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

I can appreciate the lock in by apple would be a turn off, but readersshould be wary of those claiming the qb sounds better having not heard the homepod. The tech and research in the homepod I am willing to bet was many many times more than the qb, and for its size is very impressive indeed.

Dougie Danger posted:

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?

I'm using a QB with my TV via the optical in my small livingroom/open consept kitchen (6m x 6m). It does the job easily. I rarely have to raise a volume above 50%. When i watch movies via ps4 40% volume is mostly more than enough.

I tested QB's power ability in the party once in my friend's house. The room was at least double of mine. QB kept going even at 90% volume without any noticeable distortion in sound. Our ears were first to give up.

ChrisSU posted:

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. 

What’s wrong with the current version? 

Happy with mine. ????

Timmo1341 posted:

ChrisSU posted:

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. 

What’s wrong with the current version? 

In common with the other old generation Naim streamers, it has weak WiFi performance (I’d be surprised if the Homepod WiFi didn’t perform more reliably), a very small buffer that can cause problems with web streaming, and a limited range of functionality compared to the new Naim streamers (but not compared to the HomePod). 

I certainly do not mean to imply that the QB, or any of the old Naim streamers, are poor, far from it, just that there are features of the new Naim streaming platform that would be nice to have. 

GregWPGibbs posted:

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. 

Thanks I often get a bit of corporate discount, will be interesting to see what's on offer.

Did you get a standard model, I'm put off my 8GB of RAM, and although we can theoretically upgrade it's a pain compared to 2012 and older models.  My 2012 Mini flies with an external SSD so I suspect the new ones are even better and the SSD may make the RAM less important for many users.

Found a deal on a HomePod for £280. Only available in White now at this price but it's for the Bedroom & the shade that fits anyway so it's ideal.  

Been quite impressed with the audio quality though I've not compared it to the Muso, so it'll be more than fine for it's intended use.

If only I could find a Grey one at the same price - oh well...

Dougie Danger posted:

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?

Do it Dougie!

Qb for sure. Speaking as a died in the wool Apple and Naim afficionado! (1987 and 1992 respectively).

perttu posted:

Dougie Danger posted:

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?

I'm using a QB with my TV via the optical in my small livingroom/open consept kitchen (6m x 6m). It does the job easily. I rarely have to raise a volume above 50%. When i watch movies via ps4 40% volume is mostly more than enough.

I tested QB's power ability in the party once in my friend's house. The room was at least double of mine. QB kept going even at 90% volume without any noticeable distortion in sound. Our ears were first to give up.

Nice one. Thanks for the info. 

rackkit posted:

Both via some currrent Black Friday deals. No idea how better the Naim is v the Apple. What would the forum go for? 

I have 2 QBs as part of my kit. For the price, SQ is fantastic, very flexible/easy to use/move. Wife loves them. But then I am biased - have had the Naim “tattoo” for over 20 years ????

Well, I hope you lot have got your skates on, as the Qb is now £599. 

Indeed, i'm well chuffed.

Was in a shop today with Mrs Willy getting headphones for our daughters Christmas present. Pointed to the QB and said that isI considered getting one for the kitchen as it would sound better than the current wee transistor radio and she could get a red cover for it. She didn't say no.....

Btw price label on it was £439.

Willy.

Pure chance but had the chance to compare our QB to a HomePod today. Former was a comfortable winner on every front. The Apple device is competing in a different market segment. The comparison simply wasn’t fair.