WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:21.320 Now, the traditional solution would be to get a home theater setup with all the amplifiers 00:00:21.320 --> 00:00:28.480 and speaker wires that come with it. No, that's too complicated, there's gotta be something that looks nice and fits within 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:32.240 my Apple lifestyle. Enter the new HomePod. 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:37.040 It's got everything you'd expect from a high-end smart speaker, stereo pairing, spatial audio 00:00:37.040 --> 00:00:42.920 support with Dolby Atmos, and you can even wirelessly connect it to your Apple TV to 00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:50.480 support a home theater setup. But at $600 for a pair, can we make a non-Apple setup that's even remotely comparable or 00:00:50.480 --> 00:00:58.360 better while spending less? Given how widely praised the first-gen HomePods were, we expected this to be a challenge. 00:00:58.360 --> 00:01:03.140 What we didn't expect were the results. 00:01:03.140 --> 00:01:08.400 In many ways, the new HomePod is like its predecessor, a higher-priced, higher-quality option for 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:13.000 those wanting a series smart speaker. It has a few notable changes, though. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:17.400 Apple has added a sensor to measure the speaker's internal conditions to optimize sound, and 00:01:17.400 --> 00:01:20.520 a second sensor to measure room temperature and humidity. 00:01:20.520 --> 00:01:25.820 They also updated the aging 2014 iPhone chip with something more appropriate, and cut the 00:01:25.820 --> 00:01:33.740 launch price by $50. At the same time, though, that price cut does come with a bit of a compromise, namely two 00:01:33.740 --> 00:01:37.760 less tweeters and mics, and slower Wi-Fi. 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:43.420 These might not be issues, though. Apple believes that the better sound processing should deliver a similar experience to the 00:01:43.420 --> 00:01:48.460 first-gen HomePods, and slower Wi-Fi doesn't really matter on a smart speaker. 00:01:48.460 --> 00:01:51.860 To get the HomePod up and running is pretty straightforward. 00:01:51.860 --> 00:01:59.020 Take the speakers in, follow the setup prompts on your iPhone, and hey, they're ready! 00:01:59.020 --> 00:02:05.220 Now if you want to use them for a home theater, you'll also need an Apple TV 4K from 2021 00:02:05.220 --> 00:02:16.940 or later. That's the only way to get audio from inputs plugged into your TV through your HomePods. 00:02:16.940 --> 00:02:21.820 All this will bring the total spend up to $730, assuming you don't already own one. 00:02:21.900 --> 00:02:25.660 But when you consider how feature-rich this setup is, it is a fairly compelling value 00:02:25.660 --> 00:02:31.460 proposition. You get airplay, prompts to move your music from your phone to the speakers, a full remote 00:02:31.460 --> 00:02:36.540 and keyboard on your iOS device, and an intercom across your home. 00:02:36.540 --> 00:02:42.940 It just works. 00:02:42.940 --> 00:02:47.020 At least that's what I would say if it all just works. 00:02:47.020 --> 00:02:54.500 Sadly though, it doesn't. Not quite. The first one to welcome surprise with these is that they don't sound as good as I was 00:02:54.500 --> 00:02:59.100 expecting. They do fare better in certain scenarios, like movies. 00:02:59.100 --> 00:03:02.580 When paired in stereo, they present a far wider soundstage than what you'd get from 00:03:02.580 --> 00:03:08.420 most compact soundbars. This is great for action films like Rogue One, where that soundstage and remarkably 00:03:08.420 --> 00:03:15.500 deep bass offer a more immersive experience than you might expect from anything this small. 00:03:15.500 --> 00:03:24.780 Strangely, while Atmos is supported and works on most services, Netflix won't output in 00:03:24.780 --> 00:03:30.340 greater than 5.1. It works equally well for video games, since EARC support allows you to hook up something 00:03:30.340 --> 00:03:35.180 like a PS5 to your TV and get fully immersed in games like War Thunder. 00:03:35.180 --> 00:03:39.740 Now music. Uh, that leaves more to be desired. 00:03:39.740 --> 00:03:43.860 Atmos playback works here, but I don't know. 00:03:43.860 --> 00:03:48.220 With my experience on the AirPods, Atmos makes things sound distant and echoey, and 00:03:48.220 --> 00:03:52.060 the only way you're going to get the sounds of instruments floating around you is if you 00:03:52.060 --> 00:03:55.580 stick your head right in between the homepods. 00:03:55.580 --> 00:04:00.740 This is definitely an experience. Turning Atmos off, though, improves things. 