5 ms·

> most Apple stuff is pretty good Their computers and general design is top shelf as far as I'm concerned, but when it comes to audio I'll put my trust in comp

by stef25 6y ago

> most Apple stuff is pretty good Their computers and general design is top shelf as far as I'm concerned, but when it comes to audio I'll put my trust in companies who've been in that specific business for decades. Apple Beats for example are a bit of a joke to anyone who knows anything about audio (and I don't mean people who spend $$$ on cables).

geden 6y ago
You’ve forgotten about the Homepod. That sounds pretty amazing for it’s size and price. (I work in the music industry and have an unhealthy interest in monitors / headphones)
Spivak 6y ago
You forgot that Apple owns Bose whose R&D is well-respected albeit a little controversial in the audiophile community. Their focus in the last decade was getting high-quality sound with middling commodity hardware and good software. Given that it's not surprising they're a good match for Apple. Edit: Looked it up and apparently Apple's buyout was an April Fools joke some years ago. I've definitely talked about it on HN before and I'm surprised nobody's corrected me until now.
- IndrekR 6y ago
  > You forgot that Apple owns Bose Majority owner of Bose Corporation is MIT, yes, that MIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corporation
  - colinmhayes 6y ago
    The rich get richer
  - JohnBooty 6y ago
    Bose, longtime frustrator of audiophiles, is a really neat company. They are extremely R&D driven. Volumes have been written about them so I'll sum it up by saying that while they make some real overpriced crap at times... it is also true that over the last 50 years ago they have probably advanced home audio reproduction more than any other individual company. Car audio, as well. Their role in car audio is extremely undereported, because a lot of Bose-engineer car audio is unbranded. But if you're wondering how factory-installed car stereos went from "sounding like clock radio speakers" to "honestly, fine" in the past few decades, Bose is a big part of that answer.
- stdbrouw 6y ago
  Huh? Apple doesn't own Bose.
oblio 6y ago
> Apple Beats for example are a bit of a joke to anyone who knows anything about audio (and I don't mean people who spend $$$ on cables). That's the thing, will people who know nothing about audio be disappointed by Apple Beats?
- Godel_unicode 6y ago
  For most people, volume=quality. If it can get loud without distorting, and "really thumps" they'll be happy. Clear that bar, and it's all about the non-audible pieces of the experience.
  - oblio 6y ago
    Yeah, but there are a few bars to clear: 1. Don't distort. 2. Don't otherwise hurt the user (there were cases of earbuds and over-the-ear headphones where the maximum volume would damage the wearer's eardrums, for example). 3. Easily and reliably connect them to the desired device. 4. High quality enough that the product lasts years. 5. Trusted by users that 1-4 apply. Most audio brands are obscure for the average user. If I ask someone random on the street about Sennheiser they won't know about the brand.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - Godel_unicode 6y ago
      Did you reply to the correct comment...? 1 is restating what I said. Nobody* actually knows or cares about 2. The rest are, as I said, non-audible parts of the experience. As long as it gets loud and bassy, people will say it has good quality audio. See also, loudness wars. * You'll note that Apple's earpods were capable of hearing loss causing levels of volume, yet people loved those things.
fastball 6y ago
Apple has been making speakers for nearly two decades...
013a 6y ago
Frankly, I've owned several in-ear products from various companies (Shure, Sony, Bose, UE), and none of them hit the sound quality of the Airpods Pro. None of them. Maybe once you get in to $400+ IEMs, but I'm not spending that much on IEMs. Similarly, the HomePod. I have used a Nest Audio (returned), Nest Hub Max (returned), Echo Studio (returned), a Sony GTK-XB7 (really like this one for parties as it gets very loud), and a UE Hyperboom (also really like this one as it has a 24 hour battery). HomePod has the best audio quality. Are there speakers that are better? Oh hell yes; I have a pair of Mackie MR5s that blow the Homepod out of the water. But also, they're five times the size. I would not put it past Apple to do something great with these. In my mind, they've established themselves as being a top-tier audio equipment manufacturer, alongside Sennheiser, Sony, Grado, Beyerdynamic, etc, and I really think the people who don't believe this just haven't been using their full scope of audio products. I do think one needs to answer whether $500+ is something one is willing to spend on a piece of audio equipment. Its a ton of money, and audio naturally has a rate of exponential decay of return (you can get 95% of the audio quality of $1000+ headphones with a $100 pair of the right ones). That's a separate question from whether they deliver value previously only seen in $800+ devices. If they can do that, then these are worth it to some people.
- stef25 6y ago
  Wireless, in ear, multiroom, bluetooth audio stuff is generally a separate world from traditional hifi (= amplifier + wired speakers) so it's important not to compare apples to oranges. Over the past 10 years or so it's the traditional hifi that's become the niche, a bit depressing.
  - 013a 6y ago
    Yes, unfortunately; the Chromecast audio is among my favorite products Google has ever made. I was happy to see Amazon produce something similar in the Echo Link, and I've thought about "migrating my Home" to Amazon/Echo just because of that, though I'm no happier about giving Amazon unfettered microphones around my home than I would be to give it to Google. One of the few reasons why I think the HomePod is such a fantastic, unique device; for all the wrong Apple does, at least they demonstrate a care for privacy.

