 surround system. Center channel speakers have a psecific design in order to reproduce vocals (and other center channel content) properly and with correct directionality. HomePods are not suited for this functiuon.
Some of us feel strongly that a centre speaker should sound exactly the same as the left and right, and would never consider a system that deliberately makes the centre channel sound different.
"Optimizing" the centre channel for dialog means if anything pans across the front, like from left to centre to right, it's gonna be distracting as the character of the sound changes while passing through the centre. The same is true of surrounds, as certain sounds frequently move between the front and rear. When that happens, the difference in sound between full-range L/R and crappy satellite surrounds becomes obvious and distracting.
Obviously some people won't care and others won't even notice, but prioritizing one aspect of the surround experience at the expense of others isn't a particularly good starting point.
I would think the CenterPod would be equipped with the same driver compliment as a regular HomePod, but would offer various optimizations easily selectable by the consumer. I understand and approve of the notion that surround speakers should all have identical specs and configurations, but for a highly processed speaker like HomePod I think that is less of a concern. Low and unintelligible dialog is a huge issue for millions of people. Personally I feel this is a mixing problem that the industry has not really addressed.
Of course a bigger issue with HomePod as an audio monitor for video, is the processing delay. I don't really see how that can be addressed without adding video delay to the chain, which would be expensive and a source of trouble for non-technical consumers.
I would think the CenterPod would be equipped with the same driver compliment as a regular HomePod, but would offer various optimizations easily selectable by the consumer. I understand and approve of the notion that surround speakers should all have identical specs and configurations, but for a highly processed speaker like HomePod I think that is less of a concern. Low and unintelligible dialog is a huge issue for millions of people. Personally I feel this is a mixing problem that the industry has not really addressed.
Gotcha. I realize now my last post had that familiar air of "audio snob" about it, and I regret that. I'm actually an audio pragmatist at heart. I just get my back up when marketing machines push fundamentally flawed concepts as desirable instead of what they really are, which is valid compromises to achieve goals other than the ideal, because "ideal" may be impractical for some people.
Of course a bigger issue with HomePod as an audio monitor for video, is the processing delay. I don't really see how that can be addressed without adding video delay to the chain, which would be expensive and a source of trouble for non-technical consumers.
That may or may not be an issue, Throughput delay (or "latency" as it's so often described) is now so low on some devices as to be imperceptible. In the tenths of a millisecond range. I have no idea what the figure would be for the HomePod (all that processing may increase the delay), but it may not be enough to matter. Even with a wired speaker there's delay as the sound travels through the air -- roughly a millisecond per foot -- so adding a little throughput delay for wireless probably isn't any worse than moving the speakers a few feet further away from the listener.
That may or may not be an issue, Throughput delay (or "latency" as it's so often described) is now so low on some devices as to be imperceptible. In the tenths of a millisecond range. I have no idea what the figure would be for the HomePod (all that processing may increase the delay), but it may not be enough to matter. Even with a wired speaker there's delay as the sound travels through the air -- roughly a millisecond per foot -- so adding a little throughput delay for wireless probably isn't any worse than moving the speakers a few feet further away from the listener.
Just updated my MBP to MacOS 10.13.6 (17G65) with Airplay 2. Streaming this Youtube video () to Homepod resulted in probably a 1/2 second delay. Files played out of Quicktime (not streaming) showed a similar delay. Seems unlikely HomePod would be a good video speaker as it is built today.
Comments
Apple needs to make an 8" HomePod woofer for the perfect 2.1 they would not need a dedicated centre speaker for voice because Apple controls all that magic with an A8 processor.
I could turn your comment around to say ‘spend your money on an unpolished or unevolved product with fewer features to make sure Apple has sales numbers to justify further development so others can get a better product for the same money.” I’m more than happy to let the technophiles spend their money on first gen products and wait for the more refined second generation.
Ultimately, the only reason anyone should buy something is because they like the product & features and think they justify the price. (Well, excluding reviewers, at least.) With tech you are virtually always better off waiting for V2, if you can.
It all stemmed from a comment by Apple that HomePod provided High Fidelity (or some similar type term) and the Apple faithful took it to mean that Apple had, once again, defied the laws of physics. It's almost like Apple produced a Porsche sized car and people believe if they can use it to pick up a yard of top soil at their garden supply center.
If you know this person, please send along his contact details. I’ve got some beachfront property in Arizona that I am willing to sell cheap. Really cheap.
speaker that’s better than the TV. I gave up my Anthony Gallo 5.1 system and don’t really miss all the hassle.
"Optimizing" the centre channel for dialog means if anything pans across the front, like from left to centre to right, it's gonna be distracting as the character of the sound changes while passing through the centre. The same is true of surrounds, as certain sounds frequently move between the front and rear. When that happens, the difference in sound between full-range L/R and crappy satellite surrounds becomes obvious and distracting.
Obviously some people won't care and others won't even notice, but prioritizing one aspect of the surround experience at the expense of others isn't a particularly good starting point.
Loudness as basis for comparing sound quality? You have to be kidding!
What’s next? Going to tell us that a “booming bass” is a good thing?
If you don’t know how to assess the quality of audio equipment, leave the review writing to the pros.
we want to know about linearity, phase accuracy, harmonic distortion, etc. not “how loud it plays to annoy the parents and the neighbors “
Soundbars are generally directional while the Homepods are omni directional.
I'm sure if the Homepods speakers were arranged in a straight line (like the soundbar) it would be plenty loud.
How is it a more fair comparison to speculate about what a HomePod may or may not be capable of if it were something completely different than what it is? Even if you're right that directionality affects loudness, it's a moot point unless you're planning on taking apart your HomePods and rearranging the drivers.
Of course a bigger issue with HomePod as an audio monitor for video, is the processing delay. I don't really see how that can be addressed without adding video delay to the chain, which would be expensive and a source of trouble for non-technical consumers.
That may or may not be an issue, Throughput delay (or "latency" as it's so often described) is now so low on some devices as to be imperceptible. In the tenths of a millisecond range. I have no idea what the figure would be for the HomePod (all that processing may increase the delay), but it may not be enough to matter. Even with a wired speaker there's delay as the sound travels through the air -- roughly a millisecond per foot -- so adding a little throughput delay for wireless probably isn't any worse than moving the speakers a few feet further away from the listener.