HomePod mini

Testing with this there is no perceivable delay whatsoever.


I wonder if you haven't misread a little bit because there is a delay from when it starts and stops playing and but this I would imagine this relates to a pre-buffer to make sure you have clean audio throughout in case of wireless interference.

It's not lip sync latency, but rather buffer latency after the fact so not really an issue and if you ask me more a quality assurance feature. You never have those weird codes drops and crackles often experiences with Bluetooth kit.

So if your output is the HomePod mini and you start playing a new streams of audio it takes a second or so before it "hands over" to the device but once it's going it's rock solid.

This isn't really any different from the AirPods and such.

It may be why things like system sounds and such still come through the MacBook speakers.

****

And just in case you thought maybe the delay is exactly on the video time and therefore not perceived the blank space in this one is exactly where it should be.

 
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@greg0205 @SauRoNZA

Really appreciate you guys testing them. The comments were pretty unambiguous on Reddit but they could have been commentary from overly fussy people.

On the basis of your comments, I picked up two HomePods from iStore just now:

Home-Pods-Minis.jpg


So if they turn out to be a bit rubbish, I will smite you both. :p

(Early impressions are rather positive though. Especially the setup process.)
 
Bryn said:
@greg0205 @SauRoNZA

Really appreciate you guys testing them. The comments were pretty unambiguous on Reddit but they could have been commentary from overly fussy people.

On the basis of your comments, I picked up two HomePods from iStore just now:

Home-Pods-Minis.jpg


So if they turn out to be a bit rubbish, I will smite you both. :p

(Early impressions are rather positive though. Especially the setup process.)
Click to expand...
AirPlay something from your MacBook and let me know if you can spot lag where I couldn't.
 
Bryn said:
@greg0205 @SauRoNZA

Really appreciate you guys testing them. The comments were pretty unambiguous on Reddit but they could have been commentary from overly fussy people.

On the basis of your comments, I picked up two HomePods from iStore just now:

Home-Pods-Minis.jpg


So if they turn out to be a bit rubbish, I will smite you both. :p

(Early impressions are rather positive though. Especially the setup process.)
Click to expand...

Nice going!

The setup process is always a winner with all things Apple…assuming you are setting up with another Apple that is.
 
greg0205 said:
AirPlay something from your MacBook and let me know if you can spot lag where I couldn't.
Click to expand...
The lag is noticeable, but as @SauRoNZA mentioned above, it's just a second or two sometimes before something starts playing. And it's definitely minor enough to not irritate me. And more importantly, nothing is ever out of sync.

I love how they appear as a usable AirPlay device (and a single paired 'entity' rather than separate things) for my Apple gadgets. The user experience is really amazing.

They aren't going to win awards for audio quality, but it's not bad either. Mids and highs are surprisingly balanced. What they do especially well is not sounding like your music is coming from two little balls. The sound is just everywhere. Not sure if that's a consequence of running a pair though.

My only gripe is that they're the Mini models. Man, just f**k the world for making Apple pull the proper HomePods off the market, and never launching them here in the first place. No joke, going by the reviews for those, I'd have one or more in every room of the house. And I wish I had those in my study instead.
 
Bryn said:
The lag is noticeable, but as @SauRoNZA mentioned above, it's just a second or two sometimes before something starts playing. And it's definitely minor enough to not irritate me. And more importantly, nothing is ever out of sync.

I love how they appear as a usable AirPlay device (and a single paired 'entity' rather than separate things) for my Apple gadgets. The user experience is really amazing.

They aren't going to win awards for audio quality, but it's not bad either. Mids and highs are surprisingly balanced. What they do especially well is not sounding like your music is coming from two little balls. The sound is just everywhere. Not sure if that's a consequence of running a pair though.

My only gripe is that they're the Mini models. Man, just f**k the world for making Apple pull the proper HomePods off the market, and never launching them here in the first place. No joke, going by the reviews for those, I'd have one or more in every room of the house. And I wish I had those in my study instead.
Click to expand...

Even as a single pair they do an amazing job of filling the room, I only really notice a one sidedness when in bed where there’s only one on my side of the bed and one day there will be two.

At my desk and in the kitchen it works perfectly well from one unit only.

Compared to other speakers of a similar size and/or category they do an amazing job for quality and I think we all make the mistake of then throwing them into HiFi for comparison and then wonder why it’s not quite as good.

I would have liked some means of an equaliser that’s more than just “reduce bass” though.

