Article: Apple HomePod Review - An Audiophile Perspective

[The Computer Audiophile]

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[The Computer Audiophile]

Ha!

[The Computer Audiophile]

It was really strange.

[The Computer Audiophile]

20 minutes ago, wgscott said:

 

I think Apple gives you 14 days right of return for a full refund, FWIW.

Oh. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just now, DarwinOSX said:

That’s wasn’t a review. 

Also Airplay 2 will pull from the cloud. 

What was it then?

 

Also, where is a link to the AirPlay 2 specs?

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 minutes ago, DarwinOSX said:

You pretty much said in the beginning you planned to slam the HomePod before you had one or heard it.

Incredibly obvious and I wonder why because it sounds very much like you have an axe to grind.  I've never seen any of your other articles like this.

Comparing it to your reference system speaks for itself.

Consumer Reports has little credibility any more especially on Apple stuff.  They are looking for the same thing as many publications these days which is controversy leading to hits and page views.

The Google Max is terrible and nowhere near a HomePod.  Poor detail, boomy bass, not a hint of an attempt at stereo separation. This can be found in many reviews before anyone even heard a HomePod.  Not to mention no way am I having a Google microphone at home.

My HomePod replaced two stereo paired Sonos Ones.  Alexa is garbage on those and they sound OK until you turn the volume past 30 or 40 percent then they fall apart.

My main speakers are Kef LS50W and I welcome moving on from the traditional audiophile setups.  I think a lot of audiophiles are enraged by the HomePod because they don't feel special anymore knowing all the arcana.  Or because it's from Apple.  Or because it's new.  Get off my lawn is pretty prevalent in this hobby.  

I'm looking forward to two HomePods in a stereo pair and that capability is imminent.  They are bedroom speakers to me.  I did have two Vanatoo 1's with an Apple TV connected by optical for airplay, then two Sonos One's.  There was a detail drop off going from the Vanatoo's to the Sonos but I was trying to minimize.  The Songs One's were sold on CL the day after I got the HomePod.

My HomePod opinion right now is they have great clear detail, the bass is a little boomier than I would like, and Siri is working well with HomeKit for lights etc.  Better than Alexa in fact as it's faster and more reliable.  The HomePod microphones are incredibly sensitive to commands as many people have noted.  You can be playing at max volume and barely whisper Hey Siri and it hears you.

The HomePod and Siri are going to improve by a lot as they add features.  There will be some announcements at WWDC this year that reflect this.

I pay for Tidal, Pandora, and Apple Music.  I dumped Spotify awhile ago.   I never liked it's interface or all the junk tribute band content.  Apple Music interface was completely overhauled and is much better now plus I can use it with my years of iTunes music from various sources in one interface.

I've been using Roon and grouping the Kefs and HomePod and also directly from the Tidal and Pandora apps using airplay.  Once you have it playing then you can control Tidal, Pandora or whatever with voice.  It's not the end of the world to open the app and tap the Airplay icon.

 

Airplay 2 docs are here;

https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2017/509/

I would summarize Airplay 2 this way;

1.  Software only so no longer requires a chip which is why so many devices only need a software update.

2.  Streams faster than real time to minimize lag.

3.  Much larger cache than Airplay 1to minimize lag.

4.  Can pull directly from the cloud similar to Spotify Connect.

 

I'm a big airplay fan and have used it for years in a 5200 sq foot two story house with many different devices at once using Airfoil.  Never had an issue but then I have a well optimized wifi network.

 

Thanks for the honest comments, but I'm not sure where you got the idea that I planned to slam it before I had heard one. Especially because I said, "I really wanted to like the HomePod and I wanted to to sound fantastic." I had no intention of buying one because the last thing I need to purchase is another all-in-one loudspeaker. If you could see my house you'd understand. 

 

I use an iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iMac 5K, and MacBook Pro. I have no axe to grind with Apple. I love its products. 

 

Without comparing the sound from a reference system, how can one expect to gage what the HomePod sounds like? Without this, it would be like measuring one's height starting a few inches off the ground or a few feet off the ground. There has to be a reference with which comparisons can be made. 

 

I was a fan of AirPlay when it first came out as AirTunes, but the technology is so far behind now that I can't take it. It makes zero sense. Using Roon with a HomePod via AirPlay is problematic because of volume control issues. There isn't a two-way sync between the Pod and Roon. 

