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.