The experience depends on context. In a lot of ways HomePods feel similar to Dubai (bear with me on this analogy). If you're a reasonably well off person from a first world country, Dubai on the surface is really impressive. Huge public works projects with insane architecture lead to a city that's quite impressive. If you're a migrant worker from a third world country, the city is entirely different. Hash working conditions with very little support lead to a miserable experience.

In the same way, Apple Music and other first-party ecosystem things sound great on HomePods. The sound is unrivalled at its price point. It really is amazing how good of a device they made. For third party music sources such as Spotify, the experience is quite different. The HomePod subreddit is full of issues with playing Spotify on the HomePod, even over Airplay[0]. It was detrimental to the point that Spotify filed a formal complaint to the EU last year[1], and support was finally added this year at WWDC[2] for non-Apple audio sources.

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/HomePod/search?q=spotify&restrict_s...

[1] https://9to5mac.com/2019/03/13/spotify-files-complaint-with-...

[2] https://9to5mac.com/2020/06/22/homepod-music-services/

> HomePods feel similar to Dubai

That's an interesting analogy. Have you considered other products to fit this as well or is it something specific about Homepod?

They’re useless to everyone I know until they add support for functioning as a standard Bluetooth speaker. I don’t understand why Apple is so opposed to this.

Do you know people who use iPhones but require their smart speaker to work as a Bluetooth speaker? I think it’s pretty clear the HomePod is only intended for iPhone (or maybe Mac) users.

My home is all Apple products, but we returned our two HomePods after we learned that we can't use them as a stereo pair if we're playing off a computer (unless the source is iTunes). We could use our iPhone to play to the stereo pair from any app. But on the Mac, they disallow this. You can't even get them to both play the same audio — you have to choose one of them to play and the other to sit silent. This is ridiculous.

I am about to get a Sonos soundbar instead, which I will AirPlay to from whatever app/application I please.

Was this currently? I am unable to recreate that issue with mine. 2020 MacBook Air and 2 x HomePod units in a stereo pair. I can select the stereo pair from my MacBook and it's working fine for me.

how often were you doing this? from what app?

There was a program for the mac, at some point, which could hijack audio from any application and stream it over airplay. It would be a silly work-around, but maybe something for people to try if otherwise like the HomePod

> * which could hijack audio*

It's called Audio Hijack [1], but I don't think it reliably supports stereo pairs.

1: https://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/

In this case, Airfoil would be the tool to use: https://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/

Wasn’t this fixed in Big Sur?

Hey, what do you know, looks like it is/was. Might be worth reconsidering after all.

Though at this point in the refresh cycle I'd be hard-pressed to buy a HomePod, since they're getting long in the tooth.

Try to sample HeOS - I thought they sounded better than Sonos with virtually same feature set.

HeOS is bluetooth only while Sonos is now bluetooth and WiFi.

WiFi is nice because I don't ever get connection issues or drops around the house. I have a few bluetooth speakers and they were bad at this. Just walking into the kitchen or bathroom caused the connection to drop.

Some other features I like: - Good range of sources, ticks the boxes for me - Spotify, Soundcloud and NAS - In clients premises I use HeOS 3 units, plug a USB stick full of tunes and it will connect to other HeOS units and play across all of them. - They have a decent solution for hooking up existing amps/floor standing speakers.

I own HEOS speakers, they are WiFi. For instance Denon AVR creates its own WiFi network that HEOS surrounds participate in, and the independent room speakers are all visible on the joined WiFi network as well. So, wired, Bluetooth, and WiFi.

Agree with grandparent comment, the HEOS speaker sound is fuller/richer, less reliance on Bose-style psychoacoustics.

Further, the Denon AVR with HEOS surrounds is the only receiver I know of supporting integrated amplifier for wired front speakers (separates) and WiFi wireless surrounds. I run Definitive ProMonitors and ProCenter for front, and Denon HEOS for surrounds.

(Note: Many receivers support wireless for other zones, I’m talking about mixing amped and wired for front with wireless for surrounds, and also ruling out “kits” where you can’t mix and match your own choice of speakers.)

Doesn’t matter how good they sound if it’s purposefully difficult for me to play my Spotify playlists.

Does it work without Apple Music subscription yet?

It works as an Airplay target, a HomeKit hub, and for Siri.

I was blown away when I found out they don’t work as a simple AUX device. My friend has homepods but she was using TV speakers because they can’t accept TV audio. She said it kind of works with Apple TV but audio sync is an issue and that still leaves out things like Nintendo Switch games or movies played off a laptop. Crazy to me that they don’t have AUX in. She recently got a pair of $130 powered speakers from amazon that work great. She only had AirPods because she works at Apple and they gave them to her to dogfood...

That's not really what this type of speaker is for. It's more a speaker for your bedroom or kitchen that you use from your phone or via voice. My Sonos One doesn't have Aux in either, although some of the other speakers do.

Idk, it’s a $300 high end speaker and they could have made it more useful with one simple universal jack. Someone is going to spend all that money and then need a second speaker because of the missing jack. The smart features should add to the device without taking away IMO. I mean it’s just crazy to me. She had $600 worth of speakers with great sound and we could not hook up our own source. It meant that they couldn’t actually be the only speakers she had and significantly reduced their overall value to us. Apple loves to do that I know, but it is a very opinionated design choice and it’s not for me.

Let's not forget it has no bluetooth which means no android and no windows. Pathetic.

I don't understand why that's a different thing. I have some speakers in my kitchen that I use from my phone. They also have a quarter inch input jack. I mean, why wouldn't they?

My two HomePods work pretty well in conjunction with an Apple TV 4K. But I would stay away from any Apple products if you want to stray outside of Apple's ecosystem.

denon's small portable HEOS 1/3 could do stereo pair since approximately forever and they had aux in - disclaimer: i haven't ever tested if the two features can work together.

Completely agree, I love my HomePod. Siri is hit and miss but the thing is a beast and it sounds great.