Don’t know how much of a Siri user you are but they are also ninja sensitive and I can just talk at a normal level and it will respond from room next door even.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Even as a single pair they do an amazing job of filling the room, I only really notice a one sidedness when in bed where there’s only one on my side of the bed and one day there will be two.

At my desk and in the kitchen it works perfectly well from one unit only.

Compared to other speakers of a similar size and/or category they do an amazing job for quality and I think we all make the mistake of then throwing them into HiFi for comparison and then wonder why it’s not quite as good.

I would have liked some means of an equaliser that’s more than just “reduce bass” though.

Don’t know how much of a Siri user you are but they are also ninja sensitive and I can just talk at a normal level and it will respond from room next door even.
Click to expand...
My AirPods Pro 2 sound so ridiculously good that I knew I didn't need anything but serviceable quality from these Minis to be good Mac speakers for me. And to that end, they sound acceptable. The audio quality trade-off is all the more worth it when they're so easily accessed by my devices via AirPlay.

This makes me never want any audio device that can't be AirPlayed to.
 
Bryn said:
The lag is noticeable, but as @SauRoNZA mentioned above, it's just a second or two sometimes before something starts playing. And it's definitely minor enough to not irritate me. And more importantly, nothing is ever out of sync.

I love how they appear as a usable AirPlay device (and a single paired 'entity' rather than separate things) for my Apple gadgets. The user experience is really amazing.

They aren't going to win awards for audio quality, but it's not bad either. Mids and highs are surprisingly balanced. What they do especially well is not sounding like your music is coming from two little balls. The sound is just everywhere. Not sure if that's a consequence of running a pair though.

My only gripe is that they're the Mini models. Man, just f**k the world for making Apple pull the proper HomePods off the market, and never launching them here in the first place. No joke, going by the reviews for those, I'd have one or more in every room of the house. And I wish I had those in my study instead.
Click to expand...
Good to hear.

Yeah, really, really wanted the stereo pair and I couldn't be happier with them... Also a joy not having to plot and scheme and connive how to get them here anymore.

Honestly, my only gripe is that Eishkom has been limiting my ability to use them this weekend.
 
Bryn said:
My AirPods Pro 2 sound so ridiculously good that I knew I didn't need anything but serviceable quality from these Minis to be good Mac speakers for me. And to that end, they sound acceptable. The audio quality trade-off is all the more worth it when they're so easily accessed by my devices via AirPlay.

This makes me never want any audio device that can't be AirPlayed to.
Click to expand...

Yeah tell me about it the one major annoyance for me is that my soundbar doesn’t do Airplay and literally the only benefit of the new version the year after is adding that.

Fortunately the Apple TV is right there but then I need the TV to be on etc.

And **** Bluetooth.
 
greg0205 said:
Good to hear.

Yeah, really, really wanted the stereo pair and I couldn't be happier with them... Also a joy not having to plot and scheme and connive how to get them here anymore.

Honestly, my only gripe is that Eishkom has been limiting my ability to use them this weekend.
Click to expand...
Let me introduce you to my other most recent purchase:

Microcare-2k-W-UPS.jpg


Absolute life saver. 2kW is prob more than I need to power my Mac setup and/or gaming console, but knowing everything stays on now is amazing. Especially with the higher stages when it has limited time for charging.
 
Oh maybe a little hint for you @Bryn for future use.

If you go into Home and set them up like this…

70f7381c1874da01b7786d994ffd9839.jpg


Then you can happily take them with you on holiday and use them without any wireless network or internet.
 
Bryn said:
Let me introduce you to my other most recent purchase:

Microcare-2k-W-UPS.jpg


Absolute life saver. 2kW is prob more than I need to power my Mac setup and/or gaming console, but knowing everything stays on now is amazing. Especially with the higher stages when it has limited time for charging.
Click to expand...
Nice. Have the ONT and Router running on a UPS here, but as Clarkson says, gonna need more POWER!
 
greg0205 said:
Nice. Have the ONT and Router running on a UPS here, but as Clarkson says, gonna need more POWER!
Click to expand...
I also have a little UPS thing powering my Openserve ONT and router. Cost around R1.2k on Takealot a year ago, and has been a total champ. Not once has the Wi-Fi ever gone down during load shedding.

Still a bit irritating because I have a Xiaomi mesh network and only the master device has backup power. Might buy more of those things to keep them all up. My study only relies on the main one so it hasn't been an urgent issue.
 
Bryn said:
I also have a little UPS thing powering my Openserve ONT and router. Cost around R1.2k on Takealot a year ago, and has been a total champ. Not once has the Wi-Fi ever gone down during load shedding.

