According to Kantar, the survey in this link was performed in February, overlapping the HomePod's launch. So, as expected given the survey time, the numbers aren't really above zero.
Don't get me wrong, the HomePod share isn't a lot. But it isn't zero.
It’s a general problem with software “updates”—you buy a device, and updates change the way it works based on someone else’s idea of what’s better. Sometimes you agree, sometimes you don’t, and often there’s no way to go back if you liked the old way better.
Years ago I bought the top-of-the-line PS3, which was $600 at the time, and after a year or two Sony delivered a mandatory “update” (you weren’t allowed to use the device online without installing the update) with a new home screen that was essentially a screen full of advertisements. I was livid, and never really saw Sony the same way again.
It’s also pretty annoying when an update makes your device slower.
Ideally, you would see a detailed list of issues addressed, and you could choose to just opt in to the changes you wanted.
I am not updating it then. I actually disabled HomePod's auto update yesterday after reading about this issue and even if I update it, I don't know if there is a way to back up HomePod current firmware though just in case I want to go back.
As a rule, I don't update anything from Apple immediately, unless its a small security update or unless and until I read satisfied reviews or after few weeks or so once its been tested by the mass. I always backup existing working version first and then download their updates. This is the only thing I hate about Apple that their updates bring 1 fix to something and bring more than 1 new issues. Whether its their Numbers app, iTunes or OS update, and same applies to all other 3rd party apps, their track record is not good that one can just turn the auto update on and trust them that their quality control dept. will do their job effectively every time. So I always keep the current working version regardless unless the new update runs smoothly for about a month or so.
[...] I returned the one I bought because it produced very low frequency sound (infrasound) that was annoying and painful to my ears.
I've only seen two measurements of the HomePod's frequency response, but neither showed any appreciable output below about 50 Hz. It's extremely unlikely that a HomePod would be capable of producing infrasonics. I would humbly suggest that there is very likely some other explanation for the discomfort you experienced.
HomePod gone, problem gone--it was the HomePod. I'm not surprised you're skeptical, though. It seems the vast majority of people are completely unaware of infrasound and its effects. Infrasound requires special equipment to measure. And transient impulses don't register as being any particular frequency. The "woofer" in the HomePod is capable of a very large excursion. Perhaps you enjoy the thumps from music, but the magnitude of those thumps from the HomePod was way out of proportion to the volume of the main audio signal. It hurt my ears and tremendously annoyed. Same for my wife. When it involves recordings outdoors (e.g., news events heard on NPR) where wind is present or occasionally even the breath of someone speaking a little too closely into a studio microphone (again NPR), the thumps were completely unexpected/irregular and highly annoying, too. I'm hoping the updated software fixes it.
Of course people are going to complain when a characteristic is significantly changed, as they should. Frequency response is not subjective. Alter it and the resulting audio is altered. Whether it's argued to be good or bad is subjective. Whether it's there or not isn't. Some of you a) don't own a HomePod so don't care or b) are tone deaf and audio fidelity is lost on you.
Those of you complaining about users being upset would whine like little bitches if Apple put out a firmware update that gave a purple tint to your display. Or if it changed your monitor's resolution from 2560x1440 to 1920x1080. But not to worry as 'it's subjective'.
I haven't heard either version of the HP yet. But while most people lauded the audio quality, a few people who took the time to critique the sound said that it lacked presence and the mid-bass crept up into the mid-range. This is common problem for a lot of modern small speakers— tailoring the sound to be bass-heavy at the expense of balanced frequency response.
Regardless of which version is preferred, anybody should be ticked if a change to their purchase, after the fact, negatively affected them.
Must be nice to yell at everyone from the sidelines.
[...] I returned the one I bought because it produced very low frequency sound (infrasound) that was annoying and painful to my ears.
I've only seen two measurements of the HomePod's frequency response, but neither showed any appreciable output below about 50 Hz. It's extremely unlikely that a HomePod would be capable of producing infrasonics. I would humbly suggest that there is very likely some other explanation for the discomfort you experienced.
HomePod gone, problem gone--it was the HomePod. I'm not surprised you're skeptical, though. It seems the vast majority of people are completely unaware of infrasound and its effects. Infrasound requires special equipment to measure. And transient impulses don't register as being any particular frequency. The "woofer" in the HomePod is capable of a very large excursion. Perhaps you enjoy the thumps from music, but the magnitude of those thumps from the HomePod was way out of proportion to the volume of the main audio signal. It hurt my ears and tremendously annoyed. Same for my wife. When it involves recordings outdoors (e.g., news events heard on NPR) where wind is present or occasionally even the breath of someone speaking a little too closely into a studio microphone (again NPR), the thumps were completely unexpected/irregular and highly annoying, too. I'm hoping the updated software fixes it.
spare ,me your crap, you're part of the same people who are "Affected by WIFI".
