Apple HomePod (2nd Gen) (2023)

[warpdrive]

I had the OG. It died suddenly even with very little use. I believe it was the same diode problem that is a common cause of death https://track44.moe/homepods/#commonissues

I would be willing to buy the new one but I really hope they address whatever hardware design problem that caused some of them to die.
It sounded ok. It had lots of fletcher munson type of processing going on.

 

[symphara]

Sorry perhaps I should have made it clearer, my understanding is Apple have done everything necessary to provide the interface. The responsibility would be on those companies to create the implementation (upnp aside). Obviously them not doing this is somewhat in the financial interest of both parties (for apple to promote their streaming service, for streaming services to try and prevent losing subscribers (oh look the HomePod supports Spotify I'll get it, ooh Apple music free for x months, sure I'll give it a go, hey why am I paying for Spotify again?) so I assume that's why nothing has materialised, and probably won't for the foreseeable at least I imagine.

Yes, it's probably politics and each wanting to apportion the streaming market in their favour. I doubt that Apple makes the AirPlay library available outside their own OSes so there's no way for Spotify to bring, say, Android compatibility with this device short of maintaining their own client-side version which I guess they're not interested in doing.

 

[Rosenbloom]

I am very interested in getting a pair of homepod to complete a stereo system. Right now I am using a Belkin airplay receiver to stream my iPad’s local files and BBC3 onto my DAC and active speakers.

 

[sarumbear]

Driver complement looks less impressive than the first gen…

They specify 20mm woofer cone excursion. The first gen didn’t specify it but such excursion is mental.

 

[jhaider]

The first gen was good enough for a stereo pair to replace a decent pair of loudspeakers + sub with Dirac Live in a background system for us. It was a negotiated settlement but still they’re pretty darn good for their size, and I’ve heard $90k speakers that were much worse. We have a few of those OG HomePods around the house.

When Costco gets these I'll probably buy a pair for our exercise area.

 

[Head_Unit]

One could of course EQ in the source device,

Maybe not. I wanted to do that, but it turned out to not really be possible to EQ Apple Music or other stuff I wanted to stream. Not really EQ, I could use barf presets maybe. It doesn't seem this HomePod will have any inputs anyway (besides AirPlay or asking Siri).

Still doesn't run on batteries that I can tell, a BIG miss in my book, such a handy form factor to take outside or garage or even on vacation. Not even operable by an external pack.

And super agree with @dshreter it would be cool if room-sensing technology proliferated. Then again, Apple can afford far more massive investment into this stuff than any speaker maker on Earth. Surely also applying for patents like crazy, making it not easy for anyone to follow.

 

[Axo1989]

From the info Apple released, looks like it's the almost exactly same sized device, continues the 4" long-throw woofer, reduces the previous 7 horn-loaded tweeters to 5, adds a temp/humidity sensor along with replacing the A8 SoC with the S7. We see more home-related capabilities/features including Matter support.

I'd expect very similar sonics (as many have said already, they were quite good).

For my purposes, a battery and integrated handle would add versatility, as would support for additional multi-channel speaker assignments via the existing macOS Audio MIDI Setup.app (and a similar addition to AppleTV).

 

[Jeromeof]

I would get a pair (I had a pair of the OG HomePods before selling them) if they were slightly cheaper - IMO they do not compete with $600 speakers. But for the size and the convenience (if you are in the apple eco system) they were pretty great. They were far superior to the HomePod mini (or any Amazon or Google smart speaker I tried).

EQ wise they had (and I believe these will probably have the option also) a bass reduction option - basically the default sound was bass boosted (and noted by @amirm when he tested them) but there is a setting in the home App to get a normal bass response - if they were tested I would love that option to be selected as it probably makes more sense for most people on this forum than the 'crowd' pleasing (almost 'demo' mode) they shipped with.

For Spatial audio - the 2 OG HomePods were pretty interesting when I tried them with a trial of Apple Music a year ago but I could not understand why Apple would not extend the audio to say 4 HomePods as 2 front pairs and 2 rear pairs would probably be idea for Spatial Audio and home movie watching.

Note: I am a little dubious that the replaced the A series CPU with a CPU from the Apple Watch - while obviously a newer CPU its hard to imagine a watch CPU being very fast.

 

[Axo1989]

Note: I am a little dubious that the replaced the A series CPU with a CPU from the Apple Watch - while obviously a newer CPU its hard to imagine a watch CPU being very fast.

The S7 SoC basically has two A13 cores (that chip introduced with iPhone 11). The A8 was dual-core and introduced with iPhone 6 which is a while back: Geekbench 5 score was around 324 (single core) and 607 (multi-core) whereas a single A13 core was around 1300. S7 is clocked slower iirc. But I'd still expect better raw performance, as well as more supported features.

 

[Darwin]

Really curious to know how a single speaker that "directs music with great precision" can also "surround you in sound." I guess that "Apple silicon" is more powerful than any of us knew.

Smart speakers are fine by me, I just don't like the hype.

360 degree sound and they sound great with Dolby atmos with movies or spatial audio for music. I had the old ones and loved them especially two together They fill a room far better than conventional speakers. I preordered four of the new ones and am pumped to get them on the 3rd of Feb. Veterans price is $269 which is pretty close to $219 for a Sonos One but these have dramatically better sound.

 

[Darwin]

Is there anything mentioned about multiple speakers and Apple TV?

