Just a reminder that Best Buy has HomePods on sale for $199 ($179 open box) a few times a year. Most likely they'll be on sale again this year around Thanksgiving. If you can wait a little bit, you can save a good chunk of change.
OWC almost always has them for this price. I'll be interested to see what happens during Black Friday this year.
Going for an S-series chip may also help cut the power consumption of
the speaker down versus the A-series equivalent. Though given that both
models still take power from an outlet, the savings are negligible.
Cute but wish the HP Mini had optical out or at least stereo out.
Would love to see comparisons to Airplay 2 enabled Receivers. Likely blow both HP and HP Mini out of the water with sound quality if one has even a modest Home Theater set up. I was not motivated to replace my Home Theater / Airport Express setup with a Home Pod.
For now an Echo Dot & Spotify makes my system simpler, more "intelligent" and have a great music library. It could have been different. I am not sensitive enough to notice sound quality difference between that and switching out to Apple Music over Airplay on Airport Express.
My next receiver will likely have Airplay 2 but well need a IOS device for SIRI to make it work. That's dumb!
So is Apple not showing my Echo as an option in Apple Music, instead only allowing voice commands.
Shame on Apple!
Oh please. An apple doesn't taste like an orange either.
Are you seriously complaining that a HomePod Mini doesn't sound as good as a dedicated receiver and speaker?
Are you really blaming Apple because Amazon does not include Airplay functionality in a $2.00 Echo Dot?
“Sadly you cannot use a HomePod and a HomePod mini as a stereo pair together, as you require two of the same speaker.” Is this a design disadvantage of using two different chips (S5 vs A8) or does Apple purposely do this so you have to spend more money to pair two speakers together?
What is with this thought anyway? Why on earth would anybody think that using two different speakers with two different acoustic profiles and two different amplifiers is a good thing?! Stereo speakers need to be identical.
Just a reminder that Best Buy has HomePods on sale for $199 ($179 open box) a few times a year. Most likely they'll be on sale again this year around Thanksgiving. If you can wait a little bit, you can save a good chunk of change.
OWC almost always has them for this price. I'll be interested to see what happens during Black Friday this year.
I would still like to see a dot like device to connect to a decent amp and speakers. While it is obvious that Apple has invested a lot of time into these devices, the sound quality of the HomePod is not up to the job.
Just a reminder that Best Buy has HomePods on sale for $199 ($179 open box) a few times a year. Most likely they'll be on sale again this year around Thanksgiving. If you can wait a little bit, you can save a good chunk of change.
OWC almost always has them for this price. I'll be interested to see what happens during Black Friday this year.
Just a reminder that Best Buy has HomePods on sale for $199 ($179 open box) a few times a year. Most likely they'll be on sale again this year around Thanksgiving. If you can wait a little bit, you can save a good chunk of change.
OWC almost always has them for this price. I'll be interested to see what happens during Black Friday this year.
“Sadly you cannot use a HomePod and a HomePod mini as a stereo pair together, as you require two of the same speaker.” Is this a design disadvantage of using two different chips (S5 vs A8) or does Apple purposely do this so you have to spend more money to pair two speakers together?
Seriously? Is it necessary to point out stereo pairs need to have identical sonic characteristics? It is clear HP and HP mini won’t sound alike, and it would be pointless to use them as a stereo pair. Enough with the half baked conspiracy theories.
What I find utterly misleading is that they never photograph the damn thing with a cable. The way they show the product suggests it has an internal battery and can be placed anywhere, but those cables will stick out like a sore thumb.
I think they missed a dead perfect opportunity to make the mini a MagSafe portable speaker. BT playback capability would have made it even better imo. As is, what's been presented seems sort of underwhelming to me.
I thought the same thing when I first saw it. It looked wireless. My thought was the mini can be charged wirelessly. Then when they showed the MagSafe system for the iPhone I wondered why they didn’t do that for HP Mini. Perfect opportunity to create a portable speaker.
I would still like to see a dot like device to connect to a decent amp and speakers. While it is obvious that Apple has invested a lot of time into these devices, the sound quality of the HomePod is not up to the job.
