williamlondon said: Just want to chime in on this one, that's exactly what put me off swapping out my 5.1 legacy speaker system, tuner/amp setup with HPs. What does one do with the other devices that are connected to your TV that don't go through the ATV, like games consoles, etc?
This is where the HPs were too ahead of the times for the vast majority of people, and they didn't support this really cool functionality until recently. You'll need the newer TVs that support eARC, no idea when they started supporting or how many TVs today support this, but it made all the difference. No more tuners or amps needed, no additional audio equipment, just HPs, an ATV and a newer TV with eARC capability.
The Nintendo Switch hooked up to my TV now plays audio (passthrough) through the HPs, anything that plays on such a TV will send its audio to the ATV and then on to the HPs.
It's all pretty slick, and there are no miles of wires or cables running around the living room, or excess audio equipment making a mess of your tv cabinet with that typical mess we all suffer behind/under the media cabinet. All in all a very clean setup, very Apple.
Yeah, I'll have to look into that one day, as our newish TV (a few years old) does have some kind of 'ARC' HDMI port, though not sure it is that one. But, that would still only support 'non-real-time' stuff, right? I guess that would cover most of it, but does it have low enough latency for gaming? I'd think not for live music (ie. playing keyboard/guitar through the system, even if there were such interfaces).
I got rid of the 5.1, tuner, amp, etc. several years ago, intending to eventually replace it with something. But, we haven't so far. Unfortunately, the family has mostly taken to watching/listening to their own things on iPads with headphones these days anyway. Maybe it doesn't need replacing...which is why Apple has gone this direction.
But, IMO, for what was gained, a lot is now missing. Besides my car (which is reasonably good), I'm not sure my son has ever experienced a good sound system. And, we certainly don't spend any where near the family-time anymore with movies, games, etc. There is so much less sharing-enjoyment going on with things these days. Everyone has their own stuff.
IMO, I think it was silly to drop the HomePod and just focus on the $50 speaker market with a $99 speaker. Why can't Apple do both? The regular HomePod was just way too expensive. I own 2 and I only purchased them because I got them on sale for $199 both times. I think they work great, but they're just too expensive. Apple can't always get away with its pricing schemes in every market they try to enter.
The HomePod is a massive fail without wired connections if it had wired connections like the Audio Engine speakers it would been a easy buy, what is the point of a speaker that can’t work with multiple sound systems….
The original HomePod with wired connections (2 of them) would be great to add on to a new 30 or 32” M series iMac or the XDR display, in short the HomePod has to be versatile and it isn’t.
Speakers have to be future proof (a good set last too long ie the Apple Hi Fi still alive).
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I got rid of the 5.1, tuner, amp, etc. several years ago, intending to eventually replace it with something. But, we haven't so far. Unfortunately, the family has mostly taken to watching/listening to their own things on iPads with headphones these days anyway. Maybe it doesn't need replacing...which is why Apple has gone this direction.
But, IMO, for what was gained, a lot is now missing. Besides my car (which is reasonably good), I'm not sure my son has ever experienced a good sound system. And, we certainly don't spend any where near the family-time anymore with movies, games, etc. There is so much less sharing-enjoyment going on with things these days. Everyone has their own stuff.
I was looking into sound bars at one point and it didn't sound like the HDMI ARC stuff was real solid. Maybe the wrinkles have been ironed out?
The original HomePod with wired connections (2 of them) would be great to add on to a new 30 or 32” M series iMac or the XDR display, in short the HomePod has to be versatile and it isn’t.
Speakers have to be future proof (a good set last too long ie the Apple Hi Fi still alive).