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

One of the important specifications for an equalizer is its Q, in simple terms the filter width, how big an area is affected by pushing the slider. In pro equalizers are 1/3rd octave equalizers, which is a fairly narrow band, it is the minimum requirement in my view (a 1/3rd octave eq has upwards of 30 bands, or it is not really a third octave equalizer) consumer eq's usually have 10 or less, the adjustments cover wide bands bands that will almost certainly contain information that should be heard. Set all eq to flat, then move the speaker around to every useful place it could be placed in. If you still don't like the way it sounds get rid of it, all further signal modification will be detrimental.

I am an audiophile, and couldn't be more astonished by the speaker's lack of clarity and sound separation. It's baffling, 99% of post-embargo reviews extolled HomePod's clarity and sound separtion as being second-to-none.

Moreover, the equalizer function in Settings > Apple Music no effect on HomePod output, whether one connects via Wifi or Airplay. I've worked it desperately, hoping that something, anything might wring decent sound from this device. That said, quality speakers should sound great without equalizing, or at most, an equalizer setting of "flat" for volume control.

I agree with one reviewer's observation that HomePod sounds like Beats--dull, base-heavy and muffled. I was expecting HomePod to sound like my AirPods, which are quite excellent. My AirPods do respond to Apple Music's equalizer, but I never need use it.

I have an Apple store appointment tomorrow, hoping that a diagnostic reveals it to be defective, and can be replaced with a unit that lives up to the hype.There's no other excuse for it's abysmal quality.

Have to disagree with you, a good speaker benefits from good equalization to allow you to iron out the irregularities caused by walls, floors, ceilings etc. The problem is that iTunes does not possess a good equalizer.

demann63 wrote:

But as someone that used to have subwoofers in their car back when I could hear real well, I can tell you with complete certainty, that there IS NOT too much bass with the HomePod. The processor and bass mic are monitoring it with near perfection. I am blown away.

I guess there will be individual opinions on the weight of bass for a given speaker, but it's also possible that the auto-calibration software is buggy or that the components involved in monitoring are bad for some people.

To some extent the amount of bass you’ll encounter is a function of the space the unit is in. If you place it in a large (say 2 story room) the bass is a lot less noticeable if at all. I’ve found that in anything smaller than the cavernous space the bass is fine. But this is my opinion and opinions are like refuse ejection mechanisms, everyone’s got one 😉

Alley_Cat wrote:

...I'm really not sure what people are expecting for the price and personally think comparison to audiophile equipment is misleading...

I don't think it's just about comparing the overall audio quality which can involve many aspects of the music, pace rhythm, detail etc, I agree, for the money you could never expect the HomePod to replicate those as an audiophile system costing several thousand pounds would, but I would say you should expect within it's limited ability to produce a reasonably flat frequency response, especially since that is one of it's main selling points (ie it's auto tuning ability).

Apple are usually quite good at the hardware side of things, like another commented, I was more than pleasantly surprised at how good my AirPods actually sound as well, and they certainly don't have a Beats signature - so with those reporting bass issues could it be something going astray on the software side, or simply that certain locations fall outside it's ability.

Will be be interesting to see how this turns out.

ps. For anyone interested I use my AirPods with iPhone X and Onkyo HF Player App, this combo is slightly better in my opinion than Apple's Music App.

I have much the same issue. I live in an apartment so I want to reduce the bass to avoid disturbing my neighbors. (I realize that from an audiophile perspective that may reduce the quality of the sound, but I accept that as a cost of being considerate.) Until the HomePod supports some sort of way of reducing the bass, for me it is just a very expensive AirPlay target.

I don't have an HomePod yet because still "sitting on fence" trying to make mind up (reading all I can and looking at the competition!) so can't test this but read if sound is initially not that balanced re-triggering the auto setup by moving it around may improve things.

