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The Backwoods Release Notes
Server Status Update: 12:54 PM. Servers are back online. 11AM - Servers are down for maintenance --- thump, thump, thump Bigfoot is coming! Put on your Power Armor and grab your favorite weapon. We have a 4-Star Legendary Creature to take down! The Backwoods update arrives today, and it brings more rewards to all Vault Dwellers across the wasteland. Enjoy some great quality-of-life improvements to Public Events and Activities (formerly known as events), your Pip-Boy, and your Armor! Read on below for the latest on today’s changes. Update Highlights Bigfoot Has Arrived – The legendary Bigfoot has appeared and will be invading your Public Events. This 4-Star Legendary creature has a chance to drop a new, exclusive 4-Star mod, Thrillseeker. Uninvited Guests – Bigfoot isn’t alone with its desire to ruin your fun. Other special creatures such as a more challenging Deathclaw Matriarch, Wendigo Colossus, and more have the chance to show up and crash your party. Activities and Public Event Balancing – Many Activities (formerly “Events”) and Public Events have received updates to improve their rewards and event flow to keep you playing and not waiting around. Pip-Boy Improvements – Your Pip-Boy is now faster, smoother, and has some new menus to help you get to what you’re looking for faster than before. Armor Balancing – Reduced armor weight (in and out of stash) and more resistances baked into the armor itself to give you more choices on how you protect yourself. Vanity Lights - New Photo Mode feature. Take photos during the night or in dark interiors without worrying about how to make your character shine! Season 24: Rip Daring and the Cryptids From Beyond The Cosmos – Rip Daring sets off on another adventure this time facing off against extraterrestrial creatures! We hope you’re ready for another Rip Daring adventure! Update Version 1.7.23.30 & Sizes PC (Steam): 3.9 GB PC (Microsoft Store): 23.2 GB Xbox: 24.8 GB PlayStation: 22.4 GB The Arrival of Bigfoot Bigfoot has emerged from hiding in the Appalachian wasteland! Armed with a giant tree branch to slap you around and bloodsucking ticks to throw, Bigfoot has a chance to appear at the end of a select group of Public Events. Which ones? You’ll have to figure that out because taking this creature down gives you a chance at earning a 4-Star Legendary Item with the new 4-Star mod, “Thrillseeker” on it. To celebrate its arrival, we’re holding a little event for this larger-than-life creature. We’re calling it “Bigfoot’s Bash”! During the first full week of the update, Bigfoot and the Public Events that spawn it will have an extremely high chance of appearing. After which, it’ll return to being its normal camera-shy self. We hope you’re ready to take on this legendary cryptid! Do note, if it takes you too long to bring this creature down it will return to the wild! So, act fast when you see it appear. Uninvited Guests Bigfoot isn’t the only surprise that could be waiting for you at the end of a Public Event. The Wendigo Colossus or a Deathclaw Matriarch can appear at the end of events like “Guided Meditation” and “Distinguished Guests”. They are not the only two that can crash your party though. Make sure to participate in all the Public Events to see who else will show up to give you more rewards. Season 24 – Rip Daring and the Cryptids From Beyond the Cosmos Rip Daring is back for another adventure and this time he’s hunting extraterrestrial creatures. Earn new seasonal rewards such a Pip-Boy display, Bigfoot Stien Display, and an Alien Weather Machine!? Events Events have been renamed to Activities We have rebranded the variety of smaller “Event” quests as “Activities” to better represent what we felt they truly are. A quick activity to complete with a couple of friends or on your own. Public Events will retain their name. Activities will now be shown within the "Featured Activity" list when opening the map alongside Daily Ops and Public Events, making them much easier to find and join. Public Events have been given their own unique icon. We have adjusted the min/max levels of enemies that spawn during all Activities and Public Events to provide more of a challenge for higher level players, while still staying balanced for lower. Additionally, the difficulty labels have been removed. How to Start an Activity Activities will now operate on a time-based rotation which means several activities, such as Collision Course, can no longer be started by approaching the area it takes place in. There are some exceptions to this rule which we’ll detail below. How does this work? Approximately every 10 minutes, and depending on available activities being completed, players can expect a new Activity to become available, chosen randomly. Activities will not repeat until they have all been completed. Enclave Activities, which previously required players to progress through the Main Quest to participate in, are now available to all players through this new system. (A Real Blast, Bots on Parade, Dropped Connection) Worry not, members, as you can expect to receive…additional rewards for your commitment. Powering Up will still need to be activated by approaching any of the 3 broken down Power Plants, which become available on a fresh server or 8 hours after the last repair was completed. Riding Shotgun will also be excluded from the time-based rotation pool. You can repeat this activity every 20 minutes upon speaking to Vinny. Hordes will appear as an Activity. They won’t interfere with the new Activity rotation noted above. Reward Pools Update All Activities and Public Events have received updated base reward pools. Any unique reward for an Activity or Public Event remains in place. We have also removed items we felt bloated the play experience and just added weight to your inventory such as ammo/scrap/chem drops from the event rewards. These are things we feel should be found while playing and killing enemies rather than just dumped into your backpack without you choosing to get them. Activities will now reward 75 Caps, a chance at a Legendary Item, 1 regional item schematic or mod, 3-5 Legendary Scrip, and Experience based on player level. Public Events will now reward 150 Caps, 2 Legendary Items, 3-5 Legendary Modules, 3 Treasury Notes, 1-3 Improved Bait (if Fishing Main Quest is complete), 1 U-Mine-It map (if you have none), and Experience based on player level. A variety of Player Titles have been added for Public Events, and a variety of C.A.M.P. Titles have been added for Activities. World Loot Updates We’re taking this opportunity to make a pass at updating various World Loot containers too. The contents of lockboxes found throughout the world have had their loot improved. Chance to receive a legendary item, depending on lock difficulty. U-Mine-It Maps can now be found. Contextual Season Items: depending on active challenges, players will now have a chance to find a related item (such as soap) to help progress their daily/weekly goals. U-Mine-It Maps will now have improved loot depending on the level of the map used to activate the Lucky Strike quest. Caps rewards have been adjusted for each tier of map used (75 -> 150 -> 225). Balancing Pass on Activities and Public Events Jail Break and Dogwood Die Off, have been disabled. These two events were going to take much more time and effort to bring up to the quality we would like so we have made the decision to disable them for now. Always Vigilant Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn. Overall timer has been reduced to 3 minutes. Enemies should now spawn more frequently. Increased Roverbot’s health pool. AWOL Armaments Players can now begin the activate the recall beacon immediately after talking to Sergeant Gutsy We've increased the variety of robots that will appear during the waves Sentry Bot will now be a guaranteed Legendary enemy Back on the Beat Additional loot has been added to the saferooms Enemy waves have been adjusted Steelheart's movement speed has been increased, and health decreased Battle Bot Allowed time between the card swipes has been increased from 4 seconds to 10 Sentry Bot will now spawn as a Legendary Beasts of Burden Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn The Ogua is now always a 3-star legendary enemy, and its overall strength has been increased Bots on Parade Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn Amount of time required for the repair sequence has been reduced Breach and Clear The locked Hornwright Boxes now have a chance to drop a legendary item, and a U-Mine-It Map Allowed time to start the activity has been reduced