The original HomePod has been discontinued. I can’t say that I am surprised. It was a $350 dollar speaker that ulitmately didn’t sell well because it was competing in a market dominated by sub-$100 home assistants.

That said, I have four HomePods.

Before you judge, know that I didn’t buy them under the illusion that they are some sort of premium home assistant. I bought them because they are wireless speakers that sound good.

In my house, like many others, the TV area is open to the kitchen. Filling that space with sound is challenging. When looking for a solution, I only had two requirements. I wanted decent sound quality and Airplay 2 support. My first idea was to get an Airplay 2 compatible receiver, which would let me take advantage of the speakers I already own. This approach had two problems. First, receivers that support Airplay 2 are stupidly expensive. Second, running speaker wire in my two story house would be difficult, if not impossible.

Once it became obvious that I needed wireless speakers, then why not some HomePods? According to the reviews, they sounded really good, and were comparably priced to other wireless speakers with similar sound quality.

Despite being a seemingly good fit for our needs, I didn’t rush out to buy four HomePods at $350 a pop. I bided my time. Eventually, Apple reduced their price to $300 and even then I waited for the semi-frequent Best Buy sale so I could by a pair for $400. These HomePods lived in the kitchen side of the room while TV side had and AppleTV hooked up to a receiver with stereo speakers. This setup worked pretty well. The HomePods sounded great in the kitchen, the wired speakers sounded great in the TV area, and both had Airplay 2 support. I actually had no intention of buying a second pair, but then Apple released home theater audio support for the HomePod.

As good as music sounded on the receiver and speaker combo, movies and television sounded awful. Having no desire to install surround sound, my wife and I gave home theater audio support a shot with our existing pair. While I am sure it’s no substitute for real surround sound, an Apple TV and two HomePods sound really good.

We bought the second pair of HomePods a few weeks later when Apple’s holiday sale featured a $100 gift card with every HomePod purchase.

You may still think four HomePods is a bit ridiculous, but trust me when I say that they really work well for our needs in this space. We can watch TV, or play music in one or both areas and it all sounds good. You might think “sounds good” would be table stakes, but so much consumer audio, especially wireless speakers, simply don’t sound good. Even my wife, who doesn’t typically care about this sort of thing, asked if we should by another pair when I told her that HomePods were being discontinued.

Am I a little sad that the original HomePod is going away? Sure, but do I have regrets owning four discontinued wireless speakers? Not at all.