Listening to music is something of an obsession of mine and that has led to spending a great deal of time working with speakers. Speakers hooked up to stereo systems, portable speakers, powered speakers, smart speakers, soundbars, you name it. Looking around my office, I count roughly 30 speakers in here at the moment. For the first time, this collection includes a handful of Apple HomePod speakers. It’s not that I’ve actively avoided the HomePods–I’m a big fan of Apple gear and very invested in the Apple ecosystem–it’s more that I haven’t had time. Apple has never offered to send a review sample, so I’ve never made the time. And other than some early experiments with Sonos gear, I haven’t done a lot with whole-home audio.
However, when we embarked on a recent home renovation, my wife suggested that she would like to look at incorporating whole-home audio. Mostly for playing her podcasts as she moves from room to room I suspect, but any excuse will do! This seemed like the perfect time to give HomePods a shot. To start off, I bought two of the full-sized, second generation HomePod smart speakers. Then added four HomePod minis.
I’m going to do a series on my experience, and to kick things off here’s my hands-on review of the second generation Apple HomePod.
Second Generation HomePod Key Specs:
- 5 horn-loaded beamforming tweeters with neodymium magnets, 4-inch high excursion woofer
- Top-mounted touch controls
- Room-sensing computational audio powered by Apple S7 processor
- Internal bass EQ microphone for automatic bass calibration
- Spatial Audio support, Dolby atmos support
- 4 microphone Siri far-field array
- 802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity (Apple AirPlay)
- Sound recognition for audio alarms including smoke detectors
- Integrated temperature and humidity sensors
- Supports stereo pairing and multi-room audio
- HomeKit compatible
- 6.6 x 5.2 inches, weighs 5.16 lbs
- Available in White or Midnight
- MSRP $299
Unboxing and Setup
If you’ve purchased any Apple product in the past, you’ll know that the HomePod arrives in elegant and environmentally-friendly packaging. Inside is the speaker and a detachable power cable. The included cable fits snugly so that it looks like a built-in, but because it’s removable so you aren’t out of luck if the power cable gets damaged. Even better, you can use a standard figure 8-style power cable. It won’t fit as seamlessly as Apple’s and it probably won’t have the premium braided cloth covering, but it will work. That’s a big improvement over the original HomePod’s proprietary cable that came with warnings to never remove it.
The speaker itself is a squat, cloth-covered cylinder (in white or black) about half a foot tall and weighing just over five pounds. I would say it falls on the upper side of small wireless speakers, or perhaps squeaks in as a mid-size model. The top surface is a shiny plastic touchscreen with discrete “+” and “-“ markings. Maybe a little too discrete. It seems to me as though Apple is really pushing the Siri voice control on the HomePod because the volume markings are really tough to make out unless the backlighting is on. When Siri is doing something, the surface glows with soft, multicolor LEDs. This gives the impression Apple’s virtual assistant is thinking… This effect can be turned off using the Home app. There is no option to have those LED lights pulse to music.
Setup will also be familiar to Apple product owners. I plugged the HomePod in, was prompted to hold my iPhone’s camera over the speaker’s top panel, then followed a series of prompts on my iPhone. You do need an iOS device to initially set the speaker up as it uses the Home app. That Home app setup includes the option to integrate the HomePod into a smart home setup (thanks to HomeKit support), including using its integrated temperature and humidity sensors to trigger an automation such as turning up a compatible smart thermostat.
There’s nothing to physically connect, because the HomePod has no physical connections. And although the speaker is equipped with Bluetooth 5.0, that connectivity option is not available to users–It’s AirPlay or nothing.
You’ll want to position the HomePod somewhere that the speaker’s drivers have room to work their magic. That being said, this speaker is equipped with mics and the smarts to automatically optimize audio performance based on its position in a room. You’ll also need to account for having an electrical outlet nearby–this is not a portable and it has no battery.
Audio Performance
This is probably the most import factor in terms of evaluating the HomePod. If a speaker doesn’t sound good, there’s not much point in buying it. Keep in mind that although positioned as a premium offering, this is actually not a particularly large (or expensive) speaker. Here’s Apple’s description:
“HomePod is a powerhouse of a speaker. Apple‑engineered audio technology and advanced software deliver high‑fidelity sound throughout the room.”
This set expectations rather high. The HomePod didn’t exactly blow me away, but it was a capable speaker, especially for the price.
