Thanks for your quick reply. I was going to have an atmos sound bar dedicated for 4K movies enjoyment and use the KEF for music listening. But have been toying the idea of use the KEF for movies as well.
Looking forward to your comparison between HomePod and KEF. I dont expect HP will outclass the KEF anyways but will be good to know what is good or not.
When you use Roon/Airplay with HomePod, does it play FLAC? Or Roon will convert FLAC to ALAC/AIFF to be played by HomePod? I assume HomePod will not play anything beyond 16/48, is it?
âThe Look and feel is top notch. The glass on top is sort of frosted, but is smooth to the touch. When I first reviewed the home pod, I noted that it was light. I was comparing it with the heft of my KEF speakers. This thing, as small as it is, weighs 5 lbs. Which is quite dense, and heavy for its size. The Fabric that wraps around it is study, reinforced from inside, and feels very good to the touch.â
And:
âThe Frequency response, Directivity, and ability to correct for the room all go to show that the HomePod is a speaker for the masses. While many of you in this subreddit would be very comfortable doing measurements, and room treatment, there is no denying that most users wonât go through that much trouble, and for those users the HomePod is perfect.â
And caveats:
âBecause of the onboard DSP, you must feed it digital files. So analog input from something like a Phono is out, unless your Phono Preamp has a digital output which can then be fed to the HomePods in realtime via airplay, possibly through a computer. But you cannot give the HomePod analog audio, as the DSP which does all the room correction requires digital input.â
And:
âSpeaking of inputs, you have one choice: AirPlay. which means, unless youâre steeped in the apple ecosystem, itâs really hard to recommend this thing. If you are, itâs a no brainer, whether youâre an audiophile or not.â
And:
âAs a product, the HomePod is also held back by Siri. Almost every review has complained about this, and theyâre all right to do so. Iâm hoping we see massive improvements to Siri this year at WWDC 2018. There is some great hardware at play, too. Whatâs truly impressive is that Siri can hear you if you speak in a normal voice, even if the HomePod is playing at full volume. I couldnât even hear myself say âHey Siriâ over the music, but those directional microphones are really good at picking it up. Even whispers from across the room while I was facing AWAY from the HomePod were flawlessly picked up. The microphones are scary good â I just hope Apple improves Siri to match.â
And from the rollup at the top of the post:
âam speechless. The HomePod actually sounds better than the KEF X300A. If youâre new to the Audiophile world, KEF is a very well respected and much loved speaker company. I actually deleted my very first measurements and re-checked everything because they were so good, I thought Iâd made an error. Apple has managed to extract peak performance from a pint sized speaker, a feat that deserves a standing ovation. The HomePod is 100% an Audiophile grade Speaker.â
The three things I notice most about the HomePod are the clarity, 360 sound, and how sensitive the microphones are. The 360 turns out to be a big thing for me and it makes it very apparent how much SQ you lose moving out of the sweet spot of stereo speakers. I will be snapping up another one as soon as stereo becomes possible which sounds pretty close.
You can say Hey Siri in a low voice when the volume is turned up or form another room and it hers every time. Siri and HomeKit have been working well for me controlling lights etc but my needs are simple so far. Better than Alexa actually.
Sold my Sonos Play 5 and Sonos Oneâs on CL already I was never really satisfied with either one of tis setups even with stereo pairing. I always though detail and bass were poor especially when going past 30 or 40 percent volume.
Kef LS50W staying put but itâs really noticeable now how much sounds changes when you move outside the sweet spot to the point where it is practically aggravating.
This guys loves to complain about Apple, audiophile equipment, and hi res files so I take everything he says with huge grains of salt.
I bought his iTunes book last time around and didnât think it was very good.
He is also strangely unaware that you control your music to some extent with iTunes or iOS EQ.
Also he does not mention his sources, bit rate etc.
Pretty useless article and misleading in some cases.
Mine arrived today, been a few hours. Placed it on a desk with a wall behind it (seems to be Appleâs ideal setup according to pictures of it) and gave it 15 mins to do its calibration thing.
Itâs pretty stunning. I havenât been this impressed since I picked up a pair of Devialet Phantoms.
Havenât compared it directly to my LS50Ws since theyâre being repaired but if my audio memory serves me well you lose quite a bit on the bottom end, thereâs also no where near as much volume or bass extension on the HomePod vs a pair of LS50Ws. That said, it is pretty damn nice being able to walk round the room with the music having no identifiable sweet spot.
If youâre a Roon user this thing is the ideal endpoint for rooms where critical listening is not required.
One more observation about the advantage the Home Pod can provide:
Controlling music with my voice.
I have Apple Music, I have mostly used it for discovery and then play in Tidal with the superior sound.
I am using Apple music more:
With new Downbeat I can read the album reviews on the couch and have Siri play the album from Apple Music as I read.
Siri will also pause, resume and skip to the next track in Roon. Of course she can not search Tidal through Roonâmaybe in the future.
As the special section in Mondayâs New York Times âInto the Eye of the Internetâ's first article on the Post Text Future points out: voice, video and AI are the future of interface with the Net. Voice control of music is coming and we can only hope that audiophile quality will be along for the ride.