I totally agree with you on the surround setup. I really wish Apple would allow you to use HomePods for Left/Center/Right front speakers, HomePod minis for surround speakers, and come out with an Apple subwoofer. That would be an incredible experience and might make me replace my Polk Audio 5.1 speaker system. But until they do, I am sticking with my Polk speakers and Denon A/V receiver.
I already use 2 of the original Homepods as my TV source and they are fantastic but miss the true surround sound experience that a 4 speaker set up could give me. 2 Apple minis in the rear would be a fantastic additional capability (as would a subwoofer) - hope Apple are listening to you!
I can’t believe they don’t have a subwoofer. That is essential to great sound. Fwiw I do have a subwoofer hooked up wirelessly to two HomePods. It’s plugged in to an AirPort Express 2 (it requires the 2…won’t work with the original express). It works and makes a huge difference but it is slightly clunky. Eventually it disconnects or the volume level gets out of sync with the HomePods but it’s manageable. If they lost the connection and you’re listening to something that could really benefit from a subwoofer it’s just one button and a check mark to reconnect it….it’ll stay connected for whatever you’re using it for. Same for the audio level sync…one button and you can manually adjust the sound level to be the same level as the homepods and it’ll stick for a good while and as long as you need it for. The volume on the Apple Remote does control the setup as one whole unit.
I am also using 2 of the original HomePods for my TV source. I have added two minis to serve as “rear” speakers by connecting them through Airplay. I frequently have to reconnect the Airplay connection but it only takes seconds. So far pleased with the results.
A dedicated HomePod OG fan since day one, as well as a home theater fanatic, all Apple has to do is make it so that I can add minis for my surround sound channels and maybe add a subwoofer down the road, and I would be the happiest guy in the world. Not for every room as you stated, but for my usage, it would be perfect!
I have been using 2 of the original full size HomePods with my Apple TV for years. Magical! I was using Bluetooth sound bars before as we use a projector and a blank wall for our TV. All the AV equipment(DVD,Laserdisc,HDDVD players) are by the projector and wiring speakers was a no go. The problem with Bluetooth is that is drops out now and then and has to be re-paired. There were times we had to move the sound bar to repair it. With Wifi and HomePods, problem gone. Having our Apple TV control everything is great. One volume control. With eARC the DVD automatically plays and then goes back to the Apple TV screen. Simple.
I have 2 HomePod 2’s paired in living room and then paired 2 HomePod minis and labeled them “Living Room Rear”. And when you tap the power button on the remote once a menu appears that will let you select audio menu. From there I checkmark both pairs of HomePods (2 and minis) Andjust the core volume I want them to be separate from each other then back out of that menu. TIP - set the minis volume a little higher to better match the larger HomePods. From there the regular volume control adjusts like normal for both sets. Then boom I have 4 speakers booming Apple Music in my living room space. Be sure to reverse the left and right rear speakers though to match the front speakers so the left and right audio matches. Of course, this isn’t true surround sound from Apple, but it is the best option to fill a room with music or movie audio until Apple gives us an update to allow 4 speakers for a real surround sound experience.
Interesting video. I purchased 2 of the new HomePods that arrived yesterday - already having a home full of minis.... and was very intrigued given the general gushing comments people have to try them temporarily in the living room on my appleTV just to see.... But, as you said, they simply cannot compete with a system that has discrete rear speakers. There is a decent sense of audio but it simply isn't as "good" as some are saying. Sure, for more casual TV watching they make a fine pair of very expensive TV speaker substitutes.... but they are NOT "home theatre" level at all. I have a Sonos Arc, Sub, and 2 ones.... so perhaps my bar is a little too high for comparison. You are quite right in that IF apple can tweak the software and allow a pair of minis to be used as discrete rear speakers thus creating a 4.0 system it would be significantly better and then a contender for a home theatre system but you are already hitting £800 for all 4 devices.... and a Sonos Beam (with very acceptable bass on its own) with 2x Sonos 1SLs would be much cheaper. On another subject ive also found the multi room music performance to be shockingly bad - I have fantastic wifi with Eero pro 6Es and yet asking Siri to play music everywhere, often just fails, or some speakers get left out etc.... it needs a lot of nursing to get it to work and thats something apple STILL really needs to work on if they are serious about whole home audio - I assumed 16.0 would fix it.. then 16.1. then 16.2, then new architecture and 16.3.... but no, its as ropey today as ever.
This is prob the third video I've watched on new HomePods for TV audio and you're the first to talk about eARC HDMI support. I really thought these were limited to just the Apple TV device but it's cool to hear they maybe could be used for a game console / blu-ray player as well. I like my Apple TV a lot but I also collect and watch movies on blu-ray and 4K and obviously can;t leave those cut off from a speaker setup.
