No self-respecting audio enthusiast takes smart speakers seriously.
That they happen to be able to play some tunes is little more than the means to that goal.
At least, thats my cynical predisposition.
Audio is something I care deeply about, and I regularly reviewmulti-thousanddollarspeakershereat TNW.
See, something caught my attention during Googles Pixel 5 event and a separate briefing with journalists soon after.
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Im not going to spend much time on features and the like beyondwhat I wrote on announcement day.
I do have some quick impressions to share though.
The Nest Audio is a cute little speaker meant to replace the Google Home before it.
It obviously supports the Google Assistant and Chromecast, and it can also play audio via Bluetooth as well.
Its smaller than I expected from photos, about the size of a paperback book.
Using it is a cinch.
Setup takes only a minute or two via the Google Home app.
It responds rapidly to most basic voice commands thanks to local processing with a special machine learning chip.
Volume and playback can be controlled via three hidden touch areas at the top of the speaker.
The Nest Audio can automatically EQ itself and raise volume depending on ambient noise and the content thats playing.
And oh yeah, the Nest Audio sounds really good.
Its not boomy or tizzy.
The measurements will show us just how good.
High-end audio companies generally do this by measuring speakers in an anechoic chamber.
Close enough, at least, to tell the good speakers from the bad.
This is decidedly a good one.
I realize the above lines may just look like rainbow spaghetti to some readers.
Explanations of how to interpret these lines are provided over atSpeaker Data 2034andAudioholics.
Until 8 kHz or so, it is quite flat in the listening window.
To put this in context, Ive seen worse from speakers over 50 times the price.
Its not perfect, of course.
I did not find this dip to be a major issue, and I suspect most listeners wont either.
Google purposefully changes the bass quantity at different volume levels.
The top curve is as at 90% percent volume, the bottom curve is at 40%.
All of my other measurements were captured at 62% volume.
Perhaps more importantly, at typical listening levels, you have useful bass down into the 40 Hz region.
Thats remarkable for a speaker this size.
That is about in line with my results once you account for my measurement distances.
The Nest Audio deserves more than to collect dust on your dresser.
But my overarching impression is that the Nest Audio gets the basics of speaker design right.
But Icancompare the results to what I see from dedicated audio companies.
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