Review
I got my first Homepod when they were released in the UK back in Febuary of this year. I loved the sound quality from it and loved being able to play my Apple music on demand. I got the Homepod simply for the sound quality rather than the “smart features” as at the moment they are a little bit lacking. Hopefully, this will improve over software updates.
A couple of weeks ago, it was my birthday and my wife very kindly got me a second Homepod as I was mentioning that I would love to have a stereo pare. The unboxing was the same as my first Home pod, very simple packaging with the space grey device located in a nicely shaped impression. Removing the surprisingly heavy speaker and placing it at the opposite end of our large TV stand, I wanted to give enough distance between the other Homepod to get the stereo effect.
Again, the set up was exactly the same as my previous Homepod. Plug in, wait for the device to turn on and hold my Iphone next to it to transfer settings. Once this was done I went into my Home app and selected the second Homepod.
You must remember, when setting up the second Homepod if you want a stereo pare you tell the set up that it is in the same room as the first device. Our two are locaded in our Living room. When in the settings of the device, I noticed that the newer Homepod needed a 2.5GB update which took about 10 minutes to download and install on our WIFI network. Once this was done the process of paring the two Home pod’s together was very simple.
When in the Home app, you select a Homepod that is in the same room as another Homepod and under the settings for that device, you tap on the button that says “create stereo pare”. This will then looks for the second Homepod and give you the option to select a left channel and right channel. You also have the option to have each Homepod to create a beep noise so you can detect which is the left or right channel. Once this is done, you are ready. It is that simple and fool proof.
The sound that two Homepods together create is amazing! It is very loud and amazingly clear. The bass produced with two is room shakenly deep. The nice thing is that the two Homepods stay connected so you don’t have to re connect them each time. The one thing I have found is the the Siri voice only comes from one of the Homepods. It seems to depend on which one you use the most. When I first pared them together, the voice came from the Right channel but I use the Left channel touch pad more so the Siri voice now comes from the Left channel. I do find that every now and then a song may lose stereo connection but it is found again after a second or so. Thankfully this is very rare it does it.
If you have the money to spend on two Homepods, and have the space to place them so that they have a good stereo separation then you won’t be disappointed. The extra volume and bass is fantastic and the clarity of the music seems to get better. Yes it’s an expensive way of getting great sound, but if good sound is what you are looking for then the Homepod does deliver.