Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

In less than a minute, music was playing. That's when, for the first time, Siri offered me a trial subscription to Apple Music, which spoiled the mood. Still, she had a point. If you're going to get a HomePod, you'll want an Apple Music subscription. It's Siri's home turf, where she lets her hair down.

Alternative sources and voice commands
I wrote that the HomePod was playing music within seconds —but where was it coming from? The music it was playing was stored on my iPhone, but the phone's Music app wasn't playing music, and the music kept playing when I closed the app. I hypothesized—and Apple later confirmed—that the music was coming from the cloud. This was music I'd bought from the iTunes Store over the years, or ripped from CDs into my iTunes library. It now lives in the cloud.

Billie Holiday was singing well, but too softly. I asked Siri to turn the volume up. She complied, but insufficiently. I asked her again to turn it up, but it was still too soft. How do you ask a computer to set a specific volume level?

"Hey Siri, turn the music up to 85%."

"That's very loud. Are you sure?"

Siri not only understands volume: she's even concerned about my hearing, and knows what's safe. I asked for 80%, then sat in my listening chair, some 15' from the HomePod. My SPL meter indicated 78dB, C-weighted.

Impressed, I kept up the conversation, but soon it was clear that, despite that inspired moment, Siri is no Einstein. It's important to keep things simple.

"Hey Siri, what song is this?"

"This is 'Easy Living,' by Billie Holiday."

"Hey Siri, play a different Billie Holiday song."

"Sure, here's some Billie Holiday."

"Easy Living" started over. Apparently, Siri doesn't understand different, or—as I learned when I rephrased my request—another.

I was feeling mellow. "Hey Siri, play something relaxing."

"I'm sorry, I can't play music for a particular mood."

This was before I'd set up my Apple Music subscription. I subscribed—$9.95/month—and asked again.

"Sure. Here's a personalized station of chill songs."

Up first was "Journey Home," a solo-piano piece composed and performed by Joseph Akins, followed by something equally dreadful. It seems I'm not a fan of chill.

"Hey Siri, play something more exciting."

"Okay, here's some energetic music, just for you."

Cue the Commodores' "Too Hot to Trot." Not my usual fare, but that's not a bad thing—I like surprises, as long as they're interesting, and I hadn't heard this song in years.

I asked for "Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with Gould and Stokowski."

"Sorry, I couldn't find the Emperor Concerto with Golden State Kowski."

I rephrased the request, this time including the musicians' first names. Siri recognized the recording, but said she couldn't find it in my library or Apple Music. It's there—she overlooked it. I requested it again, with one small change: Instead of "Beethoven's Emperor Concerto," I said, "Beethoven Emperor Concerto," which is how the album cover reads. This time Siri nailed it.

But when I wanted to play Schubert's song cycle Die schöne Müllerin, with tenor Werner Güra and pianist Jan Schultsz—another recording that's in my library—I couldn't get Siri to understand my request. My American Siri, attuned to my voice, can't understand when I speak bad German.

Another time, in an effort to make things as simple as possible, I said, "Siri, play something by the Nash Ensemble." Siri chose a movement from a violin sonata I didn't recognize. It's always good to encounter something new. I asked her what it was. It was, she said, a movement from "Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in Ah Major." But who's it by? Who's the composer? Siri read me the Wikipedia definition of composer. "No, Siri, who composed this music?" She understood the question but couldn't identify the composer.

Sometimes it's easier to select music from a list. You can do that with the HomePod and Apple Music—just go to the Control Center on your iOS device and choose the HomePod for the output. By default, the Music app will act as a remote control and the music will continue to play directly from the cloud, whether from Apple Music or from your library of ripped CDs and iTunes purchases. But what about other services?

"Hey Siri, play some music from Tidal." Tidal, as most readers know, is a smaller streaming service that competes with Apple Music, and its Tidal HiFi service is distinctive for offering music at CD resolution, plus some 10,000 MQA-encoded tracks. I didn't actually expect this to work, and it didn't. The volume dipped momentarily, as if Siri were listening hard, but she made no reply. The music kept playing.

"Hey Siri, play Spotify."

No response. Not even a flicker.

"Hey Siri, what's Spotify?"

Siri read the summary from Wikipedia's Spotify entry.