Far too much bass in HomePod: can it be reduced?

True, pick any piece of music that you are familiar with and see if you can get the HomePod to sound nice to your ears. I just chose a piece that is so distinctly rest oriented, gentle and recently released and optimised for digital distribution, for Apple to try themselves with their new device, but even when I played loud aggressive music like old analogue thrash punk classics it just put so much bass into it as to sound boxy and silly and make the room buzz and vibrate. I have moved the speaker further from the wall and I think it does tame the bass resonance on the fabric of the room. Another complicating factor, is that when I ask HomePod Siri to play that one "Dream 1" track direct from HomePod the bass is not so heavy or distorted, but when I Airplay the same track from my iTunes Match version from iPhone X it is terrible (maybe it hasn't been properly matched with iTunes version), then as I said the Plex app FLAC version is tight and bearable, even though bass is still excessive. Have only had the HomePod a few hours, but I thought that it wouldn't need the normal audio physics, fiddling and positioning considerations (like distance from wall etc). I want it to work, and will keep experimenting

The relationship to vertical surfaces is complex for a speaker, ideally there would be none but living in a house sans walls is not likely to be achieved, The distance from a surface at 90 degrees has this effect, if the note being reproduced has the same or similar wavelength as the distance to the wall a 180 degree phase shift will occur between them, this will cancel the signal at that frequency, other distances may have no effect or may have an additive effect. It's all rather random I'm afraid. How far from the wall it is would be the decision maker.

Does seem a very big range of opinion - more so than I think would be expected from different listening preferences and acoutic environment. I‘m going to return and try another one and see if it”s a device issue.

You already have adjustability via the equalizers built into Apple’s iTunes and Apple Music. Try them.

The problem is only two speakers (woofer and tweeter), and Apple has tuned the HomePod to give listeners a LOT of bass, which probably duplicates Beats headphones, which are supposed to be bass heavy.

Apple did this because 95% of their listeners don't know what quality sound is like, having been raised on heavily compressed MP4 sound files. They think bass is kewl, so that is what they get. HomePod is designed to cater to people who listen to modern music, so full-range classical music will be lacking until the device includes full-range speakers. I can hear holes in classical music.

I like my Echo, but the music on it is not as good as HomePod. Alexa is more capable than Siri, which is odd. I expect both devices to compete w/ each other and Sonos, so consumers will benefit down the road.

I am kind of sorry I spent the money for a HomePod, considering the lack of full-range sound, less than capable Siri, and lack of information on how to get it to do what I want. But I know that Apple will work to improve its performance, so for now, HomePod has replaced Echo, and Echo is now in the kitchen, where its superior performance is appreciated.

Both iTunes and Apple Music have quite good equalizers that work just fine with the HomePod. On an iOS device go to Settings->Music->Equalizer (near the bottom of the menu) and play with settings to suit your taste. In iTunes click on the Window drop down menu and select Equalizer. Think outside the box rather than expecting to see Bass and Treble knobs on the HomePod. None of the other high end smart speakers out there have them either. It’s all about the software these days.

As far as I can tell from what Apple thinks are specifications it is designed for 'free space' use. And about those 7 tweeters, 6 of them are not pointing at you as they are in a semi-circle. The design lacks coherence in the near field, which is how many people will use one.

I agree with you. I posted this on macrumors and will repost here:

I’m not an audiophile but I do live sound engin

eering for a living.
My initial opinion of the HomePod upon hearing it in-store matches my opinion of it once I tried it out at home, in several different positions in different rooms. Too much bass (though really nice bass!) and vocals are recessed and vague. It sound like an Echo with a subwoofer and a bigger amp. I tried lifting it and setting it back down to re-initiate the auto sound adjust, and I could hear the EQ change at times, but it never really got better, just different. I’ll be returning HomePod.

That's my view as well (almost), I said at the start of this discussion I was sitting on the fence mainly due to feedback regarding excessive bass, but as times gone on that doesn't seem to have improved. Reviews are now coming in giving a similar story with some even remarking on a muddled "mid-range" to boot.

I've listen to two setups now, in different sized rooms, and although the bass was on the heavy side it wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but still far too much for my liking. The main issue I have is that I will not except any form of "compensation" control in the form of an equaliser to basically try and correct what has obviously been designed in, it just goes against the grain, but if Apple alter how the auto setup works and offer some user control over that aspect I might reconsider.

It's as though the speaker can't fully adjust to all environments automatically, it needs a little help in the form of user input on say, how far is the nearest wall, is the room small/medium or large etc, that just might give it a fighting chance of getting the balance a little more neutral in my view, but all the above assumes Apple also want a "neutral" sound!

Speakers are a very personal bit of kit, while one might like a particular model someone else will almost certainly not, even the auto tuning system will not remove this preference uncertainty because it’s still the designers “ideal” of how it should sound which may not jell with some.

Saying that, what should never happen is any major characteristic shift according to sound levels, because that generally points to an out of balanced system, either between speaker and environment or speaker and amplifier. Yes, at low levels some impact will be lost but you should still retain detail, and conversely, at higher levels it should never tip over and either over emphasise the bass or treble.

It’s a very difficult trick to attain and only gets close by careful matching of the components with each other and with the room and listening position, that’s why a speaker will never deliver all things to all people!

Just one thought on use of “equalizers”, if you have to apply too much to compensate then I would say something is fundamentally wrong with the general setup/room interface. Some might be happy with that state of affairs, I would like to find what was throwing things out so much though, each to there own.

Best of luck.

Another point about equalizers is that when and if you reduce energy at a frequency you reduce all signal around that point, even if it is wanted signal. Consumer eq has little in the way of selectivity about what you can turn down, or up. Apples eq is as bad as the others are.