Had been looking at the HomePod as a replacement for two bluetooth speakers I had purchased some time ago. The problem was the HomePod is rather expensive and I would (clearly) need to replace two bluetooth speakers with two HomePod’s ...making it doubley expensive. I really didn’t want to be “upgrading” from stereo to mono sound.

Fortunately, there was a recent significant price cut on these speakers at a number of “big name” retailers (strangely only Apple themselves maintained the full price) so I took the plunge and purchased two white one...Read more

I’ve got two HomePods, which I’ve owned now for about 7 months. I’m completely immersed in the apple eco system and so HomePods made sense. Siri; Apple Music; integration with the iOS home app. After living with them now I can say I’m really frustrated and disappointed overall. As a speaker system the sound they deliver is good - better than good really - deliver awesome tones and fill the room. Having access to my Apple Music library is also a plus. But that’s where it stops.

Siri often is slow to reply - doesn’t play the song that’s ...Read more

I bought the HomePod so I could listen to music and the radio, mainly in the kitchen. I’m a musician and a hifi enthusiast, so sound quality was my main requirement. The HomePod sounds great. Far better than something this size should. It sounds better than the PMC-DB1 speakers I had setup in the kitchen with a little amp (that system was worth around $2,000!). I took it into the lounge room for a shootout with my proper sound system where it did pretty well despite being both mono and about 1/10th the price.
I use Apple Music, so Siri has bee...Read more

AUD499 for what really is a piece of poo.

The positives:
The sound quality is amazing. That's it. There's nothing else good about it.

The bad:
The software is GARBAGE!
"Hey Siri" only works 50% of the time (if that).
Works fine when you press the button to force it to listen but otherwise you could be screaming at the stupid thing from 1 metre away and still no response. If I wanted to scream at things I'd have more kids.
Sometimes "Hey Siri" will respond on my iphone instead when the Homepod and iphone are sitting 1m from each other. This shouldn't happen. ...Read more

The sound on this speaker has to be heard to be believed, its seriously worth the $499 alone. Pair it with a second now AirPlay 2 has been released, its just mind blowing. The ability to stream from any apple device instantly, in conjunction with multiple room support to other Homepods or Apple TV's is fantastic. I use my HomePod to control my Philips Hue lighting system, its great for this, very fast and responsive. The microphone can actually hear me from upstairs so controlling my upstairs lights is easy too (ok, so I may have to repeat myse...Read more

The sound quality is excellent and being a house that's heavily Apple-centric it was the logical choice for us.

- The sound quality is outstanding.
- Aesthetically it's pleasing. Surprisingly heavy and feels quality built, looks good, and tucks away unobtrusively or can stand alone as a point of interest.
- It's ridiculously easy to set up (plug it in and place your iPhone next to it.)
- Siri makes it very convenient to play your favourite song or podcast (via Apple Music) or you can stream from a device.
- You can also control HomeKit powered smart devices with Siri, but we don't have any so can't comment on that.

In any case, as a voice powered speaker, it gets 5 stars.
...Read more

You can either buy a great home assistant (google home, amazon alexa) with mediocre sound or you can buy a great sounding speaker (apple homepod) with a mediocre assistant (siri). I mainly wanted a speaker that produced stunning sound and the homepod does this.

It's no secret that Siri is a bit thick, but hopefully future firmware updates can fix this. Siri on the homepod works great for setting timers, alarms and alerts. Beyond that it's was a bit useless.

After trialling apple music for a couple of months as an accompaniment, I cancell...Read more

The sound quality is very impressive, subtle notes and a clean thumping bass possess the clarity of high end audio. The $500 price tag makes the home pod a serious investment I think is worth every dollar. The build quality is typical of Apple products, even the power cord is a superior quality. The unit includes a powerful processor which is yet to provide the full potential of Siri with plenty of scope for major updates. Indeed this is a sound system that is currently dependant of Apples ecosystem and enormous collection of music. The natural...Read more

We have both a Google Home Mini and an Apple HomePod. Being able to compare them highlights strengths and limitations of each.

The Google Home Mini is not really supposed to have great sound. It's small and cheap, so don't bother too much about playing music through it. However it hooks into a whole bunch of things that Siri doesn't. For example, we have a thing called Sensibo which acts as a remote for our non-wifi air conditioner. I can ask Google to turn on and off the aircon, which is great because our small kids hide the remote. I can't...Read more

They say good things come in small packages, and for the HomePod, that's certainly the case. For a relatively small speaker, it certainly punches way above its weight. It filled up a large room effortlessly, with absolutely no distortion - very impressive. Siri is still a bit "air-headed", and doesn't stack up to Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa - so if you're looking primarily for a "personal assistant speaker" then this isn't a good fit - but it's not bad at all. It's the first speaker that I don't have to shout at to hear me (it has a scaril...Read more