This is in keeping with my impressions of it.Reality is setting in. I set the HomePod on my tv stand, between the JBLs, toggled between them from Apple Music, then turned the SVS sub up to match the balance of bass the pod is emulating. Audiophool hangover causes me to run it at a fraction of what normal people would, and the pod, evidently, is aimed at normal people. The pod doesn’t come very close, IMO. The bass is...boomy?...not exactly, because it’s still well-defined, but it’s not quite right, either. And the mids and highs don’t have the clarity and detail of the JBLs, and bear in mind, while these LSR 305s are really good small recording monitors, they are the world’s cheapest really good small recording monitors. Will two pods bridge the gap? Maybe. I was running it at 100%. Two won’t be working nearly as hard, and the excursion of the bass won’t be dampened as much by the software. Could make all the difference in the world. Will that sharpen the clarity of the mids and highs? Probably not.
With all of that said, it still sounds better off axis than the JBLs. It doesn’t matter where I put it or where I’m sitting. It sounds the same as long as I can see it. They’ve turned the room into the sweet spot, with a $350 speaker. That’s an incredible achievement. I hope Apple, or somebody, does this on a larger scale. And it is, by a long shot, the best speaker I’ve heard in its category. I’ve had the $250 Klipsch (Sent it back. Twice. Long story). And I bought my daughter the $250 Harman Kardon. This is a lot more than $100 better than those, and all the others I’ve auditioned, including more expensive models like the B&Ws. And it takes dictation.
I still may buy a second one, depending on Apple’s return policy (can’t say I’ve ever wanted to return anything to Apple.) But in a place the size of mine, I really only see the need for two if they’re going to replace my main speakers. In the meantime, I think I’ll place it for whole house walking around listening, and pick up my iPad, switch to the JBLs when I’m headed to the living room to sit.
The base is kinda forward with the relationship between base and mids a bit weird ( can’t think of a better description) The HomePod is probably about as good as a device of it’s size and type can be but ultimately it’s resticted by its form.
I certainly could not live with it as a main way to listen to music and I have trouble believing anybody would prefer it to a decent 2 channel system.