[dljsjr]

Apple has been pretty up-front from the start that they don't want to make the best possible home assistant, they want to make a really incredible speaker that has home assistant stuff built-in.

Whether the "incredible speaker" part is true remains to be seen since the thing hasn't released yet but you can look at a lot of the features and they're very music-focused.

It's more competing with a Sonos than it is with an Alexa in my mind, the Siri stuff is just lagniappe.

[semi-extrinsic]

> they want to make a really incredible speaker

Incredible by what standards? It's not even stereo. Nowhere does it mention perhaps the most important metric for audio quality, namely RMS audio power output. The tiny size alone pretty much guarantees that the amplifier will suck.

I'm very confident that e.g. a combination of Klipsch R-15M speakers, Yamaha R-S202 amplifier and a Chromecast Audio will knock its socks off. And that's a setup which you can order on Amazon today, it costs exactly the same, and it can do perfect multi-room out of the box.

[alexashka]

I think you've answered your own question: who would know to buy 3 separate products, glue them together, make it work, as opposed to buying 1 product from apple, that works right out of the box?

[semi-extrinsic]

Well, if you can't be arsed to do some research, follow instructions and combine N things to make something really good, and think it's better to buy ready-made things, you can stick to eating microwave meals while I'm having slow roast tenderloin with butternut squash and sweet potato mash. But don't try and tell me yours is better.

[kitotik]

RMS dscribes ‘loudness’, not quality.

The current breed of class D amps are shockingly small and and have pretty decent audio specs(thd, rms, etc). Unless you are expecting a 50lb analogue >500w audiophile quality amp, I’m not why you would assume the size == low quality.

[bradbatt]

You're not the target audience, obviously. Although you and I realize that what you're talking about is simple to do, for us ... it's not as simple for many other people.

So the idea of just having a single device that automatically integrates with your phone, etc. is appealing to many people.

[semi-extrinsic]

Sure, I get that convenience is a big seller. But then it's "a really convenient speaker", not "a really incredible speaker".

[revelation]

What on earth does power have to do with audio quality?