Well after all the hype and excellent reviews, I must say I disagree, the HomePod sounds ok but not great, there is too much bass, I think there is a real need to be able to make adjustments., but after reading several forums I seem to be on my own here , so do I have a faulty HP or am I doing something wrong? is it the position / placement in my room or what it is placed on affecting it.,, because the rumbling / droning Bass is overpowering
By the way I like bass on my Bose speaker and BW Zeppelin but must say I am not liking it so much the Homepod
You have 14 days to return it. Do it instead of bitching about it here.
I thought I read that it’s only 10 days.
I believe you are correct. 10 days.
We probably read the same thing, but it’s still a 14 day return policy from the time you receive your purchase, at least in the US.
Most of us over 50 typically have varying degrees of high frequency hearing loss, so we need to boost the treble and/or reduce the bass response for the music to sound balanced to us. The ability to "equalize" the sound is a "make or break" feature to me personally.
how many stand alone wifi speakers offer this? none that i’ve owned.
good to know you can adjust it in iOS tho if you needed to.
Well after all the hype and excellent reviews, I must say I disagree, the HomePod sounds ok but not great, there is too much bass, I think there is a real need to be able to make adjustments., but after reading several forums I seem to be on my own here , so do I have a faulty HP or am I doing something wrong? is it the position / placement in my room or what it is placed on affecting it.,, because the rumbling / droning Bass is overpowering
By the way I like bass on my Bose speaker and BW Zeppelin but must say I am not liking it so much the Homepod
Preposterous - the HomePod sounds better than a $50,000 audiophile system. Everyone here told us so before they heard the thing. Besides, Apple is perfect in every way and their products are more perfect - this is why they never have to improve products or release updates.
Can you link to anyone who’s said that here? Even one?
IMO, here is one way this could go in the future to provide automatic equalization for setup of multiple homePod speakers in a home theatre arrangement.
During setup of the system:
identify each individual who (normally) will be using the system by analyzing their "Hey Siri" commands -- saving an individual voice print
calibrate each individual's hearing by playing a series of tone pairs, asking which sounds better -- and saving an individual hearing print
B. While using the system:
assume multiple homePods talking to each other and dynamically adjusting their output based on each other, room characteristics, and the profile of the sound being played *
have each listener position them-self in the room and say "Hey Siri" so the homePods could identify them and where they are **
* Apparently the homePods will be able to do this now/soon ** unidentified listeners could be set to homePod defaults or setup as above
C. So, the homePod Sound System, the homePod speakers will know:
about each other
the room's sound characteristics
the profile of the sound being played
who is listening
the sound/speaker preferences for each listener's hearing
the position in the room of each listener
Given that, the homePod Sound System could dynamically tune itself to provide the best listening experience for all those present.
And, yeah -- no fiddly equalizers
I certainly believe that Apple could do this with a varied collection of its devices, and possibly even realtime with iBeacon location tracking (nogbody talks about iBeacon anymore!). AirPods, with a bit of help from a test app on an iOS device, would likely be one of the best solutions for mapping the deficits in each ear of a listener. Providing this profile to HomePod for inclusion in an audio transform would certainly be straightforward; better when HomePod recognizes individuals via Siri. The only issue I would have is the weight that you would apply to each users profile; I suppose that would have to be part of the equalization process/app in the case of multiple users.
Mapping room sound would likely be best employed using the iPhones microphones, and would benefit from an A/R app that would provide visual cues to the mapping process, as well as mapping audio sources and ambient surfaces like wall and furniture. Mapping an ambient surface as reflecting or absorbing using color and/or tescture, would give a user a good idea of where wall hangings and such might be beneficial.
AFAIKT, the skies the limit for HomePod and audio, and no less so for the competitors. Still Apple's ecosystem is a convenience that many people gladly op in to.
Mmm...
I hadn't even thought of using hardware (iPhones and beacons, etc.). That's an excellent idea -- especially the motion tracking. * If the sound studio / home theatre included a TV, they could ARKit and WIFISLAM to portray the room itself, the room's acoustical environment and occupants location and hearing profile.
Running a test app on a user's iPhone is a fantastic idea for creating a user hearing profile.
Also, there's the potential for isolating instruments, or groups of instruments) to a specific homePods and combining that into the experience.
* I moved the homePod into the family room about 30' away from the iTunes iMac in the dining room. When I got up from the iMac to go nearer to the homePod, it lost sound when I walked in between it and the iMac. Note: I am using a crummy Airport 2 GHz WiFi (I have a Linksys mesh system), so I can use an old Airport Express to incorporate into the sound system. I'm convincing myself that it makes more sense/$ to buy new tech homePods rather than old tech Airport Expresses + speakers + cables.
