Apple HomePod (Available December)

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

  1. BayouTiger

    BayouTiger Forum Resident

    Apple doesn’t intend for me to pull the glass on my iMacs and change the Hard drive and replace the DVD with a BluRay drive, but don’t mean it didn’t happen! :)
     
  2. mj_patrick

    mj_patrick Senior Member

    Location:
    Elkhart, IN, USA
    Removable or not, I am not yanking the cord out!

    I do find Siri's responses to sound the most human. Siri may not have a world of knowledge, but as far as playing music tracks I find her to be the most reliable. I was able to say "Play the white album by the Beatles", and she correctly did that, listing it as "Here's the self-titled album by The Beatles". Asking her to play the "Ziggy Stardust" album by David Bowie led her to state the album's full title before playing it. Siri has also been able to correctly play AC/DC tracks, where even Google Assistant would slip up unless I referred to them as "AC SLASH DC".

    I know HomeKit is not exactly leading the pack for home automation, nonetheless I've been buying devices that support it and Amazon Alexa AND Google Home. Right now that's mostly Hue lights and iHome smart plugs. Siri has managed to turn them on and off pretty effortlessly. Alexa has not been nearly as reliable, often reporting she can't find the devices when the other automated services can.
     
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  3. H8SLKC

    H8SLKC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    Only with an Apple product, priced X3 compared to its closest competitors, would multiple people argue about removability of a freaking power cord!
     
  4. But that 3x is for a completely different product. The last Audi I bought was almost 3x the cost of one of the Toyota models. They both get me to where I want to go but .....
     
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  5. mj_patrick

    mj_patrick Senior Member

    Location:
    Elkhart, IN, USA
    The HomePod was $149 more than the Sonos One. Now Sonos is bundling a couple One speakers for $349- the same price as HomePod. Clearly a competitor market there.

    Google Home Max was announced 4 months after the HomePod’s introduction- it also coincidentally had 6 microphones and was brought to market in December... the same time that the HomePod was originally scheduled to see release. The Max is actually $50 more than the HomePod.

    Those are the HomePod’s closest competitors... it seems pretty clear Apple is going after the wireless speaker market Sonos helped create.
     
  6. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
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  7. Brando4905

    Brando4905 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Marion, NC
    Good to know there is a little proof that it DOES sound great. So good, we went and bought the last one available in our area last night. Now my wife has one in her office, and so fun having one in the master bath! And.....they’re not even broken in yet, give these a week or so and I imagine even better performance.

    HomePods aren’t on the shelf any longer in my area, at least in Space Gray.
     
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  8. jon9091

    jon9091 Master Of Reality

    Location:
    Midwest
    “Audiophile” in and of itself means niche. Limiting the device as they have also means fewer masses will be interested. And in the end, what do you think will win more consumers? A smart speaker that sounds pretty good? Or a dumb speaker that sounds great? I think the competitors will be able to catch up a lot faster on making their speakers sound better, than Apple will be at making Siri smarter.
     
  9. Kim Olesen

    Kim Olesen Gently weeping guitarist.

    Location:
    Odense Denmark.
    It is a mono device isn’t. Does that not mess with the mix. All center information gets too loud compared to the sides.
     
  10. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    Considering for the past 50 years there have been thousands of "dumb" speakers that sound great, yet never catch on en masse (and many of the best came from companies that simply went out of business), I think it's a smart speaker that sounds pretty good. Which the HomePod sounds better than "pretty good"! I've been buying speakers for 25+ years. Everything from $10 garage-sale specials, to $10K+ Bowers and Wilkins. If the HomePod really didn't sound exceptional, I would say/admit such. I have a loooong list of audio gear that I've bought that was frankly a waste of money, or a bad value. This is not one of them. :)

    I think if companies like Sonos, Google, Amazon really were able to make their smart speakers sound "better", they would have done so already. It wouldn't be surprising (to me, at least) to learn that Apple spent over a billion dollars in R&D to make the HomePod. Very few companies can develop speakers at that scale, and we already know what Google and Amazon came out with. They're not bad, they're just not very good - in regards to sound quality.

    Regarding "making Siri smarter" - for music purposes - she's already there. I've requested dozens of tracks this weekend, and my success rate was 100%. No, I didn't ask her how much an elephant weighs, or other random things unrelated to music playback. There are better tools for that job, IMO.
     
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2018
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  11. jon9091

    jon9091 Master Of Reality

    Location:
    Midwest
    Like I said....it’s a niche product, and you just made the case that it’s really only for audiophiles. Mac audiophiles at that. Would the Mac audiophile like stereo? That’ll be another $350, thanks very much.

    The smart speaker that sounds pretty good, which is what you picked, is not the HomePod. They can answer all those questions unrelated to music, run more programs, have external inputs, etc. and sound good enough for the average listener.
     
  12. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    I made the opposite case, actually. "For $349, you're getting sound quality that's near-impossible to beat from assembling a traditional stereo, even at a $1K price point. In other words, the HomePod is going to make people more discriminating about how their favorite music sounds." It's not niche, because there are 1.3 Billion iOS devices in the world, and at least 36 million paid Apple Music subscribers. I would say that's a pretty good pool of users to start from.

