Apple HomePod (Available December)

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by segue, Aug 3, 2017.

  1. segue

    segue Psychoacoustic Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hawai'i
    [​IMG]
    HomePod
    Available December
    No response specs yet, but I doubt it will be considered "high-end." Some cool features though.
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2017
  2. daglesj

    daglesj Forum Resident

    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    These kind of devices are fine for a bit of easy background noise fill.

    Its nice to be able to quickly say "Alexa, play some smooooth jazz!" or suchlike to instantly mellow the 'mood', without having to try to impress the lady with your laborious almost religious procedures to play a CD or heavens sake worst still LP to kill the mood. Not to mention it takes away the excuse to try to get the conversation round to talking about your hi-fi which is another mood killer for 99.9999999%* of females on the planet.

    Well worth the investment for that alone.





    *clinically proven.
     
  3. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
  4. H8SLKC

    H8SLKC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    $350, and only overpriced by $200. Oh, almost two years behind the competition now. Oh, and Siri doesn't work very well. But, it'll have ROOM FILLING SOUND!
     
  5. MIA2RDU

    MIA2RDU Well-Known Member

    Location:
    North Carolina
    I generally tend to like Apple products, even if they are behind the competition, but the homepod just doesn't do anything for me. I was gifted a Google Home by my boss last Christmas and figured I'd give it a try since it was free. The speaker, while better than most budget Bluetooth speakers isn't really anything to write home about, but the ability to connect a chromecast audio to any powered speakers or integrated amp in the house and have voice control over the music that way is just an all around win for me. I'd much rather listen to music through my KEFs or ELACs or even the cheap set of powered monitors I've had for 10 yrs than expect decent quality sound to come from something like a HomePod or Google Home.

    The HomePod, unless it can beat my KEFs or ELACs (not a chance) is just too expensive for what it is. Not to mention that I'm on my 3rd iphone and Siri has just never impressed me. The Google Assistant however is farrrr more useable and capable. There's just no incentive to ditch Google for Apple in this case. On the contrary, the ease with which Google Home, Chromecast Audio, and the Google Assistant all work has me thinking that maybe my next phone should be a Pixel.

    And this is all coming from a guy who genuinely likes Apple. I've owned numerous macbooks, ipads and iphones, but I just feel like this product is too little too late for too much money.
     
    sound chaser likes this.
  6. Jack Flannery

    Jack Flannery Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    If it sounds great, then worth the money. If not, then it isn't. Regardless, it is not a product that I will buy. I have something similar in my bedroom (Riva) and it works fine. They were about $350 when they came out as well.
     
  7. Apple has always been late behind the competition. And then !!!!!!
     
    dalem5467 and Galley like this.
  8. uofmtiger

    uofmtiger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    I have been running iOS 11 Public Beta and Siri seems to be a lot faster. I have several homekit products at home and I always used Amazon's Alexa with them because of the long Siri delay. That isn't a problem any more.

    For music, I always thought it was decent for English artists. However, it is better now that it used to be. If you asked for it to play the album Chicago 16, it would bring back something about the city of Chicago. That works now. In other words, there are a lot of improvements going on with Siri.

    What will be interesting is to see how they implement Siri for a product that does not have a screen. We don't really know, but I expect it to be limited in comparison to the phone app.
     
  9. You wouldnt want to listen to Chicago XVI anyway. Stick to the first four :tiphat:
     
    scott palmiter likes this.
  10. uofmtiger

    uofmtiger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    Lol I just used it as an example. It did that with any Chicago album. It appears to be fixed, though. I know very little about the band, other than their hits, so I will take your word for it. :righton:
     
    Mazzy likes this.
  11. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    OK, I'm totally nuts: I'm setting up a new office, and decided, what the hell... I'll go ahead and buy the damn HomePod thing for background music on my desk. There goes $350 of my hard-earned cash, out the window, for another stupid Apple gimmick.

    As far as the Apple HomePod "spying" on you all the time, eavesdropping on all your conversations, and invading your personal BI-bidness...

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2018
    tommy-thewho, SandAndGlass and Mazzy like this.
  12. Overpriced until you hear the sound compared to the Echo and others. But it seems most folks give a crab about better sound.

    I’ve heard from two friends that these sound pretty great for music.
     
  13. timind

    timind phorum rezident

    $350 is an absurd price for what this product does. I don't really care how good it sounds as it's purpose id background music; I'm certainly not going to listen to it critically. And I'm a bit of an Apple fanboy.
     
  14. Bubbamike

    Bubbamike Forum Resident


    Obviously you've never told Siri "I see a little silhouetto of a man."
     
  15. You are not the audience nor am I. Although I could see this in a bedroom or office.

    This would be main music and not just background for most buyers. It will be better than what they probably have now
     
    superstar19 likes this.
  16. Jason Manley

    Jason Manley Senior Member

    Location:
    O-H-I-O
  17. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    Then who is the audience? I bought one this morning, so I'll get to hear it on February 9.

    I plan on putting it in my kitchen. Currently in the kitchen, we have an Echo Dot, connected via Bluetooth to a Denon HEOS 1. The sound is serviceable, but not really enjoyable. Plus, the Echo randomly drops the Bluetooth connection to the Denon. I suppose a bigger Echo could mitigate some of this, but I'm most interested in the HomePod for its Apple Music integration. Although I do have Prime, I don't subscribe to Amazon Music. Which means ~ 25% of the the songs I ask it to play are not available (only via paid Amazon Music subscription).

    If you already have an Apple Music subscription, and regularly use Siri, this thing seems rather interesting. It has a more unobtrusive design than it's competitors, and I do have pretty high expectations for the sound output.
     
  18. We shall see.

    I actually think the design is so much cooler than all the others.

    Good or bad apple stuff always costs more than the others. Some see the value others don’t.

    If I could figure a way to get this to play music from my iMacs iTunes library on an external HD , I’d get one for my bedroom.
     
  19. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    AirPlay.
     
    Mazzy likes this.
  20. I thought of that but not sure if I could “ask it” to play any song from my iTunes library without walking downstairs where my Mac is and walje itvup a cluck in a song.

    I already AirPlay to my stereo rig but don’t think I can via voice on demand.
     
  21. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    Nailed.
     
    Poison_Flour, H8SLKC and timind like this.
  22. Bubbamike

    Bubbamike Forum Resident

    I Tunes Remote.
     
  23. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US

    Too funny. “My dear, why don’t you have a seat and make yourself comfortable while I carbon brush my record, and run it through my Okie Noki. Then just a distilled water rise, rack dry, a squeeze of my old zerodust, a quick VTA adjustment and we’re in business. I hope you like Becks “Morning Phase,” my dear. Hello? Where’d she get off to?”
     
  24. CraigBic

    CraigBic Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Zealand
    I'm more excited about HomePod than I should be, it's probably a good thing then that it's not coming to New Zealand yet. I think it's a cool device but I don't really need it with my bookshelf speakers plugged into my MacBook pro. And I don't need to unplug the speakers to plug in the record player anymore so... maybe I should put that money towards more records.
     
    Minty_fresh likes this.
  25. daglesj

    daglesj Forum Resident

    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    In a nutshell!

    Remember most people 'showing an interest', is in reality "just being polite'.
     

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