Ha! We seem to be on the same wavelength (pun) about the potential of this new tech.
That's the nice thing about AR/VR; we can easily transform data into a visual realm, making it easier to both visualize and understand it. This is pretty much how the military displays microwave data (radar) to pilots, as a visualization of threat data.
I'm looking to the day when AirPods (or surely glasses) offer an added set of beam forming microphones aligned with our sight picture in AR/VR. There are completely new world's that we can explore with enhanced sensors linked to Apple devices and accessories.
Well after all the hype and excellent reviews, I must say I disagree, the HomePod sounds ok but not great, there is too much bass, I think there is a real need to be able to make adjustments., but after reading several forums I seem to be on my own here , so do I have a faulty HP or am I doing something wrong? is it the position / placement in my room or what it is placed on affecting it.,, because the rumbling / droning Bass is overpowering
By the way I like bass on my Bose speaker and BW Zeppelin but must say I am not liking it so much the Homepod
Preposterous - the HomePod sounds better than a $50,000 audiophile system. Everyone here told us so before they heard the thing. Besides, Apple is perfect in every way and their products are more perfect - this is why they never have to improve products or release updates.
Can you link to anyone who’s said that here? Even one?
I recall that there was a comment on the internets (Rene Richie maybe?) that HomePod has technology not found in $50,000 speakers. I have no idea if that is true, but having a premium smartphone SOC is rare for any speaker.
Well after all the hype and excellent reviews, I must say I disagree, the HomePod sounds ok but not great, there is too much bass, I think there is a real need to be able to make adjustments., but after reading several forums I seem to be on my own here , so do I have a faulty HP or am I doing something wrong? is it the position / placement in my room or what it is placed on affecting it.,, because the rumbling / droning Bass is overpowering
By the way I like bass on my Bose speaker and BW Zeppelin but must say I am not liking it so much the Homepod
Preposterous - the HomePod sounds better than a $50,000 audiophile system. Everyone here told us so before they heard the thing. Besides, Apple is perfect in every way and their products are more perfect - this is why they never have to improve products or release updates.
Can you link to anyone who’s said that here? Even one?
Well after all the hype and excellent reviews, I must say I disagree, the HomePod sounds ok but not great, there is too much bass, I think there is a real need to be able to make adjustments., but after reading several forums I seem to be on my own here , so do I have a faulty HP or am I doing something wrong? is it the position / placement in my room or what it is placed on affecting it.,, because the rumbling / droning Bass is overpowering
By the way I like bass on my Bose speaker and BW Zeppelin but must say I am not liking it so much the Homepod
Preposterous - the HomePod sounds better than a $50,000 audiophile system. Everyone here told us so before they heard the thing. Besides, Apple is perfect in every way and their products are more perfect - this is why they never have to improve products or release updates.
Can you link to anyone who’s said that here? Even one?
I recall that there was a comment on the internets (Rene Richie maybe?) that HomePod has technology not found in $50,000 speakers. I have no idea if that is true, but having a premium smartphone SOC is rare for any speaker.
If Richie wrote that as you stated it then that would probably be acceptable since there is clearly technology in the HomePod (all smart speakers) not found in hyper-expensive audio systems. The caveat is if he tried to imply a false comparison to suggest that HomePod was better audio than $50k product suite.
Well after all the hype and excellent reviews, I must say I disagree, the HomePod sounds ok but not great, there is too much bass, I think there is a real need to be able to make adjustments., but after reading several forums I seem to be on my own here , so do I have a faulty HP or am I doing something wrong? is it the position / placement in my room or what it is placed on affecting it.,, because the rumbling / droning Bass is overpowering
By the way I like bass on my Bose speaker and BW Zeppelin but must say I am not liking it so much the Homepod
Preposterous - the HomePod sounds better than a $50,000 audiophile system. Everyone here told us so before they heard the thing. Besides, Apple is perfect in every way and their products are more perfect - this is why they never have to improve products or release updates.
Can you link to anyone who’s said that here? Even one?
I recall that there was a comment on the internets (Rene Richie maybe?) that HomePod has technology not found in $50,000 speakers. I have no idea if that is true, but having a premium smartphone SOC is rare for any speaker.
If Richie wrote that as you stated it then that would probably be acceptable since there is clearly technology in the HomePod (all smart speakers) not found in hyper-expensive audio systems. The caveat is if he tried to imply a false comparison to suggest that HomePod was better audio than $50k product suite.
