WiiM Sound vs Apple HomePod 2: which wireless speaker deserves a place in your home?

It’s hard to look at the WiiM Sound and Apple HomePod 2 side by side and not feel a strong urge to compare them.

The HomePod 2 turned up in 2023 and, while a new version feels overdue, this one is still taking home What Hi-Fi? Awards and setting the sonic standard for other smart speakers to aim for.

The WiiM Sound, on the other hand, is brand new. It’s WiiM’s first attempt at a smart speaker, and while the brand’s attempts at affordable hi-fi separates have produced mixed sonic results, it is unquestionably a company that is capable of impressive things when the stars align. You're rarely short on features, that's the sure.

WiiM has made a bit of a name for itself over the past couple of years with its competitively priced streamers and streaming amps, but will its first standalone speaker put the HomePod 2 in its place?

WiiM Sound vs Apple HomePod 2: Price

With the WiiM Sound coming in at £299 / $299 / AU$499 and the Apple HomePod 2 setting you back £299 / $299 / AU$479, there’s nothing between these two speakers price-wise (give or take a few dollars down under).

That gives us nothing to go on in terms of budget, but it is perhaps worth bearing in mind that the HomePod 2 is now three years old and still costs exactly the same, whereas the WiiM Sound has only just gone on sale.

Apple products also very rarely see significant discounts and tend to fall in price only when they have been succeeded by something newer and shinier. WiiM, on the other hand, tends to be rather generous with its discounts whenever sales events come along.

For now, though, this one’s a dead heat.

**Winner: Draw**

WiiM Sound vs Apple HomePod 2: features

Apple products often require you to trust the wisdom of the company’s designers in the face of what might seem like some slightly irritating limitations – and that’s perhaps more true of the HomePod 2 than anything else in its current line-up.

There are plenty of impressive features here: Siri is brilliantly implemented and consistently responsive; it automatically adjusts its sonic behaviour in real time depending on various acoustic conditions; you can ‘hand off’ music from your iPhone simply by tapping it on the HomePod; and there is also support for Spatial Audio.

The problem is, you really won’t get the most out of a HomePod 2 unless you are a committed Apple customer. This is first and foremost a voice-controlled speaker, but you can’t ask Siri to play music from Spotify, Tidal or any streaming service other than Apple Music.

Yes, you can use AirPlay to do so, but that slightly defeats the object of buying a so-called smart speaker.

You’ll also need to use Apple Music if you want to listen to anything in Spatial Audio, and while the HomePod does support Dolby Atmos movie soundtracks, it will do so only if connected to an Apple TV 4K. If that is the case, you can pair two HomePods together and have yourself a very aesthetically pleasing Atmos setup of sorts.

In comparison, the WiiM Home doesn’t care what brand of smartphone you have in your pocket.

There are no onboard microphones, although the remote does have one and allows you to use Alexa, which has no such limitations on which streaming service you can use. All the major ones are supported, including the Connect versions of Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz, while Google Cast, Bluetooth 5.3 and DLNA are available too. You also get a 3.5mm socket if you would rather go wired.

As with the HomePod, you can pair two WiiM Sound speakers together (and even add the WiiM Sub if you have a suitable WiiM streamer or amp), and there are various tools within the WiiM Home app that allow you to tweak the sound and optimise it for its particular surroundings.

In terms of hi-res audio, the WiiM Home is happy to play files up to 24-bit/192kHz, but the HomePod is a little fussier. When streaming directly from Apple Music you’ll get 24-bit/48kHz, but anything over that is not supported. How much you would notice the difference is up for debate, but it doesn’t feel like a huge loss on a speaker like this.

This one feels a bit like the Android vs iOS debate in speaker form. The WiiM Sound is certainly the more flexible of the two speakers, but even with its limitations the HomePod 2 still offers a whole host of nifty features, including all of the smart home gubbins.

It’s very close, but the WiiM Sound takes it by a nose.

**Winner: WiiM Sound**

WiiM Sound vs Apple HomePod 2: Build and design

Put these two speakers side by side and you could almost be forgiven for thinking they emerged from the same factory.

Both have a very similar space-age biscuit-barrel aesthetic, but the squarer WiiM Sound is slightly taller than the HomePod 2 and ever-so-slightly fatter, albeit only by a few millimetres. The HomePod is about 200g lighter as a result, but unless you’re the piece of furniture that it’s going to be sitting on that’s not something you’ll need to worry about.