from 60 minutes to 5 minutes Reduced the collection timer from 45 seconds to 30 seconds Campfire Tales Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn Players can now receive Tadpole badges if they are not a Possum Scout, or Possum badges if they are. Ever upwards, scouts! Increased the strength of the Flatwoods Monster Census Violence Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn The Census Taker can no longer be crippled by enemies Increased the Census Taker's movement speed and health Reduced the length of the activity from 5 minutes to 4 minutes Collision Course Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn Reduced the overall time of this activity by 2.5 minutes Dangerous Pastimes Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn Balance adjustments for the enemies Death Blossoms Reduced the overall duration and wait times Increased the health of the Corpse Flowers Mole Rats have been replaced by Cultists Health Bars have been added to display status of each flower Distinguished Guests Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn. Increased Health pools of the Wait Staff. The place settings and center pieces now have a glowing VFX, making them easier to spot. Quest targets for the Robot Waitstaff have been adjusted. Dropped Connection New rewards can now appear in the final cache drop. Increased odds of Legendary creatures appearing. Eviction Notice Slightly reduced the number of Legendary Enemies that can spawn. Dev Note: Eviction Notice has always been a lucrative event. Today’s changes bring it closer in line with other events, but players should still expect for the event to provide more Legendary Enemies than other events. Quest markers have been added to the Meat Bags Balance adjustments for the enemies Feed the People Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn Fertile Soil Farmhand Supervisors are now all guaranteed Legendary Enemies Fly Swatter Increased the strength of the Vertibot Free Range Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn The Brahmin will no longer attempt to attack Sheepsquatch will now always be a Legendary Enemy, and has had its strength increased Heart of the Swamp Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn Adjusted the difficulty of the Grafton Monster Irrational Fear Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn Quest trackers have been added to the enemies It's a Trap Scorchbeast will now always spawn as a 3-Star Legendary Enemy. Leader of the Pack No longer triggers a Horde upon completion. Instead, a new objective to hunt the Alpha Wolf has been added to this Activity after defeating the pack leaders. Line in the Sand Adjusted spawn timers, allowing Enemies to spawn more often Enemies should no longer spawn outside of the Event Radius Pathing for the Scorched has been improved Lode Baring Adjusted the rewards available from the kiosk Manhunt Grafton Dam has been adjusted to make this feel more like an infiltration Mad Dog Malone's health and damage have been increased Mad Dog Malone's guards will now spawn as Legendary Monster Mash Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn. Adjusted the rewards available in the Candy Machine. Fixed an issue causing the Monster Mask appearance to be stuck on a character. Moonshine Jamboree Ghouls have been replaced with Floaters. Reduced total time of different stages. Most Wanted Reduced the number of buckaroos needed to 500 If defeated, the Golden Varmint will now provide 500 caps and a random legendary item Nuka Point payout has been increased to 7,500 Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn One Violent Night Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn. The Nightstalker is now a guaranteed 3-Star Legendary enemy. Increased the strength of the Night Stalker. Path to Enlightenment Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn Cultists have been added to the attack waves Reduced the required amount of bioluminescent fluid from 50 to 30 Patrol Duty More enemies are now present during the defense stage The Penitentiary Guard can no longer be crippled by enemies Increased the Penitentiary Guard's movement speed and health Project Beanstalk Reduced the overall duration Increased the movement speed of Pharmabot JD-7E Pharmabot JD-7E can no longer be crippled Project Paradise Enemy waves have been adjusted for variety Reduced the difficulty of the ambient creatures in Arktos Pharma Reduced the required amount of collectables in each habitat to level the friendly creatures Riding Shotgun More loot has been added along the path of this event Brahmin health has been balanced Safe and Sound Increased the strength of the Blue Devil Spin the Wheel Additional Legendary Enemies can spawn Increased the health of the statues Button timer has been adjusted from 30 seconds to 45 seconds Nuka Point payout has been increased to 7,500 Surface to Air Repairing the turret now only costs 1 steel, 1 gear, 1 oil, and 1 circuitry Reduced overall time to 3 minutes Increased amount of enemies Tea Time Additional Legendary Enemies can now spawn Reduced overall time Test Your Metal If defeated, the Golden Eyebot will now provide 500 caps and a random legendary item Reduced the start timer of the event to 5 minutes Reduced the overall time Tunnel of Love Additional Legendary Enemies can now spawn Nuka Point payout has been increased to 7,500 Uranium Fever Molerats have been added to the enemy waves Reduced the health of the Extractors Pip-Boy Performance Update Substantial Pip-Boy improvements are coming along with this update too. Smother navigation, improved responsiveness and more quality-of-life improvements should make navigating your Pip-Boy a better experience. Performance Upgrades Smoother Navigation: Menus load up to 52% faster, and inventory actions are 70% quicker. Memory Efficiency: Up to 88% less memory usage, reducing lag and improving overall responsiveness. UI and Quality of Life improvements Clearer Tabs: Perks now have their own tab, separate from Effects, for easier management. Recipe Book: Find Recipes and Plans faster with the new Recipe Book in the Notes tab. Scrollable Text Boxes: No more shrinking text. Large Text boxes are able to be scrolled. Dedicated Leads Tab: Organize quest-related info more clearly with a separate tab for leads. Seasons Visibility Improvements Season Flag Notification A new blue exclamation mark flag appears to alert players about new seasons content they can unlock. Disappears once the player enters the Seasons menu, it will reappear when new items are available. Score Widget Enhancements Updates to the score widget in the top corner of the screen now includes ticket balance, SCORE Progression, and a button to directly access the Seasons menu. Includes reward image previews on unclaimed rewards. Direct Navigation & UI Updates Dedicated button mappings (V on keyboard, Menu Button on PlayStation and Xbox) for quick access to Seasons. Updated flyouts for significant events (Challenge Completed, Ranking up, and Unlocking new Page). Added ticket balance display to the paper map for better awareness Reward Visibility Improvements Rotating reward previews integrated into the widget. Flyouts now highlight new page unlocks and major milestones without overwhelming players. Vanity Lights for Photo Mode Vanity Light is an additional feature to Photo Mode for lighting your characters. Select lighting styles and change their intensity in the Player tab to enhance your images and allow for pictures to be taken easily during nighttime hours or in interiors. Steps to Access Vanity Lights: Open Photo Mode Select the Player tab Choose from 5 light templates Adjust the Intensity Slider for each Take your picture! Everyone is receiving one Vanity Light to use immediately. Armor Update Our intentions with these armor changes are to make different armors and under armors feel like they are viable options in a variety of situations you might find yourself in. We don’t want players to feel like there is only once “correct” choice when it comes to your equipment. As you read through the notes below, please keep in mind our goals with this update: Provide a wider range of viable armor choices based on your build and what you’re fighting. Add more flexibility with how you decide to modify your armor to cover your needs. Allow for more synergistic balance adjustments and better difficulty tuning for all present and future content. We want storing items in your stash to be the ideal place to keep all your spare armor. So we’ve lowered the weight of armor across the board. You can find all the changes to armor and related mods listed below. General We have changed the