Blind Listening Test Finds Sonos One Outperforms The HomePod

So far based on current reviews, many have found that the HomePod speakers from Apple sound pretty good and could possibly be the best in the market right now, at least as far as smart speakers are concerned. However a recent report from Consumer Reports is suggesting otherwise, but are they alone in their opinion?

That’s what Yahoo’s David Pogue wanted to find out and he conducted a blind listening test of the HomePod, the Google Home Max, the Amazon Echo Plus, and the Sonos One, and it seems that the Sonos One managed to walk away the winner. This is based on the feedback from five participants in his test (which we guess isn’t a lot) in which two chose the Google Home Max as being the best, while the remaining three chose the Sonos One.

This is actually rather interesting, especially when you consider the fact that even the former CEO of Sonos admitted that the HomePods do sound better. According to Pogue, he was prompted to do this test after he was invited to a private listening session prior to being given a review unit of the HomePod.

He found that the test wasn’t exactly fair as each speaker had their audio transmitted differently, with the HomePod using AirPlay, the Amazon Echo using Bluetooth, an Ethernet connection for the Sonos, and the input miniplug for the Google Home Max. Since different transmission protocols can affect audio quality, this wasn’t a 100% fair comparison.

That being said at the end of the day, it boils down to user preference and also how much you are willing to spend. At $350 the HomePod is not the cheapest smart speaker and you would have to be pretty invested in Apple’s ecosystem to truly take advantage of it, but if you are, then perhaps consider taking it for a spin via an Apple retail store first.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Audio, Gadgets
Tags: Amazon, echo, google home, HomePod, sonos, Speakers