The HomePod Is a Mono Speaker

[tmtomh]

Doesn't Apple allow you to use a 2nd HomePod in a two-HomePod array that will enable them to function like stereo speakers? IMHO that's a pretty definitive indication that HomePod is mono - there'd be no need for a two-speaker stereo mode if the HomePod were in and of itself stereo (or if Apple even just claimed it were stereo).

 

Also, while anything it possible, it would seem unlikely that a speaker with an odd number of tweeters would be a stereo speaker. As noted above, you certainly can use a 7-speaker array to try to simulate some kind of soundstage, but it's not stereo unless L channel material is being sent to some, and only some, of the drivers while R channel material is being sent to others.

I believe it might be accurate to say that the HomePod is a "mono speaker with spatial processing built in" or something like that; but that;'s still not a stereo speaker system. If the L and R channel signals are combined prior to reaching the drivers, it's not a stereo speaker.

[tmtomh]

Ironically, Dilger writes, "Anyone who calls HomePod a 'mono speaker' does not understand elemental basics of sound reproduction." It would appear he's a bit overconfident in his own understanding of the basics of sound reproduction.