How to make stereo HomePods louder when paired with Apple TV 4K
If you have a pair of HomePods and want to use them in stereo as a home theater speaker replacement on the Apple TV, you may find the volume to be lower than you would really want for the setup. Changing a setting on the Apple TV can help push the decibel count higher, but even that has its limitations.
Following the release of AirPlay 2, we recently compared a set of stereo paired HomePods connected to an Apple TV to a home theatre surround sound system, and Apple's smart speakers were found to be extremely lacking. The two HomePods even seemed quieter than a $350 soundbar usually used to watch television in a bedroom.
The seemingly lower volume prompted us to use an audio decibel meter to see how loud the HomePods really are. During an intense fighting scene in Thor: Ragnarok, the stereo HomePods only put out a peak volume of 77 decibels, a fairly weak number for $700 worth of speakers.
There seemed to be an issue which lowered the volume output to our stereo HomePods, but then we found a fix for the problem.
On the Apple TV, go to Settings, then Video & Audio, followed by Surround Sound. Select Turn Convert Format On, then switch it to Stereo.
Replaying the same action scene, the HomePods achieve a much better peak volume of 83 decibels, which due to the logarithmic scale of decibels, is roughly three times louder. This small change made the viewing experience much more enjoyable.
As a crude comparison, this is similar to the difference in volume between a vacuum cleaner in the same room and standing 30 feet away from the tracks as a freight train passes by.
Curious to see how the built-in speakers of the television compared to stereo HomePods, the same test revealed that the HomePods were still quieter, even after the volume fix.
Of course, the sound quality from the TV speakers was obviously worse, but it seems ridiculous for a cheap $350 4K smart TV to have louder speakers than two HomePods paired in stereo.
We then decided to compare the volume while watching a movie to what the HomePods produce when playing music.
We rolled the end credits of Disney's Big Hero 6 to listen to "Immortals" by Fall Out Boy. The movie was purchased through the iTunes Store.
The meter recorded 83 decibels, the same peak volume achieved in the earlier test, which seems fine.
We then asked Siri to play that exact song straight through the HomePods, and we immediately noticed a massive difference.
The stereo HomePods played the song at a peak of 91 decibels. Ideally, this is as loud as we wish the HomePods would play while watching a movie on the Apple TV.
Ultimately, while we found out how to make the stereo HomePods play quite a bit louder than under default settings, it is still way too quiet to use a pair as a viable home theater system replacement. Apple does have an option in the Apple TV settings to reduce loud sounds, but we actually wish Apple would include an option to amplify the sound altogether.
Hopefully Apple addresses this issue in a future update, so Apple TV users who like their action loud can use a set of stereo HomePods as their dedicated external Apple TV speakers.
Following the release of AirPlay 2, we recently compared a set of stereo paired HomePods connected to an Apple TV to a home theatre surround sound system, and Apple's smart speakers were found to be extremely lacking. The two HomePods even seemed quieter than a $350 soundbar usually used to watch television in a bedroom.
The seemingly lower volume prompted us to use an audio decibel meter to see how loud the HomePods really are. During an intense fighting scene in Thor: Ragnarok, the stereo HomePods only put out a peak volume of 77 decibels, a fairly weak number for $700 worth of speakers.
There seemed to be an issue which lowered the volume output to our stereo HomePods, but then we found a fix for the problem.
On the Apple TV, go to Settings, then Video & Audio, followed by Surround Sound. Select Turn Convert Format On, then switch it to Stereo.
Replaying the same action scene, the HomePods achieve a much better peak volume of 83 decibels, which due to the logarithmic scale of decibels, is roughly three times louder. This small change made the viewing experience much more enjoyable.
As a crude comparison, this is similar to the difference in volume between a vacuum cleaner in the same room and standing 30 feet away from the tracks as a freight train passes by.
Curious to see how the built-in speakers of the television compared to stereo HomePods, the same test revealed that the HomePods were still quieter, even after the volume fix.
Of course, the sound quality from the TV speakers was obviously worse, but it seems ridiculous for a cheap $350 4K smart TV to have louder speakers than two HomePods paired in stereo.
We then decided to compare the volume while watching a movie to what the HomePods produce when playing music.
We rolled the end credits of Disney's Big Hero 6 to listen to "Immortals" by Fall Out Boy. The movie was purchased through the iTunes Store.
The meter recorded 83 decibels, the same peak volume achieved in the earlier test, which seems fine.
We then asked Siri to play that exact song straight through the HomePods, and we immediately noticed a massive difference.
The stereo HomePods played the song at a peak of 91 decibels. Ideally, this is as loud as we wish the HomePods would play while watching a movie on the Apple TV.
