Apple have launched their entry into the voice assistant and multi room music into the ring with the Apple Homepod.

The new Homepod is a Siri enabled speaker and microphone that works in a similar way to the Echo and Home devices from Amazon and Google but also includes a high specification speaker system.  This could be used as an alternative to Sonos Play range of wireless hifi speakers.

The Apple homepod page https://www.apple.com/homepod/ waxes lyrical extensively about the sound quality and audio technologies in use for the HomePod, it's quite clear that they are taking aim at the whole home / multi room audio market.

Audio Technology

• High-excursion woofer with custom amplifier
• Array of seven horn-loaded tweeters, each with its own custom amplifier
• Six-microphone array for far-field Siri and room sensing
• Internal low-frequency calibration microphone for automatic bass correction
• Direct and ambient audio beamforming
• Transparent studio-level dynamic processing

It's an exciting development and we look forward to the implementation, the Homepod is available from December - We'd like to see what sources it will allow for music - there are rumours that it will be Apple Music only, that would be a shame.