
Apple HomePod – The Audiophile Perspective and Measurements: Audiophile - Jerry2
https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/7wwtqy/apple_homepod_the_audiophile_perspective/?sort=top&sh=c370e646&st=JDJKCF67
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Terretta
To the dead comment ... _”audiophile, what does that even mean?”_

(A) reviewer explains the calibrated mic and room EQ tooling, considerably
more obsessively than a typical consumer review, followed by a shockingly flat
response performance from the speaker, coupled with equally unusual room EQ
and psychoacoustic loudness modeling, any one of which would generally be
considered audiophile features, and (B) why is 2 x balanced XLR superior to
lossless digital from a digital source when it supports FLAC for instance,
also considered an audiophile feature?

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really-dinosaur
It's not superior, but is more versatile. I'd argue the lack of any kind of
analogue input gives the product a limited lifespan. I've had the same studio
monitors for the past 10 years, and headphones for 15 years. Audio equipment
has always been one of those things that does not get better with time.

But now we have Bluetooth headphones with hard to replace batteries, and
proprietary wireless connections.

As for the flat frequency response, that's pretty cool, and the fact the user
doesn't have to rent a meter and average the frequency response curves across
the room (and then apply a suitable EQ), means that many of these are going to
end up sounding better than most high-end speakers.

Because really, how many people who buy high-end speakers bother with room
treatment and tuning?

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really-dinosaur
'Audiophile grade'

What does this even mean nowadays? Military grade is obvious, but when your
target audience thinks lifting cables off the floor with ceramic risers
reduces sibilance maybe it isn't a good descriptor of quality.

Also how can something without a 3.5mm jack be 'audiophile grade'? Wouldn't it
at least need 2 x balanced XLR inputs?

