We recently had the opportunity to test out the HomePod with a system that utilizes surround sound, which is known for its immersive audio experience. We watched and listened to the intro of "The Greatest Showman," which features loud music, different sound effects, and even sounds from behind the scenes due to its use of surround sound. The result was great on our home theater system, really really good - not as good as it sounded like through iTunes when we streamed the movie, which we had rented.

However, things changed when we switched over to the HomePods. The first thing that became apparent was how much quieter it was compared to a normal level of volume. It wasn't just a slight difference; it was noticeable. We were already maxing out our HomePods, and because the YouTube video we were playing was quieter than usual, it really messed up the experience.

One notable aspect of the HomePod's sound quality was the lack of deep bass from the subwoofer and crisp highs from the dedicated center channel with tweeters on top. We didn't get the very deep bass that we're used to in our home theater system, nor did we get the really crisp highs. However, we did notice some stereo separation and surround sound separation - I could hear the crowd from the side, but the singing and vocals were still coming from the front.

Another factor to consider is our large room with extra space on the sides and a lot of space behind us. The simulated surround sound didn't work as well in this setup as it would have in a smaller, square room. We finished watching some "Thor: Ragnarok" and were quite disappointed - not by the sound quality of the HomePods, but by their general lack of volume.

In fact, we found that even with our 50-inch TV, the HomePods wouldn't be enough to produce sufficient volume for a movie-watching experience. The speakers built into our TV are louder than what the HomePods put out, and this is especially true when watching videos using the Apple TV 4K.

One thing we did notice was that the HomePod's quality of sound was still good, even at low volumes. However, its inability to produce a wider dynamic range between quiet and loud sections made it less effective for immersive audio experiences. When playing back "The Greatest Showman" on our HomePods, the volume level ended up being lower than what we'd expect when watching movies or playing music through the Apple TV 4K.

Additionally, we noticed that even when playing back music from the HomePod, the volume would be lower compared to other speakers like Sony's or the Google Home Max. However, it is worth noting that the HomePod excels in terms of speaker quality.

