Dude you're a natural. This channel should have way more subscribers. Love the low-key, humorous delivery. Also the "budget audiophile" is such a sweet spot right now -- so many options!
This is the ONLY video on TH-cam currently that I was able to find with this information. Others glossed over the sound quality as "Really good" or, "Surprising for its size", no one else did direct comparison's to "real" speakers. Thanks, very appreciated.
@ I don't know if you hear me. That option was offered AFTER I made this video. Also, this video was made in response to a viral article that even Phil Schiller at Apple retweeted saying that a SINGLE HomePod was superior to a pair of KEF X300A speakers that costs more than all of the speaker I showed. Google HomePod vs KEF X300A, see how many articles there are, read some of them, then come back and talk to me.
EP P lol your an idiot. If you want a FAIR comparison then he would have to review a 700 dollar setup vs a pair of homepods. Homepods are beat either way 😂😂
@@joentell FANTASTIC vid, ty for your hard work. rare to have an HONEST content maker thats NOT on the take. Would love to chat with you ..if even for 1-5 mins Semper Fi Gunny
@@dom3827 Bose have been measured over time. Generally, the frequency response is roughly 46hz-13.5khz. That, with a hole in the midbass to treble. They don't have any 1st octave bass, and sure don't have any treble. I had a Bose wave radio, and listening to talk radio, voices sounded like everyone was talking through their hands.
@@dom3827 depends on what you buy from bose..they have been moving away from the stigma i feel like their sound bar is the best on the market sound wise
Really great video and something i never thought about doing. minor side note Pink noise isn't all frequency at equal amplitude that is white noise, pink noise has a 6dB per octave roll off to the high frequency which is why we find it more pleasant to listen to as its closer to how we perceive audio.
Thank you. I don't think pink noise is just rolled off-white noise because a roll off would suggest there is a roll-off point. Pink noise does decrease at a rate of approx. 3db per octave starting at 20hz. The definition of pink noise from Google is: random noise having equal energy per octave, and so having more low-frequency components than white noise. Definition for white noise is: noise containing many frequencies with equal intensities.
actually pink noise is leveled logarithmic and white noise is linearly FFT is linear and will show white noise as level. any analogue filter will see pink as level meaning 1 to 10 hertz has the same as 10 to 100
I’d love for you to revisit this note that homepods are able to be in a stereo pair and connect to apple tv 4k. I have found ebay prices around $230 as well, so it makes a morel compelling option.
Totally on point! I admittedly splurged on a HomePod..but only because I needed an omnidirectional speaker that could fit on a small counter in my bathroom and take voice commands while showering (a very specific use-case that HomePod is perfect for). But nothing nothing can replace a real, passive speaker for critical listening. Subscribed.
I got ELAC Debut B6s, a Yamaha R-S202 amplifier, and speaker stands on craigslist for $200. Deal of a lifetime - this setup sounds ungodly good. Been hunting for a deal for a sub.
Compared to what? All in one speakers? I mean if your used to crap and step up to an Elac I guess it might sound great but if you have any experience with a real speaker they fall way short. Dynamics are non existent, no bass, highs were forward, just way over hyped.
Papi Trey Insignia had a bookshelf that were pretty cheap and sound just as good if not better. You can ha e a pair used for $20-80 on the used market. I got a pair for $20 used on Facebook. Insignia NS-b2111
The best thing about this video is that you turned your shy friend into an audiophile! By exposing the average listener to quality music at a reasonable price they become curious. Good sounding music is addicting! Subscribing.
Exactly. That's why I don't understand why these retail audio shops (the ones still in existence) don't focus more on converting non-audiophiles by having more affordable gear. Get people started and you already know what happens....they get hooked and will spend so much $$$ over the years. They're too focused on short-term profits.
Fortunately there are companies that are trying to target this market by making in-home trials free and easy. SVS for example has a crazy good 45 day trial which I’ve taken advantage of a couple of times. I think you have a voice as a TH-camr to guide curious people who search for home audio advice on TH-cam. Your simple setup with the Dayton amp that your friend wanted for himself is a good way to get people interested in how to build home audio on a budget. This entire video showing how easy it is to get better sound than an Apple HomePod is a great way to get people interested. It would be nice to see you make some videos targeting new comers. Describe some of the basic components needed and slowly build from there. There is a serious lack of good 2 channel HiFi stuff on TH-cam. Mostly it’s home theater with home audio as an afterthought. We need more content the other way around! One last comment. The Apple HomePod is doing one thing right, giving people bass, even if they are cheesing it a bit. But if someone heard your mini-amp setup with the Pioneer SP-BS22s and a halfway decent sub, they would love it. Good bass is the wow factor for a lot of people. It’s what got me into this stuff. It’s taken dual SVS SB-16 ultras to satisfy my bass fix and along the way I’ve become fascinated with 2 channel audio. Looking forward to your next video!
Between Joe here and Steve Guttenberg, I've been brought up to speed on audio gear after a 15-year break. Fantastic work. You've even got me building a pair!
*I like the old style Echo Dot because it's small also **Newest.Technology**, gives out decent sound and doesn't take up a lot of shelf space if you want to put it on beam in the workshop or shed.*
Joe, I randomly stumbled upon this video at 11:42pm at night while researching the Home Pod but actually listening to Andrew Yang on Bill Maher. Thanks for your audio wisdom. I learned more about audio in 15 minutes than my whole life. (I have multiple Amazon devices, Air Pods, Beats, Beats Pros, a Bose Soundlink Revolve, Comfort Headphones and a few JBL products.) Sounds like, no pun intended, I need to step my game up.
Finally I found a channel that spells out chapters within a long video in the description so that you can jump to whichever section you want. Thanks a ton for that man. Subscribed and Thumbs Up.
Its very rare i add a comment to comparison videos i watch but i was compelled to do so for this one. I work for one of the companies mentioned here (I'll let you guess which one). I know this was recorded before the stereo pairing was made possible on the home pods and the price was fairly adjusted as well for them but your level of passion, knowledge and balanced/ rational comparison has definitely been a pleasure to watch. this is honest and easy to understand and helped with choosing the speakers i'll be going with for a simple home entertainment center in my small apartment. in addition, it has helped with being able to express and rationalize in plain english the differences between some smart speakers and bookshelf speakers to others. thank you.
Glad you liked it and found it useful. I've had people who have purchased the stereo pair of HomePods and returned them for a decent pair of speakers and a small amp. They said it's a night and day difference.
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You should do a new test with the homepod in stereo, now that the new firmware is out. Really great and profesional video.
I'm glad you like them. I have more speaker/audio reviews in the pipeline. Lots of budget audiophile stuff. I like products that are low cost, but high value.
Sony PS-T22 turntable, Kenwood KR-V5570 amplifier and 2 pairs of speakers wired in parallel, these are the B&W DM601S2 and JBL control one speakers. I have a new video that I made about the system if you have 20 minutes spare at any point and are interested.
I’m curious to know what you guys think of how the HomePod compares to the others when listening outside of the optimal listening position for stereo speakers. I ask this because I want speakers for my bedroom, and I’d rarely be in that optimal position. From what I understand, the HomePod is optimized for these kinds of situations.
Great question. If you're going to be within 8 ft of the HomePod, it sounds good. When you start to get further away from it, the larger speakers carry the sound further and therefore sound better.
It is great. If you listen VERY critically you can hear some dips but there is essentially a 270 degree sweet spot (I would recommend placing it close to a wall and not in the exact center of the room).
Your reviews are very well put together. You are eloquent and what you say is accessible to all, not just an audiophile or audio engineer. Your comparison are well done, you play it fair. I really enjoy your test methodology. You do some of the best reviews on TH-cam.
This was so fun to find! Got here from Steve Guttenberg's channel. I love your focus on budget, and the experience you have building your own speakers, which I did 30 years ago and am being inspired to start again. I also really like how humorous this was, with the excellent cut scenes and stuff. Obviously you're spending some time making, writing, editing these, and it shows. Good presentation, subscribed!
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it. Definitely get back into it. I focus on affordable because I feel like with advancement in technology, good stuff should be getting less expensive, not more. Reading typical audiophile magazines would suggest otherwise, but I think prices are getting lower for a really good system. You just have to know what to look for.