equation used for calculating damage reduction to put more emphasis on armor rating. Damage you take is now reduced first by your armor and then by special damage reducing effects. A side effect of this change is that your armors will no longer break as quickly when you have special damage reducing effects. All special damage reducing effects from different sources, such as “-15% Damage from Robots”, now multiply together rather than add. Armors now have more elemental resistance options. Braced armor mods have been redesigned to give +5% blocked damage reduction. All under armor now share a new mod slot that controls which S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat bonus is gained. The existing lining mods no longer grant any S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat bonuses and instead grant more resistances. Under Armor Mods Standard Style +2 CHA +2 END +2 AGI Unlocked by default. Vault Style +2 END +5 INT +3 LCK Unlocked by Gold Bullion Vendor (Foundation) Raider Style +2 PER +3 AGI +5 LCK Unlocked from Raider Events (Moonshine Jamboree) Secret Service Style +3 STR +3 PER +4 END Unlocked from Gold Bullion vendors (Vault 79) Marine Style +4 STR +3 END +3 AGI Unlocked from Atlantic City quest The Most Sensational Game and Mutated Party Packs Enclave Style +4 PER +2 INT +4 AGI Unlocked from Enclave Events Casual Style +5 CHA + 3 INT +2 LCK Unlocked from Nuke Boss Events Brotherhood of Steel Style +4 STR +3 END +3 INT Unlocked from Brotherhood of Steel Events (Test Your Metal, Line in the Sand) Civil Engineer Style +3 STR +3 PER +4 CHA Unlocked from Flooded City quest The Human Condition Default Legendary Mods and Unique Effects Updated default Legendary Mods and added a unique effect to several armors: Trail Warden – Metal Armor Default Legendary Mods: Hunter’s, Perception, Thru-hiker's Unique Effect: +50% Throwing Weapon Damage Now available from the Lode Baring Terminal Stand Fast – Combat Armor Default Legendary Mods: Chameleon, Hardy, Sentinel’s Unique Effect: Armor Increases up to +50 as Speed Increases. Now drops from One Violent Night Silver Lining – Leather Armor Default Legendary Mods: Life Saving, Endurance, Belted Unique Effect: Reflect 10% of damage. Now drops from Breach and Clear Last Bastion – Urban Scout Armor Default Legendary Mods: Bolstering, Luck, Durability Unique Effect: Accuracy Increases up to +35% as Health Decreases. Now drops from Enclave Activities NEW Last Stand – Brotherhood Recon Armor Default Legendary Mods: Zealot’s, Agility, Reflex Unique Effect: Gain 50% of your evade chance as Damage Reduction. You can no longer Evade. Drops from Nuka World on Tour Nuke Boss NEW Bulwark – Secret Service Armor Default Legendary Mods: Assassin’s, Elementalist, Adamantium Unique Effect: This armor weighs twice as much and provides 35% more protection. Drops from the Storm Goliath Nuke Boss NEW Road Kill – Trapper Left Arm New Default Legendary Mods: Overeater’s, Glutton, Thru-Hikers Unique Effect: Eat animal corpses to restore life. Drops from Meat Week NEW Rage – Raider Armor Default Legendary Mods: Auto Stim, Pain Killer, Burning Unique Effect: You deal +1% damage when hit and take +1% damage, up to 100%. Stacks expire over time when not taking damage. Drops from Earle Nuke Boss Power Armor Significantly reduced the weight of all Power Armor and the base weight of the Power Armor Chassis A deployed Power Armor Chassis no longer removes its weight as if you dropped it. Dev Note: This change was made to help indicate the item is still in your inventory and you have not dropped it. Power Armor Chassis weight is now derived from its contents. Equipped Power Armor now retains 100% of its weight. Equipped Power Armor that is broken no longer has reduced weight. Radiation Nuke Zones will deal more radiation damage to those in Power Armor if they are not fully suited up (full set of Power Armor and using Rad-X). The damage is not immediate, and you should still expect to have time to react if you’re suddenly caught in a Nuke Zone while in your Power Armor. Rebalanced radiation damage from the environment. Generally, the damage you take from environmental sources is now lower. It is now easier to leverage mods on regular armor alongside items like Rad-X to reduce incoming radiation damage. Hazmat suits now have a basic spread of resistances rather than just radiation resistance. Legendary Mods Mutant’s New Effect: Up to 5% Damage Reduction as you acquire more mutations. Damage reduction from “Mutant’s” now scales as you gain more mutations, capping at 5%. Bolstering New Effect: Up to 10% Damage Reduction when HP is Lower. Reaching 5% HP provides the 10% damage reduction. Vanguard’s New Effect: Up to 10% Damage Reduction based on Max HP. Having 1000 Max Health provides the 10% damage reduction. Overeater’s New Effect: Increases Max Health by up to +40 per piece. Aristocrat’s New Effect: Up to 10% Damage Reflection based on Caps held” Holding 40K Caps provides the 10% damage reduction. Elementalist New Effect: Increased from +5 All Res to +25 All Res Warming, Fireproof, HazMat, and Poisoner’s Mods New Effect: Increased resistance value from +25 to +50 Defender’s New Effect: 40% chance to automatically block attacks for weapons and 5% chance to automatically block attacks for armor. Cavalier's Weapon Mod renamed to Blocker Damage Reduction from this effect explicitly applies to blocked damage now. Cavalier Armor Mod New Effect: -10% damage taken while sprinting. Riposting This effect now specifically reflects blocked damage. It also works with the new “auto block” effect. Weightless 3-Star Mod has been reworked and renamed to Heavyweight New Effect: Grants up to 10% reduced damage at 150% carry weight. Armor Mod Adjustments We’re making some adjustments to Armor Mod durability values to address instances where the rate at which how much durability was lost was inconsistent. Power Armor Jetpack mod durability: -15 -> -15% Power Armor Jetpack mod weight: +25% -> +20% Power Armor Calibrated shocks mod durability: -15 -> -15% Power Armor Calibrated Shocks mod weight: +20% -> +15% Power Armor Tesla Coils mod durability: -15 -> -10% Power Armor Stealth Boy mod durability: -15 -> -10% Power Armor Gimbal Bracers mod durability: -20 -> -15% Power Armor Reactive Plates mod durability: -15 -> -10% Power Armor Targeting HUD mod durability: -15 -> -10% Power Armor Elastic Servos mod weight: +17.5% -> +10% Power Armor Elastic Servos mod durability: -10 -> -10% Armor Custom Fitted mod durability: -15 -> -7.5% Armor Custom Fitted mod weight: +15% -> +10% Armor Muffled mod durability: -10 -> -10% Armor Muffled mod weight: +15% -> +10% Armor Cushioned mod durability: -10 -> -10% Armor Cushioned mod weight: +15% -> +10% Armor Aerodynamic mod durability: -6 -> -5% Armor Aerodynamic mod weight: +15% -> +10% Armor Pocketed mod durability: -10 -> -5% Armor Pocketed mod weight: +10% -> +5% Armor Deep Pocketed mod durability: -15 -> -15% Armor Deep Pocketed mod weight: +15% -> +10% Armor Jetpack mod durability: -15 -> -15% Armor Jetpack mod weight: +25% -> +20% Armor Pneumatic mod durability: -4 -> -5% Armor Pneumatic mod weight: +20% -> +15% Armor Braced mod durability: -6 -> -5% Armor Braced mod weight: +25% -> +15% Armor Stabilized mod durability: -10 -> -7.5% Armor Stabilized mod weight: +25% -> +10% Armor Stabilized mod Scope Stability effect: +10% -> +15% Armor Sleek mod durability: -15 -> -7.5% Armor Brawling mod durability: -4 -> -10% Armor Brawling mod weight: +25% -> +20% Armor BioCommMesh mod durability: -6 -> -10% Armor BioCommMesh mod weight: +30% -> +15% Armor BioCommMesh mod durability: -6 -> -10% Armor BioCommMesh mod weight: +30% -> +15% Armor Padded mod durability: -4 -> -5% Armor Padded mod weight: +15% -> +10% Armor Dense mod durability: -8 -> -10% Armor Dense mod weight: +30% -> +20% Armor Asbestos Lining mod weight: +30% -> +15% Armor Lead Lined mod weight: +30% -> +20% Armor Weighted mod durability: -8 -> -12.5% Armor Weighted mod weight: +40% -> +25% Armor Strengthened mod durability: -10 -> -15% Armor Strengthened mod weight: +30% -> +20% Armor Lighter Build mod durability: -4 -> -5% Armor Ultra-Light Build mod durability: -8 -> -12.5% Wood Armor Shrouded mod weight: -75% -> +10% Wood Armor Shrouded mod durability: +0% -> -10% Backpack Armor-Plated Mod Physical Resist (Level 50): 123 -> 126 Dev Note: This is a side effect of changing some data under the hood. Armor Lead-Lined mod Radiation Resistance (Level 50): 38 -> 42 Dev Note: This is a side effect of changing some data under the hood. Perks Legendary Perks no longer require Perk Coins to unequip Perk Coin limit has been increased to accommodate very high-level