Overall, while the HomePod has its strengths, particularly in terms of sound quality, we wouldn't recommend it as a home theater alternative for watching movies with Apple TV 4K. For a smaller room or stereo pair setup, however, it's still a great option for listening to music.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhen appellee revealed their home pods at WWDC 2017 they also mentioned that you'll be able to pair two of them to use them in stereo and also for multi-room audio Apple received a lot of heat because the home pods launched around two months later than expected and worst of all it still lacked airplay - meaning you couldn't use them in stereo pairs that update was released just a little bit ago on May 29th and we finally had the support for airplay - we've tested it out using stereo pairing with Apple music and it sounded really great you could check out that video by using the card above the first thing that comes to mind is if a stereo pair of home pods would make a viable option for a home theater setup paired with an Apple TV 4k so obviously you won't get a 5.1 channel surround sound system like I have here in my home theater which uses a subwoofer plus five speakers to give you all-around sound but the home pods do support a technology that will bounce sound off of walls to simulate surround sound with C repairing the home pots actually know exactly where they are in the room and they could detect each other and that helps them know where to bounce certain sounds to simulate the surround sound now comparing this expensive Dolby Atmos surround sound system to a pair of home pods is a bit extreme but let's do it anyways we have our stereo home pod setup on top of my sound systems front speakers so let's see how well they stack up so as soon as I plugged in my stereo paired home pods which are easy to pair in the home app they actually showed up on the Apple TV 4k automatically so it makes this process very easy compared to an actual home theater system and here in the settings in the audio output they showed up here as theater I labeled them as the theater room home pods so I have my zoom h6 recorder set up right here right around head height so right where you would be listening to set up in the center of the room and it's about the same level of the home pods and what we're gonna do is we're gonna listen to the home pods we're gonna listen to the surround sound system and it's very hard to actually give you guys a good explanation or a good recording of that but we'll do our best and then we'll give you a commentary let you know what kind of a differences we saw and if a stereo pair of home pods can even compete with a system like this so we just watched and listened to the intro of the greatest show man which has a lot of loud music a lot of different sound effects and it has sounds from the back because it's using the surround sound and it sounded great on the home theater system really really good not as good as it sounded like through iTunes when I streamed the movie and I have rented it but it still sounded really good now a couple things happened when we switched over to the home pods first off we immediately noticed how much quieter it was and not on a normal level of volume what ended up happening is the YouTube video that we air played with it wasn't very loud as far as the audio in the video and with our home theater system there's so much power that we can easily just turn it up a bit louder to our normal level of listening volume and that's just compensated for it now with the home pods we were already maxing them out so because the video is quieter than normal it really just kind of messed up the experience other than the volume difference we don't get that very deep bass from the subwoofer and we don't get that really crisp highs from the dedicated center channel with the tweeters up there but I was surprised that we did get some stereo separation and some surround sound separation where I can hear the crowd from the side but the mean singing and the vocals were from the front but compared to the surround sound system where I actually heard like a crowd and side effects from behind me that was of course on another level what I also want to mention is that here we have a large room we have extra space off to the side over there and a lot of space from behind so that simulated surround sound doesn't work as well as it would if we had a smaller room that was square so we just finished off watching some of thor ragnarok and honestly we're quite a bit disappointed not by the sound quality of the speakers but just the general lack of volume they are way too quiet for watching movies and not only if you have a big theater set up like this even with my 50-inch TV they would not be enough the actual speakers built into the TV even though they don't sound as good as far as the actual quality of the speakers they are much louder than what this is putting out now the home pot in general isn't a very loud speaker if you compare it to some of the competition like Sano's or the google home max but where it does really stand out is the quality of the speaker now unfortunately when you're watching videos especially using the Apple TV 4k the value that it outputs for movies is much lower than for audio now in general if you're watching a film you need to have a wider kind of dynamic range between the quiet sections and loud sections to kind of feel the difference for the loud scenes the loud effects and the quiet scenes along with that fact that the home pod is not the loudest speaker around when you connect it to the Apple TV 4k and you actually playback a movie or a show it brings the volume level down even more so and it just is not enough I don't think this is going to be enough for even say a 40 inch TV in your living room in a scenario where you don't want it to be too loud there's just not enough volume when you're going through the menus on the Apple TV 4k or playing back say Apple music from it it is louder and that volume probably would be enough but it's a shame that it doesn't play even that loud now I have to say the sound quality that's coming from it at that low volume is still good and I actually notice a separation of sound and it sounded like I had sound coming from behind me from that the surround sound that it bounces off the wall so that was impressive I did notice that and that's something I did not expect but at this point I would say even my $350 sound bar that I have connected in my room is louder and in general probably sounds a little better as far as overall experience compared to a couple of these home pods to set up and appear so even though I do like the home pod and I use it pretty much every single day to listen to music and we have a set up in a stereo pair and that does sound quite good and gets it louder with more bass I definitely would not recommend it as a home theater alternative with Apple TV for okay if you enjoyed this video like it and hit that subscribe button also check out a price