There is rapid development currently happening in smart speakers and two of the larger players are Sonos with their Sonos One speaker and Apple with their HomePod. Both are incredible speakers, but for different reasons and it can be confusing to determine which is best for you. The short and sweet? Sonos One if you’re on a tighter budget and/or would like the most flexibility in what the smart speaker can learn to do. Apple HomePod if you are deep into the Apple ecosystem (which doesn’t mean an Apple Music subscription, as I’ll explain later) and are looking for the absolute best in sound quality in a relatively small package.
I have had both speakers in my smart home setup for many months now and what I’d like to do is provide some real world insight into what I like, what I don’t like, and advise based on intention which speaker to go with.
First and foremost, what are these speakers…
The Sonos One is the follow up speaker to the popular Sonos Play 1. The major difference between the two is that the Sonos One is “smart”. What this means is it comes with the ability to add Alexa to the speaker so that you can communicate with the Amazon digital assistant directly through the speaker. The Sonos One also is Apple Airplay 2 compatible so you can stream just about any audio directly to it from your iPhone, iPad, AppleTV and/or Mac. These two differences alone make it an incredible upgrade to what was an already great speaker. In my opinion, this is their flagship product and the one most users will be interested in when looking at creating a wireless whole house audio system. Sonos has many years of wireless audio experience and while their catalog of products stretches far and wide, for this discussion, I’m only going to refer to the Sonos One as it is clearly the closest competitor in their lineup to the Apple HomePod.
The HomePod is Apples first entry into the smart speaker market. When Apple announced it, their intention was clearly driven first and foremost by music. They wanted to create an incredible sounding speaker that, via Siri, worked directly with Apple Music helping to promote their own music streaming service. Many, many years of research went into creating this speaker from a hardware stand point and it is clear to me they wanted to nail the hardware first and worry about the software later. The question is, did they nail the hardware? The short answer is yes, but more to follow. With Siri built in, like the Sonos One with Alexa, it also provides a digital assistant for the various things, beyond music, that you can ask a digital assistant to do.
What do I like?
Let’s start with the Sonos One. For the price (currently $100 cheaper than the Apple HomePod) there is a lot to like about this smart speaker. With the ability to add Alexa, there is far more flexibility and functionality from the “built in” digital assistant than Siri. Via the Amazon Alexa app, you have a HUGE library of “skills” that can be installed extending the usefulness on the smart side of things. This speaker can tap into a growing list of music services like Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora and even Apple’s own Apple Music just to name a few. Have smart devices such as lighting, security or the like? No problem, there is a skill out there to support it. What is a “skill” you ask? Think of these like apps. There is a “store” of sorts to explore them and once installed, will expand the functionality of what Alexa can do. Amazon has worked hard to build partnerships with a variety of manufactures out there and this alone makes Alexa WAY more functional than Siri.
The sound quality is another positive for this little smart speaker. For its size, it will more than suffice to fulfill a small to medium size room with sound. Have a larger room? Well you can pair two together, in stereo, to really provide the largest of rooms with plenty of audio punch. If you are a bit of an audiophile, you may not sit down and enjoy a focus session of music listening with these speakers, but I don’t think that is their intention. The goal here is to provide quality sound, but mainly in the background and I feel on this level, they are really good.
The Sonos app, while not unique to the Sonos One (as it works with all their speakers and amps) is worth mentioning as a positive. It’s an easy to use app for managing your various Sonos devices. Why is this important? Because at some point you’ll need to configure your speaker or even control its music from an app. Voice assistants are great, but sometimes it is just easier to work from your phone. The app makes it very easy to add music services that the speaker can tap into, create groups of speakers, adjust volume in different rooms, select music to play and a whole list of other tasks. The initial setup of a Sonos speaker requires the app and it’s drop dead simple to not only get the speaker on your wifi network and setup for use, but to also tune the speaker for the best sound using a process they call “Trueplay Tuning”.
Now, let’s move onto the HomePod. By far the best part about this speaker is the sound quality and I’m confident in saying, it is a notch (or two) above the very good Sonos One. I’ve spent time listening to both speakers in various environments and consistently the HomePod has the superior sound. What Apple managed to get out of such a small package is nothing short of remarkable. Now, don’t get carried away here. Nobody is saying this single speaker is ready to replace a high quality 3.1, 5.1 or 7.1 system. You aren’t going to get the bass out of one of these speakers that you’d get out of a subwoofer paired with quality bookshelf speakers. But understand, quality doesn’t mean loud. You don’t have to be able to “feel” the bass in order to have quality sound. The technology Apple put into the speaker, both from a hardware stand point (6 tweeters, 1 high movement woofer and 7 mics) and a software stand point (consistently listening to itself, always adjusting the sound quality based on room shape, size, acoustics, etc) is truly astonishing and it really shows the more you listen to the speaker. It is also worth mentioning that you can pair two HomePods together just like you can with Sonos One speakers and when you do that, not only does the volume go up, but so does the overall sound quality experience.