Both are also covered in tightly woven fabric and have touch-sensitive panels on top for controlling playback and volume. On the HomePod this can also be used to summon Siri and silence alarms, but the majority of your interaction with it will be via voice.

The main difference between the two is the 1.8-inch touchscreen on the front of the WiiM Sound, which is sharp, colourful and highly customisable. It will show the artwork for whatever you’ve got playing, but there are also various clock faces and dynamic wallpapers you can choose to display on it, plus it gives you an easy way to choose sources and adjust certain settings.

(If you want one that looks even more like the HomePod, there is also a screen-less and remote-free version called the WiiM Sound Lite that costs £229 / $229 / AU$399.)

If you were to crack both speakers open things would look more different (although we wouldn’t recommend it). The HomePod has a woofer at the top and five tweeters at the bottom arranged for 360-degree sound; the WiiM Sound uses two silk-dome tweeters and a 10cm paper-cone woofer in a forward-facing configuration.

The truth is there’s very little in this. There’s something to be said for how clean the HomePod looks – the way the power cable connects is certainly more elegant – but its minimalism does mean there’s no aux-in or LAN port, as there is on the underside of the WiiM Sound. And the WiiM has a screen, so that's enough to claw back a point or two in its favour.

You could give it to the HomePod for being a leader rather than a follower, but it’s probably fairer to call it a draw.

**Winner: Draw**

WiiM Sound vs Apple HomePod 2: Sound

We were pleasantly surprised at how good the original HomePod sounded, and its successor brought nothing but improvements.

“Tighter, more solid, and better organised both spatially and rhythmically, it’s altogether more engaging, exciting and enjoyable to listen to,” noted our five-star review.

That translates to a speaker with boundless energy, infectious enthusiasm, and excellent tonal balance. It produces vastly more bass than you might expect from a speaker of its size, and it’s almost always well controlled, losing a little bit of conviction only when faced with the very deepest note in James Blake’s notoriously challenging Limit to Your Love.

With the Dolby Atmos version of The 1 by Taylor Swift, there’s real warmth and clarity to the vocals, while the harmony in the chorus is a brilliant advert for what Spatial Audio can do, giving the whole composition an ethereal feel.

If we’re being picky, a forward-firing speaker will project further into a room, but the HomePod 2’s more open, fuller-bodied approach probably suits the environments it’s likely to find itself in better anyway.

That said, the more traditionally configured WiiM Sound couldn’t completely fill our test room either. And that’s not the only issue we have with its performance.

While the WiiM Sound’s presentation is pleasingly smooth and easy to listen to, it can run into problems when asked to play more complex tracks. Our review found that things got rather muddled with Starburster by Fontaines D.C., with a lack of precision slightly scuppering the song’s sense of rhythm.

Vocals are up-front and clear, but after a while you notice that the treble is smoothed out a fair bit, and the bottom end isn’t as powerful as we’d like. Basslines that should be taut and funky can sound a little tubby and lightweight, something we don't find with the pleasingly agile and nimble bass reproduction of the HomePod 2.

The same songs played on the HomePod 2 are better defined, more detailed, and more rhythmically precise, while its more powerful sound means basslines are properly deep, tautly pulled, and bound along with agility and precision.

There’s also better dynamic contrast, greater authority in its projection, and the soundstage is more spacious.

Overall, the HomePod 2 is both more commanding and subtle, resulting in a performance that’s just more exciting and engaging all round but still nice and nuanced. It’s an easy win for Apple here.

**Winner: Apple HomePod 2**

WiiM Sound vs Apple HomePod 2: Verdict

We can usually forgive minor imperfections when it comes to design or features, and we’ll even overlook a slightly higher price tag if the performance justifies it. If there’s one thing we won’t compromise on, though, it’s sound quality; and that’s why the Apple HomePod 2 takes this one.

It’s rare for a product to ace all categories, and the HomePod’s biggest weakness is definitely Apple’s stubborn refusal to allow voice control with all streaming services – particularly when you consider there are no such limitations on an iPhone.

With its lively, natural sound and typically high-quality construction, the HomePod 2 is the better use of £299 / $299 / AU$479. Just don’t buy one if you own an Android phone.

**Overall winner: Apple HomePod 2**

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