guide which makes it extremely easy to find the best deals and Apple products updated daily be sure to follow us on social media and we'll see you in the next videowhen appellee revealed their home pods at WWDC 2017 they also mentioned that you'll be able to pair two of them to use them in stereo and also for multi-room audio Apple received a lot of heat because the home pods launched around two months later than expected and worst of all it still lacked airplay - meaning you couldn't use them in stereo pairs that update was released just a little bit ago on May 29th and we finally had the support for airplay - we've tested it out using stereo pairing with Apple music and it sounded really great you could check out that video by using the card above the first thing that comes to mind is if a stereo pair of home pods would make a viable option for a home theater setup paired with an Apple TV 4k so obviously you won't get a 5.1 channel surround sound system like I have here in my home theater which uses a subwoofer plus five speakers to give you all-around sound but the home pods do support a technology that will bounce sound off of walls to simulate surround sound with C repairing the home pots actually know exactly where they are in the room and they could detect each other and that helps them know where to bounce certain sounds to simulate the surround sound now comparing this expensive Dolby Atmos surround sound system to a pair of home pods is a bit extreme but let's do it anyways we have our stereo home pod setup on top of my sound systems front speakers so let's see how well they stack up so as soon as I plugged in my stereo paired home pods which are easy to pair in the home app they actually showed up on the Apple TV 4k automatically so it makes this process very easy compared to an actual home theater system and here in the settings in the audio output they showed up here as theater I labeled them as the theater room home pods so I have my zoom h6 recorder set up right here right around head height so right where you would be listening to set up in the center of the room and it's about the same level of the home pods and what we're gonna do is we're gonna listen to the home pods we're gonna listen to the surround sound system and it's very hard to actually give you guys a good explanation or a good recording of that but we'll do our best and then we'll give you a commentary let you know what kind of a differences we saw and if a stereo pair of home pods can even compete with a system like this so we just watched and listened to the intro of the greatest show man which has a lot of loud music a lot of different sound effects and it has sounds from the back because it's using the surround sound and it sounded great on the home theater system really really good not as good as it sounded like through iTunes when I streamed the movie and I have rented it but it still sounded really good now a couple things happened when we switched over to the home pods first off we immediately noticed how much quieter it was and not on a normal level of volume what ended up happening is the YouTube video that we air played with it wasn't very loud as far as the audio in the video and with our home theater system there's so much power that we can easily just turn it up a bit louder to our normal level of listening volume and that's just compensated for it now with the home pods we were already maxing them out so because the video is quieter than normal it really just kind of messed up the experience other than the volume difference we don't get that very deep bass from the subwoofer and we don't get that really crisp highs from the dedicated center channel with the tweeters up there but I was surprised that we did get some stereo separation and some surround sound separation where I can hear the crowd from the side but the mean singing and the vocals were from the front but compared to the surround sound system where I actually heard like a crowd and side effects from behind me that was of course on another level what I also want to mention is that here we have a large room we have extra space off to the side over there and a lot of space from behind so that simulated surround sound doesn't work as well as it would if we had a smaller room that was square so we just finished off watching some of thor ragnarok and honestly we're quite a bit disappointed not by the sound quality of the speakers but just the general lack of volume they are way too quiet for watching movies and not only if you have a big theater set up like this even with my 50-inch TV they would not be enough the actual speakers built into the TV even though they don't sound as good as far as the actual quality of the speakers they are much louder than what this is putting out now the home pot in general isn't a very loud speaker if you compare it to some of the competition like Sano's or the google home max but where it does really stand out is the quality of the speaker now unfortunately when you're watching videos especially using the Apple TV 4k the value that it outputs for movies is much lower than for audio now in general if you're watching a film you need to have a wider kind of dynamic range between the quiet sections and loud sections to kind of feel the difference for the loud scenes the loud effects and the quiet scenes along with that fact that the home pod is not the loudest speaker around when you connect it to the Apple TV 4k and you actually playback a movie or a show it brings the volume level down even more so and it just is not enough I don't think this is going to be enough for even say a 40 inch TV in your living room in a scenario where you don't want it to be too loud there's just not enough volume when you're going through the menus on the Apple TV 4k or playing back say Apple music from it it is louder and that volume probably would be enough but it's a shame that it doesn't play even that loud now I have to say the sound quality that's coming from it at that low volume is still good and I actually notice a separation of sound and it sounded like I had sound coming from behind me from that the surround sound that it bounces off the wall so that was impressive I did notice that and that's something I did not expect but at this point I would say even my $350 sound bar that I have connected in my room is louder and in general probably sounds a little better as far as overall experience compared to a couple of these home pods to set up and appear so even though I do like the home pod and I use it pretty much every single day to listen to music and we have a set up in a stereo pair and that does sound quite good and gets it louder with more bass I definitely would not recommend it as a home theater alternative with Apple TV for okay if you enjoyed this video like it and hit that subscribe button also check out a price guide which makes it extremely easy to find the best deals and Apple products updated daily be sure to follow us on social media and we'll see you in the next video\n"