BeoLab 3 vs HomePod

They're about the same size - Apple's is the newer technology.

Does anyone have a view as to which sounds better, on the published specs, or having heard both?

I've had a pair of BeoLab 3s for years now, and love the look and sound; but am considering replacing with a pair of HomePods (better interface, no need for that ugly plastic box for wireless).

I recently bought a Beosound 2 and in a direct compare with my BL3’s the latter still produces a better sound. In another thread someone also said that the stereo profile of the BL3’s is better than the mono 360degree sound of any source. I believe the BS2 is THE best single speaker off them all, such a big sound stage. But will not win from the BL3’s. So my best guess is that the HomePod will not beat the BL3’s. Maybe in a stereo setting it will impress though.

In that case, two BS2’s will also work

Full disclaimer: I haven't heard the HomePod, and likely won't be ordering one for a while. 

Having owned a pair of Beolab 3 speakers, I have to say unequivocally that I doubt the HomePod will come close to the quality and imaging of the sound (even with two in a stereo pair) of a pair of Beolab 3 speakers. I doubt anyone would disagree. 

I'd get a Sonos Connect and hook up your BL3 speakers to that if you want to have the best SW and audio experience for accessing your music library. I think anyone who is happy with a pair of B&O speakers will be disappointed with the sound of the HomePod. But if you are willing to sacrifice sound for an interface and ecosystem that you're already a part of, I think it'll have a pretty decent market.

 

Firstly my 🐘 👂 👂 are 👎 these days.

Secondly my HomePod arrives on Friday.

So I may spend the weekend testing it in solo mode versus these which I have ranked:

A1

A2

Stereo BL4s

BV8 central speaker

Stereo BL6000s (with or without BL11)

Stereo BL3s (with or without BL19)

Stereo BL20s

I expect the HomePod to sit between the BV8 and the BL3s ...

But I could be surprised based on the positive press to date.

Got the HomePod today - airplaying music alternately between it (single) and (on the other side of the room) two BeoLab 3s in stereo, but right next to each other (my Living Room is in flux)...and, I don't know...

I'm no expert, but the HomePod sounds more precise, clearer, with better separation between elements...but, the BL3s sound fuller, more mature somehow, though muddier.

It isn't a fair competition because it's two vs one (if I replace the BL3s with the HomePod, there will be two of them by then), because I don't have much experience listening out for audio detail, and because they're in different parts of the room.

V interested to hear other opinions, as not yet sure enough of my own.

I have read reviews where the "stereo" sound with a pair of Homepods sounds different than "stereo" that we're all used to. Haven't experienced this myself, but I think we all may be comparing apples / oranges; pardon the pun. I still contend that traditional stereo should sound better on a pair of Beolab 3's than two Homepods.

leonb:

Got the HomePod today - airplaying music alternately between it (single) and (on the other side of the room) two BeoLab 3s in stereo, but right next to each other (my Living Room is in flux)...and, I don't know...

I'm no expert, but the HomePod sounds more precise, clearer, with better separation between elements...but, the BL3s sound fuller, more mature somehow, though muddier.

It isn't a fair competition because it's two vs one (if I replace the BL3s with the HomePod, there will be two of them by then), because I don't have much experience listening out for audio detail, and because they're in different parts of the room.

V interested to hear other opinions, as not yet sure enough of my own.

1. I use Geoff’s excellent article for my tests - have a read - test the BL3s in stereo and then the single HomePod

http://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/2014/03/20/bo-tech-a-day-in-the-life/

2. Yes Sal is right Apple is saying two HomePods are not the traditional Left and Right stereo as we know it (nor Home B&O has implemented their Bluetooth stereo paring) — rather the two speakers will know of each other’s presence and cooperate within s room ! Maybe it’s technology like the algorithms in the BeoSound Shape ? Who knows ? And probably we never will !

Sal:

I have read reviews where the "stereo" sound with a pair of Homepods sounds different than "stereo" that we're all used to. Haven't experienced this myself, but I think we all may be comparing apples / oranges; pardon the pun. I still contend that traditional stereo should sound better on a pair of Beolab 3's than two Homepods.

Is stereo pairing of HomePods available to anyone yet?  I thought that Apple stated that this was available later this year.  I've read several reviews but haven't read any that have stereo pairing working yet.  Do you have a link to one?

 

Hi Mark

all the "stereo" reviews I have read have been when Apple has been demonstrating it; so those were demos in the US and the UK, and the articles came out in the previous fortnight,

I am not aware of any reviews of loan units being a pair operating in stereo mode.

And yes, "stereo" is to come later - I assume when AirPlay2 arrives

leonb:

Got the HomePod today - airplaying music alternately between it (single) and (on the other side of the room) two BeoLab 3s in stereo, but right next to each other (my Living Room is in flux)...and, I don't know...