I have watched so many reviews of HP and this is the best one so far. Nobody spoke about eARC, nor our common wish of further updates to add more HPs for better surround sound. Thank you. 😊 I would love Apple even more if they come up with an update to pair up 2 more HPs for a full actual surround sound. I will love them further more if they update further and bring up a Sub-Woofer! 🤩
I don’t know if that would work and it certainly wouldn’t give you true rear surround channels. In a surround system the rear channels get specific audio to make it immersive.
Wow, so glad you brought up adding more HomePods as surround channels. Apple could absolutely compete with something like the Sony HT-A9 at like, half the cost if they expanded it out to let you add more speakers.
2:03 it’s actually very rarely the first input, I think older Vizio TVs were the only ones to use HDMI 1. Most these days use HDMI 2, but it will always be labeled on the physical port itself.
Hi Eric - Two HomePod 2’s are definitely better than 1. Just imagine how good 4 would be - one in each corner of the room all supporting Dolby ATMOS! It is rumored SONOS is going to bring out a new SL speaker to support ATMOS so you will get better surround sound (spatial audio). Come on Apple - How about a Quad setup with audio tuning? Just one more thing….
I agree on 4 HomePods would have an amazing sound! I would be surprised if Sonos doesn’t keep doing things like a new SL etc in the future for better sound too. Competition is great for us as consumers!
I have two original HomePods and four minis. I use the minis as mics for Siri... and I use the two original HomePods as a stereo pair in my kitchen/dining area. For my home theatre, I keep it traditional... two Bose for the front, and old Cambridge Soundworks for the center, backs, and sub. The sound is too good to change that! On my home office computer... two more Bose and a Polk sub. I honestly don't know if I would ever change those two setups.
Hi Eric! Thanks for the video! I have an apple TV 4k with a stereo pair of homepods mini and the experience is really awesome, the only annoying thing, for example, is if I'm watching a movie and I put the volume to 40% and I ask Siri for something, Siri answers me in that volume and sometimes I don't even hear it, I would like to know if there is a way that responds to me in high volume whatever it is that I am watching on apple tv at another volume
Great video Eric. I’ve watched a TON of he HP2 reviews, and yours offered a bit more insight than many of the others. I’m still on the fence as to whether I want to grab a pair the new HP2s. My current ecosystem includes 8 HPMs around the Rooms of my house…as well as a Stereo Pair of OG HPs in a Basement Family Room (13’x24’) used as Default Audio on an AppleTV4K. - The room is used primarily for TV viewing, and also has a receiver-based 7.1 ‘full surround’ system. I’ve used the OG HPs for 2-years as my main listening devices…and they get 99% of the task. The 7.1 system only gets action when I’m watching a ‘spectacle’ type film/movie. I really doubt the computational improvements made in the HP2 would enhance my viewing experience over the OG HPs…but I’m still considering them. You know. Because tech stuff. 😊 Dunno. Anyway. Great video. And totally agree that a pair of the full-sized HPs is an overall great solve for TV audio.
I have the Sony HT-Z9F with their rear speakers and it sounds great with the Apple TV 4K, the inconvennient that i have is a wireless soundbar and sometimes i have innestability connection between the sound bar, the subwoofer and the rear speakers. And i am seriously thinking change that sound bar for the HomePods. What is your recommendation? Thanks.
Thanks for the super detailed explaination. I’ve a large living room and will be sitting 7 meters away from the projector screen. Will placing the HomePods 4 meters away from the apply tv cause any latency?
Little known fact. You can add a subwoofer by using an Apple AirPort Express and a RCA to 3.5mm cable. Enable it in "Temporary Audi Output". I have mine hooked up to a Klipsch R-12SW and it sounds fantastic!
Thanks for the review. I've watched a few reviews, and nobody has commented about how clear the dialogue is. My hearing has gotten worse, and I'm more interested in that than in surround sound effects at this point in my life. I downsized my fairly high-end home theater system to a Bang & Olufsen soundbar last year. It has good dynamic range and bass and is very musical (considering it's just a nice looking soundbar), but I still have trouble hearing the dialogue sometimes, and the stereo separation is not great. Most of the time, I just use my Airpod Pro 2's through the Apple TV, which works fantastically well. However, if the HomePods have really clear dialogue, I might give them a shot. I'd be interested to hear some comments on this.
I've found speaking/dialogue to be incredibly clear with the HomePods. Whether it's podcasts, videos, or speaking in music recordings (live or studio), it's been clear in the kitchen with multiple items on the stove and even through in-person chatter. I hope you get the HomePods a try! I love them for all my audio needs, because the quality is excellent.