[...] I returned the one I bought because it produced very low frequency sound (infrasound) that was annoying and painful to my ears.
I've only seen two measurements of the HomePod's frequency response, but neither showed any appreciable output below about 50 Hz. It's extremely unlikely that a HomePod would be capable of producing infrasonics. I would humbly suggest that there is very likely some other explanation for the discomfort you experienced.
HomePod gone, problem gone--it was the HomePod. I'm not surprised you're skeptical, though. It seems the vast majority of people are completely unaware of infrasound and its effects. Infrasound requires special equipment to measure. And transient impulses don't register as being any particular frequency. The "woofer" in the HomePod is capable of a very large excursion. Perhaps you enjoy the thumps from music, but the magnitude of those thumps from the HomePod was way out of proportion to the volume of the main audio signal. It hurt my ears and tremendously annoyed. Same for my wife. When it involves recordings outdoors (e.g., news events heard on NPR) where wind is present or occasionally even the breath of someone speaking a little too closely into a studio microphone (again NPR), the thumps were completely unexpected/irregular and highly annoying, too. I'm hoping the updated software fixes it.
spare ,me your crap, you're part of the same people who are "Affected by WIFI".
The HomePod isn't even remotely capable of frequency generation in the infrasound range, so yeah, color me skeptical.
[...] I returned the one I bought because it produced very low frequency sound (infrasound) that was annoying and painful to my ears.
I've only seen two measurements of the HomePod's frequency response, but neither showed any appreciable output below about 50 Hz. It's extremely unlikely that a HomePod would be capable of producing infrasonics. I would humbly suggest that there is very likely some other explanation for the discomfort you experienced.
HomePod gone, problem gone--it was the HomePod. I'm not surprised you're skeptical, though. It seems the vast majority of people are completely unaware of infrasound and its effects. Infrasound requires special equipment to measure. And transient impulses don't register as being any particular frequency. The "woofer" in the HomePod is capable of a very large excursion. Perhaps you enjoy the thumps from music, but the magnitude of those thumps from the HomePod was way out of proportion to the volume of the main audio signal. It hurt my ears and tremendously annoyed. Same for my wife. When it involves recordings outdoors (e.g., news events heard on NPR) where wind is present or occasionally even the breath of someone speaking a little too closely into a studio microphone (again NPR), the thumps were completely unexpected/irregular and highly annoying, too. I'm hoping the updated software fixes it.
spare ,me your crap, you're part of the same people who are "Affected by WIFI".
The HomePod isn't even remotely capable of frequency generation in the infrasound range, so yeah, color me skeptical.
But the similarly-sized tho not similarly priced Devialet Phantom "claims it’s able to reproduce infrasound waves as low as 16Hz. You can’t actually hear these sound waves; the threshold of human hearing on the low end is 20Hz" Seems that would definitely be one to avoid, and why anyone would want that in a speaker is beyond me.
[...] I returned the one I bought because it produced very low frequency sound (infrasound) that was annoying and painful to my ears.
I've only seen two measurements of the HomePod's frequency response, but neither showed any appreciable output below about 50 Hz. It's extremely unlikely that a HomePod would be capable of producing infrasonics. I would humbly suggest that there is very likely some other explanation for the discomfort you experienced.
HomePod gone, problem gone--it was the HomePod. I'm not surprised you're skeptical, though. It seems the vast majority of people are completely unaware of infrasound and its effects. Infrasound requires special equipment to measure. And transient impulses don't register as being any particular frequency. The "woofer" in the HomePod is capable of a very large excursion. Perhaps you enjoy the thumps from music, but the magnitude of those thumps from the HomePod was way out of proportion to the volume of the main audio signal. It hurt my ears and tremendously annoyed. Same for my wife. When it involves recordings outdoors (e.g., news events heard on NPR) where wind is present or occasionally even the breath of someone speaking a little too closely into a studio microphone (again NPR), the thumps were completely unexpected/irregular and highly annoying, too. I'm hoping the updated software fixes it.
spare ,me your crap, you're part of the same people who are "Affected by WIFI".
The HomePod isn't even remotely capable of frequency generation in the infrasound range, so yeah, color me skeptical.
But the similarly-sized tho not similarly priced Devialet Phantom "claims it’s able to reproduce infrasound waves as low as 16Hz. You can’t actually hear these sound waves; the threshold of human hearing on the low end is 20Hz" Seems that would definitely be one to avoid, and why anyone would want that in a speaker is beyond me.
