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Reddit Audiophiles Test HomePod, Say It Sounds Better Than $1,000 Speaker (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Apple released its much-hyped HomePod speaker to the masses last week, and the general consensus among early reviews is that it sounds superb for a relatively small device. But most of those reviews seem to have avoided making precise measurements of the HomePod's audio output, instead relying on personal experience to give generalized impressions. That's not a total disaster: a general rule for speaker testing is that while it's good to stamp out any outside factor that may cause a skewed result, making definitive, "objective" claims is difficult. But having some proper measurements is important. Reddit user WinterCharm, whose real name is Fouzan Alam, has made just that in a truly massive review for the site's "r/audiophile" sub. And if his results are to be believed, those early reviews may be underselling the HomePod's sonic abilities. After a series of tests with a calibrated microphone in an untreated room, Alam found the HomePod to sound better than the KEF X300A, a generally well-regarded bookshelf speaker that retails for $999. What's more, Alam's measurements found the HomePod to provide a "near-perfectly flat frequency response," meaning it stays accurate to a given track without pushing the treble, mids, or bass to an unnatural degree. He concludes that the digital signal processing tech the HomePod uses to "self-calibrate" its sound to its surroundings allows it to impress at all volumes and in tricky environments. "The HomePod is 100% an audiophile grade speaker," he writes.
Equally obvious alternative title: some audiophile gear is way over-priced.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
THD in the lower frequencies (below ~75 Hz) is between 18% and 56%, per his own graphs. I guess that is audiophile?
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Semi anechoic measurements in ones home or office with a calibrated mic are fine but the facts are still the same... Rooms have peaks and dips in response due to the reflections of the sounds at various frequencies. These build up in ways that, though they can be corrected for a specific listening location, will still cause havoc in the rest of the space resulting in a less than satisfactory listening experience. IE: listening out of the "sweet spot". There is in reality no way to correct a rooms acoustics for all listening locations. The other issue for some will be listening fatigue. A small driver is unable to reproduce the lowest octaves of the audio range and must resort to psycho acoustic trickery to make you think you hear what is not really there. This will lead to listener fatigue. In the case of speakers there is literally no replacement for displacement.