Muso QB for £450 or Apple HomePod for £300?

I'm biased as I have a Qb. I'd never own anything by Apple, I disliked the Apple II and everything since ????

Naim make HiFi and Apple don't. Simples.

You asking a rethorical question......, but definitely the Qb as it outshines in musical qualities....

QB without hesitation 

Qb for sure 

If you’re an Apple user and play your music using iTunes and/or Apple Music, you may find the HomePod a better functional match. Otherwise, it has to be the QB. Another consideration is your room. In a small room where the only available location is close to a wall, some find the Muso sound a bit overpowering. 

Using 2 homepods already in the kitchen & living room and was planning on a couple more the for the bedroom & office which would cover synced background music & talk radio all over the house using AirPlay 2. 

Now that’s a feature on the Muso and at this low price it just got my interest up. Guess it’s whether I need the extra SQ over the HomePods for the use they’re getting. 

I know it’s not a smart speaker but already having 2 & possibly a 3rd, then that’s covered anyway. Q is, which room to to the QB in? Probably not the living room - it might show up the main rig! 

First world problem right here... 

No experience with the Apple HP. I have 2 Qbs, one at home for casual listening in the kitchen and garden and one in the office.  I really like it and consider it much better than a Bose device we had.  In the office I had to share the Qb because everybody like it, and everybody consider it better than every piece of kit the had to replay music in the office.

MusoQB - small box big sound.

There is one dealer doing Qb for £439!

£439. Thats a really good price. I wonder if an updated version of the QB is on the horizon?

I'm thinking of getting a QB for the kitchen. Also looking to play the TV in the kitchen through it via the optical. I assume this works ok?

Sounds like the QB is the one to go for at these Black Friday deal prices. 

Who's the dealer doing it for £439?

Dougie Danger posted:

£439. Thats a really good price. I wonder if an updated version of the QB is on the horizon?

Think the discount applies to both products so doubt if Naim are replacing them both at the same. So long as the current QB supports AirPlay 2, then that’s fine for me. Just want to be able to control the devices from the iPhone. 

I'm an Apple fan for their computers and phones but I wouldn't touch the HomePod with a pole. It's completely tied into Apple Music/iTunes. It's tightly coupled to Apple's way of doing streaming music and no one else's. Meh.

rackkit posted:

Sounds like the QB is the one to go for at these Black Friday deal prices. 

 

Who's the dealer doing it for £439?

 

 

I don't want to break forum rules but lets just say that it is in the Kent area...

RaceTripper posted:

I'm an Apple fan for their computers and phones but I wouldn't touch the HomePod with a pole. It's completely tied into Apple Music/iTunes. It's tightly coupled to Apple's way of doing streaming music and no one else's. Meh.

I don’t subscribe to any music streaming service, just use the the phone to stream BBC 5Live or 6 Music to the speakers. The Apple Watch comes in handy for controlling the volume for the speakers too. I know Apple lock you in to there streaming system direct from the speaker but you can still stream Spotify from your phone or tablet to them. 

Auditioned Sonos against a QB for my 13 year old. Only 1 winner. QB all the way. I’m trying to resist getting a second one on this sale but I may be caving.

Another vote for the Qb for sound quality, although I actually also own a couple of HomePods, which are great for what they are.  Today I was playing music throughout the entire house using AIRPLAY 2 (Through Uniti Star, Qb’s and HomePods) which was an interesting experience. 

RaceTripper posted:

I'm an Apple fan for their computers and phones but I wouldn't touch the HomePod with a pole. It's completely tied into Apple Music/iTunes. It's tightly coupled to Apple's way of doing streaming music and no one else's. Meh.

Same here, big Apple fan, but HomePod has never appealed to me - Siri is dire, and the tight integration with Apple Music s a real turn off, it cannot AFAIK play content from a DLNA/UpNp server, has no auxillary input or even an output.

Fancy design but underwhelming feature wise.

I'd only be tempted to get a pair to run in stereo with a desktop, but as this feature was unavailable on release I passed.

If you do fancy a Home Pod Apple is selling for £319 with a £40 Apple Store voucher.  For once they have some ok UK offers for Macs for Black Friday (up to £160 store voucher which could be handy), if there was an offer on a new Mac Mini I'd be tempted, but alas no, hardly surprising.

Mike Hughes posted:

Auditioned Sonos against a QB for my 13 year old. Only 1 winner. QB all the way. I’m trying to resist getting a second one on this sale but I may be caving.

---

 

Interesting, as I think those of us who love music/hi-fi could not endure buying our kids something we'd intensely dislike sonically if we could afford a decent option which should serve well for many years, cheap/good value doesn't really work for audio.

I have some reasonably good old 30 pin iPod docks from Philips and B&W which I'm trying to repurpose for the kids rooms with Bluetooth adapters or Echo Dots, Naim was not in the game when I got these but the Muso range has always been tempting.

Alley Cat posted:

RaceTripper posted:

I'm an Apple fan for their computers and phones but I wouldn't touch the HomePod with a pole. It's completely tied into Apple Music/iTunes. It's tightly coupled to Apple's way of doing streaming music and no one else's. Meh.

Same here, big Apple fan, but HomePod has never appealed to me - Siri is dire, and the tight integration with Apple Music s a real turn off, it cannot AFAIK play content from a DLNA/UpNp server, has no auxillary input or even an output.

Fancy design but underwhelming feature wise.

I'd only be tempted to get a pair to run in stereo with a desktop, but as this feature was unavailable on release I passed.

I contemplated buying a HomePod for my bedroom TV a while back, but with no input for audio it seems pointless. While it works with my AppleTV box and MacBook Pro, it would be rendered useless for all other sources (like my satellite box).

My other issue with Apple is they tend to abandon products like these after a while, prior to the useful life of the hardware. I don't worry about that with my iPhone since that's their bread and butter, nor with my MacBook Pro since that's an important long term product that gets regular updates (I have the brand new one and use it for work).

Alley Cat posted:

If you do fancy a Home Pod Apple is selling for £319 with a £40 Apple Store voucher.  For once they have some ok UK offers for Macs for Black Friday (up to £160 store voucher which could be handy), if there was an offer on a new Mac Mini I'd be tempted, but alas no, hardly surprising.

I was able to save almost £100 on a new Mac Mini  (through my company’s “Apple Employee purchase Program”) which replaced a maxed-out late 2012 model as our primary PC. Absolutely fabulous machine. 

muso being discounted must mean they are not selling now or theres mark 2 on the way

Not necessarily, ‘make it in China, stack it high and sell it cheap’ is a widely used sales tactic these days. A new version would be nice though, and I imagine it’s only a matter of time.