Homepod - let's get this started...

Hey Sonos, your kit is high quality and expensive. Just make it work in the best way with the best there is out there for home integration so yes that includes whatever Apple is doing to keep stuff secure in the web of things, plus the rest who are similarly keen to protect our networks from tech spoilers (thieves).

Looks like the HomePod has been delayed.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/17/apple-pushes-homepod-release-to-early-2018/

Ouch! Misses the Christmas season. Somehow Apple will convince their fans Valentines Day is a bigger holiday.

Interesting that they chose not to release it for the most lucrative period of the year because they felt it wasn't quite ready for their customers.
I suppose they could have released it not quite ready, with a USP of being able to hear you and react accordingly but actually you're often ignored and usually need to shout at it - or some seriously functionally limited beta software release..
But really, who would actually do that?

Something tells me if Sonos had delayed release until it was fully tested, and Apple had released their Homepods with bugs, the same people complaining about Sonos being buggy would be crucifying Sonos for missing a promised release date and praising Apple for at least giving them something. Let's face it, their act is not too difficult to figure out.

If you just can't wait for the HomePod to come out, here are some alternatives that will make an alternative for homepod: https://www.howtoisolve.com/best-homepod-alternatives/

David Pogue, a long-time Apple fanboy, compares, in a test controlled by Apple:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/david-pogues-sneak-preview-apple-homepod-190227102.html

In a devastatingly effective demo, Apple lines up four of these things: The Google Home Max ($400), Sonos One ($200), Amazon Echo ($100), and the HomePod. They’re volume-matched and rigged to an A/B/C/D switch, so a single song can hop from one to the other. (Apple even installed a halo backlight behind each speaker that illuminated to show you which one was playing.)

The HomePod sounded the best. Its bass, in particular, was amazing: full and deep, but also distinct and never muddy — you could hear the actual pitch of the bass notes, not just the thud. That, unsurprisingly, is where other small speakers have trouble.

The Amazon Echo is a much smaller, slimmer device, one-third the price, so it’s forgiven for sounding thin compared with the HomePod. The Sonos One came awfully close to the HomePod’s rich sound; you’d really have to hear the A/B test to declare a difference.. The real shock was the Google Home Max, a massive, 12-pound machine that’s supposed to be all about the sound; it sounded like cardboard compared with the HomePod and Sonos.

Now, this was a single Sonos One vs the HomePod. A stereo pair of Sonos Ones, in my experience, sound significantly superior to a single One. Real, very effective stereo image, for starters. Better bass, due to twice the speaker surface area. At exactly the same price as a single HomePod (with fake, though reportedly pretty good, simulated stereo). I’ve no doubt, then, that a pair of Ones will sound significantly better than a HomePod. We won’t even talk about the Sonos Sub, and Apple’s lack of one, lol.

I’ve no doubt, then, that a pair of Ones will sound significantly better than a HomePod.
I think how people listen to music will also have a bearing on this. Those that do this from one sweet spot in the room that can be addressed by a pair of speakers to one side of it will agree with you. But those that are happier to use the room with music playing from a speaker located somewhere in the centre of the room, reaching more of the room with the same sound everywhere in it, may prefer Apple. At my home I can see this divide arising between my wife and I; she is already using the Echo in the kitchen a lot more than Sonos systems set up to my listening preferences; even the one in the open plan dining room close to the cooking areas.

Sound preferences are funny things. I remember reading an article that said that the kind of sound stage that a person prefers depends on what he has been exposed to much of his life; so preferences may well differ from someone that has heard live music from the front seats of a concert hall to one that has heard most of it from a distance away in the same hall. And then there are the preferences of those that have never been lucky enough to attend a live gig.

David Pogue, a long-time Apple fanboy, compares, in a test controlled by Apple:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/david-pogues-sneak-preview-apple-homepod-190227102.html

In a devastatingly effective demo, Apple lines up four of these things: The Google Home Max ($400), Sonos One ($200), Amazon Echo ($100), and the HomePod. They’re volume-matched and rigged to an A/B/C/D switch, so a single song can hop from one to the other. (Apple even installed a halo backlight behind each speaker that illuminated to show you which one was playing.)

The HomePod sounded the best. Its bass, in particular, was amazing: full and deep, but also distinct and never muddy — you could hear the actual pitch of the bass notes, not just the thud. That, unsurprisingly, is where other small speakers have trouble.

The Amazon Echo is a much smaller, slimmer device, one-third the price, so it’s forgiven for sounding thin compared with the HomePod. The Sonos One came awfully close to the HomePod’s rich sound; you’d really have to hear the A/B test to declare a difference.. The real shock was the Google Home Max, a massive, 12-pound machine that’s supposed to be all about the sound; it sounded like cardboard compared with the HomePod and Sonos.

Now, this was a single Sonos One vs the HomePod. A stereo pair of Sonos Ones, in my experience, sound significantly superior to a single One. Real, very effective stereo image, for starters. Better bass, due to twice the speaker surface area. At exactly the same price as a single HomePod (with fake, though reportedly pretty good, simulated stereo). I’ve no doubt, then, that a pair of Ones will sound significantly better than a HomePod. We won’t even talk about the Sonos Sub, and Apple’s lack of one, lol.

I wonder if they performed True Play prior to that test.

I live in Australia and got the HomePod today. Keen to hear other people's impressions. Below are my initial thoughts.

- well rounded, much richer particularly the mids when compared to Play 1s (expected given the speaker array)
- software can't fake stereo, my pair of Play 1s are much better when it comes to giving a wide sound stage
- microphone sensitivity for Hey Siri is really good
- looks really nice in white, makes me wonder if Sonos should've used the same mesh colour as the top colour for their white Play 1s
- Play 5 much better than HomePods
- Yet to test my Play 3s.