players. Fixed an issue where the Blood Luster effect didn’t work with certain weapon’s bleed mods. Portable Power (New Effect) Increases movement speed while in Power Armor by 10% per Rank. Sturdy Frame (New Effect) Reduces the amount of stagger taken per rank. Blocker now reduces damage from Blocked attacks Rank 1: 15% more damage blocked Rank 2: 20% more damage blocked Rank 3: 25% more damage blocked Fireproof Renamed to “Hardy” Removed fire damage reduction Dev note: We have added many new sources of fire resistance and felt this perk was better suited to a single effect. Creatures/Enemies Some stronger enemies' outgoing damage has been reduced (Raid bosses, etc.) Some enemies' poison, fire, and cryo damage has been increased a bit to account for players having much easier access to those resistances. Weapons All Cursed weapons can be modified in Legendary Crafting now. Cursed mods now increase damage by 35% (up from 15%) and attack speed by 15% (down from 20%) Added new Legendary effects to some unique weapons. This does not affect existing items. Civil Unrest Assassin’s Inertial Swift Increased unique AP bonus from 10 to 50. Perfect Storm Quad Hitman’s Nimble Black Diamond Anti-Armor Riposting Strength Bonus cryo damage Removed the Overheat mechanic from the Gauss Minigun and slightly lowered its damage. This is a temporary removal of the Overheat mechanic as we plan to reevaluate it in a later update. Fixed some inconsistencies with the Stabilizer's 4-Star legendary mod. It now improves Weapon Cone of Fire, Recoil, and Stability by 40%. Armor 'Hellcat Helmet' PA now has the Headlamp Modification option available in Power Armor Station modify menu. Hellcat, Union, & Vulcan Power Armor suits now correctly produce the “jingle” footfall sounds once Northern Lights Power Armor skin has been applied. Makeshift Ronin Helmet now counts as a Gas Mask. Targeting HUD works on living targets & no longer highlights robots. C.A.M.P.s & Workshops Fixed an issue where bushes wouldn’t be bulldozed when building overtop of them. “Hazmat Mr. Fuzzy Plushie” and “Pioneer Scouts Squirrel Mr. Fuzzy Plushie” previews face forward in the C.A.M.P. Build Menu. Dynamite Box now has a build limit of 25 in C.A.M.P.s and workshops Hollywood Floor Light now only powers on when a power source is nearby. Newly created blueprints will now display requirements. The Molerat windchime should now correctly snap to ceilings. Vault-Boy Santa Snow Globe Lamp now faces the right direction in the workshop menu. Wooden kitchen tables should now make proper wood-like sounds when destroyed Vulcan Power Armor now works as intended when players are under water. Public Events & Activities Fixed an issue where Mischief Night did not drop Treasury Notes. Monster Mash mask will now be visually dropped when mask is dropped from inventory by event rules or by leaving the event. Patrol Duty: Emergency broadcast message will now be played when the event fails. Re-added missing rare rewards to Spooky Scorched Rare category recipes. Riding Shotgun: Blue Ridge Supplies are no longer available to loot before speaking with the Caravan guard, preventing players from being unable to progress the activity. The Big Bloom, Moonshine Jamboree, Tunnel of Love, and Most Wanted: Active players can now listen in on another player's conversation with an NPC when it's relevant to the Event. Gameplay Adjusted how challenge completion event is triggered to be more consistent. Buildings in the Rust Kingdom no longer flicker when observing from nearby cliff. Fixed an issue that allowed the Chem Duration effect from the BioCommMesh armor mod to remain active after the armor with then modification was unequipped. Daily/Weekly challenge for items at a player vendor now accepts when multiple items are bought. Explosions will now affect the condition of limbs. Fixed an issue where Center Masochist was only displaying +25% increased damage rather than reflecting 50% at Rank 2 and 75% at Rank 3. Note: This was a display issue - the actual damage dealt was working correctly at all ranks. Fixed an issue where Gamma Green Tea did not produce extra ingredients when harvesting Kaleidopore Flowers. Fixed an issue where monsters could play knock down animation again when already knocked down. Fixed an issue where Turbo-Fert Fertilizer grenades had no effect on Prickeye Plants. Grenade throwing arc now displays correctly while holding a 2-handed projectile weapon in 1st person. Items with only Bounty Mods can now be scrapped. The armored Deathclaw will no longer turn on the Beastmaster during gearing up when no other targets are nearby. Fixed an issue causing damage to limbs to be higher than designed. -Increased the movement speed cap from 120% to 150%. The default amount of damage reduction when blocking attacks has been reduced from 100% to 60%. Greatly decreased the condition damage weapons take from blocking. The Ultragenetic Mole Miner Stalkers now deals a significant amount of physical damage and inflicts a deadly bleed instead of dealing a killing blow.] Players have 90% damage reduction against their own attacks. Rad-X radiation resistance: 200 -> 600 Rad-X: Diluted radiation resistance: 100 -> 250 Med-X damage resistance: 25 -> 125 Legendary Mods Added the missing names to the Legendary Mods introduced in Burning Springs. Fixed some inconsistencies with the Stabilizer's 4-star legendary mod. It now improves Weapon Cone of Fire, Recoil, and Stability by 40%. Wearing a full set of armor with the Reflex mod now applies the correct bonus. The Harpoon Gun's Barbed mod now works with its base bleed effect rather than removing it. This issue was also noticed with the following weapons that also have a base bleed and a mod that adds bleed so this change applies to them too. Ski Sword Revolutionary Sword Chinese Officer Sword Machete Shishkebab Headhunter Scythe Perks Addressed an issue where the Blood Luster effect didn't work with certain weapons' bleed mods. Adjusted description of Homebody Perk. All Night Long now appropriately doubles the duration of Nuka Cola Dark. Hack and Slash now applies bleeding damage over time applicable melee weapons. Ironclad now correctly applies armor bonuses. Miscellaneous Added Weight to the Giant Red Dinosaur Plan (0.25) Assaultron Faceplates now update with color mods. Challenges that previously did not have flyouts appear on completion should now properly show completion flyouts. Fishing: Fixed a missing sound effect when Large fish are caught. Fix to prevent the camera moving unexpected while speaking with The Ghoul in Highway Town if another player speaks to Rattler at the same time. Fixed an issue where the player could unintentionally get inside of a pipe. No weird gases here! Fixed several visual issues with the Legion Legate Outfit. Fixed an issue causing "The Ghoul" to not speak to a player in Appalachia if "Activity: Monster Mash" was active when they joined the world. Fixed an issue where in-world items were disappearing when looking through junk fence in Super Duper Mart. Fixed an issue where players were getting stuck between a crane and a set of cluster tires when exploring Rust Kingdom. Fixed issue where fast traveling anywhere from Chop Shop basement was free. Fixed the error message when transferring non-quick heal meds to be accurate. If you happen upon a weapon in the game before you unlock its recipe you are still allowed to repair it. Removed an error from the loading screen tip about The Prickeye Plant. The lamp in the office near C.A.M.P. retrieval room in Vault 76 now works correctly on first interaction. The Radhog Alpha Hide is now able to be properly auto-scrapped. Fixed an issue which could cause the Ghoul to not animate correctly. Quests Casting Off: Fixed an issue where the "Linda-Lee Shortwave Signal" would continue to be available in the Pip-Boy after it had been listened to. In Quest "Insurrection", fixed an issue where "Letter to Madman" was not added to inventories when picked up. Insurrection: Fixed an issue where the player could no longer progress from "Return to Leonard" objective. Insurrection: Fixed an issue where the player could no longer progress when on "Talk to the loan shark" objective. Kevan Asherton should descend the tunnel to collect ore regardless of whether Kevan was interrupted by combat before reaching the locked gate. Wasted on Alcohol: Quest should no longer display debug text after completion. Welcoming Committee: Fixed a minor visual issue with the Rust Guards. Weapons Black Powder Rifle's Large bayonet can now be learned by scrapping the Black Powder Weapon. Fancy Single Action Revolver and Fancy Pump Action Shotgun skins now display