realitymonster

That’s not really the point, though.

The HomePod sounds great for what it is; indeed, it often sounds far better than you’d expect. But it also has integration with the rest of the Apple ecosystem. You can stream to it. You can ask it to set timers. You can ask it questions and turn your lights on and off. It’s also very small and only has one cable, so you can put it in a lot of places where a decent set of speakers can’t go.

All of those things have some value that an amp and speakers can’t provide. A straight across comparison of sound quality misses the point greatly. Yes, obviously you can make something that sounds better; that’s not special. Can you connect it to the rest of your computing life for that price? No? Then it’s not a replacement for the HomePod.