I completely agree that rain22 is posting false information about AI posters stating this.
I moved the homePod to the family room: first,next to the TV; second to the fireplace mantle; last to the coffee table in the middle of the room.
The coffee table setup is interesting, as you can walk 360° around it -- and sweet spot seems to travel with you!
In my 60+ years of listening to HiFi, I've never experienced anything like it!
Many large rooms have electric outlets in the floor, spaced throughout the area (ours doesn't). This leads me to believe that you could have homePod speakers strategically spaced through a large room (or yard/patio) and take the sweet spot with you as you tiptoed through the tulips (Even Tiny Tim sounds pretty good).
On another note of hi-tech: Did you watch the Olympic opening ceremonies? The light show was amazing... And when the lights moved away on beaucoup drones under synchronized remote control to form a 3D snowboarder, then the Olympic Rings... Very impressed!
Sammy done good for a company whose chairman was just released from prison!
Gee. And I thought the HomePod was so great sounding a device one no longer need to resort to an EQ!
Some Many people have hearing deficits in certain frequencies that obviously a HomePod cannot know about. However, read next post ... I didn't need EQ with HomePod.
And some people are partially deaf or completely deaf. Shall we try to find HomePod hacks to accommodate them as well? Or shall we rather just admit that some products are simply not made for some people? The debate on that point is endless though, as there will always be people who argue that a given product SHOULD be able to do such-and-such and therefore hacks are needed and therefore the premise of the article was sound. I still feel that Apple doesn't make products to please everyone, and they also willfully limit functionality to "keep it simple" knowing full well that will exclude some potential users. That's really the way its always been, whether we like it or not.
In response to Wigby's comment, "Never underestimate the demands of an audiophile," I can only say that I will not underestimate because I am not Apple. Apple designed the HomePod for "most people." And since most people certainly aren't audiophiles as evidenced by the fact that most people think MP3's or compressed AAC files are A-OK, it's not a big issue that the HomePod lacks EQ tweaks out-of-the-box.
Honestly, I'm not the target customer for the HomePod. I've got a CD collection and some iTunes downloads, but I don't listen to music daily, nor have I in many years. I am fascinated by all things Apple which is what led me to even read the article in the first place, but I mostly am interested in the AirPod to see how they made SIRI somewhat usable. SIRI can finally hear you most of the time and rather accurately interpret your speech even with loud music playing. With that said, SIRI still is pretty stupid, and even if Apple played catch-up to Alexa and Cortana, Apple would still have a long way to go before we approach the AI response level of the Star Trek Enterprise computer. That's really what we all want. I want to talk to SIRI about nearly anything and have a reasonably intelligent response -- not the typical, "I don't understand what you mean" we all too often get from SIRI. The fact that the HomePod plays music is nice, but the future lies in an AI assistance who can hear you nearly anywhere, understand even slurred speech, and be able to intelligently provide you with information on nearly any topic and also be able to perform tasks in the real world (e.g., HomeKit) without skipping a beat.
First, Apple didn’t promote the HomePod as a very smart assistant outside the music and the basic assistant functionalities ...
I have enough earring deficiencies to get a sound with a lot of bass, incredible how my bike has a different sound if a use my intra earring aid or not... this is the same listening music, and I think that deaf people need earring aid to get the right frequency response...
good earing aid cost as much as MBP with the best graphic card and 1T ssd
if you want a good control, you can play song with GarageBand also, a lot of controls and effect are available
Well after all the hype and excellent reviews, I must say I disagree, the HomePod sounds ok but not great, there is too much bass, I think there is a real need to be able to make adjustments., but after reading several forums I seem to be on my own here , so do I have a faulty HP or am I doing something wrong? is it the position / placement in my room or what it is placed on affecting it.,, because the rumbling / droning Bass is overpowering
By the way I like bass on my Bose speaker and BW Zeppelin but must say I am not liking it so much the Homepod
I think the bass is really good.....although I worry about the neighbours because of the range the bass has. Playing Metallica and justice for all even sounds better (criticises for its lack of bass in the mix), but it thunders!
Well after all the hype and excellent reviews, I must say I disagree, the HomePod sounds ok but not great, there is too much bass, I think there is a real need to be able to make adjustments., but after reading several forums I seem to be on my own here , so do I have a faulty HP or am I doing something wrong? is it the position / placement in my room or what it is placed on affecting it.,, because the rumbling / droning Bass is overpowering
By the way I like bass on my Bose speaker and BW Zeppelin but must say I am not liking it so much the Homepod
I think the bass is really good.....although I worry about the neighbours because of the range the bass has. Playing Metallica and justice for all even sounds better (criticises for its lack of bass in the mix), but it thunders!