correctly. Feral's now should only be applied to Melee weapons. Fixed an issue which caused some weapon animations to not work correctly in third person while crouching. Light Machine Gun Prime Receiver can no longer be sold to vendors. Short Handmade rifles now have the correct option for Default Appearance. Sniper's mod should no longer be disabled for any hostile creature close to you. The Fatman MIRV will now correctly create a main detonation and 5 child detonations. Fixed an issue which caused some weapons to break again after repair at a workbench. The Death Tambo now correctly counts as a bladed weapon when completing “bladed” challenges. Workbench Arranged the armors in Light, Sturdy, and Heavy categories. UI The “Notes” category in the Pip-Boy inventory can now be sorted. Crafting Menus Now Correctly Refer To "Stable Flux" & Not "Raw Flux" As The Required Crafting Material. Fixed an issue which could cause some legendary weapons to be missing their prefix names. Fixed an issue on the Wiffle Bat where the blood decal was appearing incorrectly. Fixed instances where items would not rotate when viewed in the Pip-Boy and Workbenches. Fixed various typos. Head Hunt window preview should no longer have a repair kit icon as a potential reward Metallic Scrap Now Appears Correctly In Pip-Boy Junk Menu, Pip-Boy Inspect Menu & Chemistry Station Smelt Menu. Multiple instances of the same effect are combined for one single entry in the Pip-Boy Stat screen. Text in Pip-Boy for unarmed effect for Vintage and Sugar-Free Nukashine appears correctly. Fixed an issue which caused some events to not display in the Pip-Boy as inactive upon completions as designed. The V.A.T.S. accuracy bonus is now correctly displayed when the associated stock or sight mods are added to the following weapons: Combat Shotgun Double-Barrel Shotgun Cold Shoulder Crowd Control Crushing Blow Gauss Shotgun M79 Grenade Launcher Pump Action Shotgun Salt of the Earth" The unique effect of an item now takes priority over the 1-star effect in the Pip-boy Item Card. Underarmor is now shown under the Armor tab in the Pip-Boy Armor and clothing not equipable by the player is now sorted under “Misc”. Visuals Fixed several visuals issue where armored Burning Deathclaw displayed incorrect textures. Fixed various misplaced objects in the world. Improved frame rate when moving large workshop structures. The Character Select Photo window displays its content correctly in Super Ultra Wide 32:9. The visual artifact causing part of the Rusted Coat of Arms Outfit to appear in first-person view has been resolved. Various Mini Season Challenges missing completion flyout now have a completion flyout. Vault Boy Elf Lawn Gnome properly bursts into a cloud of dust when destroyed...Stop shooting the gnomes! submitted by /u/Ghostly_Rich to r/fo76 [link] [comments]
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r/fo76 |
Ghostly_Rich |
Mar 3, 2026 |
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Apple HomePod - The Audiophile Perspective + Measurements!
Okay, everyone. Strap in. This is going to be long. After 8 1/2 hours of measurements, and over 6 hours of analysis, and writing, I finally ran out of wine. Tl;Dr: I am speechless. The HomePod actually sounds better than the KEF X300A. If you’re new to the Audiophile world, KEF is a very well respected and much loved speaker company. I actually deleted my very first measurements and re-checked everything because they were so good, I thought I’d made an error. Apple has managed to extract peak performance from a pint sized speaker, a feat that deserves a standing ovation. The HomePod is 100% an Audiophile grade Speaker. EDIT: before you read any further, please read /u/edechamps excellent reply to this post and then read this excellent discussion between him and /u/Ilkless about measuring, conventions, some of the mistakes I've made, and how the data should be interpreted. His conclusion, if I'm reading it right, is that these measurements are largely inconclusive, since the measurements were not done in an anechoic chamber. Since I dont have one of those handy, these measurements should be taken with a brick of salt. I still hope that some of the information in here, the discussion, the guesses, and more are useful to everyone. This really is a new type of speaker (again see the discussion) and evaluating it accurately is bloody difficult. Hope you Enjoy The read. 0.0 Table of Contents 1. Introduction a. The Room b. Tools Used c. Methods 2. Measurements and Analysis a. Frequency Response 1. Highs 2. Mids 3. Lows b. Distortion c. Room Correction d. Fletcher Munson Curves e. HomePod Speaker Design Notes f. HomePod Dispersion/Off Axis 1 ft g. HomePod Dispersion/Off Axis 5 ft h. KEF X300A Dispersion/Off Axis 5 ft 3. The HomePod as a product 4. Raw Data (Google Drive Link) 5. Bias 6. Thanks/Acknowledgement. 7. Edits One Last Note: Use the TOC and Ctrl+F to skip around the review. I've included codes that correspond to each section for ease of reading and discussion. For example Ctrl/Cmd+F and "0.0" should take you to the Table of Contents. 1. Introduction So, it’s time to put the HomePod to the test. Every reviewer thus far has said some amazing things about this diminutive speaker. However, almost no one has done measurements. However, there’s been a ton of interest in proper measurements. If you’re here from the Apple subreddit, Twitter or anywhere else, welcome to /r/Audiophile, Feel free to hang around, ask questions, and more. /u/Arve and /u/Ilkless will be hanging out in the comments, playing around with this data set, and will have more graphs, charts, etc. They'll be helping me answer questions! Feel free to join in the discussion after you read the review. 1.a The Room All measurements were done in my relatively spartan apartment room. There is no room treatment, the floor is carpet, and the living room where testing was done has dimensions of 11 ft x 13 ft, with an open wall on one side (going to the Kitchen). It’s a tiny apartment I only use it when I’m in town going to classes in this city. The room is carpeted, but the kitchen has wood flooring. There is one large window in the room, and a partial wall dividing the kitchen and living room. Here’s a tiny floor plan. The HomePod was sitting nearest to the wall that divides the living room and bedroom, as shown. The only furniture in the room is a couch against the far wall, a small table near the couch, the desk, and a lamp. Here's an actual picture of the setup Such a small space with no room treatment is a difficult scenario for the audiophile. It's also a great room to test the HomePod in, because I wanted to push Apple's room correction to the limit. The KEFs sitting atop my desk are also meticulously positioned, and have been used in this room for 3 years now. I set them up long ago, as ideally as possible for this room. Therefore, this test represents a meticulously set up audiophile grade speaker versus a Tiny little HomePod that claims to do room correction on its own. 1.b Tools I’m using a MiniDSP UMIK-1 USB Calibrated Microphone, with the downloaded calibration file matched to the serial number. For those of you who are unfamiliar, a calibrated microphone is a special microphone made for measuring speakers - though many expensive microphones are made to rigorous standards, there are still tiny differences. The calibration file irons out even those differences, allowing you to make exact speaker measurements. Two different calibrated microphones should measure exactly the same, and perfectly flat in their frequency response. The software I used is the well known Room EQ Wizard, Version 5.18 on macOS 10.13.3 on a 2011 MacBook Pro. Room EQ Wizard is a cross-platform application for doing exactly this kind of thing - measuring speakers, analyzing a room, and EQ'ing the sound of a speaker system. Tres Picos Borsao - a 2016 Garnacha. A decent and relatively cheap wine from Spain (around $20). Very jammy, with bold fruit tones, and quite heady as well. 15% ABV. Yes, it’s part of the toolkit. Pair some wine with your speakers, and thank me later :) 1.c Methods The purpose of describing exactly what was done is to allow people to double check my results, or spot errors that I may have made, and then re-do the measurements better. I believe that if you're seeing something, and document how you measured it, others should be able to retrace your steps and get the same result. That's how we make sure everything is accurate. To keep things fair, I used AirPlay for both speakers. (Apple’s proprietary wireless lossless audio interface). AirPlay is a digital connection which works at 16 bit 44.1Khz. It