00:04:00.740 --> 00:04:05.900 Yep, that does sound better, though it doesn't fix everything. 00:04:05.900 --> 00:04:10.300 But too often, music simply sounds like it's being played back incorrectly. 00:04:10.300 --> 00:04:14.100 It's very opinionated, and songs just sound different. 00:04:14.100 --> 00:04:17.780 Even some of the rough drafts I'm making in GarageBand sounded foreign. 00:04:17.780 --> 00:04:22.140 This is surprising, as the first-gen homepod was well-regarded for its audio quality. 00:04:22.140 --> 00:04:25.140 And so I was looking forward to this new one. 00:04:25.140 --> 00:04:28.240 Now though, I'm just confused. 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:33.820 Other reviewers are saying that this sounds just as good as its predecessor, but I don't 00:04:33.820 --> 00:04:37.180 agree, listening to a wide variety of songs. 00:04:37.180 --> 00:04:43.660 This is just better. This frequency response is more even across the board, presenting a consistently balanced 00:04:43.660 --> 00:04:57.300 playback in a way that the second-gen doesn't. 00:04:57.300 --> 00:05:01.340 So they sound different, eh? Yeah, they do sound different. 00:05:01.340 --> 00:05:05.900 Is that something you can test for us? Because it's kind of weird that they sound this way. 00:05:05.900 --> 00:05:11.180 Yeah, sure, I can test it. While Sam is running those tests, let's focus back on the living room setup, because the 00:05:11.180 --> 00:05:16.740 homepods aren't the only smart speaker option out there. 00:05:16.740 --> 00:05:22.500 This is our Amazon home theater setup, with two Echo Studios and a Fire TV 4K Max. 00:05:22.500 --> 00:05:25.500 They're high-stand options. 00:05:25.500 --> 00:05:28.940 This isn't the setup I would initially choose. 00:05:28.940 --> 00:05:34.340 The Fire TV interface is very busy, with ads sprinkled all over the place. 00:05:34.340 --> 00:05:42.300 McDonald's ads? This remote feels flimsy, I don't trust Amazon, and the Apple Music app isn't available, 00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:46.980 so playback is only through Alexa. Also I hate this Alexa app. 00:05:46.980 --> 00:05:55.060 Look at this underscores. As for the speakers, they, like the homepods, support automatic room tunings, spatial audio, 00:05:55.060 --> 00:05:59.220 and ARC audio from your TV through the Fire TV stick. 00:05:59.220 --> 00:06:03.380 Unlike the homepods, they have physical buttons instead of capacitive, as well as inputs for 00:06:03.380 --> 00:06:07.540 Bluetooth and a combo 3.5mm slash optical port. 00:06:07.540 --> 00:06:13.260 They also lack airplay, but support Spotify Connect, bad for me, but maybe great for you. 00:06:13.260 --> 00:06:20.140 However, they cost $460, $300 less than the homepods setup, and to see if I could hear 00:06:20.140 --> 00:06:24.540 the price difference, I was subjected to a blind test the moment they all arrived. 00:06:24.540 --> 00:06:29.020 Starting with movies, we played a clip from Wolf Walkers on Apple TV+, and it turns out 00:06:29.020 --> 00:06:35.140 I prefer the homepods. We also did a music test with songs playing in plain old stereo. 00:06:35.140 --> 00:06:51.340 With the tunes I selected, it was the Echo Studios that caught my ear. 00:06:51.340 --> 00:06:55.780 So it appears that despite my misgivings of Amazon, the Echo Studios aren't that bad. 00:06:55.780 --> 00:06:59.740 At the very least, the quality is more in line with their price point than the homepods 00:06:59.740 --> 00:07:03.180 are with theirs. So why don't I like the homepods? 00:07:03.180 --> 00:07:07.300 Let's see what Sam has to say. 00:07:07.300 --> 00:07:12.700 So does it sound different? Yeah, it does sound different, and also measures different. 00:07:12.700 --> 00:07:17.140 These are some rough measurements of the 2nd gen homepods compared to the 1st gen. 00:07:17.140 --> 00:07:20.500 These are from our tests in admittedly not perfect conditions. 00:07:20.500 --> 00:07:23.900 But even so, some of the differences are apparent. 00:07:23.900 --> 00:07:26.140 This is what Sam found. 00:07:26.900 --> 00:07:33.740 You want your frequency response to be smooth. 00:07:33.740 --> 00:07:39.340 So when you have a bump and a dip like that, around 2-4kHz, that really can't be good. 00:07:39.340 --> 00:07:45.780 And you don't have that in the 1st gen, you have it in the 2nd gen. They change the sound of the homepod depending on the program you're playing. 00:07:45.780 --> 00:07:49.780 So if it's a podcast or a music, they change it and also test it that. 00:07:49.780 --> 00:07:55.060 So I tested Pink Noise, which I did for testing, I tested music and also podcast. 00:07:55.060 --> 00:07:59.140 And again, you're getting the same bump and dip with all of those programs. 