Yeah, the bass is really good! I am surprised because I'm used to large speakers that can pump a lot of air that you can feel -- and rattle windows...
The homePod woofer points up so I didn't expect to feel it -- but I do, I can feel it in my gut -- like none of the other small speakers I own.
Well after all the hype and excellent reviews, I must say I disagree, the HomePod sounds ok but not great, there is too much bass, I think there is a real need to be able to make adjustments., but after reading several forums I seem to be on my own here , so do I have a faulty HP or am I doing something wrong? is it the position / placement in my room or what it is placed on affecting it.,, because the rumbling / droning Bass is overpowering
By the way I like bass on my Bose speaker and BW Zeppelin but must say I am not liking it so much the Homepod
Preposterous - the HomePod sounds better than a $50,000 audiophile system. Everyone here told us so before they heard the thing. Besides, Apple is perfect in every way and their products are more perfect - this is why they never have to improve products or release updates.
The bass is perfect for everyone in every situation conceivable. Only imperfect people would not understand that... so i think you have some soul-searching to to...
Please stop trolling this forum with your opinions that your own personal experience may differ - or having personal opinions at all.
Look! Someone is butthurted Apple actually know what they’re doing.
Gee. And I thought the HomePod was so great sounding a device one no longer need to resort to an EQ!
Some Many people have hearing deficits in certain frequencies that obviously a HomePod cannot know about. However, read next post ... I didn't need EQ with HomePod.
And some people are partially deaf or completely deaf. Shall we try to find HomePod hacks to accommodate them as well? Or shall we rather just admit that some products are simply not made for some people? The debate on that point is endless though, as there will always be people who argue that a given product SHOULD be able to do such-and-such and therefore hacks are needed and therefore the premise of the article was sound. I still feel that Apple doesn't make products to please everyone, and they also willfully limit functionality to "keep it simple" knowing full well that will exclude some potential users. That's really the way its always been, whether we like it or not.
In response to Wigby's comment, "Never underestimate the demands of an audiophile," I can only say that I will not underestimate because I am not Apple. Apple designed the HomePod for "most people." And since most people certainly aren't audiophiles as evidenced by the fact that most people think MP3's or compressed AAC files are A-OK, it's not a big issue that the HomePod lacks EQ tweaks out-of-the-box.
Honestly, I'm not the target customer for the HomePod. I've got a CD collection and some iTunes downloads, but I don't listen to music daily, nor have I in many years. I am fascinated by all things Apple which is what led me to even read the article in the first place, but I mostly am interested in the AirPod to see how they made SIRI somewhat usable. SIRI can finally hear you most of the time and rather accurately interpret your speech even with loud music playing. With that said, SIRI still is pretty stupid, and even if Apple played catch-up to Alexa and Cortana, Apple would still have a long way to go before we approach the AI response level of the Star Trek Enterprise computer. That's really what we all want. I want to talk to SIRI about nearly anything and have a reasonably intelligent response -- not the typical, "I don't understand what you mean" we all too often get from SIRI. The fact that the HomePod plays music is nice, but the future lies in an AI assistance who can hear you nearly anywhere, understand even slurred speech, and be able to intelligently provide you with information on nearly any topic and also be able to perform tasks in the real world (e.g., HomeKit) without skipping a beat.
aac at 256 kbs are AOK, if you think otherwise when actual blind tests and mastering engineers says different, you would obviously be a "audiophile" (sic), aka someone who hears something who isn't there. The people that actually have the money, space and golden ears to actually maybe qualify for this elusive title of "audiophile" should be 1 in 1000+, yet by what we see online everyone's an expert.
Again, the "playing catchup" when alexa and google are basically shit at home automation and well, is alexa on my watch, well hell no cause everything not apple has died in smart watches or blue tooth headphones.
You know how many people use Alexa or Google home, probably 2x3 times less than use Apple Watch and Airpods and where is the integration of Alexa with a phone... Well nowhere too, yet all I hear is a constant nattering about those god damn so called "assistant". If they're not there they are not assisting anything.
Alexa sold 30M pods, which means it's probably in about 15-20M homes, mostly in the US. Well, Apple probably sold just slightly less watches than that in the US. Do we hear anything about this in the media... No sir, it's alexa this alexa that.
