Testing update ... work in progress ... no results for publishing 🙁

Again I had setup difficulties. And WAN drop outs. And Core airplay issues. And storage issues on a test iPhone.

None the less I have tested the following:

A1 BlueTooth

A2 BlueTooth

A3 local source (ie the iPad)

HomePod (of course) Airplay

BL6K + BL11 Airplay and BlueTooth

BL20 BlueTooth

Using both the iPad (1st generation) and an iPhone 5S.

These tests were using Adele’s “Take It All” track and I am going to repeat the process tomorrow but using other Adele tracks and good old Jennifer Warnes.

I may also break out of storage a spare pair of BL4s and test them independently rather than being part of a surround sound system.

Sal wrote:

I still contend that traditional stereo should sound better on a pair of Beolab 3's than two Homepods.

@ Sal, I got my HomePod and I must say that one should perhaps listen to it first before judging. I am a total B&O fan but Apple has done their homework on the speaker side.

In fact, I only worry that if Apple were to apply their technology / software expertise to larger and true home audio set up. how will that impact B&O. On the small speaker side, I have no more reason to look at B&O. HomePod Setup was clean and though it is focused on Apple Music, Airplay always is available. 

Currently have only 1 HomePod and will get another one once the Airplay 2 is available. I can only imagine what the 2 HomePod set up will considering the software muscle and the A8 chip in these units but 1 is also enough to fill the room with all around sound with clarity and separation and warmth.

svinaik wrote:

Sal wrote:

I still contend that traditional stereo should sound better on a pair of Beolab 3's than two Homepods.

@ Sal, I got my HomePod and I must say that one should perhaps listen to it first before judging. I am a total B&O fan but Apple has done their homework on the speaker side.

In fact, I only worry that if Apple were to apply their technology / software expertise to larger and true home audio set up. how will that impact B&O. On the small speaker side, I have no more reason to look at B&O. HomePod Setup was clean and though it is focused on Apple Music, Airplay always is available. 

Currently have only 1 HomePod and will get another one once the Airplay 2 is available. I can only imagine what the 2 HomePod set up will considering the software muscle and the A8 chip in these units but 1 is also enough to fill the room with all around sound with clarity and separation and warmth.

You're right, I should hold judgement. That being said, I haven't read a bad review of the HomePod yet from the sound front. I am waiting for Airplay 2 to come to HomePod & Sonos before making my decision on one or the other and buying.

That being said, I am curious how users like my wife and I (we don't have ANY Apple Music subscriptions: No iCloud Music, No Apple Music, No iTunes Match, etc.) will get along with it, would we be relegated to only playing music from our phone's local library? I still don't quite understand the capabilities, regardless of the documentation for users without any subscriptions with Apple.

 

Sal wrote:

You're right, I should hold judgement. That being said, I haven't read a bad review of the HomePod yet from the sound front. I am waiting for Airplay 2 to come to HomePod & Sonos before making my decision on one or the other and buying.

That being said, I am curious how users like my wife and I (we don't have ANY Apple Music subscriptions: No iCloud Music, No Apple Music, No iTunes Match, etc.) will get along with it, would we be relegated to only playing music from our phone's local library? I still don't quite understand the capabilities, regardless of the documentation for users without any subscriptions with Apple.

Yes you could play from your phone’s collection.

In a separate thread I cheerfully streamed from Deezer & Spotify to HomePod using Airplay.

But where did your phone’s music come from ?

A DLNA server ?

Google ?

Do you use any form of streaming ?

Sal wrote:

That being said, I am curious how users like my wife and I (we don't have ANY Apple Music subscriptions: No iCloud Music, No Apple Music, No iTunes Match, etc.) will get along with it, would we be relegated to only playing music from our phone's local library? I still don't quite understand the capabilities, regardless of the documentation for users without any subscriptions with Apple.

In that case, you can:

- Play the music you have purchased on iTunes through HomePod using Siri

- Play every music you have on any Apple Device (or accessible through an Apple Device, like on Spotify) through AirPlay on the HomePod, using your Apple Device to control the HomePod

- If you are interested in playing your ripped CDs, you should definitely consider iTunes Match. It costs only about 20 bucks/year, and allows you to upload all your locally stored music to iCloud Music Library, and replay it on the HomePod through Siri.

elephant wrote:

But where did your phone’s music come from ?

My wife uses her MacBook Pro (iTunes Library >400GB) and syncs what she wants to her 256GB iPhone.

I use my MBPro the same way, syncing what I want on hand to my 64GB iPhone.

We have a Mac Mini always on as a server with a combined iTunes Library available through Home Sharing & Twonky. We have Sonos Connect also accessing the server as well as Twonky for use via the B&O app, Home Sharing is used for AppleTV and iOS Music App, see below...

I hate using the iOS Music App to access the Server via Home Sharing because of the time it takes for the Server to load as a Shared library on my iPhone.

We don't use any form of "streaming" services (i.e. Spotify, Google, etc.)

didole wrote:

- If you are interested in playing your ripped CDs, you should definitely consider iTunes Match. It costs only about 20 bucks/year, and allows you to upload all your locally stored music to iCloud Music Library, and replay it on the HomePod through Siri.

With all of the stellar comments and reviews about the HomePod's audio quality, I have been looking into iTunes Match, especially since much of our library consists of ripped CDs.

I found that when I played with iTunes Match, it did a poor job of covering my collection. I had a fair number of CDs that were important to me that weren't available with it, and none of the more esoteric things like rips of LPs or tapes of course. Another issue I noticed was, that the metadata on iTunes when ripping CDs is a mess a lot of the time, especially on compilation CDs. I had worked mightily to correct some of the worst issues, and as soon as I turned iTunes Match on it scrambled my library and metadata back to what iTunes had originally assigned, wrongly, to it. I think you could have heard me swearing all the way to Antarctica when that happened, probably scared the penguins.

If you can AirPlay your library from your PC using iTunes and wifi, that's good, if not, it's a major issue.

Jeff wrote:

If you can AirPlay your library from your PC using iTunes and wifi, that's good, if not, it's a major issue.

Thanks, We're an all Mac family where airplay is not an issue in the least. Perhaps there is a place for HomePod in our house after all.

Sal wrote:

With all of the stellar comments and reviews about the HomePod's audio quality, I have been looking into iTunes Match, especially since much of our library consists of ripped CDs.

I started in 2008/9 ripping all my CDs into iTunes Library; then I ripped my wife’s, and then over the years my three sons’ collections.

That accounts for ~18k tracks.

Over the years I bought iTunes Store tracks, albums, and “mtv” clips.

That accounts for another ~2k.

When iTunes Match came along I jumped in feet first:

- it provided backup; no re-recording need

- it provided a free upgrade from the capture quality I had used ... and then later a further, automatic quality upgrade whenever I played via a download from the iCloud

When Apple Music arrived I switched to streaming to preload my iPhone based Siri/Genius taste matching.

And I still do that, even though my in-Home streaming nowadays is Deezer HiFi.

However I was alarmed, when for today’s travels, Siri mixed me this set ... Siri must be trying to put me into a Valentines Day dinner night out mood !!!

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