Apple HomePod

JimBobRude

Mine is being delivered today from Argos. I’m most interested in the sound quality aspect. I’ve been waiting for a wife friendly good sounding ‘smart’ speaker and this seems to tick all the boxes. All my devices are Apple so this is also a bonus in terms of remaining in my Apple bubble.
I have various pairs of quality ‘audiophile’ headphones including Sennheiser HD650, HD800S and ie800 iems and a reasonable stereo setup but these days I don’t find the time to sit and enjoy them (a 10 month old daughter will do that)
So this will be my new primary music enjoyment device so I hope it delivers. I know it won’t sound as ‘accurate’ and probably won’t compete with my other listening options but I just hope it sounds good enough for me to get into the music. Not like the other options I’ve tried for casual listening which just sounded garbage.
I will post some impressions over the weekend.

Flashy

Looking forward to some real-world opinions. I have a Sonos Play:1 and always planned to add at least another, but the app and limitations are annoying me (removing the word 'The' from bands' names, not listing by album artist, etc).

My only issue is that I don't get the chance to listen to enough music to warrant the price, really. But it would play nicely with all my other Apple kit.

Doc

Wow. The sound quality of this thing is very impressive.
It's such a small speaker (but reassuringly weighty!) but the way in which it adjusts its sound output to its location is very very clever. Within a few seconds of moving it to different places, the sound changes and improves again.
It's easily better sounding than anything I've heard in the smart speaker or even Sonos range. I am surprised.. and very pleased.

Bl4ckGryph0n

hehehe you are the first in this thread with first hand experience. I have to wait another hour

It is reassuring that those comments regarding sound quality keep on coming back. To me it is very important when you want to consolidate options. This has the potential be very disruptive.

And from the smart front, yes we all know it is running behind. However, I suspect Apple has a plan and we see a lot more activity in that area. With Siri now on desktop, laptop, phone, watch, tv, car and in music players they very clear are taking a slightly different route.

Live News is being rolled out as we speak to a variety of devices.

And of course Homekit is already there; so for me there should be instant integration with about 50 other smart devices around the home.

Cost is the only 'negative' from what I can see so far, but easily forgotten as per my OLED TV, Oppo 203 player, etc when it works.

Doc

Actually, I've just being testing the Siri voice thing, and one strikingly impressive feat is the microphone sensitivity. With music playing medium-loud, I can say "Hey Siri" from the other end of the kitchen, at a normal speaking voice, and it hears me instantly. Every time. In fact more reliably than my iPhone does! And with music playing.
Clever clever...

Doc

The haters on the forums all quickly criticise Siri as the reason not to buy a Homepod, and to go with some Alexa device.

Well software (Siri) can be improved and upgraded over time. Hardware can't. It's fixed in your house!
I'd rather have the best sounding speaker, with software that is improving.

JimBobRude

I’m most intrigued by its auto adjustment to its location. This is a game change imo. I’ve got 3 possible positions at the minute which I will experiment with but from what I’ve read it shouldn’t really matter where I place it. Would you agree with that or is position making a noticeable difference?

Doc

If I move its location from the kitchen shelf to the middle of the table, it goes a bit echo-y and tinny for about 5 seconds, and then transforms back to what it sounded like at the previous location. And then if I move it into a box, it sounds bassy and too loud, almost distorted, for about 5 seconds, and then changes back to sounding just like it did in the other locations.
It's really weird in a cool way.. I'm just moving it around to play with that function. No matter where I put it, it adjusts itself to sound perfect again.
How the hell is it doing that?!!!

Bl4ckGryph0n

LOL I can see a lot of people will be doing. And this is to me one of the game changes, if they manage to make it 'wife friendly' like Bose but without sounding like it, and from a single speaker that is quite something.

Thoughts that go through my mind; take our dining room. Nice Denon integrated receiver with DAB in a relatively small package, two bookshelf speakers on floor stands, lots of cabling and space taken up. If one (or 2) of these can replace that, that alone is great. Now if it then with Airplay 2 can do proper multi-room music as well in synch with each other fantastic as well.

There is a lot of potential here.

Inked

It’s not about being a hater ( any more than calling someone jumping on the HomePod and putting down the other manufacturers offerings makes anyone an Apple fanboy), I love apple stuff, and I’m picking up my HomePod this afternoon (but yes, Siri and the fact that I’m happy with the audio quality from the Echo for the room it’s in we’re the factors putting me off of the HomePod).

On the speaker front, I’m sure they’ve produced something very good and if breaking into the multi room speaker market is the main objective then that’s great, however, I’m still of the opinion that Siri is nowhere near where it needs to be to compete with Amazon and Google and that the range needs expanding from just one design if aiming for voice controlled AI/digital assistants.

You’re right, however, it’s a hell of a lot cheaper to upgrade your hardware when it has cost around £60 a pop from Amazon as they improve over the years than it will be when we inevitably all buy the HomePod 2/3/4/etc etc to get the most function from said software upgrades. This is Apple we are talking about after all.

Plus you can always add a £35 echo dot to some incredible hardware if you really want the best sounding speaker and better functionality from the digital assistant.