For those looking to add some deep bass to their home listening, there are really good options available these days. The availability of high power class D amplification means that you can (relatively) cheaply provide room shaking bass to a level that was prohibitively expensive even a decade ago. parts-express.com(and others as well Ive no interest in plugging their site) offers a large range of high quality subwoofer drivers in the 1-300 dollar range, they offer pre-made cabinets, but you can really save if you build your own MDF cabinet. The subwoofer plate amplifiers run ~250 bucks for 3-500 watts rms. It definitely can make movie night at home more fun.
Apple HomePod – The Audiophile Perspective and Measurements
51–60 of 77 posts
Re: Apple HomePod – The Audiophile Perspective and Measurements
#52There is no way i'm believing this thing actually sounds good unless Apple are using some tech that is not a normal transducer based loud-speaker... First off: This guy is talking about "measurements" not perceptible quality, and anyone who has reasonable experience in audio quality will know that amp specs and measurements have almost zero correlation to audible sound quality and musicality (THD anyone). Second: An…
The HomePod is wired, not battery-powered. I don't think you've looked at it very closely.
Having purchased the HomePod, it's noticeably better than the bookshelf speakers I own (AudioEngine A2+ and Odyssey LES).
It also sounds as good as my Vizio soundbar/subwoofer combo, though I've not compared it at high volume or with movies.
It is, not unexpectedly, vastly better than my battery-powered BeoPlay P2 Bluetooth speaker.
I'm very impressed.
Re: Apple HomePod – The Audiophile Perspective and Measurements
#53Is it better to test audio products with a meter or with double blind humans?
I've been convinced by a knowledgeable person[1] that measurements are the only useful way to measure performance. To paraphrase poorly: subjective reviews are useless since they are limited by the reviewers subjective perception, their ability to turn that perception into words, and your ability to turn those words into a concrete idea about how something sounds. Since there is no part of a speaker's performance tha…
I know from experience that different headphones with similar frequency response can sound radically different. Most reviewers don't measure anything else, so that doesn't really help.
Re: Apple HomePod – The Audiophile Perspective and Measurements
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
You'd think so, but recordings are usually mixed to sound good out in the wide world. The most famous mixing monitors are famous for sounding awful.( https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/yamaha-ns10-story ) The thinking there is if you can make the song sound good on those monitors, it'll sound good anywhere. A lot of songs are mixed with less bass than ideal, because the engineer knows that everyone and their grandm…
I agree with everything you said, but were Apple compensating for that, I'd expect them to use a curve weighted to crappy studio monitors/Beats headphones/etc. A couple other commenters noted that perception-weighted curves vary with total SPL; louder sounds sound different. I had never thought about that before but that makes sense to me, that Apple would apply a dynamic adjustment that studios can't .
Oh, that's an excellent point too! Bass boost and loudness buttons on stereos are meant to give you a way to make music sound the same at a lower volume, but most people just set it and forget it.
With fully digital players, I guess there's no reason to not have dynamic EQs that adjust along with the volume. I'd think you'd see this more often, but I guess even basic EQs aren't available most of the time, so it's just not a feature that most people would care about.
Re: Apple HomePod – The Audiophile Perspective and Measurements
#55There is no way i'm believing this thing actually sounds good unless Apple are using some tech that is not a normal transducer based loud-speaker... First off: This guy is talking about "measurements" not perceptible quality, and anyone who has reasonable experience in audio quality will know that amp specs and measurements have almost zero correlation to audible sound quality and musicality (THD anyone). Second: An…
The HomePod is wired, not battery-powered. I don't think you've looked at it very closely. Having purchased the HomePod, it's noticeably better than the bookshelf speakers I own (AudioEngine A2+ and Odyssey LES). It also sounds as good as my Vizio soundbar/subwoofer combo, though I've not compared it at high volume or with movies. It is, not unexpectedly, vastly better than my battery-powered BeoPlay P2 Bluetooth spe…
Battery powered or not it will be low powered... there is no class-A amp in that little thing unless it's being cooled by liquid nitrogen, it will be Class-D.
I've no doubt many people will be impressed, it's all relative. But if you actually care about audio you could have bought a lot more for you $300 or whatever it is, but then people don't buy these types of things for audio, they buy them for integration.
The fact that you are comparing it to a "soundbar" shows that you probably haven't heard much better. (i'm not trying to be nasty, it's just true of most consumers, we are not living in the HiFi age anymore).
Re: Apple HomePod – The Audiophile Perspective and Measurements
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
The HomePod is wired, not battery-powered. I don't think you've looked at it very closely. Having purchased the HomePod, it's noticeably better than the bookshelf speakers I own (AudioEngine A2+ and Odyssey LES). It also sounds as good as my Vizio soundbar/subwoofer combo, though I've not compared it at high volume or with movies. It is, not unexpectedly, vastly better than my battery-powered BeoPlay P2 Bluetooth spe…
Battery powered or not it will be low powered... there is no class-A amp in that little thing unless it's being cooled by liquid nitrogen, it will be Class-D. I've no doubt many people will be impressed, it's all relative. But if you actually care about audio you could have bought a lot more for you $300 or whatever it is, but then people don't buy these types of things for audio, they buy them for integration. The f…
What $349 speaker will beat the HomePod and provide the same features? Omnidirectionality and built-in AirPlay have to be considered. The HomePod is a single speaker that can fill a room with no additional amp, receiver or subwoofer.
