Apple HomePod

conaero

Forum Owner
Messages
34,593
Was mooching around in John Lewis at the weekend waiting to pick up the daughters new iPhone 7 Plus and trying to convince myself an iPhone X is worth the £1,150 (I couldn't even get it to add up via man maths).

This HomePod thing was blasting away in the background so rather then spend £1,150 on the X I bought the HomePod for £319 to satisfy my gadget needs.

Upon getting it home had real issues getting it to work and got p!ssed off with it. Took it to work and it worked instantly so I have a network issue at home between the hub and the repeaters I feel.

Anyway, its strength is the audio, its stunning. I wanted something compact with big sound I could take away with me so those going to Le Mans will see it in action.

Negatives...well I am feeling Apple has pushed the closed Eco system too far this time. The Siri does have its short fallings and is no where near as good as the Google and Amazon offerings but you cant even bluetooth audio to it and has no line in. You are sort of forced down the route of taking up a £10 a month Apple Music subscription. Doesnt work natively with any of the other but you do get a 3 month free trial to AM. The silly thing is it has bluetooth 5.0 built in so we know it can do it but Apple being Apple have removed the feature for now. I feel after pressure it will be opened up but for now I can airplay any content from my Apple products.

Honestly, I dont use siri type stuff and to have access to 45 million songs for £10 a month is something I feel I should do anyway as its such good value.

Anyway, if you want stunning sound and you have already bought into the Apple Eco System and have AM then I would strongly suggest you take a look at it for the sound system alone vs the compact size.
 

Felonious Crud

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
21,013
Thanks, Matt. We have one in the office and although I haven't seen or heard it in action it has now replaced the Sonos as the pumping-tunes gadget of choice in a geek-filled office. The team there is well impressed.
 

outrun

Member
Messages
5,017
I have Sonos throughout my house and am on the Beta for full Amazon Echo voice control. It's great and I won't be changing it. I think Apple are very late to the party and the price is too much when compared to the others. Given the price that Apple products are now, I can't help but think that they are on the way downwards, not by much, but downwards nonetheless. I have a 2015 Macbook Pro and where I would like a new one, there is no functionality that can can justify spending £2k on one. Same operating system, same real life speed, same looks, just a little bit lighter and thinner. I also have an iphone 7, my first iphone, which is OK but for the same reasons as the Macbook, I have no reason to change to one of the newer devices. Certainly not for the price. Besides, the Oneplus phones that I had before **** all over it for quality and functionality and are half the price and better built.

Apple was once very cool, it's not any more and they are actively pricing themselves out of the middle classes who drive volume. The Homepod may well sound great but that's not all that's required. You need Spotify and Deezer integration if you want volume sales. It will come, but why wait for the market to force it?
 

Trev Latter

Member
Messages
1,213
I use Apple Music and find it ok, but for finding more obscure artists, Spotify takes a fair bit of beating, so depending what I want to find I tend to switch between both. One of my customers was demonstrating his Sonos gear a few weeks back and it sounded superb; very impressive. I might have to investigate the HomePod at some point, but it'll have to be good to beat the Sonos I heard.
 

zagatoes30

Member
Messages
20,759
We got some Amazon echos the other week, 3 for £100 - gives the girls access to their music in their bedrooms without them having their iPods. Sound is OK but really stacks up when you link it with Sonas to get some decent sound. Looked at the Apple HomePod and the functionality price equation didn't work out, I have the same issue with the iPhone X but I can see that coming sooner or later.
 

Corranga

Member
Messages
1,219
I think I'm going backwards with technology - I just bought a CD player :)

A lovely little Denon M41 with some Q Acoustics Speakers - portability wasn't a factor for me, and I'm enjoying picking a CD, taking it out of the box, sticking it in, and listening to a whole album.
Never actually heard Sonos, nor a HomePod, but I suspect the sound quality is better with my CD player.
I've paired it with a chromecast audio for streaming stuff, and am loving it.
 

