Table of Content
Google provides a proprietary power adapter to keep Nest Audio chugging along. It’s easy to move the speaker from room to room as long as an outlet is within 1.5 meters. The Nest Audio supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity (2.4 GHz/5 GHz) for high-quality playback. It supports FLAC, HE-AAC, LC-AAC, MP3, Opus Vorbis, WAV, and WebM Source audio formats. A dedicated machine learning chip with one TeraOPS of processing power sits in the belly of the beast. This chip hastens Google Assistant response time , because it learns your most common smart home commands and music preferences.
But Google’s latest creation is among the smartest around for the price and its clever design lifts it above the competition. Our frequency response chart was measured with our old testing system. We have since purchased a Bruel & Kjaer 5128 test fixture to update our testing and data collection.
More from Google
The main reason to get the HomePod mini is if you already own an Apple device and want something silly simple to set up and use. The Sonos One has an advanced microphone system that effectively picks up your speaking voice even if there’s some background din. While the Sonos One doesn’t have an official IP rating, it is humidity resistant so you can bring it into the bathroom during a shower without issue. Typically treble notes are hard for single-body speakers to reproduce well, but that's why the dedicated tweeter is important. To connect with a PC or Mac proceed the way you would any other Bluetooth device. Conversely, you can also try pairing by utilizing voice commands.
Speaking of videos, since the latency induced by both Google Cast and Bluetooth connections is quite significant, the auxiliary input at the back of the device is highly welcome. Further, the Smart Sound technology does, as promised, allow the speaker to adapt efficiently to its environment. Therefore, it is capable of dealing with complex acoustics, such as in bathrooms. If you want to stream music you own—tracks stored on a local NAS box, for example—you’ll need to use an app, which you can launch from within the Home app if you choose. I added a button that launches Plex on my Android phone and “cast” music stored on a WD My Cloud Mirror to the Google Home Max using Plex Media Server.
Honda's 2023 Accord Touring will be its first car with Google apps built-in
Our dynamics tests measure how well a device reproduces the energy level of a sound source, taking into account attack, bass precision, and punch. Despite the presence of two tweeters and two woofers, the sound field could be wider. Finally, since the speaker is a front-firing device, the directivity is quite poor. No the Google Home Max isn’t spying on you, as in, it isn’t recording your conversations and delivering them to some foreign government. There are some privacy issues that you should be aware of before you put this thing in your bedroom. For one, some Google Home recordings in the past were leaked thanks to contractors that had access to the recordings.
Spectral artifacts, on the other hand, can appear at quiet, nominal, and maximum listening levels . For example, bass resonances and distortions can manifest on tracks exhibiting powerful low-end frequencies, such as in Electronic music, regardless of the volume. Our artifacts tests measure how much source audio is distorted when played back, along with such other sound artifacts as noise, pumping effects, and clipping. Distortion and other artifacts can occur both because of sound processing and because of the quality of the speakers. Normally, if you place a speaker in the corner the low end sounds amplified, almost like putting your smartphone in a cup.
Google Home Max review
I have a real time home energy monitor, and while it may be a 10w speaker, in practice I'll have 4 running and it's barely a blip on the screen. Because of the large size, the Google Home Max can really push some air so the low end is fairly strong just because of physics. The rubber bass pad also keeps the rumbling of the speaker from disturbing anything around it.
There’s also a trusty 3.5mm jack to satisfy those who have analog devices to hook up. You'll be able to use Google Home and Nest devices as hubs for Matter-enabled products. As good as the Max sounds, it's really only truly useful if you and the Assistant are besties.
Attack in midrange frequencies is precise, bass precision is globally very satisfying, and punch at loud volumes is very good. Additionally, the overall dynamics performance is particularly impressive at soft and even quiet levels with sharp attack, precise bass, and good punch. If you like the idea of a smart speaker but also want Bluetooth so that you can bring the speaker with you when you go outside then you should check out the Sonos Move. While it’s still on the pricey side you get Bluetooth functionality as well as the entire Sonos ecosystem behind to build upon. It's not clear at first who the Google Home Max would be best suited to. If your space is in need of some more sound, there are plenty of speakers that could fit the bill.
Finally, the Smart Sound technology appears to be fairly efficient, adapting the device’s performance appropriately to its acoustic environment. For example, in our bathroom use case, the overall timbre performance remains highly consistent, despite the room’s strong reverberation. The DXOMARK Speaker overall score of 145 for the Google Home Max is derived from a range of sub-scores. I was actually asking to see how potentially loud the speaker could be, but thanks for that info it's good to know. At higher volumes, the speaker had trouble picking up the hotword.
Basically, when the Google Home can’t understand a certain command, Google keeps the audio clip to analyze it to try and fine tune how the speaker understands regular speech. If you’re like me and need to be reminded of basic facts throughout the day, the Google Assistant still gives the best answers out of any personal assistant and it’s only getting better with time. Thankfully, with it being a Google Assistant-driven product, we’ve had success issuing commands to the Max at normal speaking volumes while it’s piping loudly. Around the back, you’ll find a switch to toggle the microphone and a spare USB-C port for charging, say, your Pixel 2 or any other compatible device. As always, it all falls back to the source to dictate how the end result will sound.
You can manually boost or cut the Max’s bass and treble levels plus or minus 6dB, but Google says the Home Max’s audio performance will automatically improve over time. The speaker uses its onboard microphones to evaluate the environment it’s playing in and will tune itself accordingly. The slight emphasis in the lower frequencies will probably be a positive for most people because of its subtlety.
Below these invisible panels are four centered LEDs that alight to indicate Google Assistant activation, Bluetooth pairing mode, when you’re in a call, and more. If you choose to mute the microphone, the four LEDs will remain amber until overridden by another function. As far as design is concerned, the Google Home Max looks great wherever you decide to put it. Taking a step back from the details in build materials, one of my favorite things about the speaker is its simple and minimal design. Besides the switch on the back , the Google Home Max is just one block of plastic. There aren’t any knobs or buttons to take away from the smooth design which makes sense since most of the functionality can be controlled with your voice.
Most of the major streaming services, be it YouTube Music, YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, etc., have built-in functionality that will cause the button to pop up automatically in the app. But what makes the Home Max a smart speaker is that you can speak to it. If you don’t feel like browsing through your phone to find that new Childish Gambino song, you can just ask the Home Max to play Feels Like Summer thanks to tiny built-in microphones. Unfortunately, you can’t say “Yo Google” just yet, but “Okay Google” or “Hey Google” work just fine. It’s hard to recommend a smart speaker over a dedicated home audio setup or any other Bluetooth speakers, but the Google Home Max has weaved its way into my life in a way other products haven’t.
As all Google commands work, you need to start with, “Okay, Google” and then say, “connect to Bluetooth”. The Nest Audio supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth streaming but lacks a 3.5mm input and ethernet port. Ambient IQ works well when streaming podcasts and listening for Google Assistant responses. Running water triggers Nest Audio to increase volume levels when streaming podcasts.
Sure, this isn’t the most scientific test ever devised but it does highlight how at higher volumes the microphones on the speaker have a hard time picking up voices. Though it’s on the pricey side, Google Home Max has set an exemplary example for any and all smart speakers to come. Anyone invested in the Google ecosystem should add the Nest Audio to their collection.
No comments:
Post a Comment