Apple HomePod vs. Sonos One

“I now have two HomePods which I use in my bedroom as a stereo pair, and I wanted a speaker for the kitchen to listen to music while I cook. But I didn’t want a Bluetooth speaker because their sound quality is limited; since I use Apple Music and iTunes, having AirPlay access was essential for me,” Kirk McElhearn writes for Intego. “Rather than spend the $350 for another HomePod, I decided to buy a Sonos One. At $200 (and I got it at the $25 discount Black Friday price), it’s more accessible; you can get two to make a stereo pair for just a bit more than a single HomePod.”
“The Sonos One is one of three devices from this company that supports AirPlay 2 (the others are the Beam, Playbase, and Play:5 2nd generation),” McElhearn writes. “It is about the same size as the HomePod but the main difference is its smarts: it offers access to Amazon Alexa rather than Siri. So if that’s a dealbreaker, then stop reading.”
“As I said in my review of the HomePod, ‘The problem is that it has only one sound color and that color is bassy.’ This gives music a ‘fuller’ sound, but it’s not always what the music should sound like. The Sonos One has the opposite sound signature: it tends toward the tinny end of the spectrum and the sound can be a bit brittle when it’s very loud,” McElhearn writes. “The HomePod uses its DSP a bit too much, trying to create a sound signature that works with some tunes, but that makes some types of music sound muddy. The Sonos One is more neutral, with less processing and ultimately sounds more like a standard audio system.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What the HomePod needs is an EQ option in its settings within the Home app.