Are you planning on switching from Sonos or Echo to HomePod?

[James Falconer]

I'm a longtime Sonos user (house is filled with them!), but of course am super curious/eager to see how the HomePods will shake out.

Any existing Sonos users out there going to drop the cash and switch? Or perhaps buy ONE HomePod to start to see what you think, and go from there?

 

[phreddyl]

I have sonos and a bunch of Alexa’s/Echos already. From what I saw at wwdc- there wasn’t enough new or exciting to get me to switch.

 

[AustinIllini]

I have sonos and a bunch of Alexa’s/Echos already. From what I saw at wwdc- there wasn’t enough new or exciting to get me to switch.

Leaving Sonos is leaving a ton of functionality on the table. This upcoming Sonos announcement interests me.

 

[Raptor007]

We are in the early stages of our next house building project. The one I built 15 years ago I had all of the home theatre built in , wired to the hit. Given what you can do with WiFi what Sonos offers can be of significant value to me and allow me to have units around the house for the cost of what Apple is charging.

 

[Craig]

I have 2 Amazon Echo devices and 2 Google Home Devices (The upright ones with the time)...

Just ordered the Apple Homepod, it will replace the Echo in my home office.

The Echo from the home office, will move to the business office.

Keeping the Google Home devices because they have a clock.. it's basically a fancy clock that I can ask the weather while in bed.

 

[Graham Crackers]

HomePod lost me when I found out that it does not support multiple user accounts. Apparently you have to have a speaker for each Apple ID. Hate to say it but I have to keep my Sonos and Echo devices based on that restriction. bummed

 

[Craig]

HomePod lost me when I found out that it does not support multiple user accounts. Apparently you have to have a speaker for each Apple ID. Hate to say it but I have to keep my Sonos and Echo devices based on that restriction. bummed

They already addressed this feature is coming this year with a software update.

 

[IShouldBeWorking]

I guess I'm coming at this from a different angle than most. I don't use Siri, Alexa or any of the other assistants. I have first gen Sonos Play 5's around the house right now and I love their sound. I don't love their usability with Apple Music. I've heard they have better integration with Spotify but we Apple Music users are stuck with the sub-par Sonos app for controlling our speakers.

I'm pretty excited about checking out a HomePod so I can play straight from the Apple Music and Podcasts apps to the speaker via AirPlay. And I'm very excited to hear how a HomePod sounds compared to my aging Play 5's. On Feb 9th I'll pick up one HomePod and have a shootout with the Play 5's. If it sounds better, I'll keep it. Then as Apple rolls out AirPlay 2, I'll consider rolling over to all HomePods.

Sonos is keeping my interested though. Their two Sonos One's for $350 is a pretty good deal. But Alexa commands don't work with Apple Music and they don't have an AirPlay implementation yet (Airplay 2 promised for 2018), so I'm back to the frustrating iOS app to play things. Not great.

 

[knotsure]

I bought a HomePod today. I played it and compared it to my gen 1 Sonos play 5 and play 3.

My first impression of the HomePod is it does sound excellent. The highs are clear and filling. The lows are good but the mid soundstage is lacking in my opinion. It sounds pretty good at a normal listening levels and full volume. I don’t here any distortion although at max volume the mids don’t sound that great and the sub does have a little distortion from trying to play those mid range notes.

Compared to my Sonos play 3 the HomePod sounds great. The play 3 might have a little more volume and better midrange but the highs sound just as good. However, I will give the overall sound quality edge to the HomePod.

Compared to my Sonos play 5(gen 1) the HomePod also sounds great. The play 5 definitely has better midrange and gets much louder. The highs are also louder and just as clear as the HomePod IMO. At normal listening levels the lows sound better on the HomePod but when turned up to max they are tuned out a little and the higher range music takes over, this is where my play 5 sounded better. I could hear a little bass from the HomePod but the Sonos was louder and sounded great.