I'm no expert, but the HomePod sounds more precise, clearer, with better separation between elements...but, the BL3s sound fuller, more mature somehow, though muddier.

It isn't a fair competition because it's two vs one (if I replace the BL3s with the HomePod, there will be two of them by then), because I don't have much experience listening out for audio detail, and because they're in different parts of the room.

V interested to hear other opinions, as not yet sure enough of my own.

At least from what I understand they are not so far in sound quality. Different experience... but does it justify the huge price difference between Apple and B&O. I like very much the design of B&O but again not anymore for 10 times the price and with a bad after sale service.

Testing update ... work in progress ... no results for publishing

Again I had setup difficulties. And WAN drop outs. And Core airplay issues. And storage issues on a test iPhone.

None the less I have tested the following:

A1 BlueTooth

A2 BlueTooth

A3 local source (ie the iPad)

HomePod (of course) Airplay

BL6K + BL11 Airplay and BlueTooth

BL20 BlueTooth

Using both the iPad (1st generation) and an iPhone 5S.

These tests were using Adele’s “Take It All” track and I am going to repeat the process tomorrow but using other Adele tracks and good old Jennifer Warnes.

I may also break out of storage a spare pair of BL4s and test them independently rather than being part of a surround sound system.

Sal:

I still contend that traditional stereo should sound better on a pair of Beolab 3's than two Homepods.

@ Sal, I got my HomePod and I must say that one should perhaps listen to it first before judging. I am a total B&O fan but Apple has done their homework on the speaker side.

In fact, I only worry that if Apple were to apply their technology / software expertise to larger and true home audio set up. how will that impact B&O. On the small speaker side, I have no more reason to look at B&O. HomePod Setup was clean and though it is focused on Apple Music, Airplay always is available. 

Currently have only 1 HomePod and will get another one once the Airplay 2 is available. I can only imagine what the 2 HomePod set up will considering the software muscle and the A8 chip in these units but 1 is also enough to fill the room with all around sound with clarity and separation and warmth.

svinaik:

Sal:

I still contend that traditional stereo should sound better on a pair of Beolab 3's than two Homepods.

@ Sal, I got my HomePod and I must say that one should perhaps listen to it first before judging. I am a total B&O fan but Apple has done their homework on the speaker side.

In fact, I only worry that if Apple were to apply their technology / software expertise to larger and true home audio set up. how will that impact B&O. On the small speaker side, I have no more reason to look at B&O. HomePod Setup was clean and though it is focused on Apple Music, Airplay always is available. 

Currently have only 1 HomePod and will get another one once the Airplay 2 is available. I can only imagine what the 2 HomePod set up will considering the software muscle and the A8 chip in these units but 1 is also enough to fill the room with all around sound with clarity and separation and warmth.

You're right, I should hold judgement. That being said, I haven't read a bad review of the HomePod yet from the sound front. I am waiting for Airplay 2 to come to HomePod & Sonos before making my decision on one or the other and buying.

That being said, I am curious how users like my wife and I (we don't have ANY Apple Music subscriptions: No iCloud Music, No Apple Music, No iTunes Match, etc.) will get along with it, would we be relegated to only playing music from our phone's local library? I still don't quite understand the capabilities, regardless of the documentation for users without any subscriptions with Apple.

 

Sal:

You're right, I should hold judgement. That being said, I haven't read a bad review of the HomePod yet from the sound front. I am waiting for Airplay 2 to come to HomePod & Sonos before making my decision on one or the other and buying.

That being said, I am curious how users like my wife and I (we don't have ANY Apple Music subscriptions: No iCloud Music, No Apple Music, No iTunes Match, etc.) will get along with it, would we be relegated to only playing music from our phone's local library? I still don't quite understand the capabilities, regardless of the documentation for users without any subscriptions with Apple.

Yes you could play from your phone’s collection.

In a separate thread I cheerfully streamed from Deezer & Spotify to HomePod using Airplay.

But where did your phone’s music come from ?

A DLNA server ?

Google ?

Do you use any form of streaming ?

Sal:

That being said, I am curious how users like my wife and I (we don't have ANY Apple Music subscriptions: No iCloud Music, No Apple Music, No iTunes Match, etc.) will get along with it, would we be relegated to only playing music from our phone's local library? I still don't quite understand the capabilities, regardless of the documentation for users without any subscriptions with Apple.

In that case, you can:

- Play the music you have purchased on iTunes through HomePod using Siri

- Play every music you have on any Apple Device (or accessible through an Apple Device, like on Spotify) through AirPlay on the HomePod, using your Apple Device to control the HomePod

- If you are interested in playing your ripped CDs, you should definitely consider iTunes Match. It costs only about 20 bucks/year, and allows you to upload all your locally stored music to iCloud Music Library, and replay it on the HomePod through Siri.

elephant:

But where did your phone’s music come from ?

