Media Server Reviews

Jim Austin returned to the Apple HomePod in September 2018 (Vol.41 No.9):

When I reviewed Apple's HomePod smart speaker for the August 2018 issue, I found Apple's virtual assistant, Siri, less helpful than annoying (if also, at times, amusing). I was very impressed, though, with the sound of this unusual speaker, with its upfiring 4" woofer and array of seven horn-loaded tweeter/midrange drivers. Apple was already planning a software update that would allow two HomePods to be used as a stereo pair, and I'd promised a Follow-Up review when they did.

Mere days after submitting that review, I received notice that the change was imminent: An update to the HomePod's firmware and to iOS, Apple's portable-device operating system, would enable new HomePod features. At the core of the changes is AirPlay 2, which allows synchronized streaming to multiple (supported) devices—with voice commands, you can have the music follow you from room to room or play everywhere at once. ("Hey Siri, play delta blues on the front porch." Hey Siri, stop the music everywhere.") AirPlay 2 isn't limited to Apple speakers: wireless devices from Bang & Olufsen, Bluesound, Bose, Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Libratone, Marantz, Marshall, Naim, Pioneer, and Sonos are also supported. The update also allows Siri to understand and act on a wider range of voice commands. And the HomePod now has stereo capability when the HomePods are controlled by an iOS device.

What excited me most in my early HomePod listening—with one HomePod—was its rich, solid core of relatively uncolored sound, balanced with ambience that, if a bit synthetic, sounded pretty convincing. From a technical perspective, I was interested in a technology that allowed for controlled dispersion: with its symmetric, radial array of tweeter/midrange drivers, the HomePod can control the horizontal dispersion of music frequency band by band; if properly managed, this could give the HomePod an advantage over typical hi-fi designs, where dispersion is limited by, for example, the size and frequency range of dynamic drivers.

Even dispersion is especially important for stereo. Apple's approach, if implemented well, should allow for deep, solid images and a wide sweet spot. Offsetting this, potentially, is Apple's heavy-handed use of this computer-controlled dispersion technology to achieve a sense of space: The HomePod's onboard computer—which features the same processor that's in my iPhone 6s—distinguishes between direct and ambient sound and sends the latter out in all directions while beaming the former directly out into the room, away from proximate walls and corners. It's an interesting idea, but like many other serious music-listeners I've long found most synthetic manipulations to be audibly flawed.

I've also found that execution makes at least as much difference—and usually more difference—than potential. Great speakers have been made from flawed designs, and flawed speakers have been made from designs that follow all the orthodox rules and look great on paper. Much depends on the designers' objectives—and for a mass-market device like the HomePod, there's reason to worry that the designers' aims would be cynical. So, how will stereo HomePods fare?

Stereo HomePods
Setting up HomePod 2 didn't go as smoothly as it had with HomePod 1, and the fault was entirely mine. I thought I'd already downloaded the latest (required) iOS update, and I hadn't. I thought I had wireless and Bluetooth activated on my iPhone, and I didn't. The installation bogged down in the middle, and it took me a while to restart it. Eventually, I got it to work. I suppose I could argue that Apple's software should be more resilient to morons like me.

An irony: A problem with every serious wireless speaker I've ever tried is the length of the power cord. In use, these "wireless" speakers must be permanently anchored to the wall via a 6' leash. The HomePod's cord is nice: sturdy, flexible, and covered by a nice fabric that matches the HomePod's color—but given the receptacle constraints in many spaces, including my prewar Manhattan apartment, 6' isn't long enough to permit much flexibility in setup.

With the HomePods' nondetachable cords (footnote 1) plugged directly into my PS Audio P10 PowerPlant, I was able to separate the Apples by only 4' 3". In the position I've found to be acoustically optimal—it minimizes the impact of the room's various standing waves—my listening seat is more than 12' from the midpoint of the line connecting the HomePods. In this arrangement, the speakers subtended a mere 20°, which doesn't allow for much stereo separation.

Already, though, I heard promise. Center fill was very good—no surprise, with the 'Pods so close together—and the soundstage extended well beyond the speakers. The images, though crowded, seemed solid.

I pulled a PS Audio Ultimate Outlet out of a closet, set it on the floor in the middle of the room, and attached it to the P10 via an extension cord snaked under my component rack. Now I was able to place the HomePods atop and at the front edges of my regular speakers. They were now more than 9' apart, about 40" up off the floor and several feet farther out into the room. I expected to hear a giant hole in the middle of the soundstage, indistinct images, and little timbre or texture.