 

I'm looking at the AirPlay 2 specs now. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

20 minutes ago, Sevenfeet said:

 

Here's the problem.  Your executive summary was "Don't fool yourself into thinking this is an audiophile product. "

 

Apple isn't marketing this as an "audiophile" product.  They are marketing it as a high quality home speaker.  And then you listed the "reference" speakers you would compare it to...the TAD Compact reference One CR1 which a pair cost more than all of the equipment in my three different music rooms put together.  Not exactly a fair fight or an appropriate comparison.  A better tactic would have been just to compare it to the Klipsch The Three which makes more sense for this audience and is a product most major publications aren't comparing it to.

 

And then there's the really big problem...you speculated that Apple might be cheating by changing it's output if it detected the user playing known test tones.  It's not that your hypothesis is impossible.  It's that it's a very damaging charge by a reviewer to level without any evidence.

 

And it's not in Apple's nature for a few reasons.  First, Apple is the biggest target in business for lawsuits by class action trial lawyers.  There are literally dozens of these firms waiting for a smidge of a chance to sue Apple for a piece of that $250 billion war chest of theirs.  Need evidence?  Remember the recent iPhone battery issue?  In that case, Apple was trying to prevent users' older iPhones from inexplicably dying prematurely when internal voltages got too high.  So they determined that slowing the CPUs in those old phones would solve the problem.  Everything good, right?

 

Well they slipped in the feature without telling anyone and Apple is the only company who has people who regularly speed test old hardware.  And it was noticed and then the trial lawyers pounced, accusing Apple of intentionally obsoleting people's phones which is the last thing they wanted to do....and never mind the fact that every new iPhone has about 4 years of software upgrades in its lifespan, way more than the industry.

 

But the whole fiasco is costing Apple millions to make it go away.  Or what about AntennaGate years ago?  What was a design flaw ended up costing Apple a lot of money and damaged reputation as the issue ended up in national news broadcasts.

 

But there was an incident where cheating did occur on phone performance, except the perpetrators were a number of major Android manufacturers that disabled their phone battery management features if they detected that known speed tests were running.  And those same trial lawyers made them pay.  The company that wasn't doing this?  Apple.

 

Anyway, it's ok to say that you like one product over another.  After all, audio performance is very subjective which is why there is no "best product" for anything.  But I have a real problem of you accusing Apple of cheating without hard proof, and using the "speculation" word isn't enough to protect yourself.

Thanks for the comments. 

 

Why is my executive summary a problem, given that so much of the press had called the HomePod an audiophile product? I received many emails asking if this was true in my opinion and asking if I had one for review. 

 

Question: Without a reference, how does one rate sound quality? How can I determine what the HomePod sounds like if I don't have a reference? I can't. Anyone who claims they can, is kidding themselves. It's impossible to suggest the HomePod has too much bass if I'm comparing it to another speaker that isn't of reference quality. Sure it may have more bass than the Klipsch, but the Klipsch is by no means a reference either. 

 

I included both my reference system and the Klipsch to satisfy people who wanted to learn how the HomePod compares to a reference and how it compares to something in a similar category. I guess I can't please everyone. 

 

I don't see my speculation as a really big problem. Given the previous measurements posted on reddit and retweeted by Phil Schiller, I couldn't help but think something was amiss. It turns out that something was amiss. As of today, it appears the measurements don't really say what author the suggested and they may be suspect. 

 

I'm not really worried about speculating what Apple is doing or worried that someone is going to sue them. I also don't buy into the idea that Apple is holier than thou as a company. As soon as it stops using slave labor, I might be more open to thinking about it. Apple is beholden to shareholders. Given that fact, all bets are off. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 minutes ago, Sevenfeet said:

not a proper retort for this discussion

I don't believe I could ever satisfy your requirements for a proper retort.

 

We obviously disagree on quite a bit. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Thanks for the detailed updates @bobfa

 

You make some really good points. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

19 hours ago, Fridolin said:

Did anyone try this speaker in his/her bathroom?

 

I plan to place it there when it becomes available in my country.

 

I didn't try this, but be very cautious. The bass could be overwhelming in a confined space like many bathrooms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

13 hours ago, twist222 said:

Chris,

 

Could you share some details on the room placement of the HomePod for your listening tests. Given you seemed to have some fairly uneven frequency response from the  HomePod it would be interesting to hear how it reacted to different speaker placement options. I understand it does have does have DSP capability and some people will place it were the wife gives it the highest acceptance factor but like all audiophiles we will put more effort into speaker placement before undertaking critical listening.

 

Regards

Mark

 

 

I tried the HomePod in a couple locations. 

