A request at the beginning? Please don’t turn this into an “Apple Sucks” thread or ‘keep that eavesdropping shift out of my house” thread.

That said....

Any of you folks have experience with the HomePod? A friend wants to buy me either an Alexa or HomePod for my upcoming 50th birthday and wants to know which I want.

I’ve been Apple for years, (Phone, watch, iPad) so it seems natural to go with the HomePod, but any of you Apple folks gone with Google or Alexa for your in home device?

I have no personal experience, but I trust this guy’s opinion:

https://youtu.be/mpjREfvZiDs

I bought a pair of HomePods (for stereo) several months ago. The guy at the Apple store told me that HomePods supported Bluetooth music. But they don’t. The HomePods do have Bluetooth hardware, but Apple’s firmware disables it. I returned them.

I have an Apple Music subscription, but its classical music stream is poor compared to the Internet streams of my two favorite classical music FM stations, so I don’t listen to Apple Music very much. And consequently I wouldn’t listen to the HomePods very much.

Too bad – the HomePods have wonderful sound quality, and superb stereo imaging.

Member henryaz has HomePods.

I’ve listened to them, played with them a little and like them. If I wasn’t already deep into SONOS I would use them.

One other comment. The audio technology of the HomePod is simply awesome. The price of the HomePod is high, but I think Apple sells them near, or even below, cost. Why? Because you have to have an Apple Music subscription to use them. The incremental cost to Apple to provide you with that service is negligible, so it’s mostly pure profit for Apple. $10/mo or $100/yr.

 
Listening to mine right now. Apple Music can be difficult to find music you want to hear. I find the best results by just asking Siri to "play Emmylou Harris", or just about any other musician. I know who I like to listen to, and Siri delivers. You can also ask for different genres of music, like "Hey Siri, play 1980's rock", or "Hey Siri, play Beethoven piano concertos".

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
I bought a pair of HomePods (for stereo) several months ago. The guy at the Apple store told me that HomePods supported Bluetooth music. But they don’t. The HomePods do have Bluetooth hardware, but Apple’s firmware disables it. I returned them.

Don't blame you. I'd have returned them, too, and made certain Apple, themselves, knew why.

[What follows is not an "Apple sucks" rant.]

I swore for years I wouldn't go near Apple anything. Slick designs, but too "closed box" for me. Since then my view has changed. The ensigmatic household is all Apple mobile devices, now. The remaining Android devices, a pair of affordable Android TVs, will likely be replaced by Apple TVs. When MS-Win7 EOLs, it'll be replaced with either Linux or Apple desktops.

But...

Apple goes out of its way to "persuade" you to use their paid content distribution systems. To the point that, lacking iTunes on anything, I have no way to get my music, for which I've already paid, onto my iThings. Not in any way I can subsequently play it, anyway. This is Quite Annoying.

It sounds like they're doing exactly the same thing with HomePod.

quote:

Apple goes out of its way to "persuade" you to use their paid content distribution systems. To the point that, lacking iTunes on anything, I have no way to get my music, for which I've already paid, onto my iThings. Not in any way I can subsequently play it, anyway. This is Quite Annoying.

This has always been a bone of contention for me as well. I've spent countless dollars the purchase of music and movies; the idea of bailing on Apple now and starting over. Ugh.

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin1069:

quote:

Apple goes out of its way to "persuade" you to use their paid content distribution systems. To the point that, lacking iTunes on anything, I have no way to get my music, for which I've already paid, onto my iThings. Not in any way I can subsequently play it, anyway. This is Quite Annoying.

This has always been a bone of contention for me as well. I've spent countless dollars the purchase of music and movies; the idea of bailing on Apple now and starting over. Ugh.

Oh, I'm not going to bail on Apple for it, but neither am I giving in to their attempts.

Funny thing is: If they weren't such assholes about it there's a chance they'd have eventually wooed me into subscribing to their service. But they've pissed me off. So nope.

I don't listen to music, much, except in the car, anyway. And my car system, Uconnect, is a lot friendlier than my iOS devices in that respect.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

Apple goes out of its way to "persuade" you to use their paid content distribution systems. To the point that, lacking iTunes on anything, I have no way to get my music, for which I've already paid, onto my iThings. Not in any way I can subsequently play it, anyway. This is Quite Annoying.

It sounds like they're doing exactly the same thing with HomePod.

Wont deny that Apple does tend to steer you to their streaming services. However Itunes is free and it DOES ALLOW you to put your own personal music on your Ithingy's. I have both CD's and LP's that I have transferred to my Iphone XR. BTW, LP's are a bit of a PITA because you actually have to record the LP to a high resolution MP3 file and then translate it into Itunes but it's worth it if the LP is an exceptional recording. Heck you can even use the camera in your Iphone to snap a pic of the album cover and then transfer that into the Itunes Album. As for CD's, those are easy as pie but the database is lacking in regards to album covers so some pic taking of the CD album cover may be necessary.

Truth is that I really hate to see Itunes being phased out and may actually attend the next stockholders meeting to ask what will be replacing the features provided by Itunes.

quote:

Originally posted by Scooter123:
... Itunes is free and it DOES ALLOW you to put your own personal music on your Ithingy's.

And requires you have either an Apple or MS-Windows computer. If you have neither you are SOL.

With Android I could simply dump my music into a Dropbox folder or, heaven forbid, onto a µSD card, and be done.

I can get the music onto my iThings, I just can't do anything with it after I do. You'd think that getting it into your iCloud repos would get you there, somehow. Nope.

It's lame. Very lame. World class lame.

Hmmmm, I don’t know about streaming FM stations, but my Homepods work fine with Pandora, Amazon music, etc.

Great sound quality, I have two and will likely end up with a third before too much longer.

 
Also, if you have a Mac or iPhone, anything you can play on the Mac (or iPhone), such as something from your iTunes library, any odd mp3, audiobook, etc. can be channeled over to play through the HomePod, using Airplay. I listen to songs on YouTube on the HomePod.

not to hijack the thread but look into the naim mu-so stunning sound

I didn't read the thread, just skipped to the end.

Google Assistant is better than Alexa.

But a Sonos:One. Get both Alexa and Google Assistant, and the Sonos multi-room and multi-speaker flexibility.

We've been giving them out as real estate closing gifts. They rock.

I have a HomePod in the office.

Pros:
AirPlay enabled, so any audio app that is enabled can play to them (Pandora, Sirius XM, iHeart Radio)
Siri enabled, like the other Alexa and Google speakers, question/response works.
Sound quality is great.

Cons:
Cost, yes you have to pay the Apple Tax rate.
Limited mounting, designed for a table or desk, no wall mounts.

I also have Sonos Play 5, they are also AirPlay enabled, 1’s and 3’s are not (maybe upgraded since I last checked). They work well and support integration with Alexa and Google.

You have several choices to pick from depending on your usage.

Thanks guys.

So far so good, what surprises/disappoints me,is that I can use 'short cuts' to open favorite stations on iHeart Radio from my phone, buy my Homepod is not able to duplicate that function?

Sadly though, I'm in so deep to Apple that they would have to disappear completely before I go to another platform.

I'm deep in Sonos but I also have a Homepod and have been very happy with it. I use Carplay so I already had Apple Music.