Superb review, subscribed, Would love to see a stereopair HomePod now it’s available put under the same test From one audio file to another superb analysis
Great information. For me the Homepods bass at lower volumes outperforms my own Amp and speaker setup. The most impressive feature for me with Homepod is not having to sit in the sweet spot, so if you have friends round you all get a similar experience wherever you are sat. I still have my traditional hifi setup but mostly use my Homepod. I managed to play vinyl and Alexa through my Homepod it’s on my channel. Thanks you have a new subscriber. :)
HomePod Vinyl How to th-cam.com/video/tMFHAauf3uE/w-d-xo.html HomePod playing Vinyl th-cam.com/video/_iNu4ZVmx9g/w-d-xo.html Alexa th-cam.com/video/oiCGKQ7wcNg/w-d-xo.html
A blind test with only one speaker as a compatitor rather than a pair would have been gorgeous. It would be great if you did it that way. Thanks for a good video anyway.
Hey man I’m also a diy speaker lover I’ve restored some old electro-voice 15trxb’s and some infinity rsIIIb’s. This was a great vid and I really feel how carful you where not to upset the “true audio files” parts express is taboo as well as bose and so much more. You did a great job we need to hear the history and know that this hobby can be approachable from any price point. Well done !!
Yeah, I don't want to necessarily UPSET anyone..that's not my goal. BUT, if I feel like there's some truth that people need to know about, I will try my best to get that message out even if it upsets some people.
I don't know if I want to buy another one at $350. Yikes! If these were $200, I think it makes a lot of sense. $700 for a pair of speakers is just asking to be compared to higher end speakers that I know will beat the HomePod in real world bass response and overall loudness.
Got a special love for affordable tech review’s! I don’t discriminate for cheap, throw away, give away, stuff. I like sampling what ever I can get. I love my system l. I am happy with rocking out to music for a simple budget and some intelligent tweaks. When people come over, they silently eye up my stealthy sleeper sleek aesthetic vintage look, and turn the gears in their head. So, your reviews are just down my alley. Hat’s off to what you do. Fine craft, my man!
Joe N Tell keep up the good work. 👍🏻 New to the channel. Would love to get a good studio monitor quality comparison if you haven’t already. I have some presonus monitors but wondering how they compare to KRK or similar.
For the bass response, they likely mapped excursion vs power as a function of frequency. They limit the bass before the drivers are over driven. The downside to how they do all this is high group delay (bass notes arrive late), high settling time (bass sounds boomy before it hits steady volume), and higher distortion (doesn't sound as clear).
After reading a ton of pot-shot, pile-on and click-bait reviews from people anxious to display their audio expertise, it was wonderfully refreshing to come upon Joe’s review. Here’s a guy who actually learned his audio from the ground up, by building his own speakers and scrounging the parts stores for bargains - and he’s able to express himself in a way that will connect with the average consumer. Even more importantly, Joe is out to discover whatever he can about what, to me, is a near-miraculous accomplishment from Apple-something about which Steve Jobs himself would have been proud. Finally, he devises a test that doesn’t succumb to the pitfalls of the “blind” assessments from more famous reviewers. I agree with Joe’s final assessment ALMOST entirely. I agree that Apple’s engineers have pulled off an a,aging magic trick in bass response - something that too many other reviewers have failed to mention. I also agree that the HomePod, for all its amazing qualities, can’t compete in sound quality with a similarly priced compact component system ASSEMBLED AND SHOPPED BY AN EXPERT. I have no doubt the Elacs will blow away pretty much anything in the sub-$500 category. And people fortunate enough to follow Joe on TH-cam can do better for their money, if they are willing to sacrifice the requisite space for a component system. GREAT review and wonderfully nuanced, Joe! BUT BUT BUT. First, I knew Joe was almost forced to conclude the HomePod isn’t worth the money, because it’s his Job to uncover the best stuff for the lowest buck. Joe you could have mentioned this, and it would have added to your credibility. Second, I know quite a few people unwilling to donate precious living room space to a component system. It is only pure love that made my own lovely spouse willing to sacrifice an entire wall of our own great room, plus room in back for rear surround speakers, and I had to pay for experts to embed additional surround speakers into our ceiling. That’s unusual among younger couples I know. Finally, the vast majority of consumers have neither the knowledge nor the willingness to bone up on audio and do a proper job when it comes to shopping and installing a sound system. Therefore, I think the HomePod has massive potential to improve the audio qualities of most homes, requiring NO special knowledge whatever, and NO sacrifice of space. It practically disappears when you place it in pretty much any room of our home. All you really need is an iPhone or iPad or Mac and power outlet, period. I think that big failing of the HomePod is price, and that will be addressed in future releases. If the HomePod were, for example, $299, I think a lot of price resistance would be overcome. I love our own HomePod, but my love of audio is such that I’ve already wired most our rooms, and don’t need it in our living room, bedroom or parlor. In the kitchen, however, it rules, and even more importantly MY WIFE CAN OPERATE IT! I think Joe could have mentioned all of these things. If you’re already subscribed to his channel, you may already know enough about audio not to need a HomePod-but for couples whose home audio consists of an inadequate Bluetooth speaker or overgrown boom box, feel overwhelmed by the idea of component systems, and feel that better audio is worth $350, the HomePod will be ideal. Unfortunately for Apple and for audio lovers, most couples will be unwilling to pay $350. If they can get the price down to $299 or $249, I believe it will sell briskly. Echo users will be an ideal audience, because HomePod’s audio blows away Echo and Siri is good enough. Anyhow, with these caveats, I congratulate Joe on this fair and unusually knowledgeable review.
Thank you for the compliments and thought out response. To respond to your "BUTS" I would just say that I do not disagree with anything you've said. I thought I was fair in my conclusion saying the HomePod isn't the best speaker for the price, but the best speaker for it's size. I think that is a huge compliment. I mean THE BEST for it's size. If people want simplicity and compactness, I would recommend it...of you are an Apple user. I have almost every Apple product except I use a Google Pixel 2 XL as my phone. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth that the HomePod has Bluetooth capabilities, but they've disabled them.
Joe N Tell Thanks for your response! I guess I failed to hear your qualification that the HomePod is the best speaker for its size. That statement sums it up neatly and truthfully. I also would be happier if Apple had enabled Bluetooth, but am sure they did so to forestall negative reviews, as AirPlay’s audio quality is so much better than Bluetooth. Previous to the HomePod, we traveled with a (bulky!) AirPlay speaker, as I was dissatisfied with the lopped-off audio afforded by Bluetooth. Anyhow, thanks again and keep up the excellent work!
Great video! This is pretty much what I was expecting the results to be. I’m a huge Apple fan but why would I buy a tiny speaker that is locked to one ecosystem and is not even stereo at $350? For that price I feel like I could put together a pretty amazing system from parts express as you suggested in this video
Their kit speakers that Erin tested were all horrible, and measured very very poorly, because the crossover was apparently just thrown together using the numbers, rather than actually being tested and optimized for the drivers and cabinet. However, the Dayton MK602X measured much better, especially for such a cheap speaker. There are other good entry level speakers from Kantu, Nuemi, and Micca, and from Polk, JBL, Dali, Cerwin Vega, and Elac in the nest tier up, but still under $300 a pair. Any of them paired with any of the good sounding under $100 class D amps would be the basis for a very good sounding entry level system, IMO.
@ 3:04 - I went to that very SAME demo!! The Fry's in my area was in Anaheim, CA. I was dumbfounded by what I heard, They demoed some movies and then they demoed some songs from Anne Lennox's Album "Medusa" - Which is mostly all covers of other songs. Take a listen on a GOOD stereo, play "Take Me To The River" you'll be blown away by the super low bass & Annie Lennox belting out such crisp and high vocals! - An EXCELLENT remake and beautifully produced / mixed. I got my VERY first taste of what people now refer to as "Musical Frission" that day at Fry's. I've been in to Car audio and Home Audio since I was 14 years old, GREAT video Joe!! :)
OS's are dope! I've built those and I thought they sounded sweet. I actually liked the sound better than the C-Notes. I definitely have respect for someone who's built their own speakers.
