Apple HomePod (Available December)

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

  1. uofmtiger

    uofmtiger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    Yes, 5.5 pounds vibrating with a 5.6 inch round base would be heavy for an oiled wood surface. I have heard people say that their mouse pads have left permanent marks on their desks and flooring that has issues with rubber backed mats. So yes, when you own a product, you need to know if something is safe to be placed on it or not. Whether that is hot mug, a rubber backed mat, a mouse pad, a product with rubber of silicon feet/backing, etc.

    As I said above, if Apple knew this was an issue before it went to market, they should have put a leaflet in the material saying what the feet were made of and to not place it on any surface that might interact with silicon. That would cover anything that might cause an issue. Actually, that may be in their small print materials, but I haven't got around to reading it.

    This is about using a material that is common place - rubber and silicon feet/backing. My receivers have these type of feet, my DVD player has these type of feet, my gaming console has this type of feet, etc..
     
  2. People who own nice oiled wood furniture know this. Or they should. My parents and grand parents had lots old antique pieces and everything on top had a cloth napkin or piece of felt under that protected the finish. This is nothing new except that some folks just are used to owning cheap IKEA particle board pieces.
     
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  3. Synthfreek

    Synthfreek I’m a ray of sunshine & bastion of positivity

    I don't see that anyone has posted this. This is the father son duo that tear stuff up.

     
  4. Bubbamike

    Bubbamike Forum Resident

    A $3000 bluetooth speaker with no digital assistant. But still no comparison with the Homepod. I wonder if it has a silicone ring on the bottom?

     
  5. ralf11

    ralf11 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Earth
    I like lifestyle devices that can be used as projectile weapons
     
  6. coffeetime

    coffeetime Senior Member

    Location:
    Lancs, UK
    For those who have the Homepod and have lived with it for a couple of weeks now, how are you finding it?

    I’ve got plenty of music that could be ‘awkward’ to find with Siri - Dark Side of the Moon Immersion box set, Beatles US Albums, Beatles mono & stereo albums, Studio Ghibli soundtracks with hiragana/katana/kanji titles etc; other albums that are duplicates or different releases, classical titles etc. Are you finding Siri to be particularly good at finding specific titles and works, or has it been painful enough to restort to effectively use it as a WiFi speaker to be ‘beamed’ to from either an iPhone or iPod?

    Any particular music that just doesn’t sound like it should?

    I’ve been able to play with one in an Apple Store. Was impressed with the sound relative to my Sonos Play 1 & 3 speakers (a fair comparison) but Siri routintely seemed to choke when asking for Melody Gardot, or Mozart 20th Piano Concerto (kept identifying ‘20th’ as ‘25th’ and playing that!).

    I’m very tempted with one for the dining room, mainly for music but also for AirPlay’ing Audible audiobooks to, but I’m wanting to get a flavour of what it’s been like to live with as opposed to day 1 reviews & impressions.
     
  7. uofmtiger

    uofmtiger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    Airplay is great. It does rely on your wifi, so if you have an archaic router, you could have issues. Airplay 2 should increase the buffer, so it should be more stable on older wifi setups, so that will be a nice improvement down the road.

    Spoken word sounds amazing on the device. I have listened to podcasts on it and the voices sound as good as any other speakers I have used.

    I haven't run across anything that jumps out as bad sounding. I haven't listened to classical on it, but I have listened to jazz, blues, country, and rock on it.

    I haven't really been that particular about listening to specific versions of albums, but I can try asking for the Beatles For Sale Mono and Stereo versions when I get home. Apple Music has both in my matched library. Someone else will need to take the Ghibli soundtrack and classical questions. If you have a specific album name you want me to try, I can do that, though.
     
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  8. Luckless Pedestrian

    Luckless Pedestrian Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire, USA
    I’ve found it underwhelming. It’s one, small speaker, with correspondingly small sound. Reports of this being an ‘audiophile’ speaker are exaggerated imo. I find it a harsh listen at higher volumes. Siri is annoying with duplicate titles, she just starts playing one rather than asking for clarification, which I find annoying. Much prefer playing directly from the device rather than from my phone, I find getting airplay started slow and cumbersome, as always. Sound quality is my biggest disappointment; maybe in a smaller space it would sound better, but in my fairly large kitchen there is no comparison to my two channel system playing in the next room, which fills my entire first floor with fabulous sound - and really how could there be, with such a tiny, low powered speaker? I don’t have any other portables to compare with.
     
