New Apple TV 4K supports surround sound through four HomePods

As rumored before today’s announcements, the new Apple TV 4K can connect to up to four HomePods in the front left, front right, rear left, and rear right positions, enabling an all-Apple surround sound system for home theater setups.

You can connect four of the new HomePod mini 2 speakers to the new Apple TV 4K, or you can mix and match pairs of full-size HomePod mini 2 and HomePod 2 speakers, as long as the front and rear speaker pairs match. For example, you can have two full-size HomePod 2 speakers on the front and two HomePod mini 2 speakers on the back.

Apple relies on computer audio. The company says all four HomePods and the new Apple TV 4K can “intelligently recognize the position of each speaker in the room, so timing and audio levels are automatically calibrated to the space.”

All previous Apple TV 4K models remain limited to two HomePods for stereo sound.

The new Apple TV 4K is available for pre-order starting today and launches on Friday, November 13. In the US, pricing is set at $299, with a single configuration with 128GB of storage, Wi-Fi 7 support, and an available Ethernet port.