AppleInsider puts HomePod's sound quality to the test against four smart speaker competitors, Sonos' One, Amazon's second-gen Echo, Google Home and Google's Home Max, in this comprehensive comparison. Find out which comes out on top.
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AppleInsider Staff
Charles Martin
Amber Neely
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Malcolm Owen
Oliver Haslam
48 Comments
I have been playing with my HomePod and I can say the sound is much better than my Sonos 1. I have a Martin Logan Soundbar in my bedroom and it always bothered me when I went into my bathroom as the Sonos sounded 'thin and echoish' it was a definite step down from my ML's. The new HomePod sounds pretty close to the ML's. Super rich and enveloping sound. no real discernible difference moving from room to room. In regards to Siri performance, I think it does some things really good (ability to hear your voice under most circumstances, ability to control and tell you about music...) I have Lutron Caseta lightingthrouout my house which I LOVE!! I was disappointed that HP can't control scenes (as of yet). I have several scenes that I use very frequently which makes HP severely lacking in this category. In my living room I have 3 different lights that I like at different levels depending upon what I am doing. Using HP to control them is cumbersome without the scenes ability enabled.
" I have a Martin Logan Soundbar in my bedroom and it always bothered me when I went into my bathroom as the Sonos sounded 'thin and echoish'"
Bathrooms have a tendency to sound 'thin and echoish (sic)".
Try the soundbar in the bathroom, probably sounds kind of the same.
I still have and used a Harmon Kardon sound stick system purchased back in ‘03.
The point is that the HK cost about $200 more than the HomePod, and while I’ve never been disappointed with the HK I won’t be using it anymore.
Let's have the guy who spent all weekend testing the homepod and produce the sound response graphs do the same for these other speakers. I want to see how they perform not how someone's ear thinks they perform. I think you'll all would be surprised.
Hmm... I know it's speaker into (camera?) recorded and then played back through not all that great speakers... but on the video, the HomePod sounded pretty awful. In that last test, I think I'd pick the Sonos 1... but again, I suppose you had to be there.