This is correct. A left right panning sound doesn’t pan properly
Which is OK (IMHO), but what happens in the case where the song uses separation throughout? Is it mixed back together, goes out difference speakers, what?
I recall listening to some Beatles tune that had the vocals almost entirely one one track, which became undecipherable when one of the drivers went a bit wonky. I'd hate to think any such song simply won't play correctly.
Me too, unplug homepod and it works for a day or two then back to ignoreing me lol. Hope 11.4 fixes this little bug, love the Homepod other than that.
Have you contacted Apple? My first HomePod was one I pre-ordered from Apple and received on release day. It took a couple of weeks to exhaust all the normal troubleshooting steps including power cycling, rebooting, restoring, and re-pairing. Simply power cycling would restore proper operation for a day or two. I've contacted Apple several times. When it stops working, they have me cycle the power which makes it work again at which point there is nothing more to troubleshoot since it's working at that time. This is unacceptable, so I returned it to Apple (after a bit of a hassle since they wouldn't replace the unit unless it was deemed defective and wouldn't return it since it was after 14 days) and bought another one from a local store a few weeks later. It did the same exact thing! I had hoped the first firmware update from 11.2.5 to 11.3 would fix it, but it didn't. Now, I'm hoping 11.4 will fix it, but I'm not holding my breath. It's a shame this problem is souring my experience with Apple and HomePod. I love the design and sound of my HomePod, but rarely use it because of this issue. I never know the exact moment when Siri will become deaf and it's embarrassing when it happens in front of guests. "Hey, friends. Check out my HomePod! Hey, Siri, play some music. Okay - here's some songs you might like. Hey, Siri, skip this song. Music keeps playing. HEY, SIRI, SKIP THIS SONG. Music keeps playing. HEY SIRI!!!, STOP!!! Music keeps playing." The hardware is CAPABLE of hearing my normal tone of voice even while blasting music at 100% volume...AFTER A POWER CYCLE...but, as you point out a day or two later Siri becomes hard of hearing and I have to unplug the HomePod and plug it back in to restore proper operation. I resorted to plugging the HomePod into a $10 digital timer that turns the unit off for one minute at 3:00 AM every day. What a crappy workaround for a $350 Apple speaker!
Me too, unplug homepod and it works for a day or two then back to ignoreing me lol. Hope 11.4 fixes this little bug, love the Homepod other than that.
Have you contacted Apple? My first HomePod was one I pre-ordered from Apple and received on release day. It took a couple of weeks to exhaust all the normal troubleshooting steps including power cycling, rebooting, restoring, and re-pairing. Simply power cycling would restore proper operation for a day or two. I've contacted Apple several times. When it stops working, they have me cycle the power which makes it work again at which point there is nothing more to troubleshoot since it's working at that time. This is unacceptable, so I returned it to Apple (after a bit of a hassle since they wouldn't replace the unit unless it was deemed defective and wouldn't return it since it was after 14 days) and bought another one from a local store a few weeks later. It did the same exact thing! I had hoped the first firmware update from 11.2.5 to 11.3 would fix it, but it didn't. Now, I'm hoping 11.4 will fix it, but I'm not holding my breath. It's a shame this problem is souring my experience with Apple and HomePod. I love the design and sound of my HomePod, but rarely use it because of this issue. I never know the exact moment when Siri will become deaf and it's embarrassing when it happens in front of guests. "Hey, friends. Check out my HomePod! Hey, Siri, play some music. Okay - here's some songs you might like. Hey, Siri, skip this song. Music keeps playing. HEY, SIRI, SKIP THIS SONG. Music keeps playing. HEY SIRI!!!, STOP!!! Music keeps playing." The hardware is CAPABLE of hearing my normal tone of voice even while blasting music at 100% volume...AFTER A POWER CYCLE...but, as you point out a day or two later Siri becomes hard of hearing and I have to unplug the HomePod and plug it back in to restore proper operation. I resorted to plugging the HomePod into a $10 digital timer that turns the unit off for one minute at 3:00 AM every day. What a crappy workaround for a $350 Apple speaker!
No I haven’t contacted Apple, I know how to fix it by power cycling so I suspect it must be a software bug. It’s past my 14 day exchange and I live 3hr round trip from Apple store so I’m hoping for a firmware fix. Great idea with the digital timer but yes I agree it’s not the best solution.