is what I used to play sound to each speaker. The KEFs X300A’s have an airplay receiver, and so does the HomePod. AirPlay purposely introduces a 2 second delay to all audio, so Room EQ Wizard was told to start measurements when a high frequency spike was heard. The Computer transmitted that spike right before the sweep, and the microphone would start recording data when that initial spike was heard, enabling it to properly time the measurements. The miniDSP UMIK1 was attached to my MacBook pro, and the playback loop was as follows: Macbook Pro >> HomePod / KEF X300A >> MiniDSP UMIK1 The UMIK-1 was set atop my swivel chair for easy positioning. I stacked a ton of books and old notes to bring it up to listening height. :) For the dispersion measurements, since the KEF speaker is sitting on my desk, it was only fair that I leave the HomePod on my desk as well. Both speakers are resting directly on the desk unless otherwise stated. In some HomePod measurements, I made a makeshift stand by stacking books. Is this ideal? Nope. But its more challenging for Apple’s room correction, and more realistic to the use case of the HomePods, and more fair to measure both speakers in the exact same spot on the desk. I put some tape down on the desk clearly marking 90º, 45º, 30º, 15º, and 0º. Each speaker that was measured was placed in the center of this semicircle, allowing me to move the chair around, line up the mic, measure the distance, and then record a measurement. I was quite precise with the angles and distances, A tape measure to touch the speaker surface, adjust the angle, and line up the mic. The Mic position varied ±2º on any given measurement (variance based on 10 positioning trials). Distance from the speaker varied by ±0.5 inches (1.27cm) or less, per measurement at 5ft, and less than ±0.25 inches (0.64cm) for the 1 ft or 4in near field measurements. I timed the measurements so that my air conditioning unit was not running, and no other appliances were turned on in the house (no dishwasher, or dryer). Room temperature was 72ºF (22.2ºC) and the humidity outside was 97%. Air Pressure was 30.1 inHg (764.54 mmHg) I highly doubt these conditions will affect sound to a large degree, but there you have it — weather data. The HomePod is a self calibrating speaker. Interestingly enough, It does not use any tones to calibrate. Instead, it adjusts on the fly based on the the sounds it is playing. Therefore, in order to get accurate measurements, the speaker must play music for 30 seconds as it adapts to the position in the room. If moved, an accelerometer detects the movement and the next time the HomePod plays, it will recalibrate. Therefore, anyone making measurements MUST position the home pod, calibrate it to the position by playing some music, and only then should you send your frequency sweeps. Failing to do this will distort your measurements, as HomePod will be adjusting its frequency response as you’re playing the REW sweep. Sweep settings: Here's a handy picture 20Hz to 20,000Hz** Sine Wave. Sweep Length: 1Mb, 21.8seconds Level: -12dBFS, unless otherwise noted. Output: Mono. Each sweep took about 21.8 seconds to complete. Timing Reference: Acoustic, to account for the ~2s delay with AirPlay. Phew. With that out of the way, we can move on. 2. Measurements and Analysis 2.a Frequency Response I had to re-measure the frequency response at 100% volume, using a -24 db (rather than a -12 db) sine wave, in order to better see the true frequency response of the speaker. This is because Apple uses Fletcher Munson Loudness Compensation on the HomePod (which we'll get into in a bit) Keeping the volume at 100% let us tricking the Fletcher Munson curve by locking it into place. Then, we could measure the speaker more directly by sending sine waves generated at different SPL’s, to generate a frequency response curve at various volume levels. This was the only way to measure the HomePod without the Fletcher Munson Curve compensating for the sound. The resultant graph shows the near-perfectly flat frequency response of the HomePod. Another testament to this incredible speaker’s ability to be true to any recording. Here is that graph, note that it's had 1/12 smoothing applied to it, in order to make it easier to read. As far we can tell, this is the true frequency response of the HomePod. At 100% volume, 5 feet away from the HomePod, at a 0º angle (right in front) with a -24db Sine Wave. For this measurement the HomePod was on a makeshift stand that’s approximately 5 inches high. The reason for doing this is that when it was left on the desk, there is a 1.5Khz spike in the frequency response due to reflections off the wood. Like any other speaker, The HomePod is susceptible to nearby reflections if placed on a surface, as they happen far too close to the initial sound for any room compensation to take place. Here's a Graph of Frequency Response with ⅓ smoothing decompensated for Fletcher Munson correction, at 100% volume, from -12 db sine waves, to -36 db. And here's a look at the Deviation from Linearity between -12 and -24db. What we can immediately see is that the HomePod has an incredibly flat frequency response at multiple volumes. It doesn’t try to over emphasize the lows, mids, or highs. This is both ideal, and impressive because it allows the HomePod to accurately reproduce audio that’s sent to it. All the way from 40Hz to 20,000Hz it's ±3dB, and from 60Hz to 13.5Khz, it's less than ±1dB... Hold on while I pick my jaw up off the floor. 2.a1 Highs The highs are exceptionally crisp. Apple has managed to keep the level of distortion on the tweeters (which are actually Balanced Mode Radiators - more on that later) to a remarkably low level. The result is a very smooth frequency response all the way from the crossover (which is somewhere between 200-500Hz) and the Mids and Highs. [The Distortion is stunningly low for Balanced Mode Radiators.] The BMR’s mode transition is very subtle, and occurs just above 3K. This is where the BMR’s start to “ripple” rather than just acting as a simple driver. I'll speak more about BMR's later :) 2.a2 Mids Vocals are very true-to-life, and again, the frequency response remains incredibly flat. Below 3Khz the BMR’s are acting like simple pistonic drivers, and they remain smooth and quite free of distortion. This continues down to somewhere between 500Hz and 200Hz, where the crossover to the lows is. This is where the balanced Mode Radiators really shine. By lowering the crossover frequency, moving it away from the 1-3Khz range, where typical tweeters are limited, the crossover is much easier to work with from a design perspective. 2.a3 Lows The control on the bass is impressive. At 100% volume, the woofer tops out at -12db, where you can start to see the control creep in on the very top graph, as the distortion rises with loudness, the excursion is restrained by the internal microphone that’s coupled to the woofer. Despite this being a 4inch subwoofer with 20mm of driver excursion (how far the driver moves during a single impulse), there is no audibly discernible distortion. If you look at This graph of frequency responses at various SPL's you can see how the subwoofer response is even until the -12 db curve at the top, where it starts to slide downward, relative to everything else? that's the subwoofer being reigned in. Apple's got the HomePod competently producing bass down to ~40 Hz, even at 95 dB volumes, and the bottom-end cutoff doesn't seem to be a moving goalpost. Thats incredibly impressive. It’s also important to note that the woofer is being reigned in to never distort the mids or highs, no matter what is playing. The result is a very pleasing sound. 