Still a bit irritating because I have a Xiaomi mesh network and only the master device has backup power. Might buy more of those things to keep them all up. My study only relies on the main one so it hasn't been an urgent issue.
Click to expand...
Decos and pretty much the same... Keep looking at the teevee and thinking 'one day, one day soon' 'tho.
 
greg0205 said:
Decos and pretty much the same... Keep looking at the teevee and thinking 'one day, one day soon' 'tho.
Click to expand...
My living room TV also relies on one of the slave routers. Although I don't much care when there isn't backup power down there anyway.
 
@greg0205 @SauRoNZA

It hasn't been a long time but my frustrations are great with these HomePods. They are almost never able to follow Hey Siri instructions from me. I've checked Apple support articles, run through the settings on my iPhone and Mac, the firmware has been updated, I've rebooted a few times and I use Apple Music as my main streaming service (with Spotify disabled for the HomePods). Both devices should have good Wi-Fi strength, which is what they seem to indicate in the Home app. No other users use these - they should have the simplest possible setup for a single user who has Apple Music.

If I hold down on the top of either unit, Siri just says "Uh oh (or 'sorry'), something's wrong. Please try again." She can't tell me the weather, report on my calendar, do anything with tasks or alarms etc. Basically broken for anything other than being used to play music, which works okay if I'm using the Music app on iPhone or Mac but doesn't really work if the HomePods themselves need to initiate anything. For example, "Play my Chill Mix" gets no response.

The thing that irritates me most isn't that they have some sort of issue; it's the lack of feedback from Siri even when I have that option enabled. Makes me want to test my bowling arm on these balls when they don't work and can't even be bothered to vocalise why (on a gadget with no display, FFS Apple).
 
Bryn said:
@greg0205 @SauRoNZA

It hasn't been a long time but my frustrations are great with these HomePods. They are almost never able to follow Hey Siri instructions from me. I've checked Apple support articles, run through the settings on my iPhone and Mac, the firmware has been updated, I've rebooted a few times and I use Apple Music as my main streaming service (with Spotify disabled for the HomePods). Both devices should have good Wi-Fi strength, which is what they seem to indicate in the Home app. No other users use these - they should have the simplest possible setup for a single user who has Apple Music.

If I hold down on the top of either unit, Siri just says "Uh oh (or 'sorry'), something's wrong. Please try again." She can't tell me the weather, report on my calendar, do anything with tasks or alarms etc. Basically broken for anything other than being used to play music, which works okay if I'm using the Music app on iPhone or Mac but doesn't really work if the HomePods themselves need to initiate anything. For example, "Play my Chill Mix" gets no response.

The thing that irritates me most isn't that they have some sort of issue; it's the lack of feedback from Siri even when I have that option enabled. Makes me want to test my bowling arm on these balls when they don't work and can't even be bothered to vocalise why (on a gadget with no display, FFS Apple).
Click to expand...

Set your language to British.

This is exactly what we’ve been talking about.

They have evidently not unlocked Siri for South Africa yet.

e1d9760a528f4d6c9055f71f4b535caa.jpg


And your phone needs to be set the same otherwise Personal Requests won’t work.
 
Last edited:
Bryn said:
@greg0205 @SauRoNZA

It hasn't been a long time but my frustrations are great with these HomePods. They are almost never able to follow Hey Siri instructions from me. I've checked Apple support articles, run through the settings on my iPhone and Mac, the firmware has been updated, I've rebooted a few times and I use Apple Music as my main streaming service (with Spotify disabled for the HomePods). Both devices should have good Wi-Fi strength, which is what they seem to indicate in the Home app. No other users use these - they should have the simplest possible setup for a single user who has Apple Music.

If I hold down on the top of either unit, Siri just says "Uh oh (or 'sorry'), something's wrong. Please try again." She can't tell me the weather, report on my calendar, do anything with tasks or alarms etc. Basically broken for anything other than being used to play music, which works okay if I'm using the Music app on iPhone or Mac but doesn't really work if the HomePods themselves need to initiate anything. For example, "Play my Chill Mix" gets no response.

The thing that irritates me most isn't that they have some sort of issue; it's the lack of feedback from Siri even when I have that option enabled. Makes me want to test my bowling arm on these balls when they don't work and can't even be bothered to vocalise why (on a gadget with no display, FFS Apple).
Click to expand...
What SauRoNZA said.

Home app... Siri voice won't matter, Language will.

IMG_0317.PNG
 
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