ericthehalfbee

Whiners. 

This is a very basic example what the multiple tweeters in the HomePod can do to create a wider soundstage and also to eliminate problems with phase (and will look familiar to anyone who watched the HomePod video).

When sound is reflected off the rear walls, it has a longer path to take to get to the listener than sound coming directly from the speaker. In my example above, the total time for sound to reach the listener is 2.5ms from the front driver and a total of 8.0ms from the rear drivers. When the sound reaches your ears it could be perfectly in phase, completely out of phase or most likely, somewhere in between.

A 360 degree speaker like the Google Home or Amazon Echo can't do anything to compensate for any potential phase issues that can arise when sound reflected off walls and other objects interacts with sound that travels directly to the listener. And given their target audience and use, it doesn't really matter. These devices are not used for any serious music listening and are typically just for background music.

Apple has told us the HomePod can use beamforming to direct sound. Beamforming has two requirements to work: you need multiple drivers and you need to be able to adjust the phase individually for each driver. Phase can be adjusted mechanically (physically changing the position of a driver or speaker) or electrically (through digital time delay). Obviously, the HomePod uses digital time delay to adjust phase.

In the example above, the sound to the rear tweeters would be sent out normally. However, the sound to the front tweeter would be delayed by 5.5ms. This delay allows the rear sound to "catch up" to the direct sound such that by the time it's reflected off the rear walls and starts moving forward it will end up being in phase with the sound from the front tweeter. All the possible issues that can arise with sounds being out of phase are thus eliminated. Since the HomePod also has 6 microphones, calculating this delay time would be fairly straightforward. A few clicks or other test tones played through the individual tweeters can be measured by the microphones so the HomePod can determine exactly how far away it is from any walls and set the appropriate delay time accordingly.

It's important to note that what I described above isn't actually beamforming. It's a well established method of using time delay to control phase and improve sound quality. Beamforming is more complex but still relies on the same basic principles (precisely controlling phase to multiple drivers to direct where sound goes).

When Apple says beamforming it's not a marketing term. The HomePod has the proper hardware and layout to enable beamforming. All the rest (Sonos, Google, Amazon) don't.

Soli said:

ericthehalfbee said:

gatorguy said:

Soli said:

lkrupp said:

I have never understood the condescending comparison between the Echo products and the HomePod. If you want a digital assistant to tell you jokes and turn your lights on then yes, go buy an Echo. But if you are interested in superb high quality audio first and digital assistance as a side benefit then the HomePod is your gadget. The two products shouldn’t even be talked about in the same sentence. They are Apples and Oranges. As the author makes quite clear the HomePod is a high end home audio product, not primarily a digital assistant to compete with the Echo line. It’s no different than comparing a cheap pre-paid Android phone with the iPhone X. 

1) Is HomePod Siri controlled? Yes.

2) Does Siri tell jokes? Yes.

3) Are there products that are Alexa controlled and speakers that work with the Echo and other Alexa-capable devices that will sound better than the HomePod? Based on the size and stated specs, that seems like a certainty.

4) You know Amazon lets anyone license Alexa for pretty much any system they wish, right?

FWIW Apple's beam-forming for the Home Pod is called TruePlay by Sonos and marketed as Smart Sound by Google.

Absolutely false.

All Sonos and Google perform are equalization. Apple is not only analyzing the frequency response of the room
(and modifying the equalization to compensate) they are also analyzing sound in the time domain.

This is far more complex than simple EQ (which has been around forever) and will give the HomePod a huge advantage over Sonos, Google or anyone else.

How is Trueplay different?

• https://www.sonos.com/en-us/trueplay-speaker-tuning-software

TruePlay is EQ only. They make it sound like it’s doing so much more, but when it’s all said and done it’s simple EQ. Sonos speakers lack:

- Drivers that can emit sound in 360 degrees. They are standard generic front firing speakers (so is the Google Max).
- Microphones placed 360 degrees around the speaker to measure sound continuously from the entire room to allow real-time adjustments.
- Processing power of the A8 (which is serious overkill for just a speaker - unless it’s performing complex sound adjustments).

I’m on mobile now, but later I’ll draw up a diagram to explain how I believe the HomePod works (based on how Apple described it at the keynote, videos they showed, terminology they used and my lifetime of experience working in recording studios and live on stage).

gatorguy said:

Soli said:

lkrupp said:

I have never understood the condescending comparison between the Echo products and the HomePod. If you want a digital assistant to tell you jokes and turn your lights on then yes, go buy an Echo. But if you are interested in superb high quality audio first and digital assistance as a side benefit then the HomePod is your gadget. The two products shouldn’t even be talked about in the same sentence. They are Apples and Oranges. As the author makes quite clear the HomePod is a high end home audio product, not primarily a digital assistant to compete with the Echo line. It’s no different than comparing a cheap pre-paid Android phone with the iPhone X. 

1) Is HomePod Siri controlled? Yes.

2) Does Siri tell jokes? Yes.

3) Are there products that are Alexa controlled and speakers that work with the Echo and other Alexa-capable devices that will sound better than the HomePod? Based on the size and stated specs, that seems like a certainty.

4) You know Amazon lets anyone license Alexa for pretty much any system they wish, right?

FWIW Apple's beam-forming for the Home Pod is called TruePlay by Sonos and marketed as Smart Sound by Google.

Absolutely false.

All Sonos and Google perform are equalization. Apple is not only analyzing the frequency response of the room
(and modifying the equalization to compensate) they are also analyzing sound in the time domain.

This is far more complex than simple EQ (which has been around forever) and will give the HomePod a huge advantage over Sonos, Google or anyone else.

uroshnor said:

Kuyangkoh said:

Well well, Apple its time to buy the company that built parts for Iphone....ie oled, memory etc and see how Korean corrupt govt reacts

Apple can’t afford it. Samsung’s component business is just another part of a sprawling, massive conglomerate - finance/banking/construction/cars/healthcare/Ships/etcetc .The whole thing is something like 15% of South Korea’s economy . All in the 4 big chaebol in SK are something like 40% of their economy - such concentration of ownership does not happen much elsewhere and there is a whif of truth to what is good for Samsung is good for SK, that enables behaviours that elsewhere would be viewed as corrupt or protectionist

Samsung isn’t as big as you make them out to be. Samsung Electronics (which Apple passed a couple years ago) represents the majority of their revenues. Everything else Samsung does (that you mentioned) is only a fraction of the size of Apple.