2.b Distortion If we look at the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) at various sound pressure levels (SPLs) we see that Apple begins to “reign in” the woofer when THD approaches 10db below the woofer output. Since decibels are on a log scale, Apple’s limit on the woofer is to restrict excursion when the harmonic distortion approaches HALF the intensity of the primary sound, effectively meaning you will not hear it. What apple has achieved here is incredibly impressive — such tight control on bass from within a speaker is unheard of in the audio industry. Total Harmonic Distortion at -36 db Total Harmonic Distortion at -24 db Total Harmonic Distortion at -12db Note the rise in distortion is what causes apple to pull back on the Woofer a bit, as noted in the above sections! :D their woofer control is excellent. Even though Distortion rises for the woofer, it's imperceptible. The (lack of) bass distortion is beyond spectacular, and I honestly don't think there is any bookshelf-sized speaker that doesn't employ computational audio that will beat it right now. For the tweeters, distortion also stays impressively low. The Balanced Mode Radiators that apple is using are a generation ahead of most BMR's in the industry. Whether this is the work of the onboard DSP, or the driver design, we weren't able to work out. You'd need a destructive teardown of the HomePod and some extensive measurements and analysis before I could tell you for sure, but the end result is stupidly low distortion in the high frequency range. Anything from the 3rd harmonic and above are VERY low from 150Hz to 80Hz. 2.c Room Correction This apartment room has no room treatment at all. It’s tiny, and the volume of the room is just under 40m3. And as amazing as the measurements above are, It's even more impressive that the HomePod somehow manages an almost perfectly flat speaker response in such a terrible environment. So, not only do we have a little speaker that manages uncharacteristically low distortion, and near-perfect frequency response, but it does so while adapting to the room. The response takes a few minutes of playing music to settle before measurements are stable - indicative of some sort of live DSP correction. Mind you, any audiophile that was getting such good control over a space with lots of room treatment and traditional speakers would be very happy with these measurements. To have this sort of thing be a built in feature of the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) inside the speaker that is, for all intents and purposes omnidirectional, allowing it to adapt to any room, no matter how imperfect, is just beyond impressive. What Apple has managed to do here is so crazy, that If you told me they had chalk, candles, and a pentagram on the floor of their Anechoic chambers, I would believe you. This is witchcraft. I have no other word for it. 2.d Fletcher Munson Curves The HomePod is using Fletcher-Munson loudness compensation. What the hell is that, you ask? Fletcher Munson loudness compensation has to do with how humans hear different frequencies at different volumes. Your ear has different sensitivity to different frequencies, right? If I make a sound at 90Hz and a sound at 5000Hz even if the absolute energy of the two sounds is the same, you will perceive them to be at different loudness, just because your ear is more sensitive to one frequency over another. Speakers account for this by designing their frequency responses around the sensitivity of human hearing. But there’s another problem… Your perception of different frequencies changes with different absolute energies. So lets say I generated a 60 db tone at 90Hz and 5000Hz, and then a 80db tone at 90Hz and 5000Hz.... Your brain would tell you that EACH of those 4 tones was at a differently louder, compared to the other tone of the same frequency. Check out this doodle where I attempt to explain this. The part circled in yellow is what is being fixed, correcting for the fact that your brain sees a 10db jump at 90Hz differently than a 10db jump at 5000Hz. The Fletcher-Munson curve, then, defines these changes, and with some digital signal processing based on how high you’ve got the volume cranked, the sound played can be adjusted With Fletcher Munson Compensation. So, going back to our example, The two 90Hz tones and two 5000Hz would sound like they were exactly 20db apart, respectively. Even though you'll still think that the 90db tone is at a different loudness than the 5000Hz tone. Here's what this looks like with HomePod measurements! - You can see the change in the slopes of certain regions of the frequency response, as the speaker gets louder, to compensate for differences in human hearing at various SPLs. The end result: The HomePod sounds great at all volumes. Soft, or loud, it sounds natural, balanced, and true to life. For the rest of our testing, we are going to allow the HomePod to do it’s Fletcher-Munson compensation as we do directivity testing and more. 2.e Speaker Design Notes / Insights Apple is using a 4” high excursion woofer, and 7 BMR’s. According to Apple, the subwoofer, and each tweeter is individually amplified, which Is the correct way to set this up. It also means that Apple had to fit the components for 8 separate amplifiers inside the HomePod, the drivers, electronics, and wifi antenna, all in a very tight space, while keeping electrical interference to a minimum. They did so spectacularly. It’s really interesting to me that Apple decided to horn-load the Balanced Mode Radiators (BMRs). Balanced Mode Radiators have excellent, predictable dispersion characteristics on their own, and a wide frequency response (reaching from 250Hz to 20kHz, where many traditional tweeters cannot handle anything below 2000Hz). The way Balanced Mode Radiators work, is that BMRs move the flat diaphragm in and out to reproduce the lower frequencies. (just like traditional speakers). However, to produce high frequencies, the flat diaphragm can be made to vibrate in a different way - by rippling (relying on the bending modes to create sound) The term “balanced” comes into play because the material is calibrated to ripple in a very specific way in order to accurately reproduce sound. Here’s a neat gif, Courtesy of Cambridge Audio. Even as it’s rippling, this surface can be pushed in/out to produce the lower tones. The result is a speaker that has great reach across the frequency spectrum, allowing Apple to push the crossover frequency lower, keeping it out of the highly audible range. Here’s a video of a BMR in action for those of you curious to see it up close. Without tearing open the speaker it’s impossible to verify the BMR apple is using (it may very well be custom) we cannot know for sure what its true properties are, outside of the DSP. It's not possible to separate the two without a destructive teardown. The use of BMR's does seem to explain why the crossover is at a lower frequency - somewhere between 200Hz and 500Hz, which is where the tweeters take over for the subwoofer. We weren’t able to tease out exactly what this was, and it may be a moving target based on the song and the resulting mix created by the DSP. Not much else to say about this. 2.f HomePod Dispersion/Off Axis 1 ft Here are the HomePod Directivity measurements. These were taken with the HomePod on the desk directly so you'll notice that there's some changes in the frequency response, as the desk begins to play a role in the sound. Even up close, the HomePod shows omnidirectional dispersion characteristics. The differences you might see in the graphs are due to the microphone being directly in front of, or between the BMR’s, and very close to the desk, as I moved it around the HomePod for each measurement. From just 12” away, the HomePod behaves like a truly Omnidirectional speaker. 2.g HomePod Dispersion/Off Axis 5 ft Once again, for this one, the HomePod was placed directly on the desk, and not on a makeshift stand. This is for better comparison with the KEF X300A, which I've been using as a desktop bookshelf speaker for 3+ years. This is the other very important test. For this one, the HomePod was left in place on the desk, but the microphone was moved around the room, from 45º Left to 45º Right, forming an arc with a radius of 5 feet, from the surface of the HomePod. The dispersion characteristics remain excellent. Apple has demonstrated that not only is the HomePod doing a fantastic job with omnidirectional dispersion, it’s doing all this while compensating for an asymmetrical room. If you look at the floor plan I posted earlier once again, You can see that this room has an open wall on one side, and a closed wall on the other side. No matter. The HomePod handles it exceptionally well, and the frequency response barely changes perceptibly when you walk around the room. This is the magic of HomePod I was talking about. the room is the sweet spot, and with that, let’s take a look at how HomePod compares to an audiophile grade Bookshelf speaker - namely the KEF X300A, in the same spot, with the same measurements. 