HomePod Follow-up

[karmicdragonfly]

After my previous first use post, and now that I've had a week and a half of use of the HomePod and have had friends over to play around with it, I thought I would do a follow-up.

Overall -- I like it. I'm glad I bought the device.

I saw some commenters online stating that they thought that Apple should have waited for a while -- I guess until when? Until the device was perfect before releasing it? I don't agree with that -- I like owing it and I'm glad it was available when I bought it!

I have never used any of the other speakers, although I have seen an Echo in use. So I'm not the person to judge between them. I do know that from the point of view of sound quality, the Echo would not have been the speaker for me. And I think that's not the point of an Echo.

My primary goal was a speaker to play music, so the quality of the sound matters. And in this, the HomePod meets my exceptions. I've never heard the Sonos or the Google Max, so I can't judge them.

HomePod Hits

• Sound quality
  I'm pleased. This is no audiophile level system but for day-to-day listening pleasure, it's good. It has a decent amount of base, and I don't notice distortion when it's playing. Some reviewers have said they 'never heard such and such sound' in a song until they listened to it on HomePod, and that is not something I have experienced. But I'm pleased overall with the sound.
  
  This album is an example of songs that I think sound very nice on the HomePod:
  https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/sway/965066035
  
  
• Sound volume
  Also totally good for me. My ears are pretty sensitive, so I can't stand very loud music. Even though age has taken its toll on my hearing, I still generally only listen to the HomePod at 1/2 volume.
  
  If you say 'Hey Siri, full volume', he responds with "That's very loud. Are you sure?" Case in point, a friend was over and we were listening to Beethoven. He made the comment that "this shows the limitations of a small speaker", because he thought it was as loud as it would go. But I was like....well, I only have it at 1/2 volume, so he was like 'well, turn it up!'
  
  So I stood up and started walking towards the other room. I said, 'Hey Siri. 100% volume.' He responded that that that would be very loud, and was I sure? I said 'Yes' and kept walking to the other room -- to avoid hurting my ears.
  
  Even in the other room, it was a bit loud for me!
  
  
• Setup
  Easy peasy. And it's really nice that the device itself updates it's sound projection to the shape of the room each time you move the speaker -- no need to wander around with an app like with Sonos. HomePod requires no action on your part.
  
  
• Every day use
  Nice to just walk in the house and say, 'Hey Siri. Play.'
  
  
• Integration with Apple Music
  Works as expected!
  
  
• Airplay
  Easy to stream music from an iPhone, iPad, Mac -- Spotify, Apple Music, Podcasts, Recordings, etc.

Generally Successful Commands

• Play [some artist] -- Donna Summer, Enigma, The Verve, Vanessa da Mata, Rita Lee, Perfume Genius, Banks
  
• Play [some title] -- Sweet Jane, Priestess, Take a Letter Maria
  
• Play [some album] -- The Theory of Everything
  
• Play happy music
  
• Play Netflix and Chill music -- although I'm not sure I agreed that those were songs I would play during, um, that particular activity!
  
• Play [some classical composer]
  
• Play [some classical piece]
  
• Play more songs like this.
  
• Create a station from this song.
  
• Stop
  
• Play
  
• Play [playlist]
  
• What's playing?
  
• When was this released?
  
• What's the weather tomorrow?
  
• Louder
  
• Softer
  
• 50% volume
  
• 100% volume
  
• Next
  
• Skip back 30 seconds
  
• Back
  
• Play Podcast [podcast name] -- but see the list in 'less successful' below.

Less Successful Commands

• Play [anything that is not English]
  
• Play really depressing music. Thanks, Nh!
  
• Play movement 3 in [some concerto] Thanks, J!
  
• Play Podcast [podcast name] Number 145 -- I haven't figured out if I can or how to get Siri to play a particular episode of a podcast.
  
• Some titles are harder than others. For example, 'I See Fire' always wanted to play some song about a lake?????? But if I said 'I See Fire by Ed Sheeran', it worked fine.

HomePod Annoyances

• Pronunciation
  I know this is an odd lead off...but Siri's pronunciation annoys me. I mean, even when he says the word 'HomePod', it sounds odd! I would say the word with a short o in 'Pod' - ɒ -- like in rock or odd or Tom. But I swear, Siri says 'HomePard'. Stuff like that and emphasis on wrong syllables annoys me.
  
  
• Lack of context
  Siri doesn't have context. It's best to supply the context with each request -- "of this song", "of this piece", etc. Otherwise, Siri might end up reading Wikipedia to you!
  
  Also -- no context like you can't say 'Play the last album I listened to.'
  
  
• Stops responding.
  Sometimes, Siri will stop responding. The most annoying time when this happens is when he's playing a song that you don't want to listen to! And he won't stop!
  
  I have said 'Hey Siri, stop!', and the music dims like he heard me...but the song continues. Maybe if I waited longer, that might correct itself, but after like 10 seconds, I get frustrated. After 15 seconds, I'm done!
  
  I have unplugged the HomePod twice since I have owned it after Siri became unresponsive.
  
  
• Low hanging fruit commands
  Some expected commands didn't work. For example, he can add a track to a playlist, but can't delete a track. Seems odd to be able to do one of the CRUD commands, but not another.
  
  
• Play [song title]
  He plays just.that.song...and stops. I'm not sure what I expected, but I kinda wish he would ask after a while if I want to hear something else, lol. Now, I'm just nit-picking.

Bottom line

-- so far so good. Glad I bought it. But can't speak for other manufacturer's speakers! But I stick by previous post -- it's only for folks who subscribe to Apple Music!