Bass did not become boomy in such conditions, but the “fake bass” effect and bass distortion became more and more intrusive at higher volumes. The 2nd Gen HomePod performed relatively well in reverberant room acoustics, thanks to its adaptive equalization. Upper bass was slightly underwhelming as well, lacking information in some use cases, for example when watching movies.

Particularly demanding content could make the bass sound “fake,” but in most use cases it did not sound boomy. This might be down to the lack of a dedicated midrange speaker.īass was strong, with deep low-end extension. Our measurements showed a lack of information between 500Hz and 1500Hz, but resonance was also noticeable in the upper midrange. Midrange could be described as lackluster, sounding hollow. These perceptual observations were confirmed by objective measurements, which showed resonances and notches. Treble could sound bright with the right content, but it never sounded rich in our tests. When watching movies or listening to podcasts, the aggressive treble translated into sibilance and harshness. Treble was especially prominent at nominal volume, and, due to a lot of resonance, sounded slightly aggressive and almost piercing in most use cases, especially with musical content. While bass and treble were rendered strongly, there was a very noticeable lack of midrange. The HomePod (2nd Gen) delivered a timbre performance that was close to the first-generation model.

Dxo lab 4 review