It’s all over the apple web site so yes. Two speakers. Also they improved the voice dialogue on these for better home theater, podcasts etc. The old ones did a great job with atmos movies giving a surprising surround sound effect for two speakers. Not as good as actual physical speakers behind you but close enough considering how minimal they are. I’m replacing two Sonos ones in my bedroom and an entire Sonos setup in my living room with these.

 

[Darwin]

I would get a pair (I had a pair of the OG HomePods before selling them) if they were slightly cheaper - IMO they do not compete with $600 speakers. But for the size and the convenience (if you are in the apple eco system) they were pretty great. They were far superior to the HomePod mini (or any Amazon or Google smart speaker I tried).

EQ wise they had (and I believe these will probably have the option also) a bass reduction option - basically the default sound was bass boosted (and noted by @amirm when he tested them) but there is a setting in the home App to get a normal bass response - if they were tested I would love that option to be selected as it probably makes more sense for most people on this forum than the 'crowd' pleasing (almost 'demo' mode) they shipped with.

For Spatial audio - the 2 OG HomePods were pretty interesting when I tried them with a trial of Apple Music a year ago but I could not understand why Apple would not extend the audio to say 4 HomePods as 2 front pairs and 2 rear pairs would probably be idea for Spatial Audio and home movie watching.

Note: I am a little dubious that the replaced the A series CPU with a CPU from the Apple Watch - while obviously a newer CPU its hard to imagine a watch CPU being very fast.

I found them much better than any $600 speaker. They are certainly better than the now $550 Sonos FIves and at one point I had three stereo sets of those.

 

[Darwin]

I wonder how large the new drivers are, now there are fewer of them so in theory they can put in slightly larger ones.

That information is out there. I think even on apples site.

 

[Darwin]

Shame. I don't get why they hobble this kind of product like this. Don't implement Chromecast, fine, but Spotify/Tidal/Qobuz/UPnP should be no brainers in my opinion.

Not everyone wants to pay for Apple Music.

In my experience with AirPlay from my phone, it's patchy even when the network is otherwise fast and trouble free.

You don’t need Apple Music since every streaming app works with AirPlay. Also Apple provided the ability some time ago for 3rd party apps to implement voice with HomePods. Pandora did it some time ago. There is nothing stopping Spotify and others from doing the same. AirPlay issues are typically down to your Wi-Fi. I have no trouble in a 5200 sq foot house.

Very good question, it doesn't seem all that clear from what I can tell?

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Edit: Had a read around and my answer is no. Apparently there has been an api available for a while now but spotify have not used it for an implementation, neither have most of the other streaming services, presumably due to competition and wanting to sell their own devices/subscriptions etc.

 

[Darwin]

Because the real money is in the subscription and not the hardware. I don't think they're motivated to sell speakers that connect to Spotify.

They already connect to Spotify by AirPlay and as has been said Spotify has chosen to not integrate with HomePods. Nothing stopping them. but Apple Music makes more sense anyway as they have a huge amount of spatial audio in their catalog and adding more all the time.
Here are Apples developer docs for doing so. Freely available and not hard to do. So why hadn’t Spotify done it like Pandora has?

SiriKit Cloud Media | Apple Developer Documentation

Stream music directly to HomePod speakers from your media service.

developer.apple.com

One other note is that when you use voice to play music it pulls it from the cloud so no AirPlay or other Device needed.

 

[Darwin]

Driver complement looks less impressive than the first gen, but at least we don't have to scrape around the used market for "the last word in smart speaker" (exaggerating, but Homepod 1st gen was pretty good all things considered), here's to hoping it performs as well as, if not better than, its older brother.
Interestingly they said "100% recycled rare earth element" when talking about the magnet, but the woofer motor looks like your typical ferrite business, tweeter perhaps?

They switched from ferrite (ceramic) magnets to neodymium magnets.

 

[Darwin]

There have been a number of these early previews. All positive.

Apple HomePod 2nd Generation - First Impressions

Today I took a trip to Manhattan to hear the new HomePod Generation 2 from Apple. First impressions of how it handled music playback made me emotional because I realized Apple has achieved that blend of performance plus stylish minimalism it is so well known for.

www.soundandvision.com

 

[dshreter]

They already connect to Spotify by AirPlay and as has been said Spotify has chosen to not integrate with HomePods. Nothing stopping them. but Apple Music makes more sense anyway as they have a huge amount of spatial audio in their catalog and adding more all the time.
Here are Apples developer docs for doing so. Freely available and not hard to do. So why hadn’t Spotify done it like Pandora has?

SiriKit Cloud Media | Apple Developer Documentation

Stream music directly to HomePod speakers from your media service.

developer.apple.com

One other note is that when you use voice to play music it pulls it from the cloud so no AirPlay or other Device needed.

All of these companies are trying to drive their own ecosystems. As far as I know, Apple has not chosen to support Spotify Connect which is how Spotify drives scale and continuity.

As far as I’m concerned, both companies are acting in self interested ways to advance their own subscription-based ecosystems leading to this less than consumer friendly outcome.

 

[Colin Lewis Smith]

Apple is now in the room correction business. I want an Apple TV box that functions as digital streamer and a Dirac-like 7.1 w/atmos room correction device. It’s a perfect platform to host software-driven EQ that is destined to evolve quickly and require frequent updates. Apple could just licence Dirac and sell it as a subscription.

 

[Descartes]

No WiFi6E!