[pgm8705]

Assuming the audio quality is on par with a Sonos Play:1, An extra $150 is a quite a bit more to pay for Siri integration. Also, will HomePod only work with Apple Music? Another must have that I would need to see before switching from Sonos is the ability to create a stereo pair with 2 speakers.

[solidr53]

Only Apple Music. It can create a stereo pair. It's not going to be anywhere close to Sonos in terms of audio quality. 7 tweeters and one 4-inch sub?

[adrianmonk]

Apparently they're doing beamforming, which lets them have electronic control of the radiation direction and pattern. So the 7 tweeters makes sense for that.

I'm not sure precisely what they're actually doing, but if they wanted to, they could create a feeling of it being more than just mono by pointing some relatively narrow beams in different directions. For example, if you put it on a table or desk with a reflective wall behind you, they could point two beams backward and basically get something like stereo sound. It probably would not feel precise where you can tell exactly where every instrument is in the stereo image, but it would give the sound a sense of space. If that's what they did, it would be a similar trick to what the old Bose 901 speakers did, but with just one box.

And they can go beyond that with 7 tweeters and DSP trickery.

[diskape]

Do you have a source on that? They said it's deeply integrated with Apple Music, not that it is exclusive to it.

From what I understand it's going to use Airplay 2 and should be compatible with all Airplay compatible apps once they upgrade to the new technology.

[bobsam]

So basically a music speaker that doesn't support Spotify?

Seems like a risky decision.

[indemnity]

Do you know how Airplay works?

[tunesmith]

Plus Sonos creates its own wifi mesh network if you buy its router. That's better than piggybacking on your existing wifi. I haven't found any indication that HomePod will create its own network.