Homepods (not coffee related)

-


The Homepods work very well. 

(also in Stereo now:)
iOS 11.4 brings the highly anticipated features to Apple’s smart speakers

https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/29/17406664/homepod-apple-stereo-pair-multi-room-audio-music-airplay-2-ios-11-update-how-to

https://www.pocket-lint.com/speakers/news/apple/141261-apple-airplay-2-what-is-it-how-does-it-work-and-what-devices-are-supported

-----


Installation was simpler than I could imagine: connect power plug, keep iPhone near the Homepod and let the machines sort it out themselves, just "okay" what they propose to do.

Some early owners remark that the bass tones seem dominant but after moving the Homepod around a bit to test this, I noticed that a table or wooden box that the Homepod is placed on, is incorporated as part of the 'speaker system' thus amplifying the low frequency tones.

Solution: place the Homepod on the stand that's designed and built to have a speaker on top of it. Simple and perfect!

The reason why I decided to get a Homepod is the ability that Apple built in to play FLAC and other lossless files directly without need for a DAC device in between.

Of course iTunes can't yet handle FLAC and one needs another player, but it turns out that JRiver Media Player is perfectly able to send music from FLAC and other hi-res audio format collection to the Homepod (named 'woonkamer' -- living room in Dutch -- here).

Also see http://appleinsider.com/articles/18/02/14/watch-the-best-siri-commands-for-homepod

PS the Airfoil apps on Mac and iPhone makes it easy to redirect system audio to Homepods:




A 'memory foam' rubbery brick that's used in present day hip yoga helps to prevent bass tones to reverb on the table top.

PS 23 may 2018 I got a second Homepod, just to see if they would work together smoothly. I had noticed that the Homepod plays in perfect sync with my MacBook's internal speakers so if two homepods could do that too, it would be awesome.
Turns out that using Airfoil, it DOES work beautifully, creating a sound suggesting the music comes from a wide and deep space somewhere in between the two.

Homepod left and right active

Reacties

Een reactie posten

Populaire posts van deze blog

Finished Pavoni & Fuji PXG4 pid: Probe Inside the Ring

-
Afbeelding
Delicious cup: all the work was well invested! At the end of the previous blog about the pressostat and PID working together , I mentioned that I would like to clean up the xmas tree of wires and have as few cables and probes as possible to visually disturb the classic design of the La Pavoni. Getting rid of the probe that was fastened with copper tape to the top of the brew group was a priority. I wanted to hide a new probe in the cooling fin as close as possible to the brew group. This morning I asked Tije if he could do that. He would need to drill a straight hole of 3mm diameter in the 4mm inner ring of the cooling fin that sits as a tight clamp around the brew group. Always the optimist, Tije set to work: First, Tije made a piece of aluminum to fit the inside of the ring. Drilling a thin hole straight through the curved aluminum, if possible tangentially going through the inside of the ring to touch the brew head directly, you need the support of the temporary insid
Meer lezen

Tiny Cheap Fluid Bed Roaster by Tije and Jan

-
Afbeelding
(also see Daily Coffee News feature ) Tije designed and made the following structure for a tiny and cheap fluid bed roaster, to which Jan van der Weel added the Arduino parts, electronics and programming: Sketch by Tije de Jong Jan sourced a very cheap blower (€ 11) to start with, Tije developed and constructed the mechanics, Jan built together and programmed the TC4 / SSR electronics.  On his blog, Jan will specify exactly how the TC4 part is combined and programmed and I will copy these details into this blog entry, just as Jan will use this video in his blog. We did a few test roasts to make sure it works at all and it does. Towards the end, the first roast tended to get a flat BT line and airflow was slightly decreased. 200g seems max load of green beans. Second roast a little more power was given to the heater. Next we will try the Background Roast driven by the PID software of Artisan. A week later, with updated software that works better to change the fan
Meer lezen

KiwiSDR2 [radio]

-
Afbeelding
  Despite selling one and giving away two of the five monster vintage 'boat anchor' receivers that I had, I still enjoy listening to shartwave radio. The modern iCOM R8600 that I also have has a wider range plus some decoding options but it's not easy to figure out what encoding is used on which frequencies. The SDR-Control app from Marcus Roskosch at https://ham-radio-apps.com/ makes this much easier and also allows some remote control of the receiver so you can place it and an antenna at the top floor of your house while listening downstairs. I also got the SDRplay RSP1B box: This offers a great listening experience at a very low price compared to the iCOM hardware. I had one before and bought one again after a (somewhat limited) Mac version of the software became available. This device needs a computer to be connected to the receiver. For some time now a nifty little device has appeared which not only works standalone, it even allows you or anyone else to utilize the
Meer lezen