Came across this review of the Apple HomePod. While the review is extremely light on subjective listening impressions, it is very strong on the technical review and measurements. I was taken aback at the high praise about the HomePod's audio quality. The reviewer (who is not a professional audio reviewer, by the way) actually says that the HomePod sounds better than his Kef X300A which is a $1000 speaker. Others on the internet have also been singing some high praise about the audio quality of the HomePod. The negatives are usually around how poor Siri is and how locked in the HomePod is to the Apple ecosystem. But no negatives on sound quality itself.
It looks like Apple has been able to achieve some remarkable results in terms of audio quality using a combination of exotic DSP and active room correction, horn loaded BMR type speakers (Balanced Mode Radiators as I understand), and 8-9 speakers each having its own dedicated amplifier.
For what it is worth, i have the Amazon Echo which is great in terms of understanding my instructions but quite sub-par in terms of audio quality.
It looks like Apple has been able to achieve some remarkable results in terms of audio quality using a combination of exotic DSP and active room correction, horn loaded BMR type speakers (Balanced Mode Radiators as I understand), and 8-9 speakers each having its own dedicated amplifier.
For what it is worth, i have the Amazon Echo which is great in terms of understanding my instructions but quite sub-par in terms of audio quality.