“It was a frustratingly long wait for Apple to finally launch AirPlay 2, adding stereo pairing to HomePod – along with multi-room playback from an iOS device and more,” Ben Lovejoy writes for 9to5Mac. “If you haven’t already updated, you’ll need to upgrade to iOS 11.4, and then update your speakers. I did that yesterday, finding it a largely painless process, through there were a couple of glitches which I’ll get to.”
“That done, I was finally able to find out how a pair of HomePods sound,” Lovejoy writes. “First, it was a huge relief to be back to stereo sound… Second, the increased volume of a pair of HomePods was, as Rolls-Royce used to famously understate about the power of their engines, sufficient… Third, the bass performance of a pair of HomePods is very substantially better than a single one.”
“I mentioned that there were a couple of glitches with the update. For a short time after the update, the Home app was complaining that the relocated HomePod wasn’t responding. I force-quit the app and then all was fine,” Lovejoy writes. “Additionally, when testing AirPlay from iTunes, the paired HomePods didn’t initially show up. Quitting and restarting iTunes didn’t cure it, however that resolved itself within a couple of minutes.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: HomePod was on the market for 3 months and 21 days in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States before stereo paring and multi-room audio were enabled via iOS 11.4 and AirPlay 2.
And yet you might wait a bit longer for all the bugs to be worked out. The new app normal. Our Lady of Expected Beta.
There is a difference between being legitimately critical of Apple and endlessly dumping on the company. You are a dumper.
Honestly, have you heard of any real bugs so far? No. You are just being Chicken Little again.
Yeah, I unfortunately consider Apple history when I write (for which I have been around for since it’s inception). It’s called “being honest”. Maybe you should do the same instead of being mindlessly forgiving.
Even High Sierra has continued to have problems and why many (including me) haven’t bothered to upgrade to and in fact will skip altogether. Our Lady of Exasperatingly Problematic Beta.
Questions:
Can an Apple TV feed sound to two stereo-configured HomePods?
Is it a “smart” feed – that is, will the sound stage reconfigure automatically, based on what is being played on the Apple TV (movie, music)?
In other words, do you still need to have a receiver/amplifier to do all this, if you are only using an Apple TV and no other type of input (no juggling TV provider, DVD/Blu ray, Apple TV, etc…)?
Well, now we know…a “frustratingly long wait” is roughly 3 months and 21 days. How can people stand to be so patient?!
/serious sarcasm
Now…. how do we link up 5 of them to do surround.
Yippee that Apple finally rolled out software compatibility it promised long ago. It doesn’t change the homepod to a superior value in my opinion.
The homepod is not unlike a satellite radio receiver. Useless without the subscription, not worth the cost with a subscription.
– If you are a true audiophile, you will not go for wireless speakers, and you will not constrain your collection to “curated” compressed music.
– If you are trying to save time, you will find wireless delays and Siri incompetence to be frustrating, not a step forward.
– If you have legacy equipment of any kind, it won’t work with the homepods
– If your are price sensitive, Apple no longer wants your business.
– If you have your own music collection, or several, in your household, then homepod does nothing to simplify your life.
Bottom line, the homepod interface and compatibility are unacceptable; while audio performance does outshine some products at that price point, it’s not a complete package and Siri sucks.
– I use SXM all the time since ‘radio’, as we used to know it, doesn’t exist today
– I don’t think Apple is aiming this device at the OCD faction calling themselves ‘true audiophiles’
– ‘True audiophiles’ and ‘price sensitive’ are mutually exclusive terms, and Apple has never catered to the poor
– Blah, blah, blah
$750’ish is a whole lotta dough to dish out for stereo sound on a pair of HomePods.
Thanks, but no.
Stereo pairing does NOT work when streaming from iTunes via a Mac OS device. According to Apple Support, this “should be” fixed in a future iTunes update… soon.” Seems like the frustratingly looong wait…………… continues………… to be frustratingly looong.
Pair of HomePods, configured as such via the Home iOS app, does not provide a pair of outputs in the Audio preferences on an iMac. They are listed as individual outputs (left & right). This is per design according to a senior tech support person this morning. Took my feedback for forwarding to engineering.