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CheeseFreeze said:

Seems to be the new Apple: form over function 😉

There's nothing new about that.  Apple's been placing form over function for years.  

That's not a flat frequency response.  Back in the hi-fi days, the measurement (with pink noise input) had to be from 20 to 20,000 Hz +/- 3db with no more than X% distortion (preferably 1% or under).

But even if it was flat, a flat frequency response won't sound very good to most people.  That's why hi-fi equipment had tone controls and loudness compensation (which increased the bass and treble at low volume levels according to the Fletcher-Munson curve and which gradually had less effect as the volume was raised).

I happened to be at an Apple store yesterday to listen to the HP.   IMO, it has an over-emphasized bass.   On new, digitally recorded material, it sounded pretty good.  But on tracks I tried from the 1960's-1970's (which I was pleasantly surprised were in the Apple Music library), it sounded kind of dull.   And while the Apple person was a bit confused and had to look things up, a single unit is NOT stereo.   At first, he claimed it was because "it contains lots of speakers", but when I told him that the number of speakers was not relevant and that it sounded mono to me, he did some more research and admitted it would take two for stereo and that stereo is not currently supported even with two units, but it would be with some future update.   

Most of the reviews said the sound was great but that Siri sucked.  But in my tests and even in the noisy store environment, Siri did really well - it never played the wrong track or artist that I called out and it properly heard me say "louder" and "softer" and "pause".  It was far more accurate than the Apple TV achieved in the same environment. 

sflocal said:

Apple is much better at this now partly because it's such a high-profile company that is viewed under a monstrous magnifying glass so it doesn't want bad PR.

And I think it's just the opposite.   When Apple was smaller, it seems like they gave the local stores more discretion.   Now that they're so large, the stores have to 'follow the rules and policies'.  

Back in the day, my son-in-law had a G4 tower in which the power supply kept crapping out.  Apple would fix it under warranty each time, but it still had problems.  After the fourth time, my son-in-law told them that if it happened again, he wanted a new machine.  It did happen again, but by the time it happened, the G5 had come out and they gave him a brand new G5.

Around 2004, my daughter had her baby on her lap and the kid grabbed her laptop and pushed the screen back, breaking the hinge.   It still worked, but they had to put something (like a large book) behind the screen to keep the screen up.   She brought it to Apple and they said it wasn't worth fixing - the repair would cost about $1500.   But then the video crapped out.   She brought it in just to have the video fixed and not the hinge.   She got it back and it was completely fixed and she called me up in tears because she thought Apple was going to charge her $1500+, but they charged her zero.   

And I forget the details, but we had an issue with an iPod that was out of warranty, but Apple fixed anyway.

I don't think Apple would do any of those things today.   The video on my late-2016 MBP had an issue and Apple fixed it for free, but it was still under warranty.  I forgot to buy Apple Care on time and if it happens again, I'm totally screwed because it's a $700 repair. 

I know Apple makes a lot of money on Apple Care, but I sincerely believe that when someone buys a machine like the current MBP's, that can easily cost $3000+, they should come with at least a two-year warranty if not three years.    If Apple commands high prices because their products are higher quality, Apple should stand behind them.  I once owned an Acura and the car was so good and Acura had so few repairs to fix under warranty that they upped the warranty from five years to six for free.   I did have a problem and got stuck because of a recalled ignitor (I hadn't gotten the notice yet).   It was late at night and I had my car towed from New Jersey to my home in New York and then from my home in New York to Acura the next day.   Under the warranty, Acura didn't have to pay for all that towing, but they did, no questions asked.   Now that was customer service.  

retrogusto said:

I think a lot of people buy Alexa or similar devices thinking they’ll use them for a lot of different purposes, but end up using them mostly for music, with the occasional weather forecast, etc. But the Apple device seems to be the first one optimized for music, its actual “core” purpose. So it could be a good upgrade for people who got used to the convenience of Alexa, etc. but want something that sounds (and looks) better. 

We won't know if it's really optimized for music until we hear it - marketing hype means nothing.   And with all these devices, I don't know how we perceive going back over 60 years to mono sound systems is perceived as "optimized for music" unless one wants to argue that the largely crappy new music released today, largely created within ProTools, doesn't need stereo.

As an ex-recording engineer, I don't think someone walking around a venue, constantly fiddling with the sound is the best idea and given the chance to constantly change things, they will.   That's why the sound levels in concerts always get higher in the second half of a show:  the mixer wants to feel like they're doing something AND they're deaf from the high levels, so they turn it up even more. 

In fixed venues, what one would normally do is send white or pink noise through the system and then equalize to the house.   This is what the calibration modes in A/V pre-pros and receivers attempt to do.   Once you do that, you should not be playing with the overall frequency response (as opposed to the frequency response of a single instrument or mic input).   

Due to no soft surfaces at all, the Apple stores that I've been in would actually be great for acoustic performances, but they would be terrible for amplified performances as the sound just bounces around endlessly.   Back in the days before amplification, concert halls were designed to have long reverberation times and since amplification, they've largely been designed to have very low reverberation times (except for Classical/Opera music venues).   Likewise with movie theaters.   And the Apple stores have very long reverberation times.  

I've told this before, but when Siri was first released, I went to the Lincoln Square store in NYC to try it out.  That store has stone or concrete floors, stone walls, the usual hardwood tables and glass ceilings.    Siri wouldn't work because there was so much noise in the store, it didn't understand what I was saying.   Then I heard what I thought was a live band coming from the lower level.   I went down there and it was just one of those boom boxes to use with an iPhone or iPod Touch, but it was loud and reverberating due to all those hard surfaces.   If I were designing those stores, I'd put in random, sound absorbing cloth panels on the walls.    And while carpeting would be hell to maintain, it would really quiet those places down.   
 
When I read the headline, what I thought this was going to be about was Apple using electronic environmental noise reduction.   Those are systems which input the environmental sound with a microphone and then send out an out of phase signal to counteract it, much the same way as noise reducing headphones work.