    What is the smart speaker that sounds pretty good?

    BTW, I have plenty of self-powered/smart speakers with external inputs and such:
    • 5 Amazon Echos
    • 3 pairs of Audyssey Lower East Side, including the Bluetooth version
    • The Dynaudio Xeo 2 speakers
    • Logitech Squeezebox Boom
    • various other Bluetooth speakers from Harmon/Kardon, etc. Piled up in a closet because they're not great.
    So, I've "picked" lots of things before. I have not tried Google Home, however. Pretty much everything else sucks in comparison to HomePod. The Dynaudios are actually really good, but like most bookshelf style speakers, you need to be in the sweet spot for them to sound their best.
     
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2018
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  13. BayouTiger

    BayouTiger Forum Resident

    I moved mine to my home office desk yesterday to test Roon and other stuff. Transferring the music from my normal setup (Nova150 feeding a nice pair of bookshelves and sub) to the HomePod and back. The wife came in and interrupted me. Then two hours later I realized that I was still listening to the HomePod. That’s not saying it’s better, just that it’s pretty damn good for casual listening. Also nice that it was unobtrusive on my desk where the bigger speakers could not live.

    I’m out of the tit for tat, “it’s too expensive, Siri sucks, there are cheaper alternatives” discussion. I can read that in every thread about every product Apple has made. Most recently the EarPods - yes I have a pair and love them!
     
  14. Metralla

    Metralla Joined Jan 13, 2002

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    That was an interesting read. Some things that stood out to me were:

     
  15. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
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  16. Metralla

    Metralla Joined Jan 13, 2002

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    Cool - good to see inside. Repair Index = 1 ;)
     
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  17. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    It was pretty funny to see them with that hacksaw :laugh: Usually they don't have to destroy the item quite so bad ha.
     
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  18. uofmtiger

    uofmtiger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    It seems that the same people were and are arguing that the Apple Watch is a niche product, as well:

    "And of course, there is that caveat that the only streaming music service you can play from the watch right now is Apple’s. So yes: this is one of those things where if you have an Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE, and you have an iPhone to pair it with, and you pay $10 per month for Apple Music, and maybe you also have AirPods that connect to the smartwatch super quickly, then this is going to feel like a value add. If, if, if you’re locked inside the Apple universe."

    Yet, somehow the Apple Watch is the most profitable smart watch and Apple is the number 1 watchmaker in the world.

    I can also show you many articles about how Apple was late to the game with a Watch and how people stopped wearing watches, and how there is no reason to have a watch when your phone does everything the watch can do.

    If anything, the Watch is more of a niche. People were already listening to music in their homes and there is already a built in audience for speakers. It isn't tied only to iPhone because it can also be setup with an iPad. It has access to every service from iOS, Macs, and any Windows computer running an app like Airfoil thanks to Airplay. There was already a market for Airplay devices, but this will have Airplay 2 later in the year which will add multiroom audio from iOS and Airplay 2 control.

    All that being said, Let's say you are right and Apple doesn't make billions on this speaker. What difference does it make to you? Are you worried that Apple will go out of business or something? One of the main purposes of the speaker is to build out the Apple ecosystem. Therefore, even if they only sell a million of them, that is a million iOS users that will most likely stick with their ecosystem when buying a new tablet or phone or choosing a music streaming service. That is the added value for Apple that is rarely mentioned (other than calling it lock in or walled garden..rather than saying millions of people are making the choice to benefit from that ecosystem).

    As I mentioned in a prior post, there were analyst estimates that Amazon lost $300 million in 2016 and were on their way to losing $600 million in 2017 selling the Echo at a loss. I am not worried about Amazon, either. They will make money on the backend.
     
  19. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    I think the HomePod could be waaaay bigger than the Apple Watch, in terms of sales volume, and penetration. The Apple Watch (yes, I have it) is more of an "optional accessory" for a lot of people. And everyone knows that in a few years your Apple Watch will be outdated. This, combined with poor resale value (vs. iPhones) can make a lot of people hesitant to invest the $250+. The HomePod can be used every day without a lot of effort, and could easily last 5+ years without losing much/any functionality. The Watch, you kinda have to "commit to". My wife is not very good at this, so her perceived value is on the low side. But she can get value from a HomePod with zero effort or learning curve.

    Considering the Beats/headphone market is still red-hot, I think it shows there are plenty of people that would be willing to commit $349 for a better sound, but now at home.
     
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  20. uofmtiger

    uofmtiger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    As I mentioned, the Apple Watch has been a success for Apple. Analyst estimate that they sold 18 million of them last year and it was up 54 percent year of year. As you illustrate, you can make a pretty good argument against the Apple Watch, too. Yet, somehow, Apple is doing okay with it.
     
  21. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    Oh I know it's a success, I've bought two of them (three, if you count one I gave my wife). I was only describing the challenges it faces in relation to the HomePod, because I think the HomePod can be a much bigger success than the Apple Watch.
     
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  22. Metralla

    Metralla Joined Jan 13, 2002

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    I can see that happening.

    Question: was the HomePod also released outside of North America?
     
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  24. Metralla

    Metralla Joined Jan 13, 2002

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    You are behind the curve mate. Look up above. :)
     
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