Agreed. I currently use five Airport Expresses connected to five stereo and AV receivers to distribute Airplay 2 audio throughout the house. I commend Apple for updating the Airport Express to support Airplay 2, but since that device is no longer manufactured somebody needs to make a small Airplay 2 receiving device with audio output to connect to existing receivers and powered speakers.
"As smaller speakers usually have trouble with bass sounds, Apple has also included force-cancelling passive radiators to create a bass extension, assisting to create a fuller sound."
I used to read books about speaker design (as a nerdy high schooler a million years ago), but I have no idea what dual passive radiators are. Can someone here explain the physics of this?
Never mind, I found it. "A passive radiator speaker design involves another speaker, but with no motor assembly. The magnet and voice coil are gone, but the cone and everything you cansee from the front are all there. The passive radiator subwoofer design is very similar to the bass reflex design, only instead of the vent or port, you have the passive bass radiator. http://audiojudgement.com/passive-radiator-speaker-design/
Yup, in audio-terms "passive" usually means a slave to something else.
“Sadly you cannot use a HomePod and a HomePod mini as a stereo pair together, as you require two of the same speaker.” Is this a design disadvantage of using two different chips (S5 vs A8) or does Apple purposely do this so you have to spend more money to pair two speakers together?
Because it's a dumb idea. It's not an Apple conspiracy. You'll get inaccurate audio and different frequency ranges per side.
What I find utterly misleading is that they never photograph the damn thing with a cable. The way they show the product suggests it has an internal battery and can be placed anywhere, but those cables will stick out like a sore thumb.
No internal battery? Deal breaker.
They did show cords throughout the info video with the family.
What I find utterly misleading is that they never photograph the damn thing with a cable. The way they show the product suggests it has an internal battery and can be placed anywhere, but those cables will stick out like a sore thumb.
I think they missed a dead perfect opportunity to make the mini a MagSafe portable speaker. BT playback capability would have made it even better imo. As is, what's been presented seems sort of underwhelming to me.
That’s a great idea.
And yes, definitely underwhelming. With the larger HomePod I also ended up with an issue where the cable wasn’t long enough. Because the cable is non-removable you have to extend a nice but short dark cable with an extension cord of a different color and bulky center where the extension happens.
For a product that is design centric and users who care about design, that’s not a great thing. If the cable at least were removable (USB-C?) and I could order in different sizes, that would be preferable.
It’s 6 feet long, pretty standard on any piece of home electronics. Unlikely that the wall-plug cable would be USB-C as it’s wall current. I’ve never heard anyone complain about their radio or receiver cables at this length and not removable; but you people always find novel new ways to complain.
What I find utterly misleading is that they never photograph the damn thing with a cable. The way they show the product suggests it has an internal battery and can be placed anywhere, but those cables will stick out like a sore thumb.
I would modify furniture, even build specific furniture, to suit a bottom entry cable and while I'm at it, build in a locking mechanism (for public locations) if a reciprocal mechanism existed under the mini. I like building furniture!
What I find utterly misleading is that they never photograph the damn thing with a cable. The way they show the product suggests it has an internal battery and can be placed anywhere, but those cables will stick out like a sore thumb.
I think they missed a dead perfect opportunity to make the mini a MagSafe portable speaker. BT playback capability would have made it even better imo. As is, what's been presented seems sort of underwhelming to me.
I thought the same thing when I first saw it. It looked wireless. My thought was the mini can be charged wirelessly. Then when they showed the MagSafe system for the iPhone I wondered why they didn’t do that for HP Mini. Perfect opportunity to create a portable speaker.
If it could be done safely, how about charging them from a MagSafe version powerful enough to be a transmitted through a sheet of MDF or timber so the MagSafe is stuck to the underside of the table, And when you place the speaker I the table it “seeks” the magnet as you place it down, and it is powered without visible wires!
Comments
OWC almost always has them for this price. I'll be interested to see what happens during Black Friday this year.
OWC???
While it is obvious that Apple has invested a lot of time into these devices, the sound quality of the HomePod is not up to the job.
Ahh. Wasn't familiar with that. Thank you.
Yup, in audio-terms "passive" usually means a slave to something else.
Because it's a dumb idea. It's not an Apple conspiracy. You'll get inaccurate audio and different frequency ranges per side.
No internal battery? Deal breaker.
They did show cords throughout the info video with the family.