I was a little worried given that the second generation drops two tweeters compared to the original, but there is little fault to found in the audio the HomePod puts out. Its five tweeters are positioned to provide a 360-degree effect and angled upward for projection, while a beefy 4-inch, high excursion woofer moves a lot of air to provide very satisfying bass. In fact, the low end can thump enough that Apple offers a “Reduce Bass” option in the Home app. I never used that… The speaker delivers an energetic sound profile as opposed to the neutral response that audio systems slanted more toward purists and audiophiles deliver, but it makes for an entertaining listening experience.
The combination of drivers–optimized in real-time through computational audio–did a nice job of playing music from any genre. At low volumes, sound was uninspiring (true of many wireless speakers), but add a bit of volume and the results are much better, with nice bass thump, solid vocals, crisp high notes and a good amount of detail. Songs that can make the most of that muscular bass were especially fun to listen to. Simple Minds’ “New Gold Dream,” “Blue Monday” by New Order, Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” and “Emotional Rescue” by the Rolling Stones are examples of songs that really sound fantastic on the HomePod. That being said, it was just as much at home playing Gordon Lightfoot or Joni Mitchell playlists while my wife and I enjoyed our morning coffee.
Apple doesn’t publish any info about amplification, but the HomePod can get loud enough to power the party in a good-sized room.
The HomePod also supports Spatial Audio thanks to that array of angled drivers and its powerful Apple S7 processor, but I am going to focus on that (as well as stereo pairing) in more detail in another post. Suffice it to say that it’s an interesting capability that’s limited by the number of tracks available with the special encoding on Apple Music.
Siri and Apple Music
Siri voice control for music works quite well, which was a good thing because the too-subtle labelling (and requirement to be familiar with various taps and other gestures) made physical control less intuitive than it should be. We have had no issue with having Siri pick up on voice commands, even when music is playing loudly. We did have one occasion, where Siri reacted to a voice command coming from a show on the nearby TV, but that was a one-off. Siri’s integration with Apple Music is tight and worked well. For example, just tell the HomePod to play music by a band and it will respond by playing a “best of” or “essentials” playlist.
Not a fan of Apple Music? You can stream music from any service if you do the streaming from your iPhone, iPad or Mac to the HomePod using AirPlay.
This dual capability of being able to stream and control audio directly from the speaker and also to be able to do some from an Apple device did occasionally cause some confusion. The whole setup is designed to be very seamless–to the point of a handoff feature where the HomePod takes over playing music when an iOS device which is streaming music to it via AirPlay is brought near. This saves battery life for the iPhone. You can also use your device to take over control of the HomePod over AirPlay. But it can easy to lose track of who’s in control, especially if there are multiple people interacting with the speaker, some using Siri and some using their devices. I sometimes had to launch my iPhone’s Home app in order to see what was actually going on. I also had the odd issue where my iPhone would be streaming to the HomePod and in control of the tracks, except for volume.
While the experience is mostly good, it feels like Apple still has a little fine-tuning to do here.
Apple HomePod Recommendation
There’s a lot to like about Apple’s premier smart speaker. Its bass is quite solid for a speaker of this size and its array of tweeters make for crisp playback. Spatial Audio is a useful trick, although Apple Music tracks encoded in the supported format are still relatively rare.
The market for this speaker is going to be somewhat limited by its own limitations. There’s no Bluetooth, no physical inputs and no battery. In addition, you really need to be invested in the Apple ecosystem–iPhone, Apple Music, etc…–in order to take full advantage of what the HomePod has to offer.
However, if you’re looking for a smart speaker that sounds great for its size, looks stylish, doesn’t cost a fortune, offers multi-room audio support, can integrate with other compatible smart devices and is designed from the ground up to make the most of Apple products and services, then the second generation Apple HomePod is likely the speaker for you.
Note: If you’re worried about future-proofing, keep in mind that rumors have been circulating for some time about a possible third generation HomePod that includes an integrated display that would allow it to be used for FaceTime calls.
Stay tuned for more instalments in this ongoing series. Topics I am planning to cover include:
- HomePod mini review
- HomePod mini vs. HomePod
- HomePod whole-home audio experience
- Spatial Audio on the HomePod
- Using HomePods in a stereo pair and as a TV soundbar alternative
- Can you connect a turntable to a HomePod speaker?
- Apple HomePod audio performance vs. other popular wireless speakers such as Ultimate Ears’ EPICBOOM
