- Apple code reveals four-speaker home theater setup using HomePod 2
- Could be a serious rival to Sony's Bravia Theater Quad or similar rival setups
- Perhaps we'll hear more at the September Apple Event
If you've gone all-in on Apple for your home theater setup you'll know the joys of using HomePods as speakers — and the frustration that you can't add a second pair into the mix to add rear surround channels. It looks like that's about to change.
MacRumors reports that code in the latest beta of Apple's audioOS 27 refers to four-speaker surround sound, with front-left, front-right, rear-left and rear-right speakers.
The code makes references to automatic room calibration, speaker position mapping, timing adjustments, bass management, EQ, dialog enhancement and separate processing modes for movies and music.
Apple could do incredible things with four speakers: my iPad Pro's four-speaker setup regularly astounds me with its ability to make sound come from nowhere, and when we tested HomePod 2 as TV speakers, we were seriously impressed with their scale and spatial positioning.
I'm excited by the possibilities here, not least because cabling up a wired surround system for my TV setup was an enormous pain in the backside.
Could Apple's surround be superior to Sony?
The most obvious rival to a four-speaker HomePod setup is the Sony Bravia Theater Quad, which is also a quad-speaker setup. We've heard that in action and it's really impressive, but it's also really expensive with a launch price of $2,499 / £2,499 (roughly AU$3,883), and a street price that's still around $2,000 / £2,000.
By comparison, four second-generation HomePods will set you back $1,396 / £1,396 / AU$2,196) — though you'll also need the $199 / £199 / AU$299 Apple TV 4K (2022) of course.
In addition to the new four-speaker setup, the code also reveals that you'll be able to spatialize stereo content if you wish, and that there's an unspecified piece of hardware that can be used in the new "forklift" tuning system. That's likely to be a rumored next-gen HomePod, though this may not be close to launch.
What we don't know yet is when this new software will become available: it's still in beta, and may not arrive until Apple unveils the next generation of the Apple TV 4K and possibly new HomePods or the long-rumored Home Hub too. We'll be watching the slides during this week's Apple iPhone event to see if Apple drop any hints about future audio and home entertainment hardware.
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