I will not argue with you about this because I do not disagree. However, I still doubt that the Stereophile readership demographic support it. I no hard data one way or the other but the abiding attention to vinyl suggests not.
I may be optimistic, but I would hope Stereophile would place further emphasis on how vinyl (and any traditional stereo) can happily co-exist with devices like Sonos/HomePod. If I'm in the kitchen washing and peeling potatoes for dinner, I can't easily cue up an original UK press of "Bringing It All Back Home". But I can have Siri start playing "Subterranean Homesick Blues" just as soon as I finish speaking my request.
Which is great, and I completely agree. Can you only do this with Apple Music, or will it play from your iTunes library as well?
I think Steven Mejias would be the perfect person to review the Homepod. I don't know if he is still working for Audioquest or not. He is reviewing music for Stereophile.
Exactly, if the reviewer doesn't "get the point of smart speakers", maybe he isn't the best person to review it. Once again, if their readers had no interest in such a product, which I don't believe, then why put it on the cover and review it? I have subscribed to Stereophile off and on over the last 20 years. Probably 15 or more years out of 20, so I think I would be considered a reader of their magazine and I have an interest in something other than analog. That is why they review items like the Airport Express, Music Servers, DACs, and the HomePod....they have readers interested in accessing music in multiple environments and for the convenience of streaming. It is probably a rare reader that has a dedicated room and only listens to music in that environment. I haven't been keeping up since I have been so busy lately. Is there a way to do this just from the HomePod without intervention from iOS or computer?
I don't think so. It's been a while since I experimented with this function. Basically Siri responds "OK, now playing Bob Dylan from your Library". But I have my Mac mini on 24/7 with iTunes open. And since I use Apple Music, I will defer to others (who don't subscribe to Apple Music) to share their experiences.
Is your library matched to the cloud? I wonder if they are just looking at your cloud library? Honestly, I don't know. In iOS, you have to chose Home Sharing in Apple Music for it to access your iTunes library running on a computer, but I don't know how to natively do this on the HomePod.
I don't believe this works -- I tried it today as per your suggestion, and don't subscribe to Apple Music. When I asked Siri to play Buffalo Springfield, Siri told me to buy Apple Music. Bummer. I still don't mind doing it through the AppleTV; not a big deal and less psychotic.
Do you have Home Sharing turned on? Needs to be on the computer turned on and running iTunes. Use Home Sharing to share iTunes content with other devices
Yes I do - it shares it to the AppleTV no problem. I believe all you can play with Siri is Apple Music; otherwise you have to Airplay content to the HomePod.
Per Apple: "Without an Apple Music subscription, Siri can play music from your music library, including iTunes purchases and iTunes Match songs." Use Siri to play music or podcasts
Thanks. Later, it states this, which I believe means you can only play what you’ve bought from ITunes or what’s I. The iCloud library, not your iTunes library. You can listen to these audio sources through your HomePod: Apple Music iTunes music purchases iCloud Music Library with Apple Music3 or iTunes Match Beats 1 live radio Beats 1 On Demand Apple Podcasts You can also AirPlay other content to HomePod from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, and Mac5.
Good catch. I suppose playing from your local library is only applicable if your library has a lot of iTunes purchases. I tried a 100% offline approach to this with Alexa + Plex. The experience was less than great. Which leads me to believe this is harder than it seems, and why Apple doesn’t support.
I’m more than happy with the system I have with my TV playing the Apple TV with the cover art and song info, airplay-ing it to the HomePod. It’s pretty seamless. Siri isn’t a dealbreaker for me.
It would be nice if it just had Home Sharing like their other products, but for my personal needs, it isn't a big deal. I am not sure if it is not available because it is difficult to achieve or if they feel that adding a computer library to the mix can create issues and give some people headaches. They value ease of use and consumer experience and if they felt that this would create headaches for a lot of their users, they may have just left it out...at least for the initial launch which probably had more calls to their support lines about initial setup. It will be interesting to see if they roll Home Sharing out later.
Just wanted to mention that the Airport Express 2012 and later models were updated for Airplay 2. I have one of them in my Sunroom, so now I can tell the HomePod in the Kitchen to play music in the Sunroom and music is playing before I open the door. This was very unexpected, but it should breath new life into that Airport Express even though Apple discontinued it.
For anyone considering the Apple Homepod...As of Sunday, 12-10-2018, Target has it for $250 ($100 off).
I wasn't crazy about mine, but I use it quite a bit so I doubled-down and bought a second one when I found one on sale recently. Having a stereo pair is a massive improvement.
Just to make sure I understand this correctly...So, music that I've ripped from my CD's via Itunes and on my iphone will not be able to be played on the Homepod through my iphone? I have very little itunes purchased. Would it be better to just get apple music subscription? Would rather not pay monthly fee. If I did, those using the service would be myself, wife and 14 year old son. Also, see my questions below related to using an airport express that I have. This is interesting because i have an Airport Express (lastest model sold) at my house that I was going to use to connect to my stereo receiver via mini toslink to the optical SPDIF digital input in order to stream music from my Iphone 7 to my stereo. However, I had trouble connecting the airport express to my older Verizon Actiontec router (they didn't talk well together) and never did get it set up properly??? I'm considering getting the Homepod, since it seems like it would now make sense to. Any help to the above questions would be greatly appreciated.
Yes, you can use AirPlay to send music from your iPhone to a HomePod. However, an Apple Music subscription is where the HomePod really shines.
Airplay 2 solves many of the buffering issues, so you will probably have better luck getting it to work this time around. I would recommend an Apple Music subscription so you get voice control over what is playing on the HomePod and the Airport Express. As was mentioned above, it is a nice Airplay 2 speaker, but controlling over voice is more convenient and the family can take part.
I was able to buy this last night for 249.99 right before the price went back up to 349.99. I think it's overpriced and I'm contemplating on whether or not to return it. The sound is awesome though.