Siri is a nice assistant, especially within the Apple world. To fire up music from Apple Music is a breeze and there are a variety of ways to ask. Controlling smart home devices (lights, thermostats, etc) that are HomeKit compatible is very easy and reliable. It’s the same Siri many have used enough on their iPhone to know what it is good at, and, what it is not so good at. I’d say in the home, it isn’t much different.
Ok, time for the bad
For the Sonos One speaker, the largest negative I can come up with is the sound quality. Wait, what? You just said it was really good! It is good, but it’s not great. It isn’t on the same level as the Apple HomePod. It’s better than an Amazon product like the echo and certainly an echo dot, but it’s just not quite in the same league as the HomePod. While it may be far superior in sound to many other speakers of its size, this blog is about how it compares to the HomePod and with sound quality, I’m sorry to say it falls short of the HomePod. It’s not a night and day difference, but it’s enough of a difference that if sound quality is at or near the top of your list of importance, the HomePod wins here.
For the HomePod, it really comes down to Siri and Apple’s closed system. While it’s not too hard to stream from your favorite music service using your iPhone, iPad, AppleTV or Mac to a HomePod (or a group of HomePods), it really would be great to offload this task directly to the HomePod itself. Apple Music is a good music service, but I personally like to use several different services. I sometimes dive into Pandora, I like some playlists on Spotify, I even dabble some in a service called Slacker Radio. All have their positives (and negatives) and I’d just like to be able to access them all directly via Siri on the HomePod. Now a resolution to this glaring negative of the HomePod could be just around the corner. It is not a stretch to think Apple will release, at some point (possibly this year), an App Store of sorts for the HomePod. When you consider how many years they spent developing the HomePod (6+ years), why wouldn’t they? Apple has never been a company that is the first to any area of technology. They weren’t the first to create an MP3 player. They weren’t the first to create a smart phone. But, when they finally did, they undeniably did it better than anyone else. People often forget that the iPhone didn’t have an app store to start. It wasn’t until some 3 years later that we got an App Store and the rest, as they say, is history. I’d like to see an App Store for the HomePod well before it’s 3rd birthday, but patience is key here because I do think if they can solve the negative that is their current closed environment through a quality app store, they will easily become the smart speaker of choice. The great thing is, as I mentioned in the positive part of the HomePod, Apple absolutely nailed it with the hardware and it has enough juice built in to handle a future onboard software update that would support apps.
Alright, that’s all great, which one should I get?
Like most of the time in life, there’s not an easy answer to the question of which one is best because, everyone’s needs are different. So as a consultant, I unfortunately can’t simply recommend one over the other without considering the intended uses and budget.
If you already have some Sonos equipment, and you want more flexibility in not just what music services the speaker itself can tap into, but in general how much the “smartness” of the speaker can be improved, it’s an easy choice, go with the Sonos One. It’ll fit in seamlessly with your existing Sonos equipment while expanding functionality at the same time. If you want good sound, but aren’t looking for really great sound, Sonos One it is. The sound quality is at a sweet spot where it is “good enough” for most people. Finally, if your budget is a little tight, the Sonos One certainly gives you more for less, at least when compared with the Apple HomePod. It currently is priced at $199 which is 100 bucks cheaper than the Apple HomePod (and the HomePod just had a price drop). The math here is simple, if you are starting from scratch and want to fill several rooms with sound, you’ll equip an extra room or two going with Sonos over Apple.
Now…
If sound quality is at or near the top of your list of importance, and you have the patience to wait for what seems like the inevitable HomePod App Store, then the HomePod is a fantastic option. Many have also suggested that if you are an Apple Music user, then the HomePod should be your speaker of choice but I don’t necessarily agree with that requirement. The reality is you can stream from any music service via an iPhone, iPad, AppleTV or Mac so the real requirement here is that if you are not an Apple Music subscriber, you mustn’t mind navigating your iOS device apps for music. Yes, if you want to access your music via voice and you are not an Apple Music user, then (right now) you’d be better off with a Sonos speaker, but I don’t think it’s fair to completely write off the Apple HomePod as a viable option simply based on not being an Apple Music subscriber.
Well there you have it. Hopefully, if you made it this far in the post, you’ve learned a thing or two that will help you make the decision that is best for you. If not, don’t hesitate to shoot me an email. I’m always happy to answer any questions that could be specific to your needs to help in picking the best option for you now, and for the future.