HomePod HomePods for front speakers on a 5.1 system

[CJ Dorschel]

I have a second home theatre with a Marantz AVR and a 5.1 speaker setup (all wired to a media cabinet where all my equipment is kept). As this is my secondary home theatre I haven‘t updated it in a while and need to replace my left and right channel front speakers. I was looking at B&W as my main home theatre is all B&W with a McIntosh AVR but read the HomePod’s can be used in a stereo pair with ATMOS.

As my system is wired and my AVR supports Airplay 2 and HomeKit I know it could work but as the back surround, center, and sub would be wired would there be a delay between them? I could use the ATMOS as my movies and shows are all ripped lossless with full surround sound tracks on 80TB’s of server racks. If not I’ll just replace them with wired speaks.

Thanks!

 

[waw74]

get regular speakers,

after that if you want HomePod functions and Siri, get a HomePod mini.
the HomePod can send music via airplay, so you can have siri on the mini send the audio to the AVR. Currently you can only do this using Apple Music, for other services you'll have to airplay from your phone as you probably have been.

I'm not even sure what you're suggesting will work, and if it did, sync and balancing audio between the 2 would be a nightmare.

 

[CJ Dorschel]

get regular speakers,

after that if you want HomePod functions and Siri, get a HomePod mini.
the HomePod can send music via airplay, so you can have siri on the mini send the audio to the AVR. Currently you can only do this using Apple Music, for other services you'll have to airplay from your phone as you probably have been.

I'm not even sure what you're suggesting will work, and if it did, sync and balancing audio between the 2 would be a nightmare.

I’ve read some who have replaced their front left/right speakers with HomePods in their surround sound systems as they support ATMOS, etc. $600 for two speakers vs $1500 plus an additional $500-1000 for ATMOS top speakers is definitely a cost difference for a secondary home theatre system (my main home theatre is an 8K 9.1 Mcintosh AVR system with B&W speaks). I don’t need to go all out so considering options. I just heard/read some who have replaced their front left/right speakers with HomePods and calibrated their surround sound system so the AirPlay channels are in sync with the wired center and surround sound speakers. Everything connects to my server racks.

I couldn’t care any less about Siri, etc - just checking options and weighing expectations. I know B&W speakers will blow anything out of the water but $2k+ on speakers vs $600 for a guest room home 5.1 theatre system was the main question.