In June 2017, Apple released a smart speaker product called HomePod, which received numerous praises immediately after launch. In order to create the perfect sound effect, Apple has even set up a special sound laboratory for it. In October 2020, the HomePod mini was launched. Up to now, the HomePod series has two products, namely the HomePod and the HomePod mini. At present, the HomePod has been discontinued, and Apple's official sale is only the HomePod mini, which is officially priced at 749 yuan.
HomePod
HomePod was designed to be purely for sound quality, and behind it are all audio technology experts. At that time, Apple was bent on making audio products comparable to professional brands in the market, and wanted to make 360-degree diffusion speakers that were better than big brands such as BOSE, Harman, JBL and B&O. Let's talk about it.
Appearance
HomePod's fuselage surface is covered with a special highly permeable 3D fabric mesh, which not only makes it difficult for external foreign objects and dust to enter the interior, but also has a certain filtering effect on the diffusion of sound propagation.
The HomePod's power cord is about two meters long and features a wrap-resistant streak finish detail. The solid power cable can give people a more reliable wire stability, and the wire touch also refers to the signal line touch and shape of some audiophile-grade products.
The top of the HomePod is an LED integrated touch panel that can be adjusted to play or pause mute, and many people think that the top is a screen light source, but it is actually a system-controlled ARRAY of LEDs to form a pattern outline and color.
Structure
The HomePod has a scheme of 7 sets of high-frequency drivers and 1 subwoofer to achieve 360-degree sound coverage. The microphone array consists of six pickup heads.
At the top of the HomePod is a touchscreen with Siri color dynamic display in the center, completed by a special array of LEDs. Below the touch screen is the motherboard of Apple's A8 processor core, although the A8 processor is a processor in the iPhone 6 era, it is more than enough for smart speakers.
From the structure of the entire fuselage interior, it can be seen that in fact, the low-frequency unit diffuses from above and the utilization rate of the entire cavity has been quite extreme, each horn treble is diffused at the bottom, and the 7-inch box forms a 360-degree diffusion with extremely clear high and low frequencies.
Sound quality
Soundstage: For a 360-degree diffusion speaker, many people feel that its sound image is not good enough, in fact, homePod has undergone real-time acoustic modeling, in the actual hearing test, HomePod's soundstage is still quite full of detail density. Although it is not as accurate as the left and right channel speakers, basically there is a good high and low frequency output in a playing direction, the entire sound pressure is very large and it is not easy to perceive the distortion part, it can be said that in the small room of about 30 square meters, it feels very amazing 7-inch small speakers can replay a larger soundstage and level of detail.
Low-frequency listening: Low-frequency drums are biased towards flexible transient rhythms are extremely strong and distinct, compared to the general speakers, such low frequencies are not tough, the sound is great when feedbacking natural instruments, not very stereotypical display of a stiff low frequency, the entire low-frequency impact and transient expression are very in place, but it is not as full of metal stimulation as some Marshall and other live speakers in the feedback metal part.
Mid-range listening: the mid-frequency vocal part is very good, the details of the vocal characteristics can be fully expressed, and the instrument and background part are clean and transparent, while all the details have a full overtone space reverberation effect, the high recognition of the vocal and the instrument part is clear, and the instrument part is more distinct and highlights the coordination relationship between the vocals.
High-frequency listening: The high beam guidance of the 7 horn independent cavities makes its timbre very rigid, and it can also have a good high-frequency harmonic and fullness. The high frequency of the 360-degree speaker does not have much directivity, in fact, it still has a certain sense of identity and pointing, and even the background and dynamics of the micro-details of the scene under some high-frequency instruments and large arrangements can be fully expressed. Especially with a lot of ethereal female voices and instruments playing with a transparent and clean timbre, you feel that you are not listening to a smart speaker product, but a real HIFI level product has high frequencies.
Evaluation
Compared to the excellent sound quality of homePod, its intelligence is somewhat insufficient. Siri is actually not easy to use on homePod, and Apple's closed ecology makes support for third-party applications not very friendly. However, these wheats do not think that they are problems, and with the upgrade of firmware, sooner or later they will be solved.
In short, saying that homePod is an excellent smart speaker may not be established for the time being, nor does it support the use of Bluetooth to connect other system devices, but it is still the best sound quality product Apple has ever had!
But although the HomePod sound quality is extremely good, it does not seem to be good enough to make customers willing to pay a high fee to accept the limitations of Siri smart speaker, it seems to be designed for extremely demanding people living in the Apple ecosystem, so the market response is not very ideal, and eventually it is going to stop production.
HomePod mini
Although the HomePod did not win the favor of the market, its pedigree was continued, and in October 2020, Apple brought us its lite version: the HomePod mini. Priced at 749 yuan, it is already much cheaper than the original generation, and Apple has also regained its foothold in the smart speaker market.
Appearance
HomePod mini has to say that it is indeed very mini, the size of it, you can pick up the apple at home to feel it. It still continues the HomePod seamless mesh fabric clad design, which is very comfortable to the touch.
In terms of operation, the top retains a circular touch area that users can use to adjust the volume, switch songs, and call Siri.
The HomePod mini does not have a built-in battery, so it has a power cable extending from the inside of the speaker at the end, the interface is Type-C, and the official also comes with a 149 yuan 20W fast charging head.
Note that the HomePod mini is best powered by the original charging head, and the other power output is not enough, which may cause the HomePod mini to not work properly and flash orange lights. For the fact that there is no built-in battery, Wheat has to complain: such a mini speaker, which should be a portable design, but also a small tail, Wheat said slightly disappointed.
Structure
The HomePod mini uses a full-range unit + custom waveguide structure. To solve the problem of the frequency response range of the full-frequency unit, Apple designed two passive radiators to help increase low-frequency dives, and applied complex tuning models to optimize loudness, adjust dynamic range, and control the motion of the driver and passive radiator in real time. In addition, in order to solve the problem of 360-degree sound, the HomePod mini will be full-frequency unit down, and designed a custom waveguide, so that the mid and high frequency can be evenly distributed.
Sound quality
No matter how powerful the audio technology of the HomePod mini introduced by Apple at the press conference is, the hardware gap makes it incomparable with its big brother HomePod. In terms of finishing, the HomePod mini has a good timbre, accurate treble, clear midrange, good sense of direction, sound in each direction, good overall artifact control, and the sound quality is enough to listen to at home.
However, the HomePod mini is obviously a little incompetent in the detail processing of bass, serious lack of bass, slight lack of low and medium frequencies, maximum volume is too low, bass is not accurate enough, and bass distortion at large volumes.
The sound quality of the HomePod mini is not very prominent, but as a smart speaker within 1,000 yuan, its sound quality performance is also excellent.
Evaluation
Although Apple's ecology is still closed, some problems that once appeared on homePod have been gradually solved on mini, such as the adaptation of Mandarin, the support of third-party music software, and a better smart home butler experience. Wheat believes that with Apple's update, the HomePod mini will also unlock more and more features.
Write at the end
HomePod has excellent sound quality, and homePod mini is a better smart assistant. If you care more about sound quality than intelligence, then the current homePod price in the second-hand market is already very suitable to start; if you care more about intelligence, then homePod mini is more suitable for your needs. But Wheat is still looking forward to the emergence of a new generation of the latest HomePod products with higher sound quality and intelligence, after all, Apple's innovation in the field of music is still worth looking forward to.
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