“When the Apple HomePod ‘smart speaker’ debuted in February, there were some big fat reasons not to buy it,” David Pogue writes for Yahoo Finance. “For example: “Unlike its rivals from Sonos and Google, you couldn’t set up two HomePods as a stereo pair. You also couldn’t set them up in different rooms of the house and direct them by voice (‘Hey Siri, play Barry White in the bedroom’).”
“With the arrival of a software update (iOS 11.4), you can take [those items] off the list,” Pogue writes. “Stereo pairing and multi-room audio have now come to the HomePod, courtesy of a technology that Apple calls AirPlay 2.”
“And here’s the happy news for the true-blue Applehead: it works great,” Pogue writes. “HomePods have always sounded fantastic… But in stereo — ooh, man. Yes, obviously, there’s twice as much sonic power now. But there’s more to it than that; the sum of the two speakers sounds somehow greater than its parts. The clean, musical bass, already a HomePod specialty, blossoms… Basically, stereo HomePods sound terrific.”
“Setting up HomePods in multiple rooms is also simple,” Pogue writes. “You use the Home app for setup. But to control your music, you have two options. First, you can use your voice… You can also direct your multiroom music using the Control Center…”
Read more in the full review here.
MacDailyNews Take: Stereo-paired HomePods are, in a word, glorious!
SEE ALSO:
Why Apple shouldn’t have released the HomePod without AirPlay 2 – May 31, 2018
HomePod stereo pairing took a frustratingly long time to arrive, but it was worth the wait – May 30, 2018