I have no interest in Apple's Homepod, but I have bought several bookshelf speakers and have paired them with subwoofers. Joe N Tell's Speaker Leaderboard has been extremely useful to me. I can see how speakers I'm thinking of purchasing compare to other speakers in a certain price range. I really find this channel interesting, humorous at times, and informative. Keep up the good work!
2 always sounds better. Believe me, you can put the smalles, cheapest Sony or Philips Microset with the factory single drive 3 inch cardboard speakers next to the Apple and the cheapo will sound better to the ear. That is the principle of STEREO. Crappy stereo beats refind Mono. What Apple has done is like putting the engine of a Ferrari in something with the suspension of a Lada. It just never will do what it could do, if you put the tech in the right setting.
There are 7 tweeters in the HomePod. It scans the room using the tweeters and microphones to create stereo audio. The tweeters cover the mid to high frequencies which are where stereo separation is most important. And if that’s not enough, two HomePods can be paired for full stereo sound.
Nice review, would you do a update with Homepod in stereo pairing now that's available ? It's kind of unfair to do single homepod vs stereo pair bookshelf
I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting much, but thought I'd watch anyway. Great video! Well done, very informative, and to my surprise, actually more useful info than I expected. I do agree that a blind test with your buddies would have been better, but overall I really liked it and am considering replacing my B&W Zeppelin with a small amp and bookshelf speakers like the Elacs (or maybe their bigger brother, the B6).
And while I’m not an audiophile, I did subscribe to your channel... probably over my head but I like your presentation and learned a few things too. Thanks.
Hey! Great review. I have 2 HomePod and paired them as stereo speakers. They sound really great! You should give them a go and maybe do an update review as stereo speaker.
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Thank you very smart this review is garbage without a pair of HomePods
Nice, comprehensive review, thank you. I also appreciated the detailed links within the description. This is how all reviews and videos should be organized.
What a killer review/comparison. Subscribed! Do more of these videos please. Two HomePods compared to similarly priced speaker/amp combo, in a blind test.
Thank you. I don't really want to spend more on HomePods. Just imagine what kind of system you can put together for $700. The HomePod might be the best sounding self-powered smartspeaker system for its size, but not for it's price.
The HomePod playing 25hz with a 4.5" driver would require a lot of xmax and DSP. There are calculations you can make for cone diameter and xmax and it shows for example a 4.5" woofer playng 25hz at 90db would require 28mm xmax! So I bet there is noticeable physical cone breakup causing the warbling tones you talk about. Fluance makes some powered 5" Bluetooth bookshelf speakers that are about that price and sound great and are all in one solution with bass and treble control. But I've heard the Elac's, they are really great if setup correctly.
The Ai40, yes indeed. Not ELAC good but considering they are all in one and with nice features and sound I like them. I like the little details like the remote control, bass and treble controls, the LED notification light and brightness control. Well thought out speakers imo.
You were right! They are really good, but not better than the ELAC UB5's with a good amp. The UB5's are more than double the price plus you need an amp, so it shouldn't be a surprise.
Is he measuring actual 25Hz or just harmonics. Speakers when forced hard at 25Hz will play some tones at 50, 75 and 100. The speaker kind of makes a muffled woody sound over the bass tone. The warbling is intermodular distortion. Basically when you put mids and high excursion bass through the same driver it sounds like you're talking into a fan. I've noticed it on some PA speakers and also headphones.
I dont know if I ever put a comment on video, but in your case I had to. Keep up the good work. I see a lot of passion in every video that you do, and explaining it so thoroughly and simply to us makes you my favorite "start" youtuber ever. I can't promise you 1 million views this week or next one, but be sure and remember this date and this comment that soon (maybe in a year or two) you'll be having million subscribers. Just keep it up, I know it is hard sometime when you see small numbers but with your passion that is gonna come eventually. :) Thank you. (I'm not even and audiophile)
grah_od_jucer : I just Sub’d to this channel myself and I completely agree with you that as long as the quality remains high you are on your way to TH-cam success. You definitely know what you’re talking about and this video is really informative. Great stuff! I will be able to say: I Sub’d when this cat had less that 2K Sub’s!!!!
Joe, I agree with everything in this comment. You have great expertise, a fair mind and a wonderful ability to communicate. Keep it up, keep posting reviews, as many as you can, and in a year or two you’ll have a million subscribers. It just became one of them.
agreed. production quality and the fun factor are high, here. I'm a no-bullshit audiophile. I loved my first Bose until I replaced it with something way better for the same price. I love my B&W 800 Diamonds now, and I use power cord as speaker wire. It's really interesting how little speakers like this can sound so good.
The home pod has DSP helping it, Vanatoo T zero with three inch woofers also produce amazing bass due to enclose design and dsp. However no one is checking the distortion and average users aren’t checking 20-20000hz flat response - which is pretty hard for many speakers
I wish i could download all the knowledge you've acquired over the years, but we aren't droids yet so i'll just have to put in the time like everyone else. Good vid.
I do actually own a pair of Bose Jewel Cubes and the AcoustiMass 5 subwoofer, however I power them with a Sony STR-DB930, so I don't get locked totally into Bose's EQ and I personally think they sound very nice for the range of music I listen to.
Think you have white and pink noise mixed up. White noise is all frequencies with the same amplitude. This doesn't mean that you hear all frequencies equally as loud due to our own hearing sensitivities (the frequency response of our ears) as humans. Pink noise has been designed so that every frequency sounds just as loud to our ears. This means more energy goes into making the lower frequencies of equal loudness as other frequencies.
The definition of pink noise is: random noise having equal energy per octave, and so having more low-frequency components than white noise. Did I say it incorrectly in the video?
Great test - I watched it until the end! I have a Sonos Play 3 in one room and a Sonos Amp with a pair of Q Acoustics 3010s in another. Your comment regarding the digital sound processing on the HomePod enhancing the bass but only at lower volumes, also seems to be true for the Play 3s. They sound great at lower volumes but are outperformed by my amp & speaker combo when the music is louder.
Hey Joe, Love From India!! A very sincere review system with common people like me in the middle of the setup in my ordinary room. Thank You So Much!! Kudos to you.
17:55 I was looking for these words for the whole day I have been watching and reading reviews. Now I am convinced to buy Pioneers as I am looking for balanced sound for around $100 :) Thank you, dude!
I had to comment on this outstanding review filled with many wonderful moments. The beginning is very thorough, liked the background on your teenage years, it adds to you being a real person like the rest of us. It's obvious you have a passion and you shared your exact goal which is to help people acquire the best possible sound at the optimal price of quality/value. For those who continue to read reviews, we can cut to the chase and say the Pioneers AJ left the company with have proven to be a terrific 1st step into a better home audio system. Worst case, you decide 6-12 months later to upgrade and you find a 2nd room for them, just seems like a no brainer. I have a bunch more highlights in this video. 1. The beginning is long on numbers that some could find tedious but I think it lends credibility for your recommendations on the back end, like some of these fine speakers you review, the videos are smooth and not herkie-jerkie, there's a flow to them and I enjoy learning more and more. 2. The guy with backwards cap, think he was 2nd reviewer, all of us either know that guy in our circles or we are that guy, it totally takes this video to the next level, again it adds so much credibility to the speaker reviews. We can see the reaction 1st hand as you unveil the prices like Drew Carey in The Price is Right, he changed his opinions immediately when the $$$ came out and I though that almost turned this into a documentary. 3. Despite your criticism you also give the Apple speaker props for some of its achievements. You ask who this is for and I have several people in mind. The attorney who has it set up on their desk in their office, $350 is a bottle of wine to them. There is a big chunk of folks who make 6 figure incomes in the business world and I think they are going right after these folks. You are correct in stating that Apple wants you to use their products and their services. That also brings up the point...Apple users are plunking down $999 for the new iPhone, is $350 for a speaker that in general does great for its size...but I agree 100% that you can do so much better for $350 but I just wanted to also say there is a huge market in that $250-$500 bookshelf speaker buyers and they are going right into that market. 4. It's obvious the Elac B5 would be ideal for bassheads or think 80s Debbie Dee, Run DMC, Company B, these folks who enjoy a more bass centric vibe would love the Elac set and not notice the high/mid short comings as much as those who would prefer to listen to classical-Brahms, do you agree/disagree? -Finally, if you are going to do these type of videos, I think taking a couple extra minutes for some more in depth feedback was the least we could do. Cheers JnT!