I will say that the HomePod is an amazing sounding speaker for what it is. I have always had stereos with subwoofers and now days I have a nice home av setup on my LR . I also have one each of the Sonos play1, play3, play5 and Sonos one throughout my home. I will compare the sound to that of an entry to mid level bose system (this can apply to home or mobile bose audio IMO). With bose it sounds great and has very good bass extension at normal to loud levels, but the higher you go you hear the limitations of the speakers. The engineering is clearly amazing but the size of the speakers is what has the limitations and at max volume can not compare to a stand alone sub and all the speakers for a surround sound system.

I haven’t used any Siri commands except playing music or weather so I can’t speak on that aspect I am only comparing sound quality here. I saw a post or tweet were a person said the HomePod sounds better than their $1000 Sonos system. In my living room the HomePod was bested by my Sonos play 3 and play5 playing together so I don’t know what that guy is talking about.

Overall the HomePod sounds very good and may do some really cool stuff but I am probably going to return mine in the 14 day return period with bestbuy. I will either pickup 2 Sonos ones to add to my system or wait and save a little for a playbar and replace my LR a/v system.

One more thought. The HomePod has excellent low end(not that loud at higher volumes) better than my Sonos speakers, it just can’t replace my current setup. Maybe if Apple goes playbar and sub and all that like Sonos I might give it a go but for now I am going to stick with and expand my Sonos setup.

 

[Craig]

One of my Echos w/ separate BT speaker is already moved to my bathroom as a shower/music device. Another moved to our biz office for occasional music and answers to questions. Leaving a couple of the Google's where they are as they have an LED clock, and heck.. it's a clock.

 

[Applesaurus]

Given that my Play 1 doesn't have any semblance of voice control at the moment, it's going to become a quiet little paperweight as of tomorrow when my Homepod arrives short of running some side-by-side audio tests on day 1. Given the "real-world" user feedback I've seen in various places, it's probably safe to say it'll be powered down and left unused until Airplay 2 is released.

 

[Lee_Bo]

The only thing I don't like about Echo is it won't play Apple Music (subscriber). I can't see spending $350 to replace that.

This coming from a man who over the past year has bought two iPhones, Apple Watches, iPads, Pencils, and AirPods.

 

[o4liberty]

All in echo the home pod is way over priced and doesn’t work as good as Amazons echo does. Just purchased the echo show and video call family members around the states.

 

[Rob Phillips]

The only thing I don't like about Echo is it won't play Apple Music (subscriber). I can't see spending $350 to replace that.

This coming from a man who over the past year has bought two iPhones, Apple Watches, iPads, Pencils, and AirPods.

Literally the only thing I dislike about my Echo devices. I ended up switching to Amazon Music Unlimited although I prefer Apple Music.

All in echo the home pod is way over priced and doesn’t work as good as Amazons echo does. Just purchased the echo show and video call family members around the states.

It depends how you define “as good”. If you’re referring to sound quality HomePod wins by a long shot. Also, HomePod has native Apple Music support, while Echo supports other platforms (obviously this is good or bad depending on your preference). I agree that Echo is better in every other way though.
I’m sure we’ll see HomePod evolve over time and incorporate more features. I’d also like to see Apple take a similar approach to Amazon and offer variations at different price points. For example, I have an Echo 2, Echo Show, and Echo Dot in my Home. At $350 for each HomePod there is no way I’d buy three of them.

 

[o4liberty]

I am a prime member with free music so changing now would be costly all of my devices have music video audio from prime

 

[Craig]

I am a prime member with free music so changing now would be costly all of my devices have music video audio from prime

Depends.. I also have Amazon music through prime and use it on my two Echo devices (one with external BT speaker) .. in the master bathroom, and the biz office. I use a Google home in the bedroom for easy things like answering questions, weather, and I like it since it has a digital clock on the front.

HomePod is my baby in my office.. and it works well and sounds amazing. So I splurged and got Apple Music, which I like since it covers about every song and it works for me when on my iPhone / iPad / Watch or driving .. so is the $4.99 a month (got the .edu discount worth it).. $60 a year, sure.. why not.

 

[knotsure]

Well today is the last return day for the HomePod and I am sitting on my couch not taking it back to Best Buy. I said it was going back and I thought it was but the HomePod is a keeper. I’m not getting rid of any of my sonos speakers but for now sonos is kicked out of my bedroom. Also I got some HomeKit lights today so they are already hooked up and voice activated.