That's not what I got. There was no hole in the soundstage, and the center-fill was perfect. That soundstage began well behind the speaker plane and extended well back from there. Images were corporeal—not up to the standard set by my main system, but far better than I'd expected. I pulled out a pair of 22"-tall speaker stands, placed approximately 8' apart and 8' from the listening position. These little speakers deserved a proper audition.

In my August review of the HomePod, I noted "a slight tin-can character to the sound." In listening to the stereo configuration, I noticed that this closed-in character mainly affected the ambient sound; the direct sound was mostly uncolored. I did sometimes hear this closed-in character in the lower and midbass—which, of course, is mostly ambient. This was the HomePod's most obvious imperfection, but I adapted to it quickly, and rarely found it off-putting.

Otherwise, the bass was good: lighter than in my main system, and not as deep, but deeper than you'd expect, sufficient and not overdone. This, I think, sets the HomePod apart from other inexpensive, compact systems I've heard that have serious low-frequency ambitions, especially those in conventional boxes: the HomePod was relatively free of tubbiness or midbass bloat. I did occasionally hear one-note bass, especially from live recordings, such as the bass solos in "Give Me the Simple Life," from Etta Jones's Hollar! (streaming, Prestige/Apple Music). On other, similar recordings, the bass sounded fine. You don't get perfect for $698.

Occasionally I noticed—again, especially in live recordings—that an instrument's core sound and its ambience could seem disconnected: the same instrument had a presence in the most forward plane and, simultaneously, another several feet back, at lower volume. This was, however, subtle, and not as bad as it sounds.

That's a complete list of the defects I heard. Texture and timbre were very good, if not up to the standard of my home system. The HomePods produced a little more high-end energy than does my main system, which is somewhat reticent by design; although the result was a bit more crispness in their sound, I never found the HomePods fatiguing.

Summing Up
We must not ignore those so-called "smart" features that make the HomePod distinctive among the products reviewed in Stereophile. Having lived with Siri for a few months, I'm more convinced than ever that she's a net negative. It's nice to be able to ask for the outside temperature as you get dressed in the morning, but I can do that with my phone. I find myself occasionally saying, "Hey Siri, play some jazz" (footnote 2), but I once had to ask her four times to play Charles Mingus's "Fables of Faubus" before she got it right. (For Faubus she kept hearing fathers, and insisted that it wasn't in my library or on Apple Music.) Occasionally and unaccountably, Siri interrupts conversations, even when no one says "Hey Siri." I find this odd and disturbing.

As I wrote in my August review, I think the HomePod works best when used within Apple's music ecosystem: iTunes and Apple Music. That's what it's designed for. Other options exist, however. After I improved my listening-room WiFi, I was able to get Tidal to play just fine through the HomePods via the new AirPlay 2 protocol (footnote 3). Roon, which requires two wireless journeys via two different protocols—AirPlay 2 and whatever Roon uses to send music wirelessly from its Core computer to a Roon remote—was less successful. It worked at first—no dropouts—but when I interrupted the first album to play something else, the sound disappeared.

If you plan to use the HomePods with Tidal or Spotify or some other streaming app, be aware that AirPlay 2, which is necessary to use two HomePods for stereo, is supported only by iOS devices: You can't send stereo iTunes output to the HomePods from a computer because, so far, no computer supports AirPlay 2. Presumably this will be rectified in a forthcoming MacOS update, but who knows? (footnote 4)

For $698, plus your existing iPad or iPhone, a dual-HomePod system offers excellent stereo sound with remarkable imaging and relatively few defects. This is the best-sounding wireless system I've heard at or near the price.—Jim Austin

---

Footnote 1: According to several online sources, the HomePod's power cord can in fact be detached, but only by exerting some serious force. The scuttlebutt is that it's necessary to detach the cables to feed them through narrow channels for display in Apple Stores. I've also read that Apple may start offering replacement power cords—longer ones, perhaps?

Footnote 2: Apple Music's Pure Jazz Radio is pretty good.

Footnote 3: It was easy. I played music from the iOS Tidal app on my iPhone and used AirPlay 2 to send the music to the HomePods.

Footnote 4: I see no mention of support of AirPlay 2 in descriptions of the forthcoming update of MacOS Mojave.