This. Great review, it held my attention throughout and provide some very useful information and humor. However, I would like to see this compared to a more comparable speaker such as the Sonos play 5 which is a a great speaker system although now that I think of it it’s a $500 speaker vs. this $349 speaker so maybe. Sonos play 1 or 3 either would good. Thanks for the review.
This is the first video of yours of watch and I have to say I'm impressed. The covered all the bases but absolutely zero hype ... used actual people in an actual living room when did meaningful objective measurements on top. Fantastic! I don't know if you're familiar with a fellow named Floyd tool but you might want to look it up. You work for the national research Council in Ottawa Canada and did some very solid research on sound. He too felt that anechoic Chambers we're not as meaningful as test in a typical Listening Room and with multiple people.
Thank you. I am trying to improve my testing/explaining methodology. Yes, Toole contributed a lot to the audio world. One thing a lot of people forget is that a speaker system is actually a set of speakers within a larger box (the room). Finding the right speakers for every room is tough. It's like saying, "I need a driver for an enclosure, but I won't tell you the dimensions or damping of the enclosure. I want it to sound good in a bunch of different enclosures too." 😂
Joe N Tell more articulate non audiophiles would help. The listener that used "power" as his only adjective was the reason for my comment. Even with nonaudiophiles you could use General categories like which would you rather listen to all day or which sounds more real or how would these handle reggae Hip Hop or classical guitar. That said starting off with a totally blank slate and just asking for an opinion was great to avoid influencing them... But after that some general categories would be helpful... and I hope you take my feedback in the spirit with which it's given. Keep in mind I have watched quite a few audio Centric videos and this is the first one I've responded and or subscribe to.
I get what you mean by clean. It's a simple all-in-one solution. It wins in that department for sure. But it loses in the sound quality department. It's the sacrifice made for being "clean".
Massimo Tava The only person I personally know who owns a HomePod, placed it on their kitchen counter. It’s just a tiny music source for when someone is cooking. Bookshelf speakers would take up too much counter space.
Joe N Tell wellll. As you said. It it good enough. But on the other hand it does come with a nice bunch of nice integrations. Especially Airplay 2 So a year later Apple has improved some things. Better integration with other services and such. Still i’d probably go for something like a bluesound setup for good audio quality and something like sonos if it had to be a bit cheaper. I’m thinking of getting a powernode 2i which is way more expensive but does have some home theater options available. If you can find a nice cheap receiver/amp and and hook up an AppleTV you are probably better of with some nice bookshelf or floorstand speakers.
Michael Lucenti. You might feel the love but this is still incorrect information from someone who should know better than suggesting that F10 is HALF volume as it is not. F3 is half volume.
@@stevedalzell9258 an increase of 10dB is double the PERCEIVED loudness. 3dB is double the power. 6dB is double the SPL. Trust me. When it comes to psychoacoustics, that 10dB number is what's important to what we humans perceive.
Audiophiles on a budget, I love that philosophy :-) I despise Apple, over inflated pricing and processed sounding speakers. Will be checking out your channel for sure, seems like it has some awesome content :-)
The main point is that you can move pod closer to you and get all the perfect quality. From the distance its not loud, its a fact. Anyway its one of the most beautiful testing job on the youtube FOR AGES. About lockout of users - its not the Apple, but mostly rights owners.
There are some DSP tricks you can do in the bass when you don't have the woofer or amp for real bass. Part of it is shifting the bass upwards and playing overtones to make it sound like the original bass, but with less weight. It'll show up as loud bass when measuring, but the spectral content won't be accurate.
This Just bought back so many memories when I worked in a hi fi store in mid nineties when I was 16 and I loved the Aiwa’s they honestly sounded way better than any of the high end stuff we had from Sony or Kenwood.
Dude you're a natural. This channel should have way more subscribers. Love the low-key, humorous delivery. Also the "budget audiophile" is such a sweet spot right now -- so many options!
Thank you! I wish I was a natural. Just putting in the work.
This is the ONLY video on TH-cam currently that I was able to find with this information. Others glossed over the sound quality as "Really good" or, "Surprising for its size", no one else did direct comparison's to "real" speakers. Thanks, very appreciated.
IMO this is the best and most useful speaker review I've ever seen for this price range.
That's a huge compliment.
Pairing wasn't an option when I made this. You sound upset. 😂
@ I don't know if you hear me. That option was offered AFTER I made this video. Also, this video was made in response to a viral article that even Phil Schiller at Apple retweeted saying that a SINGLE HomePod was superior to a pair of KEF X300A speakers that costs more than all of the speaker I showed. Google HomePod vs KEF X300A, see how many articles there are, read some of them, then come back and talk to me.
EP P lol your an idiot. If you want a FAIR comparison then he would have to review a 700 dollar setup vs a pair of homepods.
Homepods are beat either way 😂😂
@@joentell FANTASTIC vid, ty for your hard work. rare to have an HONEST content maker thats NOT on the take.
Would love to chat with you ..if even for 1-5 mins
Semper Fi
Gunny
I think it should have been a blind test. Other than that its a fine test.
Stevie wonder wasn't available that day
That's pretty clever. Not sure how PC it is though. 😂
Very un PC, heads in a bag better
🤣🤦♂️
@@joentell it wouldn't work because of the stereo separation
NO HIGHS, NO LOWS; MUST BE BOSE
But i can confirm that is somehow very true. At least on some of their products.
@@dom3827 Bose have been measured over time. Generally, the frequency response is roughly 46hz-13.5khz. That, with a hole in the midbass to treble. They don't have any 1st octave bass, and sure don't have any treble. I had a Bose wave radio, and listening to talk radio, voices sounded like everyone was talking through their hands.
Straight Gold
@@dom3827 depends on what you buy from bose..they have been moving away from the stigma i feel like their sound bar is the best on the market sound wise
Buy Other Sound Equipment.
Really great video and something i never thought about doing.
minor side note Pink noise isn't all frequency at equal amplitude that is white noise, pink noise has a 6dB per octave roll off to the high frequency which is why we find it more pleasant to listen to as its closer to how we perceive audio.
Thank you.
I don't think pink noise is just rolled off-white noise because a roll off would suggest there is a roll-off point. Pink noise does decrease at a rate of approx. 3db per octave starting at 20hz.
The definition of pink noise from Google is: random noise having equal energy per octave, and so having more low-frequency components than white noise.
Definition for white noise is: noise containing many frequencies with equal intensities.
actually pink noise is leveled logarithmic and white noise is linearly
FFT is linear and will show white noise as level.
any analogue filter will see pink as level meaning 1 to 10 hertz has the same as 10 to 100
When my buddy hooked up the Elacs, I was shocked by the imaging. Sooo good.
I was amazed too.
I wasn’t expecting the slight comedic side of you but I love it man. Great video. Keep it up!
Thanks for noticing. 😉
I’d love for you to revisit this note that homepods are able to be in a stereo pair and connect to apple tv 4k. I have found ebay prices around $230 as well, so it makes a morel compelling option.
Same. Would love to see a review of the HomePods as a stereo pair in a home theater set up as well with Dolby Atmos. Maybe with the Gen 2 versions?
Totally on point! I admittedly splurged on a HomePod..but only because I needed an omnidirectional speaker that could fit on a small counter in my bathroom and take voice commands while showering (a very specific use-case that HomePod is perfect for). But nothing nothing can replace a real, passive speaker for critical listening. Subscribed.
Hope you're truly enjoying it. HomePod in the bathroom....baller!!!🏀
I got ELAC Debut B6s, a Yamaha R-S202 amplifier, and speaker stands on craigslist for $200. Deal of a lifetime - this setup sounds ungodly good. Been hunting for a deal for a sub.