Well, I've tried Alexa and it's nothing how those freaks at Macrumors keep clamoring it is, it's as dumb as a brick in almost everything that's not its niche.
That's the thing with people like Patel at the Verge who seems to be a big ZERO in product marketing, I'm still remembering his nonsense review of the watch.
Most of us over 50 typically have varying degrees of high frequency hearing loss, so we need to boost the treble and/or reduce the bass response for the music to sound balanced to us. The ability to "equalize" the sound is a "make or break" feature to me personally.
I'm a senior, and like most people, as we age the frequency response of our ears degrades. My high frequency response is degraded from when I was younger, and in fact is worse in one ear. The HomePod may be able to self-adjust to its surroundings, but how can it self-adjust to our individual ears? There is no calibration step where it asks you if the treble is high enough, or clear enough. In the past, we can adjust for our ears by using equalization controls. HomePod has to either give us those controls, or include a personal calibration test. Also, do the existing controls in iTunes or IOS adjust Siri's voice in addition to music response? I think not.
I don't understand the desire to adjust for hearing deterioration. When you listen to live music like an orchestra, there is no compensation for your particular hearing response curve. That's simply what an orchestra sounds like with your ears. So why would a reproduction of that orchestra need to be different? Assuming wide, even frequency response from the speaker, your perception of it will be the same as it is live.
I can understand being frustrated by the loss of speech intelligibility and perhaps even awareness of high frequency roll-off; what I don't understand is why anyone would accept it in every other aspect of their life but consider it a shortcoming if a reproduction system isn't able to overcome it? Seems like proper hearing aids are a much better solution than EQ controls on a little speaker.
Stated with due respect by one who has had to examine the ramifications of special equalization on monitoring systems for aging mix engineers. Like me.
To those who are again saying that the HomePod doesn't "need" EQ adjustment:
I'll again point out, as I did in another thread, that compensating for room acoustics does not necessarily assure well-balanced output. It overcomes one major obstacle, and is an excellent step, but an auto-balancing system assumes that the source material is well balanced. That's not always the case. The examples I cited before were rips of CDs from the 80s that were mastered with WAAAY too much top end and not nearly enough bottom (which is what happens when you apply techniques developed for vinyl to material released digitally), and anything produced by certain "urban" labels famous for wanting to make car trunks rattle. There's also lots of small label/indie stuff that may not have had wide-range monitoring and is sometimes released with flaws the producers didn't even hear. An EQ tweak can correct those issues, room correction won't.
Room correction doesn't fix flaws in the source. That's not what it's there for. It's a solution to a specific problem, but NOT a replacement for EQ. I'm not saying EQ is "necessary" or that the HomePod is no good without it -- the HomePod will undoubtedly sound great with the vast majority of material, and even flawed material will benefit from all the advantages the HomePod offers -- just that room correction should not be interpreted as a *substitute* for EQ. It isn't.
...I've tried Alexa and it's nothing how those freaks at Macrumors keep clamoring it is, it's as dumb as a brick in almost everything that's not its niche.
You might enjoy this HomePod review. SIRI takes a beating. No real surprises for us who know from our iPhone and iPad use that SIRI isn't very smart at all. Even so, for someone like me who would primarily consider a HomePod-like device for the quality of its virtual assistant, the review illustrates how disappointing SIRI would be, even if all those mics make her hear your voice better than any other Apple device...
Comments
good to know you can adjust it in iOS tho if you needed to.
Since this site isn’t run by the government the first amendment is irrelevant.
I'm looking to the day when AirPods (or surely glasses) offer an added set of beam forming microphones aligned with our sight picture in AR/VR. There are completely new world's that we can explore with enhanced sensors linked to Apple devices and accessories.
• https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/203859/apples-first-homepod-ads-urge-customers-to-order-now/p5
Been doin' more experimenting...
I moved the homePod to the family room: first,next to the TV; second to the fireplace mantle; last to the coffee table in the middle of the room.
The coffee table setup is interesting, as you can walk 360° around it -- and sweet spot seems to travel with you!
In my 60+ years of listening to HiFi, I've never experienced anything like it!
Many large rooms have electric outlets in the floor, spaced throughout the area (ours doesn't). This leads me to believe that you could have homePod speakers strategically spaced through a large room (or yard/patio) and take the sweet spot with you as you tiptoed through the tulips (Even Tiny Tim sounds pretty good).
On another note of hi-tech: Did you watch the Olympic opening ceremonies? The light show was amazing... And when the lights moved away on beaucoup drones under synchronized remote control to form a 3D snowboarder, then the Olympic Rings... Very impressed!
