I Really Wanted the HomePod mini 2 to Work With My Mac
The new HomePod mini 2 is here. Apple made a few upgrades, but only one caught my attention: you can now use it as the default speaker for your Mac. I’ve always liked the HomePod mini’s design, so a pair on my desk instead of traditional desktop speakers sounded appealing. Unfortunately, while they sound fantastic, using them with the Mac isn’t nearly as good as I hoped.
Why I wanted this
For the last few years I’ve mostly used my Studio Display’s built-in speakers for simplicity. They still sound good, but they can’t compete with dedicated speakers like the Kanto Ora, which are a pretty basic design and add cables I’d rather avoid. Most desktop speakers are black or white plastic boxes. HomePods have a nice fabric exterior, a small footprint, and great colors that add warmth to my pretty utilitarian desk.
How they sound
Compared to my Studio Display XDR’s already-good speakers, the HomePods have a much bigger soundstage, better stereo separation, and noticeably more bass. They fill my office easily, and for music or videos I have no complaints.
The HomePod mini 2 gets an updated S10 chip and newer wireless connectivity, which enables the Mac speaker feature. There’s also Sound Globe, which matches the top light to the album art and pulses to the beat. Apple Intelligence is coming in a future update. Connected to your Mac, they still work as HomePods: Siri, smart home control, all of it.
Where it falls apart
Audio delay. In a YouTube video, the video starts immediately but the audio lags about a second, and when you pause, about a second of audio keeps playing. Once it’s playing, it keeps things reasonably in sync. You can still see a little lip-sync lag, but it’s OK for casual videos.
Video editing. The bigger issue. In Final Cut Pro, the audio is noticeably behind the video, and unlike finished videos or Netflix, there’s no compensation for the delay, which makes editing impossible. That’s disappointing, because Apple makes the Mac, Final Cut Pro, and the HomePod. I can edit with AirPods Pro or AirPods Max; they’re not perfect, but they’re usable. The HomePods aren’t.
Sync between the two speakers. A few times, while I’m listening to music or watching a video, the audio suddenly bounces back and forth between the speakers for a few seconds, like it’s jumping across my desk, before settling down. I’ve only had them a few days.
Staying connected. Even though Apple advertises them as default speakers for your Mac, the connection doesn’t survive a reboot. Every restart, I have to go back to Control Center and select the HomePods again. It feels more like temporarily connecting to wireless speakers than having dedicated desktop speakers.
What I wish Apple had done
I love how they look and sound, and I really wanted to keep these on my desk. Apple could have solved all of this with a USB-C connection to the Mac. It wouldn’t remove the extra cable, but it would give you nice speakers connected with no latency and no issues. And at $149 each, they’re not inexpensive, especially since you’ll probably want a stereo pair.
They’re great little speakers for doing HomePod things the HomePod way, but I wouldn’t spend any time connecting them to a Mac right now. For now, I’m going back to my Studio Display speakers, which is disappointing, because I really wanted something new and fun on my desk.
Links
In this video
- 00:00 HomePod mini 2 as Mac Speakers
- 00:26 Why I Wanted HomePods on My Desk
- 01:04 Sound Quality vs Studio Display
- 01:19 What’s New With HomePod mini 2
- 01:53 Audio Delay and Lip Sync Issues
- 02:30 Final Cut Pro Editing Problems
- 03:24 Stereo Pair Synchronization Issues
- 03:54 Mac Connection Problems
- 04:16 Why the HomePod mini 2 Disappointed Me
- 04:33 Could USB C Fix the Problems?
- 04:54 Final Verdict
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