You sure you need a sub? Check the Dayton Audio subs on Parts Express
I got a Dayton reference hf 10 can pick up the 8 inch pretty cheap
ELAC B6's excellent choice
Compared to what? All in one speakers? I mean if your used to crap and step up to an Elac I guess it might sound great but if you have any experience with a real speaker they fall way short. Dynamics are non existent, no bass, highs were forward, just way over hyped.
Papi Trey Insignia had a bookshelf that were pretty cheap and sound just as good if not better. You can ha e a pair used for $20-80 on the used market. I got a pair for $20 used on Facebook. Insignia NS-b2111
The best thing about this video is that you turned your shy friend into an audiophile! By exposing the average listener to quality music at a reasonable price they become curious. Good sounding music is addicting! Subscribing.
Exactly. That's why I don't understand why these retail audio shops (the ones still in existence) don't focus more on converting non-audiophiles by having more affordable gear. Get people started and you already know what happens....they get hooked and will spend so much $$$ over the years. They're too focused on short-term profits.
Fortunately there are companies that are trying to target this market by making in-home trials free and easy. SVS for example has a crazy good 45 day trial which I’ve taken advantage of a couple of times.
I think you have a voice as a TH-camr to guide curious people who search for home audio advice on TH-cam. Your simple setup with the Dayton amp that your friend wanted for himself is a good way to get people interested in how to build home audio on a budget. This entire video showing how easy it is to get better sound than an Apple HomePod is a great way to get people interested.
It would be nice to see you make some videos targeting new comers. Describe some of the basic components needed and slowly build from there. There is a serious lack of good 2 channel HiFi stuff on TH-cam. Mostly it’s home theater with home audio as an afterthought. We need more content the other way around!
One last comment. The Apple HomePod is doing one thing right, giving people bass, even if they are cheesing it a bit. But if someone heard your mini-amp setup with the Pioneer SP-BS22s and a halfway decent sub, they would love it. Good bass is the wow factor for a lot of people. It’s what got me into this stuff. It’s taken dual SVS SB-16 ultras to satisfy my bass fix and along the way I’ve become fascinated with 2 channel audio. Looking forward to your next video!
It's amazing to see people that know so much talking about mainstream technology without being jerks. Subscribed
Between Joe here and Steve Guttenberg, I've been brought up to speed on audio gear after a 15-year break. Fantastic work. You've even got me building a pair!
Awesome. What are you building?
*I like the old style Echo Dot because it's small also **Newest.Technology**, gives out decent sound and doesn't take up a lot of shelf space if you want to put it on beam in the workshop or shed.*
Joe, I randomly stumbled upon this video at 11:42pm at night while researching the Home Pod but actually listening to Andrew Yang on Bill Maher. Thanks for your audio wisdom. I learned more about audio in 15 minutes than my whole life. (I have multiple Amazon devices, Air Pods, Beats, Beats Pros, a Bose Soundlink Revolve, Comfort Headphones and a few JBL products.) Sounds like, no pun intended, I need to step my game up.
Hey! That means a lot. Thank you!. Welcome to HiFi! This is a fun hobby. Just don't overspend.😉
Hi, nice review. However, is there a chance to do it again with the stereo HomePods this time? (2 HomePods connected in stereo mode).
Willie Revilla fair
$700?? Nah!
Finally I found a channel that spells out chapters within a long video in the description so that you can jump to whichever section you want. Thanks a ton for that man. Subscribed and Thumbs Up.
Hey man, great video! Would be cool to get a part 2 to this test with stereo Homepod!✌️⚡️
Its very rare i add a comment to comparison videos i watch but i was compelled to do so for this one. I work for one of the companies mentioned here (I'll let you guess which one). I know this was recorded before the stereo pairing was made possible on the home pods and the price was fairly adjusted as well for them but your level of passion, knowledge and balanced/ rational comparison has definitely been a pleasure to watch. this is honest and easy to understand and helped with choosing the speakers i'll be going with for a simple home entertainment center in my small apartment. in addition, it has helped with being able to express and rationalize in plain english the differences between some smart speakers and bookshelf speakers to others. thank you.
Glad you liked it and found it useful. I've had people who have purchased the stereo pair of HomePods and returned them for a decent pair of speakers and a small amp. They said it's a night and day difference.
You should do a new test with the homepod in stereo, now that the new firmware is out. Really great and profesional video.
Thank you. Unfortunately, I don't have 2 HomePods.
This is as close as you can get to a perfect review. Very well done
Thank you! 🙏. I am still trying to improve, I promise.
This channel is awesome, most other ones focus on high end hifi but that's not what I want, these budget hifi videos are brilliant!
I'm glad you like them. I have more speaker/audio reviews in the pipeline. Lots of budget audiophile stuff. I like products that are low cost, but high value.
My hifi is a mixture of components that are about 20 years old, and in total it cost me £45, it's the best system I've ever heard and I love it!
What components did you pick for your system? Sounds fun.
Sony PS-T22 turntable, Kenwood KR-V5570 amplifier and 2 pairs of speakers wired in parallel, these are the B&W DM601S2 and JBL control one speakers. I have a new video that I made about the system if you have 20 minutes spare at any point and are interested.
I'll check it out. Sounds like a sweet setup!
This guy is great. It's a really good review with a nice balance between real people and tech. Good humour too! Well done.
Thank you Michael!
I’m curious to know what you guys think of how the HomePod compares to the others when listening outside of the optimal listening position for stereo speakers. I ask this because I want speakers for my bedroom, and I’d rarely be in that optimal position. From what I understand, the HomePod is optimized for these kinds of situations.
Great question. If you're going to be within 8 ft of the HomePod, it sounds good. When you start to get further away from it, the larger speakers carry the sound further and therefore sound better.
It is great. If you listen VERY critically you can hear some dips but there is essentially a 270 degree sweet spot (I would recommend placing it close to a wall and not in the exact center of the room).
I recommend HOMEPODS
I like your approach and especially the clip of the guy stating he cannot listen at reasonable volumes. Keep up the good work.
Lol. That was Milton from Office Space.
Thank you!
Your reviews are very well put together. You are eloquent and what you say is accessible to all, not just an audiophile or audio engineer. Your comparison are well done, you play it fair. I really enjoy your test methodology. You do some of the best reviews on TH-cam.
This was the most technical video I saw on the HomePod, well organized and good methods to review a point of view. Love it! Keep up the good work!
Thanks. Glad you liked it.
Amazing video mate, both hilarious and informative! Got yourself a new subscriber!
This was so fun to find! Got here from Steve Guttenberg's channel. I love your focus on budget, and the experience you have building your own speakers, which I did 30 years ago and am being inspired to start again. I also really like how humorous this was, with the excellent cut scenes and stuff. Obviously you're spending some time making, writing, editing these, and it shows. Good presentation, subscribed!
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it. Definitely get back into it. I focus on affordable because I feel like with advancement in technology, good stuff should be getting less expensive, not more. Reading typical audiophile magazines would suggest otherwise, but I think prices are getting lower for a really good system. You just have to know what to look for.
Amazing video and I love your calm style!!
Great review. And what I got from it is that one speaker will never replace two.
Yes, that I can say with confidence! Will two HomePods sound really good? Probably! Is the the best sound for $700? Probably not.
“One hand I said” hahaha loved the vid man nice review
I'm glad you liked it!
I have a pair of standing and bookshelf pioneers in surround sound, i love them
Superb review, subscribed,
Would love to see a stereopair HomePod now it’s available put under the same test
From one audio file to another superb analysis
for da price, 2 homepodz break da bank!!! (for one, they are indeed great!!!)
Very thorough comparisons - nice job Joe!
Great information. For me the Homepods bass at lower volumes outperforms my own Amp and speaker setup. The most impressive feature for me with Homepod is not having to sit in the sweet spot, so if you have friends round you all get a similar experience wherever you are sat. I still have my traditional hifi setup but mostly use my Homepod. I managed to play vinyl and Alexa through my Homepod it’s on my channel. Thanks you have a new subscriber. :)
I will take a look. Curious how you played your vinyl and Alexa through it. Thanks.
Can you link to the video? I didn't see it.