2.h KEF X300A Dispersion/Off Axis 5 ft This is a pretty interesting comparison. The X300A is a 2.0 integrated bookshelf offering from KEF, a famous british speaker design house. Their speakers are known for excellent dispersion characteristics thanks to their concentric Uni-Q drivers. A Uni-Q driver has the tweeter siting in the middle of a woofer, assisted by a waveguide to provide great Off-axis response. The woofer which surrounds the tweeter moves independently, allowing these speakers to put out nice bass. They have a 4.75 inch woofer with a 2” hole cut in the center that sports the wave-guide and tweeter. This is the system I’ve been using at my desk for the better part of 3 years. I love it, and it’s a great system. As noted in the methods, I used a single KEF X300A unit, sitting directly on the desk, in the very same spot the HomePod sat in, to compare. I tried to match the loudness as closely as possible, too, for good comparisons. Here’s a picture of the setup for measurement.. Another note on the KEFs. They do not use Fletcher Munson loudness compensation. As you can see in this Graph their frequency response does not change as a function of loudness. Overall, It’s also apparent the frequency response is nowhere near as smooth as the HomePod. Here’s a direct comparison at 0º, identical position for each speaker, mic, and loudness matched at 20Khz. While this is not an ideal setting for the KEF Speakers (they would do better in a treated room) this does drive home the point about just how much the HomePod is doing to compensate for the room, and excelling at the task. Just look at that fabulous bass extension! While the KEF’s can certainly fill my room with sound, It only sounds great if you’re standing within the 30º listening cone. Outside of that, the response falls of. Here's a measure of the KEF's Directivity. As you can see, while the kef has a remarkably wide dispersion for a typical bookshelf - a testament to the Uni-Q driver array's incredible design. But at 45º Off-axis, there's a noticeable 6db drop in the higher frequencies. 3. The HomePod as a product The Look and feel is top notch. The glass on top is sort of frosted, but is smooth to the touch. When I first reviewed the home pod, I noted that it was light. I was comparing it with the heft of my KEF speakers. This thing, as small as it is, weighs 5 lbs. Which is quite dense, and heavy for its size. The Fabric that wraps around it is sturdy, reinforced from inside, and feels very good to the touch. The Frequency response, Directivity, and ability to correct for the room all go to show that the HomePod is a speaker for the masses. While many of you in this subreddit would be very comfortable doing measurements, and room treatment, there is no denying that most users won’t go through that much trouble, and for those users the HomePod is perfect. Great sound aside, there are some serious caveats about the HomePod. First of all, because of the onboard DSP, you must feed it digital files. So analog input from something like a Phono is out, unless your Phono Preamp has a digital output which can then be fed to the HomePods in realtime via airplay, possibly through a computer. But you cannot give the HomePod analog audio, as the DSP which does all the room correction requires digital input. Speaking of inputs, you have one choice: AirPlay. which means, unless you’re steeped in the apple ecosystem, it’s really hard to recommend this thing. If you are, it’s a no brainer, whether you’re an audiophile or not. If you have an existing sound system that’s far beyond the capabilities of a HomePod (say, an Atmos setup) then grab a few for the other rooms around the house (Kitchen, bedroom, etc). It’s also a great replacement for a small 2-speaker bookshelf system that sits atop your desk in the study, for example. When this tiny unobtrusive speakers sound so good, and are so versatile, grabbing a few of these to scatter around the house so you can enjoy some great audio in other rooms isn’t a bad move — provided you’re already part of the Apple Ecosystem. AirPlay is nice. It never dropped out during any of my testing, on either speaker, and provides 16bit 44.1Khz lossless. However, my biggest gripe is hard to get past: There are no ports on the back, no alternative inputs. You must use AirPlay with HomePod. Sure, it’s lossless, but if you’re an android or Windows user, theres no guarantee it’ll work reliably, even if you use something like AirParrot (which is a engineered AirPlay app). I understand that’s deeply frustrating for some users. As a product, the HomePod is also held back by Siri. Almost every review has complained about this, and they’re all right to do so. I’m hoping we see massive improvements to Siri this year at WWDC 2018. There is some great hardware at play, too. What’s truly impressive is that Siri can hear you if you speak in a normal voice, even if the HomePod is playing at full volume. I couldn’t even hear myself say “Hey Siri” over the music, but those directional microphones are really good at picking it up. Even whispers from across the room while I was facing AWAY from the HomePod were flawlessly picked up. The microphones are scary good — I just hope Apple improves Siri to match. Until then, you can turn just her off, if you don’t care for voice assistants at all. Stereo is coming in a future update. I cannot wait to see how two HomePods stack up. I may or may not do measurements in the future of such a feature. 4. Raw Data (This is a zip containing all .mdat files, as well as images used in this review) Download All Test Data (105 MB) Feel free to play around with it, or take a deeper dive. If you plan to use this data for anything outside of /r/Audiophile, Please credit myself, /u/Arve, and /u/Ilkless. 5. Bias Every single reviewer has Bias. Full disclosure: I saw the HomePod before most people. But, I also paid full price for this HomePod, with my own money. I paid for all the equipment to measure it with, and I own every speaker in featured in this review. Neither KEF, nor Apple is paying me to write this review, nor have they ever paid me in the past. At the same time, I’m a huge apple fan. Basically, all the technology I own is apple-related. I don't mind being in their ecosystem, and it’s my responsibility to tell you this. I hope the inclusion of proper and reproducible measurements, raw data, as well as outlining the procedures followed, will help back the claims made in this writeup. If anyone has doubts, they can easily replicate these measurements with their own calibrated mic and HomePod. Furthermore, I worked with /u/Arve and /u/Ilkless to carefully review this data before posting, so we could explore the capabilities of the HomePod further, and corroborate our conclusions. 6. Acknowledgement / Thanks This review would not have been possible without /u/Arve and /u/Ilkless lending me some serious help to properly collect and analyze this data. Please thank them for their time and effort. I learned a lot just working with them. Also, shoutout to /u/TheBausSauce for providing some confirmatory measurements with another HomePod. Also, thank you John Mulcahy, for making Room EQ Wizard. Without it, these measurements would not be possible. Finally, I'm deeply saddened by the passing of Jóhann Jóhannsson, the legendary composer. His music is beautiful, so in his memory, please go listen to some of it today. I wish his family the best. 7. Edits Edit 1: Minor grammar edits Edit 2: See /u/Arve's really important comment here and graph here for more on Fletcher Munson compensation. Edit 3: Minor corrections to Section 2.e Edit 4: Correction to 2.a3 - thank you, /u/8xk40367 Edit 5: Additional words from /u/Arve about the HomePod Edit 6: Typo in section 2.c Thank you /u/homeboi808 Edit 7: Typo in section 3. and repeat in section 1.a Thank you /u/itsaride Edit 8: Made the Tl;Dr: stand out a bit more - some people were missing it. Edit 9: Minor edits in 2.a based on /u/D-Smitty's recommendation. Edit 10: Phil Schiller (Senior VP at Apple) just tweeted this review Edit 11: According to Jon who reverse engineered AirPlay, its 44.1Khz. This has been corrected. Edit 12: /u/fishbert PM'd me some excellent copyedits. :) small changes to 2.c 2.d 2.e 2.g 2.h Edit 13: Minor typo in section 3. Thanks /u/minirick Edit 14: This has been picked up by: 9to5 Mac and Macrumors and Ars got in touch Edit 15: Some really good critique and discussion has been added to the very top of the post. (5079 W | 29,054 Ch) 8. Shameless plug Since this is getting tons of attention still, I'm working on launching a Podcast in the coming months. In the comments here, I mentioned "wearing many hats" and my podcast is about personal versatility. If you're interested, You can follow me on various places around the web (listed below) I'll be making an announcement when the Podcast goes live :) Also my inbox is flooded at this point, so if I miss your comments, I apologize. My subreddit: /r/WinterCharm My reddit profile /u/WinterCharm submitted by /u/WinterCharm to r/audiophile [link] [comments]
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r/audiophile |
WinterCharm |
Feb 12, 2018 |
United States
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