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$349 for a home speaker? For comparison, Google Home is $129 and Amazon Echo is $179.
by nabaraz 9y ago
$349 for a home speaker? For comparison, Google Home is $129 and Amazon Echo is $179.
- cpcb 9y agoAnd the Echo Dot is $49, frequently on sale for $39. Plus you get to choose your own speakers that will definitely sound better than the HomePod. Interesting they are trying to sell this for music enthusiasts. It'll only appeal to Apple enthusiasts.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- goshx 9y ago"will definitely sound better than the HomePod" -- hard to make that statement without actually hearing it. The technology behind it looks promising.
- michaelmrose 9y agoAudio enthusiasts tend to already own speakers presumably changing speakers unless its truly phenomenal may not be a feature valuable to audio enthusiasts.
- goshx 9y agoI think that's just marketing bait trying to get to amateurs' ego for them to become self declared audio enthusiasts.
- briandear 9y agoHave you even heard the speaker yet? Pretty hard to critique the audio quality if you haven't heard the audio quality.
- TYPE_FASTER 9y agoThe Echo Dot is not really usable on its own as a device to play music because of the poor audio quality. You can have a conversation with Alexa, but that's about it.
- mcphage 9y agoYeah, you can pair an Echo Dot with a nice speaker like a Sonos Play 5, it'll probably sound even better. Of course, at that point you're paying $549 instead of $349, so that's not really the same thing at all.
- goshx 9y agoSupposedly it is a very good speaker, so if you compare it to Sonus Play3 or Play5 it is within that range.
- stblack 9y agoI can't imagine this little HomePod scan touch the Play-5 2nd Gen, which is a extraordinary speaker. We'll see. I'm expecting it to be Play-3 category. There isn't much to separate the Play-1 and Play-3 IMO. Play-5 is a different thing altogether.
- kharms 9y agoThis is competing against Sonos and similar audio-focused speakers, at least in my mind. Plus, it's not subsidized by advertising.
- bilal4hmed 9y agoGoogle home is on discount now for $109
- nimbix 9y agoMy Naim mu-so single speaker was over $1300 and I don't regret the purchase. I also have a Google Home (got it at IO this year) and I can tell you it sounds pretty awful - way too much bass at any volume level. So whether HomePod is worth the price or not really depends on how good it sounds.
- euyyn 9y agoYou can tell the Home to play things on your high-end speaker, though. Or on both for multi-room.
- nimbix 9y agoI thought so too, but it turns out mu-so only supports AirPlay, but not also Google Cast, even though it supports Spotify Connect and Tidal. I suspect it might have something to do with it also being sold in Apple stores (pure speculation). Sonos it seems also doesn't have support for Cast. Not really an issue since I don't have any of their speakers; but they are the most popular brand, so it's going to be an issue for a lot of people expecting to be able to stream to them from a Google Home device.
- trevorstrohman 9y agoJust plug a Chromecast Audio into it.
- Eridrus 9y agoYou can always get a Chromecast Audio; I wonder if high-end speaker manufacturers are just not bothering since users can fix it themselves for $35.
- post_break 9y agoYou could always plug a chromecast audio into it.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- 9y ago
- stock_toaster 9y agoFor comparison with other multiroom network speakers, a Sonos Play:3 is $299. A Play:1 is $199. So depending on how much oomph the HomePod (god. terrible name) has, it may be reasonable: $299+129 = $428
- trevorstrohman 9y agoGoogle Home is also a multiroom speaker. It also works with Chromecast Audio, Vizio sound bars, etc.
- briandear 9y agoHow about the privacy differences? They made a big deal about the privacy features of HomePod. That's significant.
- walterbell 9y agoWhat are the privacy advantages of HomePod vs Google/Amazon?
- mnm1 9y agoCompared to what? Sonos doesn't have any microphones so by definition this cannot be more private.