HomePod Vinyl How to
th-cam.com/video/tMFHAauf3uE/w-d-xo.html
HomePod playing Vinyl
th-cam.com/video/_iNu4ZVmx9g/w-d-xo.html
Alexa
th-cam.com/video/oiCGKQ7wcNg/w-d-xo.html
Very nice and concise reviews with lots of detail. Thanks Joe!!!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
A blind test with only one speaker as a compatitor rather than a pair would have been gorgeous. It would be great if you did it that way.
Thanks for a good video anyway.
Hey man I’m also a diy speaker lover I’ve restored some old electro-voice 15trxb’s and some infinity rsIIIb’s. This was a great vid and I really feel how carful you where not to upset the “true audio files” parts express is taboo as well as bose and so much more. You did a great job we need to hear the history and know that this hobby can be approachable from any price point. Well done !!
Yeah, I don't want to necessarily UPSET anyone..that's not my goal. BUT, if I feel like there's some truth that people need to know about, I will try my best to get that message out even if it upsets some people.
Brilliant review thanks! Hope you can do a re comparison if and when homePod can be run in stereo :)
I don't know if I want to buy another one at $350. Yikes! If these were $200, I think it makes a lot of sense. $700 for a pair of speakers is just asking to be compared to higher end speakers that I know will beat the HomePod in real world bass response and overall loudness.
I like your style! There's tons of technical info yet you were able to keep the video light on it's feet.
Thank you for letting me know you enjoyed it!
I liked this video 1 minute into it. Love the passion and background!
Thank you!
Got a special love for affordable tech review’s! I don’t discriminate for cheap, throw away, give away, stuff. I like sampling what ever I can get. I love my system l. I am happy with rocking out to music for a simple budget and some intelligent tweaks. When people come over, they silently eye up my stealthy sleeper sleek aesthetic vintage look, and turn the gears in their head. So, your reviews are just down my alley. Hat’s off to what you do. Fine craft, my man!
"They'll start reading poems" hahahaha
This guys videos are therapeutic. I could just leave them running.
That's a cool thing to hear. 🙏🙏🙏
Joe N Tell keep up the good work. 👍🏻 New to the channel. Would love to get a good studio monitor quality comparison if you haven’t already. I have some presonus monitors but wondering how they compare to KRK or similar.
I need to do more studio monitors
Just found this channel through reddit. Great Quality, looking forward to more videos. Subscribed.
For the bass response, they likely mapped excursion vs power as a function of frequency. They limit the bass before the drivers are over driven. The downside to how they do all this is high group delay (bass notes arrive late), high settling time (bass sounds boomy before it hits steady volume), and higher distortion (doesn't sound as clear).
After reading a ton of pot-shot, pile-on and click-bait reviews from people anxious to display their audio expertise, it was wonderfully refreshing to come upon Joe’s review. Here’s a guy who actually learned his audio from the ground up, by building his own speakers and scrounging the parts stores for bargains - and he’s able to express himself in a way that will connect with the average consumer. Even more importantly, Joe is out to discover whatever he can about what, to me, is a near-miraculous accomplishment from Apple-something about which Steve Jobs himself would have been proud. Finally, he devises a test that doesn’t succumb to the pitfalls of the “blind” assessments from more famous reviewers. I agree with Joe’s final assessment ALMOST entirely. I agree that Apple’s engineers have pulled off an a,aging magic trick in bass response - something that too many other reviewers have failed to mention. I also agree that the HomePod, for all its amazing qualities, can’t compete in sound quality with a similarly priced compact component system ASSEMBLED AND SHOPPED BY AN EXPERT. I have no doubt the Elacs will blow away pretty much anything in the sub-$500 category. And people fortunate enough to follow Joe on TH-cam can do better for their money, if they are willing to sacrifice the requisite space for a component system. GREAT review and wonderfully nuanced, Joe! BUT BUT BUT. First, I knew Joe was almost forced to conclude the HomePod isn’t worth the money, because it’s his Job to uncover the best stuff for the lowest buck. Joe you could have mentioned this, and it would have added to your credibility. Second, I know quite a few people unwilling to donate precious living room space to a component system. It is only pure love that made my own lovely spouse willing to sacrifice an entire wall of our own great room, plus room in back for rear surround speakers, and I had to pay for experts to embed additional surround speakers into our ceiling. That’s unusual among younger couples I know. Finally, the vast majority of consumers have neither the knowledge nor the willingness to bone up on audio and do a proper job when it comes to shopping and installing a sound system. Therefore, I think the HomePod has massive potential to improve the audio qualities of most homes, requiring NO special knowledge whatever, and NO sacrifice of space. It practically disappears when you place it in pretty much any room of our home. All you really need is an iPhone or iPad or Mac and power outlet, period. I think that big failing of the HomePod is price, and that will be addressed in future releases. If the HomePod were, for example, $299, I think a lot of price resistance would be overcome. I love our own HomePod, but my love of audio is such that I’ve already wired most our rooms, and don’t need it in our living room, bedroom or parlor. In the kitchen, however, it rules, and even more importantly MY WIFE CAN OPERATE IT! I think Joe could have mentioned all of these things. If you’re already subscribed to his channel, you may already know enough about audio not to need a HomePod-but for couples whose home audio consists of an inadequate Bluetooth speaker or overgrown boom box, feel overwhelmed by the idea of component systems, and feel that better audio is worth $350, the HomePod will be ideal. Unfortunately for Apple and for audio lovers, most couples will be unwilling to pay $350. If they can get the price down to $299 or $249, I believe it will sell briskly. Echo users will be an ideal audience, because HomePod’s audio blows away Echo and Siri is good enough. Anyhow, with these caveats, I congratulate Joe on this fair and unusually knowledgeable review.
Thank you for the compliments and thought out response. To respond to your "BUTS" I would just say that I do not disagree with anything you've said. I thought I was fair in my conclusion saying the HomePod isn't the best speaker for the price, but the best speaker for it's size. I think that is a huge compliment. I mean THE BEST for it's size. If people want simplicity and compactness, I would recommend it...of you are an Apple user. I have almost every Apple product except I use a Google Pixel 2 XL as my phone. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth that the HomePod has Bluetooth capabilities, but they've disabled them.
Joe N Tell Thanks for your response! I guess I failed to hear your qualification that the HomePod is the best speaker for its size. That statement sums it up neatly and truthfully. I also would be happier if Apple had enabled Bluetooth, but am sure they did so to forestall negative reviews, as AirPlay’s audio quality is so much better than Bluetooth. Previous to the HomePod, we traveled with a (bulky!) AirPlay speaker, as I was dissatisfied with the lopped-off audio afforded by Bluetooth. Anyhow, thanks again and keep up the excellent work!
This was one of the best reviews I have ever seen. Plain awesome.
Thank you so much!🙏🙏🙏
Hats off! A proper speaker comparison done by someone who knows good sound!
Thank you!!!
Will you be doing a follow up on this with the HomePod stereo pair???
Now you should test with paired HomePods.
Obviously, this would double the price, but I too would also be interested in hearing a good audio review this way.
Yes please do a test with paired HomePods. Thanks :)
Yes!! please do a review on two homepods, with two other speakers with the same price range of two homepods.
Man, you guys making me spend money! 🤣
If you do this, please also get a set of bookshelf or floorstanding speakers that are $700 for the pair.
As an audio guy I really enjoyed this. Very entertaining video. I like it!
That's a big compliment. Thank you!
Great video! This is pretty much what I was expecting the results to be. I’m a huge Apple fan but why would I buy a tiny speaker that is locked to one ecosystem and is not even stereo at $350? For that price I feel like I could put together a pretty amazing system from parts express as you suggested in this video
Yes you could put together an amazing system. I still like where Apple is going with the tech in the HomePod.
Their kit speakers that Erin tested were all horrible, and measured very very poorly, because the crossover was apparently just thrown together using the numbers, rather than actually being tested and optimized for the drivers and cabinet. However, the Dayton MK602X measured much better, especially for such a cheap speaker. There are other good entry level speakers from Kantu, Nuemi, and Micca, and from Polk, JBL, Dali, Cerwin Vega, and Elac in the nest tier up, but still under $300 a pair. Any of them paired with any of the good sounding under $100 class D amps would be the basis for a very good sounding entry level system, IMO.