My wife uses her MacBook Pro (iTunes Library >400GB) and syncs what she wants to her 256GB iPhone.

I use my MBPro the same way, syncing what I want on hand to my 64GB iPhone.

We have a Mac Mini always on as a server with a combined iTunes Library available through Home Sharing & Twonky. We have Sonos Connect also accessing the server as well as Twonky for use via the B&O app, Home Sharing is used for AppleTV and iOS Music App, see below...

I hate using the iOS Music App to access the Server via Home Sharing because of the time it takes for the Server to load as a Shared library on my iPhone.

We don't use any form of "streaming" services (i.e. Spotify, Google, etc.)

didole:

- If you are interested in playing your ripped CDs, you should definitely consider iTunes Match. It costs only about 20 bucks/year, and allows you to upload all your locally stored music to iCloud Music Library, and replay it on the HomePod through Siri.

With all of the stellar comments and reviews about the HomePod's audio quality, I have been looking into iTunes Match, especially since much of our library consists of ripped CDs.

I found that when I played with iTunes Match, it did a poor job of covering my collection. I had a fair number of CDs that were important to me that weren't available with it, and none of the more esoteric things like rips of LPs or tapes of course. Another issue I noticed was, that the metadata on iTunes when ripping CDs is a mess a lot of the time, especially on compilation CDs. I had worked mightily to correct some of the worst issues, and as soon as I turned iTunes Match on it scrambled my library and metadata back to what iTunes had originally assigned, wrongly, to it. I think you could have heard me swearing all the way to Antarctica when that happened, probably scared the penguins.

If you can AirPlay your library from your PC using iTunes and wifi, that's good, if not, it's a major issue.

Jeff:

If you can AirPlay your library from your PC using iTunes and wifi, that's good, if not, it's a major issue.

Thanks, We're an all Mac family where airplay is not an issue in the least. Perhaps there is a place for HomePod in our house after all.

Sal:

With all of the stellar comments and reviews about the HomePod's audio quality, I have been looking into iTunes Match, especially since much of our library consists of ripped CDs.

I started in 2008/9 ripping all my CDs into iTunes Library; then I ripped my wife’s, and then over the years my three sons’ collections.

That accounts for ~18k tracks.

Over the years I bought iTunes Store tracks, albums, and “mtv” clips.

That accounts for another ~2k.

When iTunes Match came along I jumped in feet first:

- it provided backup; no re-recording need

- it provided a free upgrade from the capture quality I had used ... and then later a further, automatic quality upgrade whenever I played via a download from the iCloud

When Apple Music arrived I switched to streaming to preload my iPhone based Siri/Genius taste matching.

And I still do that, even though my in-Home streaming nowadays is Deezer HiFi.

However I was alarmed, when for today’s travels, Siri mixed me this set ... Siri must be trying to put me into a Valentines Day dinner night out mood !!!

elephant:

I have tested the following:

- A1 BlueTooth

- A2 BlueTooth

- A3 local source (ie the iPad)

- HomePod (of course) Airplay

- BL6K + BL11 Airplay and BlueTooth

- BL20 BlueTooth

Using both the iPad (1st generation) and an iPhone 5S.

These tests were using Adele’s “Take It All” track and I am going to repeat the process tomorrow but using other Adele tracks and good old Jennifer Warnes.

Finalising the second set of testing ... in addition to Sunday’s tests (above) I listened to Adele’s “set fire to the rain” and “rolling in the deep” and Jennifer Warnes “bird on a wire” and “Famous Blue raincoat” on these combinations:

- A3 from the docked iPad (1st generation) memory

- HomePod from Siri Apple Music in the cloud

- BL20 from Deezer in the cloud

I was using the dB meter App to ensure the volumes were consistent ... but even when I had the average consistent so sources or speakers showed up to a 5 dB variation between tests - A measurement flaw ? A difference between different recordings ? A difference between the ranges speakers were capable of ?

Now a caveat ... I was keeping the outputs at an average of 60dB or what the App classified at the high end of “a quiet conversation”.

So my findings ?

For “Take it all” there were differences between all the tests - but not enough to say A3 = 2xA2 or ‘a Home Pod is much better’ - they were all just ... ‘different’ eg HP better bass, A3 better vocal.

Which was a problem !

Given a pair of BL20s are the equivalent of say 32 HPs !!!

Which is why I hesitated reporting last night; and returned to test richer sources.

I am relieved to say the four other recordings did allow the BL20s to shine in stereo - offering an actual sound stage with real depth. And Jennifer’s voice was softer, gentler, warmer.

Whether they are 16x better than a pair of HomePods will be a future test ... but I doubt the quality would be.

I will do some additional tests tomorrow - the A3 normally lives in the wet room, and I want to hear Home the HomePod adjusts to that “harsh” environment.

And for the record here is the array of speakers I tested - 8 B&O versus 1 HomePod