djintx

danvm said:

tmay said:

danvm said:

tmay said:

danvm said:

DanielEran said:

danvm said:

It would be impossible to cobble a similar platform out of the terrible speakers built into existing Echo and Dot appliances, and neither Amazon, Google, Samsung, Spotify or other speaker makers really have to clout to produce such a sophisticated, premium speaker and sell it to a critical mass of users globally.

Based in many reviews, the HomePod sound quality is very similar to the Google Home Max, and I wouldn't consider neither of them premium speakers.  And to say that Samsung is not capable of doing sophisticated premium speaker is non sense.  They own Harman Audio, which includes companies like Harman-Kardon, AKG, Infinity and Revel, among others.  Those companies have years of experience in the audio market.  We'll have to see the results of the final product, but I wouldn't count them out.  

The kicker on that sentence is "and sell it to a critical mass of users globally."

Samsung developed a Gear watch platform, Tizen, Galaxy Player, all manner of tablets, and no doubt it can make a speaker. But to create an audio platform that matters, it would need to learn how to sell those products to people who would pay any money for them.

Google hardware is a bullshit exercise in Verge fapping and nobody buys any of it in commercially relevant volumes. It doesn't matter that some bloggers can't tell the difference between a basic speaker and HomePod. If those reviews mattered Google would be a significant hardware seller rather than a source of billowing hot bullshit.

What about the other terms that are in the sentence, "sophisticated, premium speaker"?  Isn't that more important than "sell it to a critical mass of users globally"?  For a customer, it should be, and for me, it is.  Apple didn't make a premium speaker.  They made a smart speaker that sound as good as the competition, and even below them when you consider how far is Siri from Alexa and Google Assistance.  Even in the AppleInsider comparison of the HomePod with Google Home Max the reviewer conclude "Fortunately, there isn't enough of a difference between the two to justify buying one or the other for sound quality reasons alone."  But it seems like you are focused in sales numbers, while I'm more in the line of sound quality.  

DanVM,

Since you haven't listened to the speakers, and Daniel has, maybe you really don't know if the HomePod is a "sophisticated, premium speaker", but the HomePod is certainly an order of magnitude more "sophisticated" in its audio design than any other company's product in the smart speaker space, and likely more sophisticated that many of the AudioPhile speakers that you are referencing that are quite a bit more expensive.

Care to explain how important is the "sophisticated" audio design in the HomePod when the results, based in the AppleInsider comparison with the Home Max, is that "there isn't enough of a difference between the two to justify buying one or the other for sound quality reasons alone."?  And that's the same feedback I had read in many side-to-side comparisons.  BTW, when you mention audiophile speakers in your post, do you really think that the HomePod it's at that level of sound quality?

Actually, since I haven't listened to the HomePod, I don't personally know, but I would note that those audiophile speakers are only as good as the placement, the room's acoustics, and an individuals equalization adjustment, and since the HomePod excels at setting itself up, I would argue that you will almost certainly get peak results with a HomePod over a poor installed two way bookshelf speaker pair. What is left to find out, is how much benefit a second HomePod offers, Daniel noted having listened to this setup, and that awaits  a software release sometime in the future.

In the meantime, I'm not convinced that those side by side tests are all that reliable, so I will withhold judgement, something that you obviously aren't inclined to do.

I haven't tried the HomePod yet, but I had listen to very expensive speakers, and are miles ahead of the Sonos Play:5 and Home Max, which at the most is what the HomePod will do, based in the AppleInsider review, among others.  Yes, you can make audiophile speakers sound as good (or bad) as the HomePod, but you cannot make the HomePod sound as good as audiophile speakers installed properly.  

Why do you think side-by-side tests are unreliable?  All the "sophisticated" was design to make HomePod sound good on any place.  The HomePod was suppose to beat other speakers in all environments, but instead comparisons showed that it sounds similar to the competition.  BTW, I'm not saying that the HomePod is a bad speaker, but it looks like it isn't better than the competition, even with all the technology detailed in the article.