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.

Comments

I call bullshit

[ReneR]

Also this homepot certainly is quite mono, ..?

Re:I call bullshit

[thesupraman]

except, of course, 6 speakers in a circle CANNOT ACHIEVE BEAMFORMING.

This is PURE marketing BS from Apple, there is no beamforming happening, because it is physically impossible given the physical layout, frequencies involved, driver geometry, etc. It is not even a matter of opinion, it is simply impossible.

What is being used is a mixture of room mode excitement, perceptual tuning and direct/reflect sound to give people some feeling of 'space', however there is practically no actual stereo separation. Really. Try listening to strong left/right panning audio on one - it is just a mess.

Of course the pudits, as usual, just swallow the pseudo-tech terms thrown out by marketing, and write big glowing reviews which assume thats what is actually happening...

What this 'with the numbers' review fails to address is the HORRIBLE compromises in other areas (I am looking at you, phase and group delay) that must be made to achieve what they are doing. These speakers are 'better' than a cheap PC speaker (and 90% of the shite bluetooth speakers people listen to these days), and yet such a large distance away from even a middling proper speaker setup that A/B blind testing is made impossible as it is simple to audible tell if you are listening to this is a proper pair of separated speakers.

If having flat frequency response was the main target of speaker design, then speakers would have been near perfect in the 60s.. and yet they were not.

But that wont stop the believers, marketers, and consumers who need to rationalise their purchases.

So, No, he has NOT 'provided empirical evidence that the HomePod reproduced sound more accurately than a speaker that costs nearly 3x its price.' .
It is trivial to get flat response - and few look for that as the only requirement, because it comes at the cost of other bad problems.

Re:Check the THD plots

[LynnwoodRooster]

Nope. It's Apple Music, or Bluetooth/Airplay. You're limited - by the Apple ecosystem - to AAC, or MAYBE 24 bit/48 kHz if you have a Lightning output device. High res audio? 24/192 or 32/384? DSD? Sorry - no love for you in the Apple world. Even decent Bluetooth codecs like AptX HD and Sony's LDAC are barred from iOS (due to it not using/supporting CSR chips). Audiophile and Apple stop at source - and apparently that stoppage is now reinforced with a speaker that has 50%+ THD at average SPL levels.

not a chance

[Anonymous Coward]

This guy doesn't know how to interpret or display measurements.

Someone took his measurements and posted a graph displayed properly. This speaker is bad.

https://i.imgur.com/hWRCOUnr.png

Audiophile says it all

[DrXym]

I'm sure it is quite possible to do some ABX testing on this speaker vs some others and arrange them into an order that represents their comparative quality without people's bias / imagination creeping into reviews.

Re:Uh huh

[arth1]

PROVE it sends constant audio to Apple Servers (or to anyone outside your LAN), or STFU.

Why does it have to send "constant" to be a problem?

It certainly captures sound (or it wouldn't react to keywords), and it certainly has the capabilities to connect to the mothership (or it wouldn't be able to look anything up), and whether it combines the two now or not is enough of a potential problem that I won't allow it in my home or my office.

Re:Check the THD plots

[LynnwoodRooster]

Quit with the crap!

Yes, you should!

1. THD is VERY hard to hear. IM distortion is what is annoying.

False. Go and check any of the AES papers by gentlemen like Louis Fielder, Grant Davidson, or Dane Grant (all gentlemen I work with weekly). THD audibility is dependent upon SPL and frequency, and levels as low as 0.5% are not only audible, but objectionable based upon the spectrum of the THD.

Don't believe that? Perhaps Dr. Earl Geddes' presentation on the audibility of distortion will help. Of course, when you live in a reality distortion field, I guess THD might be a good thing!

2. Even Audiophile-quality (whatever THAT means!) Subwoofers generate around 25-30% THD when they are crankin'.

Really? In 2004 I was well below that level, and later I took it to >100 dB SPL with single digit THD. You're flailing here. Oh - and these SPL levels are a solid 20+ dB beyond the HomePod, meaning literally 100 times the sonic power, with one quarter - or less - the THD.

3. To get that 56%, he was driving the woofer to within an inch of its life.

Funny, because it can't move even close to an inch, or even half an inch.

And here are his comments in the "Distortion" Section:

"If we look at the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) at various sound pressure levels (SPLs) we see that Apple begins to “reign in” the woofer when THD approaches 10db below the woofer output. Since decibels are on a log scale, Apple’s limit on the woofer is to restrict excursion when the harmonic distortion approaches HALF the intensity of the primary sound, effectively meaning you will not hear it. What apple has achieved here is incredibly impressive — such tight control on bass from within a speaker is unheard of in the audio industry. [...] Even though Distortion rises for the woofer, it's imperceptible. The (lack of) bass distortion is beyond spectacular, and I honestly don't think there is any bookshelf-sized speaker that doesn't employ computational audio that will beat it right now."

So he likes the sounds of the compressor kicking in, and he believes that you cannot hear which, provably, you can. And he's - like you - a self-admitted Apple fan. The bottom line is his measurements are middling performance at best. And yes, I work in this industry, I design speakers, and you HAVE heard my work - guaranteed. Probably directly (SONOS, Polk, Genesis, Infinity, Beats, Blue, Audioquest, Mackie, EAW, KRK, Polycom, Microsoft, etc.) or indirectly (monitors for Mackie, Event, KRK, microphones for a dozen brands, etc).

The HomePod is an interesting idea - but it's got, at best, middling performance. These measurements confirm as much.