Interesting take vs the Sonos setup. You’re the first I’ve seen mention this (thank you…!) and I’d love to hear more. I have a Beam (Gen 1) also - nothing else. I’m not sure the two HPs are better for any content. Kinda disappointed. Did you find they performed better for any particular test Eric? Obviously the HPs have Atmos which the Beam doesn’t but I’m really not sure it makes that much of a difference in this comparison.
@@omgomgponies problem is if stereo the back speaker would play similar sound to front speaker. Not sure if homepods have Dolby Atmos or adjust so that back speaker would replicate sound coming from behind like true surround sound system.
I feel like it could be possible for them to add another HDMI port onto the apple tv that can serve as a passthrough for other devices so that way you could just select the source on the apple tv itself and it will pass the audio through to the homepods instead of your tv speakers. That would be awesome
@@EricWelander did I hear you correctly. Did you say that you can use your home pod to play your Apple Music in your library and then send that music that is playing on your home pod to sonos speakers in other rooms? If you can do this. Will the music still play on the home pod and other speakers? If all this is correct. How do you accomplish this?
Is it possible to get the audio from my TV to HomePods? I got the idea that the HomePods only works with Apple TV and apple devices. So I can use the Apple TV with my tv provider but not get the audio of my tv provider from my tv except if the TV has the HDMI earc. Am I correct?
Very helpful video, thank you very much! What do you think - can 2 paired HomePod substitute your soundbar (w/ subwoofer) for TV and music all in all? Currently I have a Yamaha YSP-2700 soundbar with subwoofer (no Rears) and I'm considering selling it for a second HomePod....🤔
I used to have a 2.0 system for my tv. It was great for me, but for everyone not sitting in the sweet spot, not so much. “Center channel” sound would appear to come from the left or right speaker instead of from the tv. I bought a sound bar and yes, I lost some stereo effects, but the “center channel” was fixed for everyone. So what about a pair of HomePods? Great for the person in the middle only? Or great for the rest of the family/friends also? I cannot find a single review addressing the sweet spot issue for a stereo pair of HomePods.
I hope you try moving your 2nd gen HomePods from the front to the side of the room. One on the left and one on the right if that makes a difference, Eric. Keep your videos coming
I have a Sonos Arc, and it does have AirPlay 2 but there are certain scenarios where it is not as "first party" as say a HomePod or HomePod mini. An example would be setting the audio output on an Apple TV, you might not see the Sonos Arc but you would automatically be able to use HomePod mini.
I have toyed with switching from my amp and speakers to HomePods. The think I get stuck with is watching free to air tv so not streaming through the Apple TV. Can you still use the HomePod for watching just tv?
I’ve had a stereo pair of HomePod mini for around 15 months and sometimes one might drop off. Is there any concern about bandwidth when using one or more wireless solutions? HomePod or sonos or anything else?
I have Sonos Arc with Era 100 in the rear and sub mini. Best sound ever. Even the sub mini is way more than you need. In what Era 300 in the rear but the 100 are doing a great job
Knowing what you know now - and focusing on audio quality rather than cost - Would you choose a set of Home Pods, or a Sonos Arc set with Subwoofer and 2 Sonos One's for rear channels? The space is a 12x12 carpeted room that has been converted to a theater/game room.
Thanks for your very informative video. I'm curious to know though, whether a Sonos Beam 2 can be connected to an Apple TV 4K in the same way that the HomePods can - i.e. using AirPlay 2. I have an older TV that does not allow Dolby Atmos to pass through from a HDMI input to my HDMI ARC port. Therefore I need my Apple TV 4K to connect directly to my speakers using either AirPlay 2 or HDMI input (which the Sonos does not have). I'd prefer to use Sonos if possible, so I can extend the system in the future by adding a sub and the new Era 300 rear Atmos speakers. If this is possible, would latency be an issue? Or would it be just as good as using HomePods with the Apple TV 4K?
ok what if you buy 4 homepods speakers and two of them set behind you as a rear speakers? will this help to create surround sound effect as a complite home teater system
Damn I think I may have to go with this setup I bought a Epson portable projector for my room and have been looking for a wireless setup with my Apple TV.
What about sources that are not the Apple TV 4K, like cable or your Nintendo Switch. Do the stereo HP2s allow you to use sound through those sources too?
The intercom feature on our homepods is always a hit or miss. We used to have dedicated intercoms in our rooms (a house built in the 80s) that we ripped out during a renovation. We replaced them with homepod minis with questionable success.