@ 3:04 - I went to that very SAME demo!! The Fry's in my area was in Anaheim, CA. I was dumbfounded by what I heard, They demoed some movies and then they demoed some songs from Anne Lennox's Album "Medusa" - Which is mostly all covers of other songs. Take a listen on a GOOD stereo, play "Take Me To The River" you'll be blown away by the super low bass & Annie Lennox belting out such crisp and high vocals! - An EXCELLENT remake and beautifully produced / mixed. I got my VERY first taste of what people now refer to as "Musical Frission" that day at Fry's. I've been in to Car audio and Home Audio since I was 14 years old, GREAT video Joe!! :)
Super comprehensive. I built a pair of overnight sensations myself a while back. Keep up the good work my dude. Subscribed 🤘
OS's are dope! I've built those and I thought they sounded sweet. I actually liked the sound better than the C-Notes. I definitely have respect for someone who's built their own speakers.
I have no interest in Apple's Homepod, but I have bought several bookshelf speakers and have paired them with subwoofers. Joe N Tell's Speaker Leaderboard has been extremely useful to me. I can see how speakers I'm thinking of purchasing compare to other speakers in a certain price range. I really find this channel interesting, humorous at times, and informative. Keep up the good work!
2 always sounds better. Believe me, you can put the smalles, cheapest Sony or Philips Microset with the factory single drive 3 inch cardboard speakers next to the Apple and the cheapo will sound better to the ear. That is the principle of STEREO. Crappy stereo beats refind Mono.
What Apple has done is like putting the engine of a Ferrari in something with the suspension of a Lada. It just never will do what it could do, if you put the tech in the right setting.
There are 7 tweeters in the HomePod. It scans the room using the tweeters and microphones to create stereo audio. The tweeters cover the mid to high frequencies which are where stereo separation is most important. And if that’s not enough, two HomePods can be paired for full stereo sound.
Да ладно! Отличное знание английского!
Nice review, would you do a update with Homepod in stereo pairing now that's available ? It's kind of unfair to do single homepod vs stereo pair bookshelf
I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting much, but thought I'd watch anyway. Great video! Well done, very informative, and to my surprise, actually more useful info than I expected. I do agree that a blind test with your buddies would have been better, but overall I really liked it and am considering replacing my B&W Zeppelin with a small amp and bookshelf speakers like the Elacs (or maybe their bigger brother, the B6).
Thank you!
And while I’m not an audiophile, I did subscribe to your channel... probably over my head but I like your presentation and learned a few things too. Thanks.
Thanks! I don't consider myself an audiophile either. I just like audio, music, and tech.
Hey! Great review. I have 2 HomePod and paired them as stereo speakers. They sound really great! You should give them a go and maybe do an update review as stereo speaker.
Thank you very smart this review is garbage without a pair of HomePods
Nice, comprehensive review, thank you. I also appreciated the detailed links within the description. This is how all reviews and videos should be organized.
Thank you! Glad you liked it.
You should really redo this with stereo HomePods.
Nicolas Baroudi where are they $200?
he unplugged one of the stereo
Two HomePods vs. equivalent priced amp+speakers
What a killer review/comparison. Subscribed! Do more of these videos please. Two HomePods compared to similarly priced speaker/amp combo, in a blind test.
Thank you. I don't really want to spend more on HomePods. Just imagine what kind of system you can put together for $700. The HomePod might be the best sounding self-powered smartspeaker system for its size, but not for it's price.
The HomePod playing 25hz with a 4.5" driver would require a lot of xmax and DSP. There are calculations you can make for cone diameter and xmax and it shows for example a 4.5" woofer playng 25hz at 90db would require 28mm xmax! So I bet there is noticeable physical cone breakup causing the warbling tones you talk about. Fluance makes some powered 5" Bluetooth bookshelf speakers that are about that price and sound great and are all in one solution with bass and treble control. But I've heard the Elac's, they are really great if setup correctly.
Your analysis makes sense. Thanks for explaining. I am about to upload my Fluance Ai40 review. I think that's what you're referring to.
The Ai40, yes indeed. Not ELAC good but considering they are all in one and with nice features and sound I like them. I like the little details like the remote control, bass and treble controls, the LED notification light and brightness control. Well thought out speakers imo.
You were right! They are really good, but not better than the ELAC UB5's with a good amp. The UB5's are more than double the price plus you need an amp, so it shouldn't be a surprise.
Is he measuring actual 25Hz or just harmonics. Speakers when forced hard at 25Hz will play some tones at 50, 75 and 100. The speaker kind of makes a muffled woody sound over the bass tone. The warbling is intermodular distortion. Basically when you put mids and high excursion bass through the same driver it sounds like you're talking into a fan. I've noticed it on some PA speakers and also headphones.
Have you tried this again with 2 HomePods
I dont know if I ever put a comment on video, but in your case I had to. Keep up the good work. I see a lot of passion in every video that you do, and explaining it so thoroughly and simply to us makes you my favorite "start" youtuber ever. I can't promise you 1 million views this week or next one, but be sure and remember this date and this comment that soon (maybe in a year or two) you'll be having million subscribers. Just keep it up, I know it is hard sometime when you see small numbers but with your passion that is gonna come eventually. :) Thank you. (I'm not even and audiophile)
Thank you so much for the encouragement and support. It means a lot.
grah_od_jucer : I just Sub’d to this channel myself and I completely agree with you that as long as the quality remains high you are on your way to TH-cam success. You definitely know what you’re talking about and this video is really informative. Great stuff! I will be able to say: I Sub’d when this cat had less that 2K Sub’s!!!!
Thank you!
Joe, I agree with everything in this comment. You have great expertise, a fair mind and a wonderful ability to communicate. Keep it up, keep posting reviews, as many as you can, and in a year or two you’ll have a million subscribers. It just became one of them.
agreed. production quality and the fun factor are high, here. I'm a no-bullshit audiophile. I loved my first Bose until I replaced it with something way better for the same price. I love my B&W 800 Diamonds now, and I use power cord as speaker wire. It's really interesting how little speakers like this can sound so good.
The home pod has DSP helping it, Vanatoo T zero with three inch woofers also produce amazing bass due to enclose design and dsp. However no one is checking the distortion and average users aren’t checking 20-20000hz flat response - which is pretty hard for many speakers
I have the capability of measuring THD.
Joe N Tell that’s true, but average users just ignore those things 😓
I wish i could download all the knowledge you've acquired over the years, but we aren't droids yet so i'll just have to put in the time like everyone else. Good vid.
I do actually own a pair of Bose Jewel Cubes and the AcoustiMass 5 subwoofer, however I power them with a Sony STR-DB930, so I don't get locked totally into Bose's EQ and I personally think they sound very nice for the range of music I listen to.
Lmao! Dude this review was not only quality, informative, but hilarious! Great sense of humor, quality rarely found. Thank you!
Thank you! 🙏
I’d love to see an update to this with the stereo HomePod configuration!
I addressed this at the end of my video on TH-cam Music.
Think you have white and pink noise mixed up.
White noise is all frequencies with the same amplitude. This doesn't mean that you hear all frequencies equally as loud due to our own hearing sensitivities (the frequency response of our ears) as humans.
Pink noise has been designed so that every frequency sounds just as loud to our ears. This means more energy goes into making the lower frequencies of equal loudness as other frequencies.
The definition of pink noise is: random noise having equal energy per octave, and so having more low-frequency components than white noise.
Did I say it incorrectly in the video?
I think Phillip means pink noise is c weighted db, white noise the other db one, true db.
Great test - I watched it until the end! I have a Sonos Play 3 in one room and a Sonos Amp with a pair of Q Acoustics 3010s in another. Your comment regarding the digital sound processing on the HomePod enhancing the bass but only at lower volumes, also seems to be true for the Play 3s. They sound great at lower volumes but are outperformed by my amp & speaker combo when the music is louder.
Yeah, it's hard to explain the difference in sound quality.
Great review, thanks for sharing!
Well-informed & edited review which makes it very engaging. Thanks! Subscribed.
Thank you!