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  9. coffeetime

    coffeetime Senior Member

    Location:
    Lancs, UK
    All sounding reasonably promising then.

    The awkward classical album I tried to play via Siri in the Apple Store was Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 21, Friedrich Gilda & Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra on Deutsche Grmaphon (Apple Music link). Homepod understood ‘mozart’ and ‘piano concertos’ ok but had issues resolving ‘20’ accurately. If you could try getting Homepod/Siri to playback this particular album and let me know the result, I’d be most appreciative.

    The Japanese film and game soundtracks I could always drop into their own playlists with English names (although speaking some Japanese, I could always try and see if Siri understands on my phone or Apple TV.)
     
  10. uofmtiger

    uofmtiger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    I will give that a shot. I do wonder how it will handle a name that long, though. I wouldn't be surprised if you had to stick with Playlists or Airplay for something this specific...but we shall see.
     
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  11. coffeetime

    coffeetime Senior Member

    Location:
    Lancs, UK
    For all of the rave reviews of the sound I’m not expecting Homepod to compete with even the most modest of separates or even a hifi manufacturer all-in-one. Beyond my lounge system, I use a Sonos Play1 in the bedroom both as a speaker and as a radio alarm ‘clock’, and a Sonos Play3 in the kitchen for casual listening. Sonos’ app seems to be getting clunkier over time, and hands free voice control in the kitchen has an abvious appeal. I’d only be considering Homepod where I currently use the Sonos speakers. The main lounge setup, with Sonos Connect, serves a different purpose (dedicated listening and AV) - fair to say there are no smart speakers that could possibly compare.

    Interesting experience on duplicate albums though. Having many mono & stereo versions of albums, original album mixes vs remixes, demo mixes etc. I can understand say Rubber Soul playing the common/default UK stereo versions, I’d like Siri to readily understand if I mean the UK mono version, or the US Albums set mono & stereo US album. Likewise where there are several different recordings of the same classical pieces - I’ve several albums of different performances of the Four Seasons for example.
     
  12. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    I've had it since release day, and yes I occasionally struggle with getting Siri to play the correct album. She can't play anything from David Knopfler (no real surprise, and the returned results are quite hilarious), and took me a while to figure out how to request something like the self-titled Fleetwood Mac album.

    But for the great majority of the time (98%), it's brilliant :)
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2018
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  13. ralf11

    ralf11 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Earth
    is it more like the first iPhone? or more like the Newton?
     
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  14. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    This is so true. I used to consider it perfect, now I can barely figure anything out. The curse of unnecessary iteration strikes again.
     
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  15. uofmtiger

    uofmtiger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    I passed on the Newton and the first iPhone, so I would say this is a better product for me. For my needs, the iPhone didn't surpass my Treo until they added the app store.

    I am not sure how the Newton fit into what Apple was doing at the time? But one of the main reasons Apple likes the Watch, Airpods, HomePod is that they build out their ecosystem and make it less likely that people will leave iOS. It is all part of the "stickiness" that Buffett has described. If they sell a few million of these in the next year, that won't be blockbuster profits (though it will probably make it the most profitable smart speaker), but it would help solidify their ecosystem. Apple considers music to be part of their culture, so this is also an extension of that. It also helps move people to Apple Music and/or keep them there. In other words, it has a lot of avenues for Apple that make sense even if it doesn't sell like some of their most profitable devices.
     
  16. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    Neither? My kids and wife can use it with the easiest of learning curves imaginable. I might be in the minority about this: but if it never added another "feature", it would still be useful for many years to come. Last night I just had it run through 30+ minutes of Billboard hits from 1983. My wife thought I was nuts, but my kids were dancing like crazy.
     
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  17. uofmtiger

    uofmtiger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    Just got home. No problem with Beatles. It got the mono and stereo versions without an issue.

    The concertos worked the first time I tried it. However, I ate, then tried it again. This time, it had issues with the word “numbers”, so I said “nos” instead and it worked ( Siri says “numbers” when repeated back, so it is a bit strange). I also tried it by the conductor and it got it again. Not sure if this is the Gramophone version or not. I am pretty sure it is the version you linked, though.

    Tested with Beethoven Symphony 5 & 7 a couple Dvorak albums with long names, Shostakovich, Maxwell Davies, etc. Typically, saying “nos” instead of number works. For single numbers like No. 5, “number” seemed to work without a problem.

    I think you will find that it is not a 100 percent accurate process on the first try like most non-classical music by artists that have names that are more typical or popular in mostly English speaking countries. I still found it to work, but not as 100 percent accurate as “play Beatles for Sale in mono”.

