HomePod A few HomePod questions

[HappyDude20]

Looking to get my first HomePod in the coming weeks.

I Don’t pay for Apple Music streaming but do havtwo dozen gigs worth of music I’ve saved up over the decade. Presumably these shouldn’t be any issue to stream right? The music exists on both my iPhone and iTunes on my MBP. I’m guessing my MacBook Pro has to be flipped open and on for it to work.

would streaming from Spotify work as well? Considering it’s Apple I would imagine to some degree it would be cumbersome when compared to streaming from iTunes or the iPhone music app.

I hear stereo is a thing when someone has two homepods which is tempting. I hear it makes music sound richer but have also heard that watching movies and YouTube videos isn’t all it’s cracked up to be with two homepods. Can anyone explain why?

can I get sound coming from my hdtv (which has an Apple TV) to go through my (future) homepod(s)? Follow up question would be if it could do that even if I didn’t have an Apple TV but my hdtv does have Bluetooth.

Is there a max limit as to the stereo feature? 2 seems ideal but I have a friend that isn’t a big fan of his so may want to purchase that one too and am not sure if I would prefer to have one HomePod in each room or if I would want like 4 homepods in the living room for a movie theater like experience... or for say the one time a year i throw a kick-a$$ Halloween party.

 

[HDFan]

Presumably these shouldn’t be any issue to stream right? The music exists on both my iPhone and iTunes on my MBP. I’m guessing my MacBook Pro has to be flipped open and on for it to work.

To stream, yes. But you can stream from other devices as well, such as your iPhone. I have had a lot of problems getting it to work consistently from my iMac. iTunes says it is streaming to the HomePods but it is playing locally. However I have a relatively complex configuration with a lot of apps that fiddle with audio configuration so this may be an isolated experience. Just thoroughly test before the end of the return period.

would streaming from Spotify work as well?

As I write this I am streaming from Tidal. Haven't tried Spotify. Some streaming apps can only do one speaker, not stereo.

can I get sound coming from my hdtv (which has an Apple TV) to go through my (future) homepod(s)? Follow up question would be if it could do that even if I didn’t have an Apple TV but my hdtv does have Bluetooth.

If your source if content is the Apple TV then you can listen via the HomePods. Don't know a way if you are using the TV or its apps as a source for HomePods via bluetooth. That would be a question for the TV manufacturer.

4 homepods in the living room for a movie theater like experience.

2 HomePods can be quite loud. Can't imagine 4 in my small living room. Don't know of any surround configuration (rear, center channels) with HomePods. But if you are spending that much money (~$1000) you might want to consider a sound bar which can have simulated surround and atmos sound. Quality would also be better ($1000 for one set of speakers, vs $1000 spread out over 4 HomePods).

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

So for locally stored music, do you need to either use an iOS device or Mac to start the music, or can you use Siri? I assume Siri support requires iTunes Match?

 

[HDFan]

As I mentioned above I have had issues streaming to my HomePods from my iMac. Right now the configuration which works the best for me is to stream from my iPhone which has my entire library on it. What's sort of cool is when you do that you can control them via the Apple Watch music app (pause, volume, etc.)

I don't use iTunes Match due to the lower audio quality. I want to play my original lossless files rather than compressed ones. I do subscribe to Apple Music so I right now I am playing Maroon 5. Just said "Hey Siri, play Maroon 5" and the HomePods play from Apple Music.

assume Siri support requires iTunes Match?

For your library think so (can't test). If you have an Apple Music subscription it is likely that the music would already be there so iTunes match would not be required. As I recollect creating a playlist from Apple Music requires iTunes Match.

 

[robjulo]

You’d be much much better off with Sonos, specially if you are considering a home theatre element.

Looking to get my first HomePod in the coming weeks.

I Don’t pay for Apple Music streaming but do havtwo dozen gigs worth of music I’ve saved up over the decade. Presumably these shouldn’t be any issue to stream right? The music exists on both my iPhone and iTunes on my MBP. I’m guessing my MacBook Pro has to be flipped open and on for it to work.

would streaming from Spotify work as well? Considering it’s Apple I would imagine to some degree it would be cumbersome when compared to streaming from iTunes or the iPhone music app.

I hear stereo is a thing when someone has two homepods which is tempting. I hear it makes music sound richer but have also heard that watching movies and YouTube videos isn’t all it’s cracked up to be with two homepods. Can anyone explain why?

can I get sound coming from my hdtv (which has an Apple TV) to go through my (future) homepod(s)? Follow up question would be if it could do that even if I didn’t have an Apple TV but my hdtv does have Bluetooth.

Is there a max limit as to the stereo feature? 2 seems ideal but I have a friend that isn’t a big fan of his so may want to purchase that one too and am not sure if I would prefer to have one HomePod in each room or if I would want like 4 homepods in the living room for a movie theater like experience... or for say the one time a year i throw a kick-a$$ Halloween party.

 

[danny842003]

If you’re not going all in with Apple Music just get something else instead. I have a HomePod and think it’s brilliant but you need to go all in or don’t bother it’s too limited and everything is a workaround.

 

[sjtidy]

I took the plunge on a preowned HomePod from Ebay, and I've found it effortless to stream my music from any of my other Apple devices.

I've got a huge iTunes library on my iMac, and you just set the HomePod as as the output. So far, it's never disconnected, it even stays connected after restarting the iMac. And I can control it all easily using the Remote app on my iPhone, or Now Playing on my Apple Watch.

It's also simple to AirPlay straight from my iPhone, which I tend to do if I only want to listen to a single album, for example when I'm cooking.

I did start the free trial of Apple Music, and I can see that would make it a lot simpler. Having all my music available on the HomePod without AirPlay would be very straightforward, but Apple Music started messing up all my albums and artwork when it was trying to match them, so I immediately turned it off and cancelled the trial. I think I prefer having more manual control over my music anyway, as I never want to stream anything new that isn't already in my library. And as I said, streaming from the iMac or iPhone is so simple, it's never been a problem so far.

As for multiple HomePods – mine is never set to more than a quarter of the max volume, as it can get incredibly loud. I've got quite a large open plan flat and one HomePod is easily enough, I wouldn't even consider getting another one for a stereo pair. I find the sound quality of just the one is already amazing.

 

[mpainesyd]

I mainly use an iMac (Mojave/iTunes) and Apple TV to play to a pair of Homepods. The stereo is great but there is no surround sound for movies.
I also subscribe to Apple Music, which is almost essential for Siri on the Homepod. However don't try merging your iTunes library with Apple Music or iTunes Match as they will mess up your playlists.
Often I have to quit iTunes and restart it to connect to the Homepods but once connected it works well. Note that other Mac apps cannot play to stereo Homepods - only iTunes "sees" them.