Hey Joe, Love From India!! A very sincere review system with common people like me in the middle of the setup in my ordinary room.
Thank You So Much!! Kudos to you.
We dig your passion, man!
Thanks!!!
17:55 I was looking for these words for the whole day I have been watching and reading reviews. Now I am convinced to buy Pioneers as I am looking for balanced sound for around $100 :)
Thank you, dude!
Lol me too dude I found them on somewhere else for 120 and I'm definitely sold
I had to comment on this outstanding review filled with many wonderful moments. The beginning is very thorough, liked the background on your teenage years, it adds to you being a real person like the rest of us. It's obvious you have a passion and you shared your exact goal which is to help people acquire the best possible sound at the optimal price of quality/value. For those who continue to read reviews, we can cut to the chase and say the Pioneers AJ left the company with have proven to be a terrific 1st step into a better home audio system. Worst case, you decide 6-12 months later to upgrade and you find a 2nd room for them, just seems like a no brainer. I have a bunch more highlights in this video.
1. The beginning is long on numbers that some could find tedious but I think it lends credibility for your recommendations on the back end, like some of these fine speakers you review, the videos are smooth and not herkie-jerkie, there's a flow to them and I enjoy learning more and more.
2. The guy with backwards cap, think he was 2nd reviewer, all of us either know that guy in our circles or we are that guy, it totally takes this video to the next level, again it adds so much credibility to the speaker reviews. We can see the reaction 1st hand as you unveil the prices like Drew Carey in The Price is Right, he changed his opinions immediately when the $$$ came out and I though that almost turned this into a documentary.
3. Despite your criticism you also give the Apple speaker props for some of its achievements. You ask who this is for and I have several people in mind. The attorney who has it set up on their desk in their office, $350 is a bottle of wine to them. There is a big chunk of folks who make 6 figure incomes in the business world and I think they are going right after these folks. You are correct in stating that Apple wants you to use their products and their services. That also brings up the point...Apple users are plunking down $999 for the new iPhone, is $350 for a speaker that in general does great for its size...but I agree 100% that you can do so much better for $350 but I just wanted to also say there is a huge market in that $250-$500 bookshelf speaker buyers and they are going right into that market.
4. It's obvious the Elac B5 would be ideal for bassheads or think 80s Debbie Dee, Run DMC, Company B, these folks who enjoy a more bass centric vibe would love the Elac set and not notice the high/mid short comings as much as those who would prefer to listen to classical-Brahms, do you agree/disagree?
-Finally, if you are going to do these type of videos, I think taking a couple extra minutes for some more in depth feedback was the least we could do. Cheers JnT!
Your comment/feedback is awesome!!! Much appreciated! Awesome people like you make up for the few haters. I make these videos for you guys!
This. Great review, it held my attention throughout and provide some very useful information and humor. However, I would like to see this compared to a more comparable speaker such as the Sonos play 5 which is a a great speaker system although now that I think of it it’s a $500 speaker vs. this $349 speaker so maybe. Sonos play 1 or 3 either would good. Thanks for the review.
This is the first video of yours of watch and I have to say I'm impressed. The covered all the bases but absolutely zero hype ... used actual people in an actual living room when did meaningful objective measurements on top. Fantastic! I don't know if you're familiar with a fellow named Floyd tool but you might want to look it up. You work for the national research Council in Ottawa Canada and did some very solid research on sound. He too felt that anechoic Chambers we're not as meaningful as test in a typical Listening Room and with multiple people.
Thank you. I am trying to improve my testing/explaining methodology. Yes, Toole contributed a lot to the audio world.
One thing a lot of people forget is that a speaker system is actually a set of speakers within a larger box (the room). Finding the right speakers for every room is tough. It's like saying, "I need a driver for an enclosure, but I won't tell you the dimensions or damping of the enclosure. I want it to sound good in a bunch of different enclosures too." 😂
Joe N Tell one thinking toole contributed was a lexicon. The one criticism I could make is that your listeners were struggling with the vocabulary.
Art Gale I chose non-audiophiles on purpose. I wanted to understand what Apple's target demographic would say
Joe N Tell more articulate non audiophiles would help. The listener that used "power" as his only adjective was the reason for my comment. Even with nonaudiophiles you could use General categories like which would you rather listen to all day or which sounds more real or how would these handle reggae Hip Hop or classical guitar. That said starting off with a totally blank slate and just asking for an opinion was great to avoid influencing them... But after that some general categories would be helpful... and I hope you take my feedback in the spirit with which it's given. Keep in mind I have watched quite a few audio Centric videos and this is the first one I've responded and or subscribe to.
Art Gale I appreciate the feedback. Always looking to improve.
12:30....dude is baked
I asked him since others said that, but said no. He laughed about it though.
No, not baked, he is FRIED!!
Lol, perhaps. I thought so too, but he says not till this day.
Your edits are on point and hilarious lol
HomePod seems to be the best “clean” solution. Some people just don’t care to dedicate a room to audio.
I get what you mean by clean. It's a simple all-in-one solution. It wins in that department for sure. But it loses in the sound quality department. It's the sacrifice made for being "clean".
Massimo Tava
The only person I personally know who owns a HomePod, placed it on their kitchen counter. It’s just a tiny music source for when someone is cooking. Bookshelf speakers would take up too much counter space.
Joe N Tell wellll. As you said. It it good enough. But on the other hand it does come with a nice bunch of nice integrations. Especially Airplay 2
So a year later Apple has improved some things. Better integration with other services and such. Still i’d probably go for something like a bluesound setup for good audio quality and something like sonos if it had to be a bit cheaper.
I’m thinking of getting a powernode 2i which is way more expensive but does have some home theater options available.
If you can find a nice cheap receiver/amp and and hook up an AppleTV you are probably better of with some nice bookshelf or floorstand speakers.
Great video mate I’ve not seen your stuff before but I am now subscribed👍
I subscribed because he said BOSE
Whoa I dont really care about good audio but watching this vid and all the stuff I learned from it; I now appreciate good audio.
Hey, thanks Lee. I appreciate that!🙏
Nice review ! I was disappointed with one HomePod alone, I was amazed when I got the 2nd one ...
I have yet to try a pair
That's called stereo.
I wish I would've been this interested in what my teachers used to teach. Very informative. And you can feel your love for the science of sound.
Oh man thank you! I wish I was more interested in my HS classes too! Lol. I was more into car audio though.
Michael Lucenti. You might feel the love but this is still incorrect information from someone who should know better than suggesting that F10 is HALF volume as it is not. F3 is half volume.
@@stevedalzell9258 an increase of 10dB is double the PERCEIVED loudness. 3dB is double the power. 6dB is double the SPL. Trust me. When it comes to psychoacoustics, that 10dB number is what's important to what we humans perceive.
Audiophiles on a budget, I love that philosophy :-) I despise Apple, over inflated pricing and processed sounding speakers. Will be checking out your channel for sure, seems like it has some awesome content :-)
Thank you! I feel like high end HiFi is such a small niche market.
Apple is not overpriced, just depends on your priorities.
The main point is that you can move pod closer to you and get all the perfect quality. From the distance its not loud, its a fact.
Anyway its one of the most beautiful testing job on the youtube FOR AGES.
About lockout of users - its not the Apple, but mostly rights owners.
First time I've seen Joe N Tell. GREAT JOB! Smashed that subscribe button.
🙏🙏🙏. Appreciate it!
There are some DSP tricks you can do in the bass when you don't have the woofer or amp for real bass. Part of it is shifting the bass upwards and playing overtones to make it sound like the original bass, but with less weight. It'll show up as loud bass when measuring, but the spectral content won't be accurate.
Very interesting!
Apple is a magical brand. They created miracle with 4 inch drivers. If they ever create a home theatre with this kind of technology... imagine
Dual 4" subs in an enclosure that fits in a Manilla envelope! 😂
You'd get bose lol
This Just bought back so many memories when I worked in a hi fi store in mid nineties when I was 16 and I loved the Aiwa’s they honestly sounded way better than any of the high end stuff we had from Sony or Kenwood.
great channel! deserve more subs!
not an audio guy but this guy is a great youtuber defintly deserves more subs
Thanks!!!