    Honestly, it did better than I expected. Siri used to have a lot more problems with these type of commands.
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2018
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  18. coffeetime

    coffeetime Senior Member

    Location:
    Lancs, UK
    Unnecessary iteration sums it all up beautifully. Used to be simple; at a glance you could see what was playing in whatever the current room/speaker was, and could switch rooms/speakers or group them very easily. Now, after so much rearranging the UI furniture, switching between rooms is a pain. Although I use a Sonos Play1 as an alarm clock, I wind up using the app to turn it off to avoid the sports news. If I last used the app in conjunction with another speaker in the house, switching to the Bedroom Play1 is about of a pain that I’ve given up trying.

    With the older UI, it was simple, doubly so from an iPad where each UI control was in its own ‘pane’. Now its so many similar looking sliding overlay panels that seem to behave differently depending on which button at the bottom of the screen was active before starting.

    Which leads me to...

    This all sounds very promising indeed! Appreciate you taking the time to try this all out and to write up the results. In as much as I’d like 100% success with Siri, Siri/HomePod merely has to be no worse than using the Sonos app to make a case for itself. Airplay isn’t there on Sonos, meaning no BBC Radio iPlayer for listening to non-live radio and no Audible (Sonos have been looking into reinstating Audible but it hasn’t happened for over a year). It’s all there on AirPlay and with AirPlay 2 still to come.

    Between Siri being good enough/no worse than the Sonos app, and AirPlay giving me functional currently beyond Sonos, I’m tempted to pick up a HomePod and give it a week’s audition at the dinner table.
     
  19. uofmtiger

    uofmtiger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    Worse case scenario, you take it back if you don't like it. I am a big fan of Airplay for the reason you mentioned. It isn't tied to a service or specific app, so it is open to any app on a computer or iOS device. The downside compared to Sonos is that it has to go to your sending device first, so it doubles up (or more than double up) the bandwidth on your network. I am not sure how Airplay 2 is fixing some of these type of issues, but the longer buffer should help
     
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  20. uofmtiger

    uofmtiger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    So, have you tried one out yet?
     
  21. matteos

    matteos Stereotype

    Location:
    US
    Does this one record all your conversations and store them on their servers like the Google and Apple ones do?
     
  22. wgriel

    wgriel Forum Resident

    Location:
    bc, canada
    Apple doesn't do this - Google and Amazon do. So no, this device doesn't record all your conversations.
     
  23. ralf11

    ralf11 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Earth
  24. coffeetime

    coffeetime Senior Member

    Location:
    Lancs, UK
    Tried one in an Apple Store (hardly the best listening environment, but what can you do. Still dithering :shrug:

    On the one hand it did sound pretty good for the price, certainly comparable to the Sonos Play3 in the kitchen. The downside is Siri as the primary means of playing music. Artists and albums with distinctive names are fine. Trying to get say ‘Les Miserables Compete Symphonic Recording’ or ‘The Complete Recording of Boublil and Schoenberg’s Miss Saigon’ is very hit and miss unless I looked up the exact title of the album first. Otherwise Siri would default to the original London cast albums, rather than the later Complete albums.

    AirPlay is one solution to this for awkward album names, or where I can’t remember if the album artist is Original Cast Recoding, Orignal London Cast, Original Broadway Cast, Various Artists or what. At this point Airplay is no worse that Sonos.

    I’ve tried ‘rehearsing’ with Siri on my iPhone and iPad Pro, which seems hit and miss on the awkward stuff. Siri on Apple TV fares better (no idea why).

    Ultimately it’s not about money; I can afford HomePod. It’s more about trying to decide if the sound quality and convenience when Siri does get it right outweighs what I think the frustrations might be.

    One or two people who’ve posted their thoughts on some of the Apple rumour sites have weighed in with favourable words with regards classical music on HomePod, so I’m thinking if it can do nuanced, well recorded classical well then everything else should sound reasonably good for the money.

    Both Apple and Argos (U.K. chain store in walking distance) do a no-quibble 14 and 30 day returns, so that takes some of the risk out of buying one.

    (Just mentioned that I’m still considering a HomePod to my wife and got one of her very best eye rolls :righton:)
     
  25. forthlin

    forthlin Member Chris & Vickie Cyber Support Team

    I wonder how many of us married guys knew their girlfriends-to-be-wives could all do that with such aplomb?:p
     
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