HomePod Hearing Hey Siri Requests

Hi,

I’ve had my HomePod since Christmas; it’s running the latest software version. All the reviews I’ve read mention how well HomePod can hear Hey Siri requests in noisy environments. People say you can speak at a normal or even quiet volume with the HomePod playing music at 100% volume and it’ll hear you (from across the room in some cases). This is NOT my experience.

In a quiet environment I can talk very quietly (almost whispering) to HomePod from the other side of my room and it’ll hear me impressively well. With music playing at a moderate volume (50-60%) it’ll hear me if I raise my voice a bit at about 8 feet away. Music at 70% or higher I really have to raise my voice above the music. Sometimes I have to stand right next to it and SHOUT.

A power cycle seems to improve things when I’m having to shout and the mics pick me up really well in quiet environments - both of these things seem to suggest it’s a software rather than hardware problem. Something to do with the algorithms filtering out background noise perhaps?

I’d be interested in hearing other people’s experiences with this. Is anyone finding they can talk at a normal volume with music at 100%, like the reviews suggest?

Thanks,

Ed.