Sammy done good for a company whose chairman was just released from prison!
In response to Wigby's comment, "Never underestimate the demands of an audiophile," I can only say that I will not underestimate because I am not Apple. Apple designed the HomePod for "most people." And since most people certainly aren't audiophiles as evidenced by the fact that most people think MP3's or compressed AAC files are A-OK, it's not a big issue that the HomePod lacks EQ tweaks out-of-the-box.
Honestly, I'm not the target customer for the HomePod. I've got a CD collection and some iTunes downloads, but I don't listen to music daily, nor have I in many years. I am fascinated by all things Apple which is what led me to even read the article in the first place, but I mostly am interested in the AirPod to see how they made SIRI somewhat usable. SIRI can finally hear you most of the time and rather accurately interpret your speech even with loud music playing. With that said, SIRI still is pretty stupid, and even if Apple played catch-up to Alexa and Cortana, Apple would still have a long way to go before we approach the AI response level of the Star Trek Enterprise computer. That's really what we all want. I want to talk to SIRI about nearly anything and have a reasonably intelligent response -- not the typical, "I don't understand what you mean" we all too often get from SIRI. The fact that the HomePod plays music is nice, but the future lies in an AI assistance who can hear you nearly anywhere, understand even slurred speech, and be able to intelligently provide you with information on nearly any topic and also be able to perform tasks in the real world (e.g., HomeKit) without skipping a beat.
I have enough earring deficiencies to get a sound with a lot of bass, incredible how my bike has a different sound if a use my intra earring aid or not... this is the same listening music, and I think that deaf people need earring aid to get the right frequency response...
good earing aid cost as much as MBP with the best graphic card and 1T ssd
if you want a good control, you can play song with GarageBand also, a lot of controls and effect are available
The homePod woofer points up so I didn't expect to feel it -- but I do, I can feel it in my gut -- like none of the other small speakers I own.
Google Max buyer remorse?
https://twitter.com/fouzanwastaken/status/962425811356790784
Again, the "playing catchup" when alexa and google are basically shit at home automation and well, is alexa on my watch, well hell no cause everything not apple has died in smart watches or blue tooth headphones.
You know how many people use Alexa or Google home, probably 2x3 times less than use Apple Watch and Airpods and where is the integration of Alexa with a phone... Well nowhere too, yet all I hear is a constant nattering about those god damn so called "assistant". If they're not there they are not assisting anything.
Alexa sold 30M pods, which means it's probably in about 15-20M homes, mostly in the US. Well, Apple probably sold just slightly less watches than that in the US. Do we hear anything about this in the media... No sir, it's alexa this alexa that.
Well, I've tried Alexa and it's nothing how those freaks at Macrumors keep clamoring it is, it's as dumb as a brick in almost everything that's not its niche.
That's the thing with people like Patel at the Verge who seems to be a big ZERO in product marketing, I'm still remembering his nonsense review of the watch.
I can understand being frustrated by the loss of speech intelligibility and perhaps even awareness of high frequency roll-off; what I don't understand is why anyone would accept it in every other aspect of their life but consider it a shortcoming if a reproduction system isn't able to overcome it? Seems like proper hearing aids are a much better solution than EQ controls on a little speaker.
Stated with due respect by one who has had to examine the ramifications of special equalization on monitoring systems for aging mix engineers. Like me.
I'll again point out, as I did in another thread, that compensating for room acoustics does not necessarily assure well-balanced output. It overcomes one major obstacle, and is an excellent step, but an auto-balancing system assumes that the source material is well balanced. That's not always the case. The examples I cited before were rips of CDs from the 80s that were mastered with WAAAY too much top end and not nearly enough bottom (which is what happens when you apply techniques developed for vinyl to material released digitally), and anything produced by certain "urban" labels famous for wanting to make car trunks rattle. There's also lots of small label/indie stuff that may not have had wide-range monitoring and is sometimes released with flaws the producers didn't even hear. An EQ tweak can correct those issues, room correction won't.
Room correction doesn't fix flaws in the source. That's not what it's there for. It's a solution to a specific problem, but NOT a replacement for EQ. I'm not saying EQ is "necessary" or that the HomePod is no good without it -- the HomePod will undoubtedly sound great with the vast majority of material, and even flawed material will benefit from all the advantages the HomePod offers -- just that room correction should not be interpreted as a *substitute* for EQ. It isn't.
2) Solid video review, except for his statement about an Apple Tax.