So the first apple HomePod was a cult hit cause it genuinely sounded very good. Now for a few years apple did update their HomePod and for awhile they were very hard to get. But now we have the HomePod gen 2, which actually removed the amount of tweeters on it. Now before we can see how the HomePod Gen 2 stacks up to lets say that Sonos Era 300… lets see what the HomePod Gen 2 is all about.
Regarding pricing, the HomePod Gen 2 retails for $300. Not terribly priced if you ask me cause this thing sounds really good. Nonetheless, if you want to pick this speaker up it’ll be linked down below.
So for starters, I am going to have to point out that the HomePod is meant to be used with an iPhone. In order for you to set this speaker up, you’re going to need an iPhone so that you can hook it up to wifi. Now even though this speaker does have bluetooth… this is a wifi first speaker and you’re supposed to use airplay with this speaker. Now if you’re an android user, there is a roundabout way for you to get airplay working on your android device… but for the best experience I recommend that you use an iPhone with this speaker. But in general, im not a fan of this walled garden approach for speakers. And this is something that I mentioned with Sonos. But given that this apple, you kind of already know what you’re getting yourself into.
Now since this is a wifi first speaker you also want to place it somewhere where its going to have a strong wifi connection, if not you’re going to have a bad time. Now the cool thing about this being a wifi first speaker and having airplay is that as long as you’re connected to the same wifi network as this speaker, you’re going to be able to stream music to it from anywhere in the house.
The drawback is, if you want to share this speaker with someone, as in you want to let them DJ, you’re going to have to give them your wifi password. And this is one of the reasons why I want bluetooth on this speaker. Not only so that I can easily use the HomePod with a non apple device… but also so that I don’t have to share with wifi password if I want to let someone else use my speaker.
Now since we’re on the topic of connectivity, I also have to point out that this speaker does not have an audio jack, you can only use this speaker wirelessly.
Now when it comes to the overall design of this speaker. The homepod has a mostly fabric wrapped body with a touch pad up top. But something that is did notice is that if you squeeze this speaker too much, its fabric body does flex a little bit. But in general, The HomePod is generally small. Its got a hight of 6.6 inches and it has a diameter of 5.6 inches and it weighs in at 5.2 pounds. So placing this speaker is pretty easy. The only thing that I don’t like is that the power cable that comes with this speaker is a little short.
Now when it comes to placing this speaker, this is a 360 degree speaker, so ideally you want to place it in the center of the room. However, if you were to place this speaker in a corner or up against a wall, the HomePod is going to use these surfaces to its advantage and bounce sound off of these surfaces.
Now when it comes to controlling your music, there’s a large touchpad on top and here you can tap, double tap and triple tap to play and pause your music and you can skip through your music. And if you press on the plus and minus, you can adjust your music. But also you can just ask Siri to do all of this for you.
But one cool feature that I want to talk about is handoff. Basically if you move your iPhone close to this speaker, the HomePod is just going to start playing playing your audio from your phone. Now even though this is very cool and all, I did notice that it was a little too sensitive for my taste.
But with all of that out of the way, we can start talking about how this speaker actually sounds. Regarding speaker up, the HomePod Gen 2 has an upwards firing woofer and a total of 5 tweeters going all around the speaker. And technically, this is 2 less tweeters than the original HomePod. However, I do have to point out that due to the this speaker’s woofer placement, the HomePod has an impressive amount of physicality in its bass… and this speaker really likes to rattle whatever table its sitting on.
But now we’re going to jump into the sound test. Now this isn’t an apples to apples comparison, but I do think that it is a fair comparison price wise and size wise. Now first we have the Marshall middleton which is a 360 degree speaker and it has a total of two woofers, two tweeters and dual passive radiators that are all placed around this speaker. And we also have the JBL Xtreme 3 which has dual frontward firing woofers, dual frontward firing tweeters and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides.
Sound test
So sound quality wise, I really like how the HomePod Gen 2 sounds. It sounds open and it sounds very balanced. With the Xtreme 3, even though that speaker has good instrument separation, the highs can be a little over emphasized. And with the Middleton, even though it sounds great, it just doesn’t sound a concentrated as the HomePod and Xtreme 3.
But with the HomePod 2, the main take away about this speaker is that it sounds very open and it has a surprising amount of physicality in its bass, all on its own. And the great instrument separation and openness of this speaker is noticeable whether you’re lisenting to dolby atmos content or not. Now what dolby atmos is, instead of your music just coming out of the left side and right side, and everything just being on the same plane, dolly atmos gives your music a sense of verticality to it. However, everything doesn’t automatically have dolby atmos support, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is just a great sounding speaker whether you’re listening to dolby atmos content or not.
But then there’s the max volume performance of this speaker. Now the HomePod gets decently loud for its size and its going to have no problem filling a small or medium sized room with sound. But this speaker is going to struggle to fill a large room with sound all on its own.
But with all of the being said, the HomePod is a great sounding speaker that is going to do very well in a small or medium sized room. I really like how open this speaker sounds, its has a surprising amount of phsyciatly in its bass all on its own and I really like that this speaker uses its surroundings to its advantage. The only thing to keep in mind is, this is a wifi first speaker and its meant to be used with an iPhone. If you’re an android user, using this speaker isn’t going to be as easy as it should. But if you’re an iPhone user just looking for an easy way to enjoy your music, the HomePod is a safe bet.