I was hoping not to have the HomePod in the middle of the room away from wall, but they may need to be for me. I have heard a number of contributers here say how much they enjoy their AirPods sound quality, and I also enjoy them a lot, so thought the HomePod would be as balanced as them. Am continuing to experiment with different sources, and thought that the higher quality of FLAC was helping, but actually its the Plex app that its great from the iPhone X via airplay, not the FLAC, as I am comparing the same Dream 1 track through Plex from FLAC and MP3 sources and they both have very nice sensible bass, compared to iTunes Match airplay (same test track), so well done Plex. macOS and iOS iTunes equaliser tried with "reduce bass" but not very effective (as you can see in the pic the track is properly "Matched". So I now have. 14 days to decide if the HomePod can work for me as well as the AirPods do.

The problem with equalizing is that as well as reducing the level of low frequency added by room placement it also reduces the signal that is really there, in simple terms if the signal is 10db down on the unwanted sound turning the level down will turn wanted and unwanted down by the same amount, the end result is the same as it was before, only quieter. Parametric equalizers can help by narrowing the bandwidth of the filter, but I do not expect to find one on a consumer device any day soon.

Regardless of whether it was accurately analyzing your room, it’s what it does with the resulting data that matters, and I feel that Apple has a hyped bass EQ curve that they are going for. Some have compared it to Beats headphones, though I haven’t tried those myself.

kcollett wrote:

To clarify, I think that chances are that the HomePod was accurately analyzing my living room and delivering more or less correct sound...

That may be so, but the examples I've experienced just didn't sound all that well balanced even after several setups or the odd repositioning, now I accept ones own preference comes into play as well as how the device interacts with it's environment - but it could also be as Csound1 has said, "I would say that while it is quite well designed, it is not well designed for real world use."

So the question is has the design resulted in the HomePod only giving it's best under certain conditions (which might/could get corrected with a software update) or has Apple aimed for a certain market, if it's the latter then I don't think it's for me.

I just finished listening to a RIVA Arena that I just got, and it’s a much more balanced or neutral speaker. Their app also allows you to adjust the bass and treble of the speaker’s output. It doesn’t have quite the volume or smart-assistant features of the HomePod, but it’s a keeper.

Speakers are funny things, they can sound great in one room while totally falling apart in another, that's why it's so important to review them in there intended location if possible. Saying that, if the speaker balance is just too extreme you can get an idea that it probably isn't going to be right for you, no matter where you listen.

Years ago I decided to upgrade my audio system speakers and basically listened to a dozen or so over a two month period in my dealers demo room (it was easier than carting them back and forth to my home!), from that I narrowed it down to just three, which he kindly delivered so they could be connected to my system for a more extended listen in my room, after which I then made the final decision and payed the man. The surprise was the "best" in the demo room was not in my room, it was another which finally swayed me, I was confused, but guess what, he wasn't, apparently it happens all the time, the room and it's furnishings can be pivotal in the the final choice.

Now Apple's HomePod is a little different in that it has the ability (technically) to adjust to it's environment while others don't, so it should sound great (or as near as possible to great) no matter what, but with all these varied reports something isn't quite right. If I had to guess, I still believe Apple may have tuned the performance a little towards the "bass" mainly to appeal to a certain audience, but in doing so could of made it too extreme in unfavourable environments and therefore ends up beyond it's auto tuning ability to compensate.

Those with more favourable rooms simply don't see this as an issue because one offsets the other, a sort of "the some of it's parts is greater..." so to speak, looks to me as though you may have fallen in to this category.

Csound1 wrote:

The relationship to vertical surfaces is complex for a speaker...

Agree, I've spent many an hour "fine tuning" the sound by moving speakers back and forth with respect to the rear wall, because as you rightly point out, we can't get rid of them in the real world - unlike in testing rooms, but never seen a house built like them yet (suppose some keen audiophile might do it one day though!).

But it really was only fine tuning, because the speaker was almost ideal to start with, the issue arises when you try and do same to correct a big variance, that in my view never works.

What I can't understand (from the reports anyhow) is why the HomePod doesn't adapt better to it's environment and consequently deliver a flatter frequency balance more often, surely with all the computer hardware it has it should be approaching a 99.9% success rate, unless that is, something in the real world is effecting it's performance for which it hasn't been designed to accommodate (or is it the sound Apple believes we want).