00:07:59.140 --> 00:08:03.380 So you think this 2-4kHz dip is more of a hardware thing? 00:08:03.380 --> 00:08:07.300 I don't know what it is, but it is something that shows up in all of the measurements that 00:08:07.300 --> 00:08:10.300 I did. It's consistent. And it really can't be good. 00:08:10.300 --> 00:08:16.460 You can also see that the 2nd gen has an overemphasized high end, which can work for some music 00:08:16.460 --> 00:08:22.620 and is generally a good thing for movies. But for certain songs, it can make the vocals border on shrill. 00:08:22.620 --> 00:08:27.260 This combined with the surprisingly deep bass means parts of the mid-range can sound as 00:08:27.260 --> 00:08:35.060 though they're relatively absent. So that does explain a little bit why we're kind of not bowled over by the sound. 00:08:35.060 --> 00:08:39.060 Probably, yeah. Okay, fair enough. I mean, that's a reasonable explanation. 00:08:39.060 --> 00:08:43.300 Huh, okay. Well at least I'm not going insane. 00:08:43.300 --> 00:08:48.940 They do genuinely sound disappointing, especially compared to the better sounding 1st gen. 00:08:48.940 --> 00:08:52.060 It's too bad, as I was really expecting more from these. 00:08:52.060 --> 00:08:55.100 If you've already got an older model, nice. 00:08:55.100 --> 00:08:58.980 But what if I don't need a smart speaker at all to have a smart home feeder? 00:08:58.980 --> 00:09:03.540 The problem with these speakers is that they're relying on the computer glued inside. 00:09:03.540 --> 00:09:09.340 So what about simply buying a dumb speaker and then plugging a smart solution into it? 00:09:09.340 --> 00:09:12.580 These are the Edifier S2000 Mark IIIs. 00:09:12.580 --> 00:09:17.540 They're sold in a stereo pair for $50 less than a pair of HomePods. 00:09:17.540 --> 00:09:22.180 Like the HomePods, they're a simple 2-cable solution and don't require an external amp. 00:09:22.180 --> 00:09:27.900 Yes, they're huge, very speaker looking and not white, but for that you'll get the loudest 00:09:27.900 --> 00:09:31.020 and clearest speakers we've tried for this video. 00:09:31.020 --> 00:09:36.580 Simply put, they're the only speakers which didn't make me feel as though I was missing parts of the music I love. 00:09:36.580 --> 00:09:39.700 There's no clever audio tuning or software trickery here. 00:09:39.700 --> 00:09:43.540 You gotta do that yourself because they come with 4 preset EQs. 00:09:43.540 --> 00:09:47.420 We recommend starting with the dynamic one and a treble and bass knob on the back to 00:09:47.420 --> 00:09:54.180 further dial in your sound. It also has two RCA inputs, one optical input and Bluetooth. 00:09:54.180 --> 00:09:58.740 It'll pick up to any smartphone or TV without needing a streaming box. 00:09:58.740 --> 00:10:03.700 However, there is no Wi-Fi, but don't worry because I have a solution for that. 00:10:03.700 --> 00:10:08.980 You can make these smarter by using this, the Belkin Soundform Connect. 00:10:08.980 --> 00:10:12.340 It's a $100 AirPlay 2 receiver. 00:10:12.340 --> 00:10:18.080 With its 3.5mm or optical output, you can add any old speakers or amplifier to your 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:25.620 multi-room AirPlay setup. At this point, all you're really missing is Siri, which it appears is the only holdout 00:10:25.620 --> 00:10:32.340 feature remaining for the HomePod. The only reason I can see why someone would elect to use a HomePod for their TV setup 00:10:32.340 --> 00:10:36.700 is because they like the way they look and don't want obvious, boring, blocky speakers 00:10:36.700 --> 00:10:43.300 cramping their interior style. Because if you don't care about appearances, you can get better quality, more flexibility 00:10:43.300 --> 00:10:47.580 and longevity for less from other companies. 00:10:47.580 --> 00:10:51.220 And if you just want a smart assistant, then the significantly cheaper HomePod Mini will 00:10:51.220 --> 00:10:54.900 do everything that its larger sibling can too. 00:10:54.900 --> 00:10:58.700 Much like the original HomePod, this tries to be the speaker that gets the average person 00:10:58.700 --> 00:11:02.820 interested in better quality audio and in turn interested in handing more money over 00:11:02.820 --> 00:11:08.980 to Apple. But this smart speaker has decided to focus more on the smart and less on the speaker, 00:11:08.980 --> 00:11:19.100 while still repeating the same mistake as its predecessor. 00:11:19.100 --> 00:11:22.740 In fact, its simplicity is sometimes limiting, as the only sound adjustment you have is a 00:11:22.740 --> 00:11:27.860 reduced bass toggle. If you really want a Siri smart speaker and the Mini isn't bold enough for you, then 00:11:27.860 --> 00:11:51.620 hey, you have an option. But otherwise, it's easy to recommend that you look elsewhere.