HomePod is the Siri-based smart speaker with which the Apple company wants to conquer even more customers in the battle of smart home gadgets. Yesterday HomePod was officially presented, but the Apple company announced that the launch will take place only in December of this year and only in three countries around the world, the rest will have to wait.
HomePod is a smart speaker that costs 350 dollars, almost 3 times more than Google Home and twice as much as Amazon Echo. Apple established this price of HomePod taking into account the base price of a smart speaker, plus the basic price of a Wi-Fi speaker, Americans considering that the value of 350 dollars is a very good one for such a product.
At the heart of this marketing strategy for HomePod is the fact that Apple's smart speaker can offer a superior quality for the sounds played. Considering that there are no units to be distributed for reviews, those from Apple invited some American journalists to experience the HomePod in a room created especially for yesterday's event.
HomePod – first reviews for audio quality
Journalists had the opportunity to listen to the music played by HomePod, Amazon Echo and Sonos Play 3, and most of them were very impressed by the Apple product. The Sonos Play 3 is a very strong competitor for the HomePod, but those from Apple have thought of their product in such a way that it offers superior audio quality.
Sonos Play 3 is also sold at the price of 350 dollars by the Apple company, but HomePod offers much more advanced functions than it. The Apple company seems to have created through the HomePod a smart speaker that will meet the needs of many people, and this at a competitive selling price with inferior products.
HomePod could be the beginning of a new revolution for the Apple company, and here we don't have to limit ourselves only to the functions that allow listening to music. HomePod has many technologies that allow it to realize what kind of room it is in and to modify its audio quality depending on it, so it will be interesting to see what the first opinions will be after the launch.
Business Insider
"I'm no audio expert, so I won't even pretend I can go into all the reasons why the HomePod sounds so good. But I did notice the HomePod was able to fill a large room very well and sounded great no matter what angle I was listening from, which Apple says is possible because the HomePod is smart enough to intelligently tune itself and balance the audio to match any room or position you put it in. It sounded even better when playing in stereo while synced with another HomePod. Still, it was tough to evaluate the HomePod on its own, and I didn't realize just how good it sounded until I heard a nearby Sonos 3 speaker playing the same songs. The Sonos sounded OK, but the sound wasn't nearly as rich as the HomePod [and] the Echo sounded like someone was singing through a tin can a mile away. It isn't even in the same league as the HomePod or Sonos."
CNET
"HomePod puts vocals in a direct center channel, and beams ambient sounds around for what Apple says is a more omnidirectional music experience. I walked around, and it sounded good from multiple parts of the room. Apple said HomePod can separate vocals and other parts of the music via Apple Music, but that more recent recordings will perform the separation better […] HomePod came off as bolder and more vivid than Sonos Play:3 in the experience I tried, and a lot better than Amazon Echo. I'd also say the music sounded consistently vivid and crisp in a quiet space, more so than the Sonos and Amazon comparisons on hand."
Engadget
"The HomePod however, sounded crisp and bright no matter the musical genre fed through it — it rendered The Eagles as well as it did Kendrick Lamar. As a reminder, there's a huge woofer and seven tweeters inside, all meant to make audio sound as vivid as possible no matter where you are in a room. It works. The PLAY:3 was generally very good, but the audio felt remarkably closed off when I wasn't sitting right in front of it. If listening to the HomePod was like listening to a CD, then audio through the Echo sounded like AM radio.”
The Verge
"The main thing to know is that Apple has done a remarkably good job finding ways to get its speaker to feel like it's filling a room with sound. It starts with the subwoofer, which delivers bass that doesn't quite hit you in the chest but does manage to put other smart speakers like the Echo or Google Home to shame. It's obviously no standalone subwoofer, but it outperforms what you'd expect from a speaker of this size. […] Apple is claiming that, using the microphones, the speaker can work out the shape of the room and then beam different parts of the song to different areas. So the vocals get pumped straight out into the center of the room while the "ambient" bits get bounced off the wall. I can't speak to the proper audiophile terms for what they're talking about, but I can say that it sounded pretty immersive and impressive in person."
What HiFi?
"As Sia's The Greatest played out, the HomePod sounded impressive: strong bass rang out - which was perhaps the overriding audio takeaway for the speaker - but the vocals still seemed sharp and crisp. In comparison, the Sonos Play:3 appeared uncharacteristically flat, while the Amazon Echo felt almost pedestrian. We listened to Superstition by Stevie Wonder and DNA by Kendrick Lamar. Both sounded good on the Sonos but appeared punchier and louder on the HomePod. As we moved around the room, the HomePod managed to project in every direction, with no discernible sweet spot. We also heard a pair of HomePods playing a live recording of Hotel California by The Eagles. The attention to detail was striking, with different instruments sounding discretely realized. Did we feel like we were at the concert? Maybe not, but it did sound powerful."