Lots of misconceptions about what the definition of stereo is.
Put simply, stereo sound is an attempt to create localization using two or more speakers. The reason we have two ears isn't so we can listen to "stereo" sound coming from left & right channels. We have two ears so that our brain can determine where a sound came from (localization). Is it to our left or right, in front of us or behind us, or even above or below us. Our brain is very good at taking sound arriving at both our ears, and based on slight differences in level and phase (time) it can determine where in 3D space the sound came from.
Early attempts at this involved using a pair of microphones (to simulate our ears) to record a live performance (like an orchestra). Then these two tracks were played back through a pair of stereo speakers with the intent of trying to recreate the original performance. There have been many other methods to try and recreate a soundstage for a listener (some involve processing to try and "trick" our ears while the most common method people are used to is a 5.1 or 7.1 sound system). Whatever the method, the end goal is the same - to try and create a 3D soundstage that approximates the original.
The HomePod also tries to create a wider soundstage. I haven't been able to try one yet, so I don't know how it works, but reviews say it's pretty good at this. By definition, it's impossible for the HomePod to be mono, since you can't create a soundstage with a mono speaker. You need multiple sources in order to do this, which would qualify the HomePod as a stereo speaker. The people claiming it isn't stereo are those stuck with the limited definition that "stereo" means left & right channels with left & right speakers.
Monophonic != stereophonic.
But you're welcome to call a mono speaker stereo if you wish. I'm not sure why, however.
My understanding is that the homepod uses a multi driver system employing both direct and reflected sound which is processed according to input from its microphones.
If the HomePod sent the exact same audio signal to all 7 tweeters then it would be a mono speaker. However, it doesn't do that at all.
Lots of misconceptions about what the definition of stereo is.
Put simply, stereo sound is an attempt to create localization using two or more speakers. The reason we have two ears isn't so we can listen to "stereo" sound coming from left & right channels. We have two ears so that our brain can determine where a sound came from (localization). Is it to our left or right, in front of us or behind us, or even above or below us. Our brain is very good at taking sound arriving at both our ears, and based on slight differences in level and phase (time) it can determine where in 3D space the sound came from.
Early attempts at this involved using a pair of microphones (to simulate our ears) to record a live performance (like an orchestra). Then these two tracks were played back through a pair of stereo speakers with the intent of trying to recreate the original performance. There have been many other methods to try and recreate a soundstage for a listener (some involve processing to try and "trick" our ears while the most common method people are used to is a 5.1 or 7.1 sound system). Whatever the method, the end goal is the same - to try and create a 3D soundstage that approximates the original.
The HomePod also tries to create a wider soundstage. I haven't been able to try one yet, so I don't know how it works, but reviews say it's pretty good at this. By definition, it's impossible for the HomePod to be mono, since you can't create a soundstage with a mono speaker. You need multiple sources in order to do this, which would qualify the HomePod as a stereo speaker. The people claiming it isn't stereo are those stuck with the limited definition that "stereo" means left & right channels with left & right speakers.
The definition of stereo includes more than two discrete channels, it also specifies a spatial relationship between sources and listener. Having multiple channels emanating from the same point in space does not satisfy the definition.
The HomePod is not mono, but neither is it stereo. Having multiple channels emanating from a single point in space defeats the comparative arrival time and level differences our ear/brain uses to distinguish origin. Bouncing the signal off of walls to crate an artificial sense of space is novel, but inherently flawed. Remember that our finely-tuned ear/brain processing distinguishes between direct and reflected sound to determine distance and environment. A broadly-spread reverberant field is not the same as distinct spaced sources.
Lots of misconceptions about what the definition of stereo is.
Put simply, stereo sound is an attempt to create localization using two or more speakers. The reason we have two ears isn't so we can listen to "stereo" sound coming from left & right channels. We have two ears so that our brain can determine where a sound came from (localization). Is it to our left or right, in front of us or behind us, or even above or below us. Our brain is very good at taking sound arriving at both our ears, and based on slight differences in level and phase (time) it can determine where in 3D space the sound came from.
Early attempts at this involved using a pair of microphones (to simulate our ears) to record a live performance (like an orchestra). Then these two tracks were played back through a pair of stereo speakers with the intent of trying to recreate the original performance. There have been many other methods to try and recreate a soundstage for a listener (some involve processing to try and "trick" our ears while the most common method people are used to is a 5.1 or 7.1 sound system). Whatever the method, the end goal is the same - to try and create a 3D soundstage that approximates the original.
