Apple's new 1 liter speaker: 10mm xmax woofer, 8 amps, 7 tweeters w/horn, 6 mics

[bcodemz]

Take a look at HomePod, Apple's new speaker. They really showed all of us how much they can pack inside a small speaker. It is remarkable what they fit inside a speaker with less than 1 liter of enclosure volume. There's some serious technology inside too.



There are:

- 8 amplifiers
- 7 tweeters in a unique downfiring horn with adjustable directivity
- 6 microphones
- 4" woofer with 10mm of excursion
- Wi-Fi, DSP
- fully enclosed!

A lot of interesting things about this speaker.

1. Apple somehow made 7 tweeters fire into a horn, that fires downwards to the very surface it is sitting on, and still provide variable directivity control.
2. Voices are automatically filtered to have a narrow directivity. How low are the tweeters playing?
3. Is the hardware on top of the woofer also acting as a lens to radiate the higher frequencies omnidirectionally when the woofer starts narrowing?
4. The woofer is somehow radiating sound outside when it is completely buried inside the speaker

Very curious to hear this when it comes out in December.

[Mike E]

bet its going to cost about 2k for that speaker and well knowing apple they always overcharge.

[augerpro]

Looks more like fullranges in some sort of Synergy horn inspired deal. Can't figure out the downfiring though. Did you actually see that in a description?

[s7horton]

bet its going to cost about 2k for that speaker and well knowing apple they always overcharge.

Why do you say that? Looks like it's $349.

[mattk]

And like Amazon's Echo and Google's Home, it is listening to everything you say, and sending that to a giant computer farm which may or may not be recording everything you say, but is undoubtedly analyzing.

[ejh2854]

And like Amazon's Echo and Google's Home, it is listening to everything you say, and sending that to a giant computer farm which may or may not be recording everything you say, but is undoubtedly analyzing.

Yep.

And adding that to everything else you do that's captured, like responding to a post here ;)

.

[wogg]

That's a good marketing move on their part. The competing "home assistant" space is pretty weak, I don't think there's a huge attraction for a little box to answer your questions but if you make it a speaker worth listening to music with for the average Joe, you have a whole lot more draw. I'm definitely not an Apple user, and not a tiny mono source speaker fan (I suspect most of us here aren't), but it's good to see Apple actually hitting a marketing target like that again. It's seemed like Microsoft has been out-innovating them for the last few years.

[bcodemz]

Looks more like fullranges in some sort of Synergy horn inspired deal. Can't figure out the downfiring though. Did you actually see that in a description?

It was mentioned in the WWDC 2017 presentation, along with an animation that shows the sound firing downwards and reflected out.

[ErinH]

I'm wondering if the downfiring has more to do with boosting the output naturally a la boundary loading.

[ErinH]

You guys may have seen this but here are some reviews:
https://9to5mac.com/2017/06/06/homep...-quality-hifi/


One quote that piqued my interest:
"Apple is claiming that, using the microphones, the speaker can work out the shape of the room and then beam different parts of the song to different areas. So the vocals get pumped straight out into the center of the room while the “ambient” bits get bounced off the wall. I can’t speak to the proper audiophile terms for what they’re talking about, but I can say that it sounded pretty immersive and impressive in person."

[GTPlus]

Interesting design, can't wait for an Ifixit teardown. From the video on their site, it looks to be using the mic array to measure reflections. be interested to see the enclosure and where the ports are.

As far as the product placement, IMO they are too little too late and for too much. Seems to be Apple's MO as of late. It is going to be a tough road, mostly paved by the dwindling Apple loyalists. Don't get me wrong, I've been an Apple fan for a while, but they make it hard to stay one. My guess is this thing will only work with Apple music and will probably only work with "Home certified" IOT devices.

My echo works with any music service I choose and I have it hooked up to a good speaker of my choosing. Tough to beat Amazon in this game. Even Google is having a hard go at it, but they at least have the superior web search via the assistant to give them an edge. Not sure what will draw outsiders to the Apple. Maybe perceived sound quality, but Amazon is working with Sonos and should have integration with Alexa.

[djkest]

Very cool technology they put into that. I guess I am really curious to know how it sounds. Technology that seems to get around the "normal" rules of physics to some degree or another.

[Paul Carmody]

There actually seems to be quite a bit of thought going into it. I can't remember the last time an Apple product actually surprised me with clever engineering. I know, we're all supposed to fawn over Apple's engineering and industrial design--which has always been solid and sensible. But rarely would I describe it as particularly "clever." In fact, when they DID try to be clever (like that trash-bin Mac), the end result was just sort of puzzling or unintuitive.

I actually look forward to hearing this. Although I can't help but feel some pangs of jealousy for the DSP tools and custom enclosures available to manufacturers now, leaving DIYers at a disadvantage.

[bcodemz]

There actually seems to be quite a bit of thought going into it. I can't remember the last time an Apple product actually surprised me with clever engineering. I know, we're all supposed to fawn over Apple's engineering and industrial design--which has always been solid and sensible. But rarely would I describe it as particularly "clever." In fact, when they DID try to be clever (like that trash-bin Mac), the end result was just sort of puzzling or unintuitive.

I actually look forward to hearing this. Although I can't help but feel some pangs of jealousy for the DSP tools and custom enclosures available to manufacturers now, leaving DIYers at a disadvantage.

I'm definitely jealous of all of the engineering tools Apple have at their disposal. That said, it doesn't really make sense that manufacturers don't have, or don't utilize the advanced tools and custom components they have access to. It's a little silly that a DIY'er can do better than these manufacturers. It is not until the recent 2-3 years that companies really stepped up their game in audio innovation, and I'm glad this is finally happening.

[Millstonemike]

I actually look forward to hearing this. Although I can't help but feel some pangs of jealousy for the DSP tools and custom enclosures available to manufacturers now, leaving DIYers at a disadvantage.

It's a market niche, small multi-function speaker. Heck, for $10, I can get any number of small speakers that announce my phone activity, act as a speaker phone, and play mp3s. They all use the same chip. And while Bose does have larger systems, I personally don't like the their sound. Many DIY creations here would be my first choice.