[e1ven]

I’m interested in one as a new speaker. I don’t expect I’ll enable Siri. I want to use it as an AirPlay target.

I was previously considering a Sonos, but the Airplay2 support will be baked into the OS so I don’t need to use a clunky 3rd party app.

[konradb]

Although presumably with Airplay 2 you would still need your phone to play the music from, where with Sonos, once it was playing, you wouldn't need your phone as the speakers themselves would have the music. Though that might not be useful for your use-case.

[wrboyce]

We don't know for certain yet, but the AppleTV will opt to play music from iCloud as opposed to streaming from the AirPlay device if possible. You'd hope this functionality has been extended to the HomePod.

[lowbloodsugar]

My wife has listened to a lot more music this last week now that she can just say "Alexa, play some ozzy osbourne" or whatever. We've had an Airplay system forever. Never used.

[Symbiote]

I avoid anything with proprietary protocols, mostly out of principle, but also as I occasionally write a Python script to control these things. I wrote a script to use a €30 Chromecast Audio as an alarm clock, for example. It uses the DLNA standard.

It's connected to my existing nice hifi and speakers. I have a choice of clunky 3rd party apps, and some not-so-clunky.

It's possible the HomePod's clever design is as good as they claim, but I'd guess the same money spent on normal hifi speakers will give better sound.

[skrowl]

Out of curiosity, why not Google Cast ==> Google Home or Chromecast Audio?

[jaxondu]

> but the Airplay2 support will be baked into the OS so I don’t need to use a clunky 3rd party app

Do not expect everything smooth sailing with Apple software. Currently when I AirPlay video to AppleTV, I can not use the remote controller to pause and play as there will be no sound. I suspect one reason for the HomePod delay is due to bugs.