mistergsf

AnotherBrick said:

mistergsf said:

AnotherBrick said:

There is one sentence that will prevent me from buying a HomePod: “Apple's HomePod is a fantastic home speaker. It connects solely over Wi-Fi and streams Apple Music natively, but nothing else.”

A device which claims to be an audiophile grade speaker that only plays mp3 quality music and cannot accept other sources unless that source has AirPlay, which probably eliminates turntables for people who are vinyl purists, absolutely killed my interest in the device. I wanted something that could play the highest quality bit rate for digital and could play my high end vinyl collection as well.

The word "audiophile" gets thrown around a lot. So does the word "high end". That said, I wouldn't want to play my high end anything on a WiFi speaker. Don't get me wrong. I like my HomePods; I have two. They're just not my main speakers of choice for listening to my vinyl or even DSD audio files. Do you really want a HomePod that can accept a turntable? And what is a "high end vinyl collection"? Pressings from remastered tapes? 120G vinyl? I've never heard anyone describe their records as high end vinyl.

I have 1/2 speed mastered vinyl records dating back to 1980. I bought my first CD player in 1981. Between the 2 the vinyl sounded better, although it was difficult to compare at first because the selection of CD’s in Nebraska in1981 wasn’t very large. 

I still call premium vinyl records 1/2 speed mastered although Audiophile Vinyl is the common term. And just because someone slapped that label on a record doesn’t mean that it actually was properly engineered /balanced or that the master discs were still in good shape when the record you buy was stamped. 

Most of of the time the music I listen to is in a digital lossless formats. I can store them on my phone or iPad. But I do listen to my preferred system for a few hours each week and more on the weekend, and that is not streaming from either my digital  library or from a online service. It’s a personal preference. The sound that comes out of a speaker can never be better than the source used to generate the sound. And that includes every component: the amplifier, the CD player or turntable, and most certainly the speakers. But if your record or file was poorly engineered or physically made then having an expensive system just means you can accurately hear the bad sound that wasn’t part of the performance. 

I don't expect most people to care. Music is pleasing background sound or something to dance to but not something that is that important to 999 out of 1000 people. But Apple pitched this product NOT as a smart speaker competitor to Alexa but as a premium sound experience. And most of the deficiencies with it are not hardware related, but a management decision to restrict formats and access. 

Apple isn't alone in doing this. Sony tried coming up with a proprietary digital format for their mp3 Walkman in the early 2000’s. Sonos will play various music formats from an iMac or MacBook computer but won’t play the computers sound, including movies or internet browsing or gaming sound. 

When Apple first announced the HomePod their description of a premium speaker system made it sound like a Sonos competitor. I hoped it would allow a wireless way of playing music and doing surround sound and accessing all of my music and sounds, both digital and physical. . 

You're preaching to the choir here. I too, have "Audiophile Vinyl" (yes, correct term and much better than "high-end vinyl" which I've only heard from you), I still buy CDs, 4K Blu-rays, vinyl, and hi-res, MQA, DSD audio files because I care about getting the best audio and video quality to equal what my equipment can produce.

I have a Home Theater for my movies and a music listening room where I listen to my vinyl through new and vintage amps and speakers. In that room I also have a Roon ROCK that holds my complete digital music library that plays through my Pro-Ject Stream Box and Pro-Ject S2 DAC end points which are connected to one of my amps. Roon is what I use for complete home listening through 2 HomePods, 2 Sonos Ones, and includes my Marantz home theater AVR and Yamaha AVR in my bedroom via AirPlay 2.  Yes, I care about my music listening experience but AirPlay 2 is very convenient and can be pretty damn good depending on your source — like TIDAL, Qobuz, and Roon.

I went back to Apple's website for HomePod; they do not use the term "premium sound experience” anywhere.  What does that mean anyway? The terms they use are “high-fidelity audio”, “controls your smart home’, “purposefully designed speaker creates rich, nuanced sound that defies its size”, “Apple-engineered audio technology and advanced software to deliver precision sound that fills the room”, “high definition sound”, “built to bring out the best in Apple Music”, “Home to an intelligent assistant”.  I think the last two terms are what HomePod is really all about.  What about high-fidelity audio? High-definition sound?  To Apple, its sound that comes closest to the original.  That’s good enough for them apparently and for most consumers.  I stopped expecting anything more than that a long time ago.

These days, you can buy very good, bang for the buck, hi-fi systems that don’t even include phono inputs for a turntable.  Why? Cause most “audiophiles” want to use a separate phono pre-amp.

I think your expectations for the HomePod go beyond Apple’s intentions.  Streaming only and no direct inputs. But damn, it would be great to wirelessly use a pair of HomePods in a small surround sound system like in my guest bedroom. Oh, well.

jcs2305 said:

AnotherBrick said:

There is one sentence that will prevent me from buying a HomePod: “Apple's HomePod is a fantastic home speaker. It connects solely over Wi-Fi and streams Apple Music natively, but nothing else.”

A device which claims to be an audiophile grade speaker that only plays mp3 quality music and cannot accept other sources unless that source has AirPlay, which probably eliminates turntables for people who are vinyl purists, absolutely killed my interest in the device. I wanted something that could play the highest quality bit rate for digital and could play my high end vinyl collection as well.

HomePod is a great speaker but do you seriously want to play your vinyl on a speaker this size, and not a larger component system ?

AnotherBrick said:

There is one sentence that will prevent me from buying a HomePod: “Apple's HomePod is a fantastic home speaker. It connects solely over Wi-Fi and streams Apple Music natively, but nothing else.”

A device which claims to be an audiophile grade speaker that only plays mp3 quality music and cannot accept other sources unless that source has AirPlay, which probably eliminates turntables for people who are vinyl purists, absolutely killed my interest in the device. I wanted something that could play the highest quality bit rate for digital and could play my high end vinyl collection as well.

seanismorris said:

CloudTalkin said:

seanismorris said:

MicDorsey said:

Overall good review, well presented. I would like to see you take advantage of the video aspect of the review and demonstrate switching output from phone to speaker and back – and maybe some touch controls and voice commands. Also, no mention of build quality. From the closeups, the Ikea grid looked uneven and cheesy. In real life, maybe not – you tell us.

From the images, the build quality if the lamp speaker can’t compare to the HomePod.  Yes, could have been mentioned...

Ikea has a target audience, it’s probably not people that can afford the HomePod...or male.

Whaaaa?!?!  IKEA's target audience probably can't afford the HomePod?  That makes no sense at all.  A venn diagram of IKEA's and Apple's target audience probably looks something like this → o   complete and total overlap.

On topic: Nice comparison.  Pretty much spot on.  I think IKEA has a great idea with their speakers.  Multi-functional: shelf or lamp.  Reasonable price.  Expandable. Ecosystem agnostic.   

I don’t think I’ve ever owned a lamp... many many reading lights but no lamps.

All my other light sources have been permanent fixtures (bathroom), in the ceiling... often attached to fans, etc.

If we were doing word associations: lamp = grandma 
My mother also owned lamps... but she’s now a grandma ; )

coolfactor said:

As an authority sharing information, it's important not to mix up terminology too much. The Ethernet and Wifi networking in your home is NOT "the internet". The internet is the global network outside of your home (beyond your ISP). What you have in your home is still based on TCP/IP technology, but it's a LAN (Local Area Network) created by your router, and all devices connected to it, including the HomePod. Your LAN is connected to the outside world by your ISP's network, to the larger internet.