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HomePod
#428833 02/12/18 01:46 PM
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An audiophile review:

https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/7wwtqy/apple_homepod_the_audiophile_perspective/

If accurate, Apple seems to have done a remarkable job, achieving omnidirectional sound and flat frequency response in a small, relatively inexpensive product.

I'd love to see Axiom test the Homepod to see where its limitations lie. But perhaps a major advance, using highly sophisticated active management to achieve transparent sound at low size and cost.

Re: HomePod
wschwartz #428835 02/12/18 03:32 PM
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I looked at a teardown. The 4" woofer motor looks massive. The driver looks well-thought out as well.

I haven't had time to read the review you posted but I remember reading that the active sound management is transparent to the user. The pod is always listening and adjusting its filter coefficients. No matter how good this thing sounds, I'm not letting it into my home since its always listening.

Any idea what the spec'd SPL is? Is it stereo?

Re: HomePod
wschwartz #428838 02/13/18 10:35 PM
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(Disclaimer: I work at Apple, but was not involved with the HomePod hardware in any way.)

Since Apple gave employees a 50% discount on HomePod during the first 60 days after release, I jumped on it. I’ve had mine since Friday. That reddit review has been seen internally and people are quite happy with independent verification. Apple has had an anechoic chamber for a while — used in the past to make their hardware quieter, but they used it to test and refine be HomePod. The product has been under development for about 6 years.

I’m quite happy with mine, and can’t wait until they get the stereo pair feature working. While one sounds great, two would really be something.

Re: HomePod
Mojo #428839 02/13/18 10:38 PM
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Mojo, you can disable the always listening feature. Then you have to touch and hold the top to activate the Siri.

Also, Apple never sends any audio data to its servers unless you’ve triggered the device with the activation phrase “Hey Siri” or have touched the top to activate Siri. Even then, personally identifiable data is scrubbed and never stored — raw waveforms are never stored anywhere, only interpreted words.

Re: HomePod
wschwartz #428840 02/13/18 11:38 PM
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Here's a video of someone taking it apart to look at its guts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArH41WyUt28

Re: HomePod
wschwartz #428842 02/14/18 02:24 AM
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Thanks. How much SPL are you getting out of the pod?


House of the Rising Sone
Out in the mid or far field
Dedicated mid-woofers are over-rated
Re: HomePod
Mojo #428843 02/14/18 02:57 AM
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At max volume, I measured a Pink Martini track 1m from the speaker just now at about 85-88dB (C-weighted, slow). This is in my living/dining/kitchen “great room”, roughly 20’ x 32’ x 8’.

Re: HomePod
wschwartz #428845 02/14/18 11:51 AM
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How does the HomePod sound compared to Axioms? I'm curious just how far Apple has come using active technology instead of size and cost to get transparent sound and omnidirectIonality. The cost difference between two HomePods and an Axiom LFR system is enormous of course.

Re: HomePod
wschwartz #428846 02/14/18 11:56 AM
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Re: HomePod
wschwartz #428847 02/14/18 05:27 PM
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Per pmbuko's testing, the SPL from the pod comes nowhere close to the LFRs. Also remember the pod is a single channel device; not stereo. Now a good question is when stereo is supported from dual pods, could that stereo image result in "stereo everywhere"?

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