I have 4 HomePods (2 OG in stereo for my Apple TV setup and two minis in stereo at my desk). IMO, the OG HomePod was a disaster for my use case. I had to fight with them every step of the way in stereo — popping, disconnecting from Apple TV and having to reconnect, one would work and the other wouldn’t, Siri slow to respond or not working at all, etc. At the moment they won’t connect to the TV at all so I’m using the in-built speakers.
The new ones will be fine I suppose if you buy one to listen to music. They sound great and I can’t deny that. But I’m surprised anyone would even consider giving them a second chance as a smart speaker or for a home theatre setup. I’m doing exactly as @SpivR is suggesting.
People leery because of HP popping issues I totally get it. I bought a Sonos Beam and it’s been the soundbar from Hell. Lip sync issues…wildly fluctuating volume. It’s sitting disconnected under my TV right now. I may never buy a Sonos soundbar again despite knowing the Arc is just fine.
I’ll end up getting the HP ver 2 when I jettison my Bose Soundtouch 10 that are sitting collecting dust.
Listening to music is a major use case. Not niche. That and some spoken word audio are 90% of our usage. The other 10% is sometimes they are/were used as quick speakers for a movie on a laptop.
First Gen so that may be the problem, I saw a couple on the Sonos forums with similar issues but I don’t know if there’s a fix other than buying the 2nd generation
ARC, I did not call support I was planning on upgrading my Hisense 9 series TV to see if the problems were being caused by the TV rather than the Beam. Part of me is leaning on TV generated issues because this Hisense has just fallen apart. HDMI CEC stopped working, Remote went janky. If I see the issues with the next TV i’ll contact Sonos directly.
I have an original HomePod and a mini. I think my “OG” sounds good and the mini is fine for spoken word. So I expect the new HP also sounds good. But these are supposed to be smart speakers.
When Quinn asked Siri “what’s the weather for the next week” my HomePod responded with something like “I can’t predict the weather that far out”. And that’s the problem, Siri is years behind the competition today. And Microsoft and Google are upping the game with their AI entries.
Siri on iPhone is getting worse too. For example, I’ve always relied on Siri to manage volume, etc. when I’m listening to music or a podcast. Now I can’t depend on it to do that.
And I don’t even try to use Siri to get information because most of the time it tells me to use my iPhone.
Somehow I stumbled upon a white HomePod 2 in a store a few days ago. It called my name. I took it home. It is doing its job with a stereo pair of “old” HomePods in a L-shaped room. If have disabled “Hey Siri” on the stereo pair, so that the new one is responding to my Siri requests exclusively. The sound in this room with three HomePods is really good as one might guess. When I want to listen to music on all three HomePods Siri works quite well, to be honest: “Hey Siri, play X in room Z”. Done. And sometimes I am fine with just the new one playing.
The new HomePod does sound good. I do not get those who say that there is no difference between the old and the new one. They sound similar. The old ones are louder and deliver more bass (sometimes too much for my taste). It is difficult to deliver a sound impression via video, but I have to say that this one did quite a good job:
Regarding all those experts recommending and not recommending the HomePod 2: I am glad that I bought the new one. The L-shaped room has become a phenomenal soundscape when all three are playing. And I do not agree that the Siri experience is the same when I compare the old HomePods to the new one. The reactions are more instantaneous. And it may have something to do with last night’s OS update, but today Siri works quite flawless to be honest. And even if not: Siri is the assistant I have chosen because this is the ecosystem I am using - and I will keep using.
To cut it short: if you like the HomePod the HomePod 2 is a great speaker. And if you don’t… Well, then you don’t…
I just recently set up my home studio and added few smart lights/plugs. I miss using Siri to operate in our bedroom (where I used to have my work desk). So I was thinking of getting a Homepod mini for Siri but decided to just turn on Hey Siri on my iPhone. I also unearthed my old busted Airport Express the other day and thought of dumping it for recycling along with the other cords and electronics. Plugged the Airport Express and found out it’s working again. Connected my Soundstick II as Airplay speaker. Now, I don’t have the need for a Homepod mini on my work studio. I’ve scratched up that itch. But I still do want to get another homepod mini for stereo pair on our AppleTV on the bedroom.
I hear ya but its the receiver that is usually priced more than the speakers. We don’t have access to a Sonos here and we just love the Homepod as a homekit hub and as a speaker to our AppleTV. We don’t really mind the audio quality of the homepod mini for our TV as we find it much better than the default tv speaker. We used to have 5.1 set up but they usually eats up more room and the possibility that our dogs will knock them out or chew the wirings. As its only for our bedroom, we’re satisfied with the sound quality and subwoofers will be bad for our dogs who stays in our room too. For music, we have a great setup with our turntable so music streaming is not really our main music entertainment.
Anyone with stereo HomePod 2 and Apple TV setup who can share their experience? I don’t know whether to upgrade or consider a Beam 2 soundbar for a small (ish) living room. I want something that is set and forget, not complicated to setup, and works well with music and TV.
HomePods is really good as one might guess. 
When I want to listen to music on all three HomePods Siri works quite well, to be honest: “Hey Siri, play X in room Z”. Done. And sometimes I am fine with just the new one playing.