According to Apple you can use the HomePod minis as rear channels. I specifically asked about 2 HomePods in front and 2 minis in the rear for surrounds sound and was told it can be done easily
No it's just 2 pairs of the same stereo, not quad. Imagine a sound that starts front left, then moves front right, then rear right, then rear left. It would sound like you are being circled. All apple can do at the moment, is left to right or right to left ...stereo. Even with 4 speakers, it's still stereo. I know that the Homepod wizzardry can compensate to some extent, but real quad channel should only really be a software update. Given the cost of 4x homepods is up in home theatre country, apple should really do this.
My connection is fine, including my HomePod minis with my office Apple TV. It could be an issue with your Wi-Fi network or the location of the speakers getting interference. It's hard to say.
If you have Apple TV 4K, Homepod would be best anyway based on established integration. Sonos would be better if you have Roku, Amazon Fire or another competitor.
WHen using the home pods as your tv speaker via apple tv, would it also work while watching regular cable, ie not from a streaming app off the apple tv?
Thanks to your video I now know that with the Apple TV you can earc to the HomePods. Shoutout to you! I have to say that even with that, it’s really hard to justify this when a Sonos Beam is $400. I think had Apple priced these just $50 cheaper, they would be a no brainer to most.
It's so odd that I don't notice any latency or connectivity issues on my Apple TV but when I've used HomePods on my Mac...it's just a mess. The lag and dropped connections are terrible. Apple must prioritize using them as TV speakers instead of computer speakers.
Thanks for this. I’m not big on TVs blowing me out of the living room but I’m looking for something with more punch than my current Mini Pair on my TV. Which isn’t great but better than the flat speakers on every TV in the last 15 years. Apple needs to let us add as many Pods to a TV as we want. Like anything you assign to TV plays in unison. Should be easy half or more of the backend is live already.
I'm not into getting blown away by sound myself, but I'm currently using two HomePods (and two Minis) for home theater and they're strikingly good using Apple TV 4K. Honestly, in your instance, you could supplement your Minis with one HomePod and see amazing results. Even low to mid volume bass depth is remarkable.
The issue with these are the amount of extra tech inside of them to be smart. Having 4 becomes overkill because all of them are originally made to be single use hubs. That leaves us to pay a premium for 3 additional speakers because they include all the additional tech and display. The best option is to enable the minis to serve as rear left_right channels. That still leaves the center for some surround set ups and even a rear center. So then you'd have a room full of smart speakers which would be ridiculous. The safest thing for apple to do is keep it minimal as a pair or allow cross use with sonos since they've updated their speakers to support airplay2.
I have decided to not go for super expensive Sony A7000 but bought these instead. The sound quality is good but the bass seems to be over-bumped. Also, being a smart speaker it goes completely offline when there is no internet :( and that's the catch here. Wifi internet should always be available else it's goes DUMB. Am surprised that no youtube channels mentions this and stresses the core requirement for this system.
If you have a Apple TV..."can you play audio out of more then 2 HomePods".....YES🎉 I have 7,...all bought for around $170. That's 3 pairs and one individual HomePod acting as a center channel. It's pretty amazing. I would adjust the volume of the different pairs,...but once dialed in. It's amazing what those little speakers can do.
Given that Apple AI and Siri 2.0 is on the way in the next few weeks, I'm betting this September we will see some next gen updates to Apple TV and full size Homepods. Given that the current gen HP's run on an S7 chip and the ATV runs on an A15 bionic and neither are powerful enough to run Siri 2.0, I'll bet there will be upgrades to both with A17 bionics in them. If you are thinking of buying either (or both) you might want to wait and see? Just a thought.
Eric, did I understand you to recommend plugging the HDMI cable from the Apple 4K TV to the EARC port on the tv? I’ve tried to learn if going from the Apple TV to my Sony tv EARC port was a good idea, but I’ve gotten nowhere trying to find an answer to that specific question. Richard Hench
i really hate the homekit, i bought a new appletv, and however the old one is still in use it looses almost all connections, only Hue is working fine. I think Alexa and Google Home are doing much better, and are more compatible then HomeKit. I would love to try them out, but as a tv set, to replace my beloved 5.1 set (which my wife would love to see it go) but it is a bit expensive to just try... for smart home i will be using Google Home because it is just better.
I have a problem I got two of the new HomePods and they asked to be the Apple TV speaker but never connects to the Apple TV and is only showing it for temp audio not default
So if you Apple TV is hooked up to eArc hdmi1 and the HomePods are setup in the Apple TV to be the speakers… does that mean that any Television audio (ie apps on the LG TV or digital channels on LG TV) will play through the speakers? Or my Nintendo switch on a different input will that play though these homepods?? Thx