Ultimately, while we found out how to make the stereo HomePods play quite a bit louder than under default settings, it is still way too quiet to use a pair as a viable home theater system replacement. Apple does have an option in the Apple TV settings to reduce loud sounds, but we actually wish Apple would include an option to amplify the sound altogether.
Hopefully Apple addresses this issue in a future update, so Apple TV users who like their action loud can use a set of stereo HomePods as their dedicated external Apple TV speakers.
Comments
The same thing happens when sending audio from an Apple TV 4 to a Bose SoundLink Mini II via Bluetooth in another room - I have to turn the volume "way up".
Audio coming from a third and fourth Apple TV 4/4K to vis HDMI is "normal".
You're going to be better of in getting a Nice Sound Bar. One with it's own Sub for a fraction of the price and be better off!!! It's a joke to a half way decent 5.1 surround system or better.
I got a small sound bar for my 34" Ultra Wide Screen Monitor. I have it attached to the bottom of my Monitor so it still swivels around. It's great and works for my needs on my computer. Out in the Living Room, I have a nice 5.1 system. I was under my house running wires to the back speakers. Not a big deal after wiring my house with CAT6 Ethernet.
My Panasonic Plasma in my Bedroom actually has some nice speakers on it. Sounds really good and loud. No need for even a sound bar. Let alone using my Homepod. It sounds great for music. It can hear my voice really good. For the things it can do, it does it pretty good. But it needs to be opened up to 3rd party's. It needs at least FULL Siri support. Not limited Siri. Having a Amazon Dot and a Google Mini, I can play with all 3 of them and compare.
I have a stereo pair of home pods in one location, and a single home pod in another. I have the stereo pair near an Apple TV - I use them for listening to podcasts via my Phone, and for this they are incredible. I wish I could say the same when driven from my Apple TV -
Confident Apple will correct this With future updates - but Im not going to try to invent excuses as to why the current sound level disparity.
Bought mine as a BestBuy.com refurb so well worth the $260 price.
I’m watching it at almost full volumue though.
And I have exactly the setup - and problem - described: when I play music directly to my two HPs, it’s perfectly acceptable at normal volume. When I use the HPs for audio from an ATV 4k, I have to up the volume to 80-90% to get decent volume on Netflix, DirectTV Now, Amazon Prime.
And TWO speakers is considered generally unnecessary for mere music (unless you want to have music in the kitchen and the living room) —that's the REALLY crazy part. Yeah, yeah, yeah.... psychoacoustics, ear candy reflections, self-calibrating, blah, blah, blah, etc. etc.
How depressing...
HP is optimized for audio playback and they would need to change the gainstaging significantly to deal with soundtracks properly.
Perhaps this would be easily done in software, perhaps not. Regardless, a movie playback audio mode would have to be restricted to movie playback, or regular music would be able to totally overload and distort the HP.
Apple generally want to keep things simple for consumers, ie not allowing them to push way too loud volume to the speaker, so they would have to figure out a good way to know what type of material is being played back. I imagine that would be possible through ATV since the player would be aware of the source but not from other sources.
Its highly unlikely Apple would choose the easy way out and simply allow much higher gain. That’s what Google, Samescum etc would have done. They will take their time to figure it out or choose not to do it at all since HP is supposed to be a music device and not home theatre speakers.
Judging by the popularity of bluetooth and crummier speakers, it’s clear most people don’t care about the things you seem to believe they should.
As an aside has anyone else noticed the Fox Sports coverage of the World Cup Football occasionally runs voice over where they say Hey Siri and some commands such as list all games coming up or whatever. Of course Siri does! Funny the first time but it is annoying after a while as the volume to anything you are listening to is lowered so you can hear Siri answer and some of the answers are very long when listing all the games coming up, of course you can say Hey Siri STFU.
IMHO Apple need to come up with a system whereby we name our own devices not use a generic name like Siri that any idiot can say on air and cause all HomePods, iPhones and iPads across the nation to respond.
It’s not about cost, it’s about simplicity. See the price of higher Bose sound bars - $700. I have a decent HT system and expensive 5.1 speakers, but I just don’t want to plug all that shit in anymore. I’m redoing the room and I’m no longer interested in cutting custom speaker wires, wiring them to the back of the receiver, positioning speakers around the space, etc. So I’ll likely get a sound bar or another HP.
The term Stereo when related to HomePod /Pods is somewhat a misnomer when you understand (or hear) the technology they contain. Beam-Forming and multiple speakers and a powerful computer. Even a single HomePod sounds like surround sound.