 

1. On my desk about 12-18 inches from the rear wall, with my iMac about 24 inches to the right and nothing to the left. 

 

2. On my preamp about 24 inches from the rear wall and between my amps and speakers. 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, twist222 said:

If position 2 is what is shown in your main photo that might be a tough ask for an omidirectional speaker that has the tweeters located towards the bottom of the speaker. It looks like the perforated sides of the amps are less then 12 inches from the sides of the speaker. Probably less of of a question mark when you only have a forward firing tweeter but with 7 tweeters firing around 360 degrees ?

 Of course it is a;ways easy for someone to look at things after you have done the hard yards and throw up options that may have given you a better result. But equally important it may be worth people reading your review, perhaps people with less experience, understanding that your speaker placement may not have been optimised and for most speakers speaker placement can make a significant difference. Particularly if your reference is a high end system.

 

Regards

Mark

Hi Mark - Can you say why it’s a tough ask for this speaker? It senses its environment and adjusts automatically. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

19 minutes ago, atban said:

There is nothing verifiable in this article.

Can you expand on that?

[The Computer Audiophile]

8 minutes ago, twist222 said:

 

Chris,

 

Having high frequency drivers firing into a half height wall located about 8 inches from the driver would not be my preferred option for critical listening. Of course if I want make it a bit tougher I can have perforations in the walls with the diameter of the peferations within the range of wavelengths cover by the high frequency driver. I understand the 7 high frequency drivers are mounted around the botom half of the HomePod.

Yes you can rely on DSP to try and correct for speaker placement but as per my original post "I understand it does have does have DSP capability and some people will place it were the wife gives it the highest acceptance factor but like all audiophiles we will put more effort into speaker placement before undertaking critical listening."

Hence my comment on it being a "tough ask" with that speaker placement when you are undertaking critical listening for a review.

 

Regards

Mark

Hi Mark - Wouldn’t the DSP just adjust for those tweeters firing at the close wall?

[The Computer Audiophile]

Given that the HomePod has microphones for listening and correcting DSP I don’t believe it matters if this thing has tweeters firing at the wall. It would be a pretty dumb design if the rear-firing tweeters continued to blast high frequencies at the wall. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

9 minutes ago, Osterberg said:

Hello,

 

Executive Summary: Don't fool yourself into thinking this is an audiophile product. It's a me too voice control product that happens to play audio. 

 

Apple doesn't make me too products & this has very little to do with voice control. Please see below review for a much bigger picture.

 

http://appleinsider.com/articles/18/02/28/how-homepod-leverages-apples-silicon-expertise-to-deliver-advanced-audio-performance

Thanks for the link. I'm reading the entire thing, but am struggling after then ends this way, "Here's an in-depth look at what makes HomePod not just an interesting product, but new product category with the ability to change how users experience audio at home."

 

The HomePod is so late to this category it's laughable. 

 

Now back to reading. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

OK, just read the entire article that recaps Apple's marketing material. IT talked about AirPlay 2 being this great thing that's coming soon. Sonos has had all those capabilities for many years. Apple is way behind for this me too product. Apple had to get something in the marketplace before Amazon and Google completely took over. This is why it released a product that is clearly not ready for primetime. Siri works terribly on the unit and AirPlay 2 is coming soon. 

 

I fail to see anything in that advertorial piece that suggests the HomePod is anything but what I've described. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

One additional follow up, @Osterberg are you sure you don't have a vested interest in the HomePod? It seems that you might, but I want to check to make sure my research is correct.

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 hours ago, twist222 said:

 

Hi Chris,

Looks like we are going to have to agree to disagree on this. I am used to reading HiFi reviews where the reviewer adjusts the positioning of the speaker/s to obtain the best sound and the response is not to rely on DSP to adjust for less than optimal positioning. These reviews usually even provide commentary on how the sound of the speaker changes with changes in positioning, particularly when initial placement resulted  in a less than even perceived frequency response.

 

Regards

Mark

I used two different locations. 

 

Adjusting this speaker to obtain obtain the best sound? That’s not possible because you can’t disable DSP while it’s positioned. 

 

I’ll happily accept my position as the opposite of a HiFi reviewer. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

I understand trying to reduce the use of DSP. I understand disabling DSP while positioning loudspeakers and turn on DSP to get the last bit of quality. 

 

However, DSP is always enabled on the HomePod. There’s no way to properly position the HomePod. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

The HomePod replacement is finally available. $299.

 

https://www.apple.com/homepod/