by stef25 6y ago

geden 6y ago

You’ve forgotten about the Homepod. That sounds pretty amazing for it’s size and price. (I work in the music industry and have an unhealthy interest in monitors / headphones)

Spivak 6y ago

You forgot that Apple owns Bose whose R&D is well-respected albeit a little controversial in the audiophile community. Their focus in the last decade was getting high-quality sound with middling commodity hardware and good software. Given that it's not surprising they're a good match for Apple. Edit: Looked it up and apparently Apple's buyout was an April Fools joke some years ago. I've definitely talked about it on HN before and I'm surprised nobody's corrected me until now.

IndrekR 6y ago
> You forgot that Apple owns Bose Majority owner of Bose Corporation is MIT, yes, that MIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corporation
- colinmhayes 6y ago
  The rich get richer
- JohnBooty 6y ago
  Bose, longtime frustrator of audiophiles, is a really neat company. They are extremely R&D driven. Volumes have been written about them so I'll sum it up by saying that while they make some real overpriced crap at times... it is also true that over the last 50 years ago they have probably advanced home audio reproduction more than any other individual company. Car audio, as well. Their role in car audio is extremely undereported, because a lot of Bose-engineer car audio is unbranded. But if you're wondering how factory-installed car stereos went from "sounding like clock radio speakers" to "honestly, fine" in the past few decades, Bose is a big part of that answer.
stdbrouw 6y ago
Huh? Apple doesn't own Bose.

oblio 6y ago

> Apple Beats for example are a bit of a joke to anyone who knows anything about audio (and I don't mean people who spend $$$ on cables). That's the thing, will people who know nothing about audio be disappointed by Apple Beats?

Godel_unicode 6y ago
For most people, volume=quality. If it can get loud without distorting, and "really thumps" they'll be happy. Clear that bar, and it's all about the non-audible pieces of the experience.
- oblio 6y ago
  Yeah, but there are a few bars to clear: 1. Don't distort. 2. Don't otherwise hurt the user (there were cases of earbuds and over-the-ear headphones where the maximum volume would damage the wearer's eardrums, for example). 3. Easily and reliably connect them to the desired device. 4. High quality enough that the product lasts years. 5. Trusted by users that 1-4 apply. Most audio brands are obscure for the average user. If I ask someone random on the street about Sennheiser they won't know about the brand.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - Godel_unicode 6y ago
    Did you reply to the correct comment...? 1 is restating what I said. Nobody* actually knows or cares about 2. The rest are, as I said, non-audible parts of the experience. As long as it gets loud and bassy, people will say it has good quality audio. See also, loudness wars. * You'll note that Apple's earpods were capable of hearing loss causing levels of volume, yet people loved those things.

fastball 6y ago

Apple has been making speakers for nearly two decades...

013a 6y ago

Frankly, I've owned several in-ear products from various companies (Shure, Sony, Bose, UE), and none of them hit the sound quality of the Airpods Pro. None of them. Maybe once you get in to $400+ IEMs, but I'm not spending that much on IEMs. Similarly, the HomePod. I have used a Nest Audio (returned), Nest Hub Max (returned), Echo Studio (returned), a Sony GTK-XB7 (really like this one for parties as it gets very loud), and a UE Hyperboom (also really like this one as it has a 24 hour battery). HomePod has the best audio quality. Are there speakers that are better? Oh hell yes; I have a pair of Mackie MR5s that blow the Homepod out of the water. But also, they're five times the size. I would not put it past Apple to do something great with these. In my mind, they've established themselves as being a top-tier audio equipment manufacturer, alongside Sennheiser, Sony, Grado, Beyerdynamic, etc, and I really think the people who don't believe this just haven't been using their full scope of audio products. I do think one needs to answer whether $500+ is something one is willing to spend on a piece of audio equipment. Its a ton of money, and audio naturally has a rate of exponential decay of return (you can get 95% of the audio quality of $1000+ headphones with a $100 pair of the right ones). That's a separate question from whether they deliver value previously only seen in $800+ devices. If they can do that, then these are worth it to some people.

stef25 6y ago
Wireless, in ear, multiroom, bluetooth audio stuff is generally a separate world from traditional hifi (= amplifier + wired speakers) so it's important not to compare apples to oranges. Over the past 10 years or so it's the traditional hifi that's become the niche, a bit depressing.
- 013a 6y ago
  Yes, unfortunately; the Chromecast audio is among my favorite products Google has ever made. I was happy to see Amazon produce something similar in the Echo Link, and I've thought about "migrating my Home" to Amazon/Echo just because of that, though I'm no happier about giving Amazon unfettered microphones around my home than I would be to give it to Google. One of the few reasons why I think the HomePod is such a fantastic, unique device; for all the wrong Apple does, at least they demonstrate a care for privacy.