Comparing the HomePod to a class A amplifier is nonsensical. Nobody is pretending it's competing with that segment.
Re: Apple HomePod – The Audiophile Perspective and Measurements
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Battery powered or not it will be low powered... there is no class-A amp in that little thing unless it's being cooled by liquid nitrogen, it will be Class-D. I've no doubt many people will be impressed, it's all relative. But if you actually care about audio you could have bought a lot more for you $300 or whatever it is, but then people don't buy these types of things for audio, they buy them for integration. The f…
What $349 speaker will beat the HomePod and provide the same features? Omnidirectionality and built-in AirPlay have to be considered. The HomePod is a single speaker that can fill a room with no additional amp, receiver or subwoofer. Comparing the HomePod to a class A amplifier is nonsensical. Nobody is pretending it's competing with that segment.
> What $349 speaker will beat the HomePod and provide the same features?
None, I'm not considering those features, only audio quality.
> Comparing the HomePod to a class A amplifier is nonsensical. Nobody is pretending it's competing with that segment.
The author is implicitly:
> The HomePod is 100% an Audiophile grade Speaker
Your absolutely right, it is nonsensical, it's _physically_ in a different class all together. The author has gotten out his spectrum analyser or whatever and measured a relatively flat frequency response of a sine-wave and concludes... this is good audio: Except, "No" says every amplifier and speaker designer ever.
Re: Apple HomePod – The Audiophile Perspective and Measurements
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
What $349 speaker will beat the HomePod and provide the same features? Omnidirectionality and built-in AirPlay have to be considered. The HomePod is a single speaker that can fill a room with no additional amp, receiver or subwoofer. Comparing the HomePod to a class A amplifier is nonsensical. Nobody is pretending it's competing with that segment.
> What $349 speaker will beat the HomePod and provide the same features? None, I'm not considering those features, only audio quality. > Comparing the HomePod to a class A amplifier is nonsensical. Nobody is pretending it's competing with that segment. The author is implicitly: > The HomePod is 100% an Audiophile grade Speaker Your absolutely right, it is nonsensical, it's _physically_ in a different class all togeth…
I’m sure you’ll offer a list of the thousands of amplifier and speaker designers who feel it’s not good audio?
Re: Apple HomePod – The Audiophile Perspective and Measurements
#59Is it better to test audio products with a meter or with double blind humans?
I've been convinced by a knowledgeable person[1] that measurements are the only useful way to measure performance. To paraphrase poorly: subjective reviews are useless since they are limited by the reviewers subjective perception, their ability to turn that perception into words, and your ability to turn those words into a concrete idea about how something sounds. Since there is no part of a speaker's performance tha…
Have a look at this: http://www.nutshellhifi.com/library/FindingCG.html
It applies mainly to amps, but when you learn about amps you start to realise that loud-speakers are really all part of the same big circuit.
With amps, specs only take you so far, once you get above the absolutely dirt cheap crap it doesn't really help. Using THD as one example, above 1% might indicate something wrong with the amp design... bellow doesn't really make any difference because these are just tested with sine waves (do you listen to pure sine waves? no), very low might even indicate that the design has been compromised just to get good paper specs.
Headphones and speakers can be similar, frequency range doesn't really tell you anything unless they are severely limited and thus it only really helps sift though crap.
You are correct about reviews though, it really depends on who is reviewing it, and 99.99% of the people out there have hardly anthing worth comparing what they are reviewing it to. If i've never had a pencil before, and I get a pencil and it's all crumbly I will be like "It's frickin amazin, it makes marks on paper", but that doesn't really help anyone else trying to make an informed decision. Additionally, even if you start going through audiophile forums and vet authors for their background knowledge, _even then_ you have the aspect of personal taste, musicality etc.
So yeah... if you want good audio, your fucked :) the only way is to try. And try not to go crazy. But not buying stuff with any integrated digital nonsense is a good starting point.
Re: Apple HomePod – The Audiophile Perspective and Measurements
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What $349 speaker will beat the HomePod and provide the same features? None, I'm not considering those features, only audio quality. > Comparing the HomePod to a class A amplifier is nonsensical. Nobody is pretending it's competing with that segment. The author is implicitly: > The HomePod is 100% an Audiophile grade Speaker Your absolutely right, it is nonsensical, it's _physically_ in a different class all togeth…
I’m sure you’ll offer a list of the thousands of amplifier and speaker designers who feel it’s not good audio?
Why thank you mr rhetorical... If you are interested go have a look for yourself i'm not a walking audio system design book. In fact, I challenge you to find the inverse instead - empirical proof that the amp specs the author is measuring actually correlate to better sound quality.