The HomePod also tries to create a wider soundstage. I haven't been able to try one yet, so I don't know how it works, but reviews say it's pretty good at this. By definition, it's impossible for the HomePod to be mono, since you can't create a soundstage with a mono speaker. You need multiple sources in order to do this, which would qualify the HomePod as a stereo speaker. The people claiming it isn't stereo are those stuck with the limited definition that "stereo" means left & right channels with left & right speakers.
The definition of stereo includes more than two discrete channels, it also specifies a spatial relationship between sources and listener. Having multiple channels emanating from the same point in space does not satisfy the definition.
The HomePod is not mono, but neither is it stereo. Having multiple channels emanating from a single point in space defeats the comparative arrival time and level differences our ear/brain uses to distinguish origin. Bouncing the signal off of walls to crate an artificial sense of space is novel, but inherently flawed. Remember that our finely-tuned ear/brain processing distinguishes between direct and reflected sound to determine distance and environment. A broadly-spread reverberant field is not the same as distinct spaced sources.
Mono- = 1 Stereo- = 2 Poly- = more than one
I would describe the HomePod's tweeter array as "polyphonic".
Lots of misconceptions about what the definition of stereo is.
Put simply, stereo sound is an attempt to create localization using two or more speakers. The reason we have two ears isn't so we can listen to "stereo" sound coming from left & right channels. We have two ears so that our brain can determine where a sound came from (localization). Is it to our left or right, in front of us or behind us, or even above or below us. Our brain is very good at taking sound arriving at both our ears, and based on slight differences in level and phase (time) it can determine where in 3D space the sound came from.
Early attempts at this involved using a pair of microphones (to simulate our ears) to record a live performance (like an orchestra). Then these two tracks were played back through a pair of stereo speakers with the intent of trying to recreate the original performance. There have been many other methods to try and recreate a soundstage for a listener (some involve processing to try and "trick" our ears while the most common method people are used to is a 5.1 or 7.1 sound system). Whatever the method, the end goal is the same - to try and create a 3D soundstage that approximates the original.
The HomePod also tries to create a wider soundstage. I haven't been able to try one yet, so I don't know how it works, but reviews say it's pretty good at this. By definition, it's impossible for the HomePod to be mono, since you can't create a soundstage with a mono speaker. You need multiple sources in order to do this, which would qualify the HomePod as a stereo speaker. The people claiming it isn't stereo are those stuck with the limited definition that "stereo" means left & right channels with left & right speakers.
The definition of stereo includes more than two discrete channels, it also specifies a spatial relationship between sources and listener. Having multiple channels emanating from the same point in space does not satisfy the definition.
The HomePod is not mono, but neither is it stereo. Having multiple channels emanating from a single point in space defeats the comparative arrival time and level differences our ear/brain uses to distinguish origin. Bouncing the signal off of walls to crate an artificial sense of space is novel, but inherently flawed. Remember that our finely-tuned ear/brain processing distinguishes between direct and reflected sound to determine distance and environment. A broadly-spread reverberant field is not the same as distinct spaced sources.
Mono- = 1 Stereo- = 2 Poly- = more than one
I would describe the HomePod's tweeter array as "polyphonic".
Except that it only satisfies one of the two critical criteria for a multi-channel experience. It may provide more than one audio channel, but they all radiate from the same point in space with no physical separation.
Comments
I recall listening to some Beatles tune that had the vocals almost entirely one one track, which became undecipherable when one of the drivers went a bit wonky. I'd hate to think any such song simply won't play correctly.
If the HomePod sent the exact same audio signal to all 7 tweeters then it would be a mono speaker. However, it doesn't do that at all.
The HomePod is not mono, but neither is it stereo. Having multiple channels emanating from a single point in space defeats the comparative arrival time and level differences our ear/brain uses to distinguish origin. Bouncing the signal off of walls to crate an artificial sense of space is novel, but inherently flawed. Remember that our finely-tuned ear/brain processing distinguishes between direct and reflected sound to determine distance and environment. A broadly-spread reverberant field is not the same as distinct spaced sources.
Stereo- = 2
Poly- = more than one
I would describe the HomePod's tweeter array as "polyphonic".