Mattp

Member
Messages
501
Im intrigued to hear the home pod - wifey would like one... although didn't think that it was battery powered? does it work like a chromecast, taking control of the music stream from the phone, or does the phone have to still be nearby like Bluetooth?
I do love the flexibility of the Google system though, Ive several different audio setups through the house - Monitor audio/Onkyo for the home theatre, a couple of Bang and Olufsen players, a mini AV system in the summer house and some garden speakers, each discreet setup has a 30quid chromecast plugged in to isolate or spread music across the estate... any other audio networking requires too much proprietary kit.

I have a Bang Olufsen A1 for being outdoors and in the kitchen which really belts out the sound for its size... unfortunately when driving it hard it has an appetite for energy that is almost on par with an Italian V8!!!
 

Wack61

Member
Messages
8,764
I bought a B&W Zeppelin from John Lewis about 8-9 years ago, still going strong with a sound much bigger than it should be , just added a bluetooth ipod adapter thingy to it so it streams spotify now

a few weeks back I bought a Bose CD radio in beige for £60, that sounds great as well, as I was leaving with it the guy said you may as well have this, it's a bag that takes about 12 D cell batteries to make it portable , just sold it for £50 so my £10 bose is staying :D
 

urquattrogus

Member
Messages
838
I use some software called Roon and Meridian DSP active speakers, fantastic! Then a couple of Sonos units dotted around the house which are also now controlled by roon.

I'm steadfastly resisting Amazon Echo, Google, Apple etc out of paranoia (in my view justified)
 

zagatoes30

Member
Messages
20,759
We have a Ruark R2 which is a lovely device, the sound quality is superb and it streams just about everything we throw at it
 

conaero

Forum Owner
Messages
34,593
Had the HomePod a few days and must admit I am loving it...the music quality is just so, so good.

Currently listening to:

[video=youtube;1lWJXDG2i0A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lWJXDG2i0A[/video]

Sorley missed Mr TP!
 

Andyk

Member
Messages
61,038
Great song, great LP, great artist ... Thanks for that Matt...am now listening to Into the great wide open, Full moon fever......
 

rossyl

Member
Messages
3,312
Had the HomePod a few days and must admit I am loving it...the music quality is just so, so good.

Currently listening to:

[video=youtube;1lWJXDG2i0A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lWJXDG2i0A[/video]

Sorley missed Mr TP!

Hey Matt

Great track!

Does it not work with Spotify off your iPhone?
 

highlander

Member
Messages
5,214
Sorry Matt, you are such a sheep......IMO the homepod is a typical Apple emperors clothing thingy. Google and Amazon alternatives offer so much more for far less cash. We went with 4 echoes each wired to 100w LG sound bars (we got these half price in jan sales as last years model) and linked them all into a hub so we can listen throughout the house and voice control our lights via alexa/hub......whole lot? About £40 more than the homepod on its own.
 

highlander

Member
Messages
5,214
Greg, I’m sensing you don’t have many fruit based tech products in your house :)

Lol. Ashamed to admit I do, although in my defence, they all belong to Fiona - iPad, mini iPad, iphone, iMac and she has a bl00dy Iwatch too! Think I've figured out why I hate the brand so much ;)
 

MrMickS

Member
Messages
3,951
As someone with a whole house full of fruit based products I can't see what the HomePod would do for me that my Bose Bluetooth speaker doesn't.

Well other than extract more money from bank account, leave white rings on the sideboard, and not be portable.

This is one l'll be giving a miss to.

If they'd spend more time in extending HomeKit to work with third parties I'd be more impressed.
 

CatmanV2

Member
Messages
48,547
I have a Bose BT one which was a gift. It's OK, but so far removed from proper HiFi as to be unreal.

Would be nice to integrate them all with the Z-wave gear but meh, it's far easier with my Volumio and sounds better as well

C