16Hz isn't even that far. The alleged really good effects don't even really begin until 5Hz.
"According to our survey, only 34% of Americans currently own a smart speaker. More men than women said they owned them, particularly those that are between the ages of 72 and 82, where ownership was reported at 60%. Among women, those between the ages of 21 and 26 were the biggest owners."
Really? 60% of men between the age of 72 and 82 own a smart speaker? What I infer from that idiotic statement is that their survey included 5 people in that age category and three of them said they own one.
This survey has less credibility that even normally bad consumer surveys.
"According to our survey, only 34% of Americans currently own a smart speaker. More men than women said they owned them, particularly those that are between the ages of 72 and 82, where ownership was reported at 60%. Among women, those between the ages of 21 and 26 were the biggest owners."
Really? 60% of men between the age of 72 and 82 own a smart speaker? What I infer from that idiotic statement is that their survey included 5 people in that age category and three of them said they own one.
This survey has less credibility that even normally bad consumer surveys.
Most consumer "surveys" have extraordinary bad sampling. Oversampling older people is a major issue. Who knows really how many young people have those things, they're very very hard to reach properly. Young of ethnic minorities are even harder to reach.
So, you get an oversampling of white old with landlines and decent retirement income and thus the owning a smart speaker part is not that hard to believe, though the numbers you get are not reliable because of iffy sampling.
I didn't mean to suggest that something other than the HomePod was causing your reaction. I meant that since the HomePod is incapable of producing any meaningful output at frequencies that low, whatever it was about the HomePod that was causing you discomfort was very likely something other than infrasonics.
Based on your follow-up comment it seems like maybe something about the way the HomePod reproduced low frequencies bothered you, but your reaction would have been to frequencies in the audible range, not infrasonic.
Of course people are going to complain when a characteristic is significantly changed, as they should. Frequency response is not subjective. Alter it and the resulting audio is altered. Whether it's argued to be good or bad is subjective. Whether it's there or not isn't. Some of you a) don't own a HomePod so don't care or b) are tone deaf and audio fidelity is lost on you.
Those of you complaining about users being upset would whine like little bitches if Apple put out a firmware update that gave a purple tint to your display. Or if it changed your monitor's resolution from 2560x1440 to 1920x1080. But not to worry as 'it's subjective'.
I haven't heard either version of the HP yet. But while most people lauded the audio quality, a few people who took the time to critique the sound said that it lacked presence and the mid-bass crept up into the mid-range. This is common problem for a lot of modern small speakers— tailoring the sound to be bass-heavy at the expense of balanced frequency response.
Regardless of which version is preferred, anybody should be ticked if a change to their purchase, after the fact, negatively affected them.
Must be nice to yell at everyone from the sidelines.
You don't have to be in the middle of the field or wearing a jersey to spot stupidity. It's certainly not a pre-requisite or even relevant.
And not everyone— only the stupid need take offense.
Comments
Years ago I bought the top-of-the-line PS3, which was $600 at the time, and after a year or two Sony delivered a mandatory “update” (you weren’t allowed to use the device online without installing the update) with a new home screen that was essentially a screen full of advertisements. I was livid, and never really saw Sony the same way again.
It’s also pretty annoying when an update makes your device slower.
Ideally, you would see a detailed list of issues addressed, and you could choose to just opt in to the changes you wanted.
Infrasound requires special equipment to measure. And transient impulses don't register as being any particular frequency. The "woofer" in the HomePod is capable of a very large excursion. Perhaps you enjoy the thumps from music, but the magnitude of those thumps from the HomePod was way out of proportion to the volume of the main audio signal. It hurt my ears and tremendously annoyed. Same for my wife. When it involves recordings outdoors (e.g., news events heard on NPR) where wind is present or occasionally even the breath of someone speaking a little too closely into a studio microphone (again NPR), the thumps were completely unexpected/irregular and highly annoying, too. I'm hoping the updated software fixes it.
"According to our survey, only 34% of Americans currently own a smart speaker. More men than women said they owned them, particularly those that are between the ages of 72 and 82, where ownership was reported at 60%. Among women, those between the ages of 21 and 26 were the biggest owners."
Really? 60% of men between the age of 72 and 82 own a smart speaker? What I infer from that idiotic statement is that their survey included 5 people in that age category and three of them said they own one.
This survey has less credibility that even normally bad consumer surveys.
Based on your follow-up comment it seems like maybe something about the way the HomePod reproduced low frequencies bothered you, but your reaction would have been to frequencies in the audible range, not infrasonic.
And not everyone— only the stupid need take offense.