Gadgetory

for the longest time if you wanted a smart speaker that is a connected speaker with a built-in voice assistant you had to be content with the Amazon echo while it's an insanely popular product and offers the widest compatibility of any competitor its main problem is it doesn't sound very good what if you want something that is good at playing tunes enter the Apple home pod Apple says this is a music speaker first and a smart speaker second but at three hundred and fifty dollars is it the best option for the money for example for that price you can get not one but two Sonos ones which also incorporate Amazon Alexa and work in stereo I compared notes we've seen its own audio fairly active Guttenberg to get his take on the smart speaker phenomenon now Steve you're predominantly a two-channel type of person but you spent a lot of time with the Apple home pod what surprised you about it how fussy it was to use really I mean I thought it'd be you know more Apple friendly it knows I'm an Apple person say hey you're one of us but it was aloof it was distant distant as far as sound quality is concerned well distant it sounded small but then it sounded big sound quality changed a lot from when I change one tune to the next to the next right and I think it's got something to do with the lobes these the system of life stereo sort of beams which changed depending on when you move the speaker around but whatever its best qualities its size okay I'm best you know if you're into the whole Apple ecosystem it's it's a great thing what about bass response makes a lot of bass for a very small speaker and I would say that is its best quality more so than any of the other three speakers here it has a surprising amount of bass yes quality I mean this is a really good product if you wanted to stick it on your bench and you know you're doing your cooking or doing something like that you need to ask Siri something it's really good for that absolutely now compared to something like the Google home how do you think it compares you know size matters it sounds like a bigger more satisfying speaker I mean I imagine that some people who especially would by the max you know one a party and have fun and stuff and I think it's it's a more fun can play louder more rock and roll right it also has a 3.5 millimeter import it's done I don't know so you can I guess hook it up to anything you wanted like a TV you could use it as a sender speaker for TV which is something you can't do for this or for the dishonest ones really but we've obviously compared all the these three speakers which one is the winner for you the two the two one it's actually are definitely my far and away favorite because they're the closest to sounding like important expression a high five right so what is it about these that these can't do there one okay they're mono speakers they just sounded more contained and sound like coming out of a box supposed to sound filling a room right so what would you use the Sunnis wants for see I can imagine the sonís ones being someone's home audio system as like in terms of listening to music as opposed to just having it on his background I would say the SONA swans would definitely fit that bill right even if it would say you know on a side table or something would you still buy if you had a choice between in any of these three products if you wanted something that you could use for background music would you still choose the ones I think they're all acceptable for background music and if that's the priority just to have sound I would say the home pod would be fine right I guess it depends on which ecosystem you tied into that's true if you're in Google you probably get this one if you're with Apple this one this one's going to be the interesting product because coming this year sometime you're going to get Google and Amazon the problem with that being the mics aren't as sensitive as either of these two products right you were saying before we started that the voice recognition on the solises yeah the microphones aren't as sensitive as either of these two products that's that is this this Apple home pods biggest claim to fame apart from the bass response is that it's microphones are very sensitive very good but I think for me for 350 dollars the Sonos one is a really good product and as you're saying it's it's a great stereo replacement