Google Home Max - Anthracite

Don't even consider buying Home Max speakers. I have been trying to get mine to work for over 6 months with Google support. They have significant dropout problems when connected by WIFI. I'm on a Google Mesh network and am getting 50MBS of bandwidth and the speakers drop out when playing music or other audio from Pandora, Audible, Google Podcast, or any other audio source. No problems with WIFI connectivity to Samsung Smart TVs, Nest Thermostats, or Kasa WIFI light switches, its clearly a Home Max problem. Support will tell you to do a factory reset of the speakers, multiple times, and it will not fix the issue. They say it's a known issue and have been unable to fix it and won't accept returns for this since they say they are "working on it." Even on sale, speakers ... MoreDon't even consider buying Home Max speakers. I have been trying to get mine to work for over 6 months with Google support. They have significant dropout problems when connected by WIFI. I'm on a Google Mesh network and am getting 50MBS of bandwidth and the speakers drop out when playing music or other audio from Pandora, Audible, Google Podcast, or any other audio source. No problems with WIFI connectivity to Samsung Smart TVs, Nest Thermostats, or Kasa WIFI light switches, its clearly a Home Max problem. Support will tell you to do a factory reset of the speakers, multiple times, and it will not fix the issue. They say it's a known issue and have been unable to fix it and won't accept returns for this since they say they are "working on it." Even on sale, speakers that don't work aren't worth a cent. I have the entire thread of support discussions if anyone is interested.

It's not exceptionally loud or produce overwhelmingly deep bass but it sounds like it should. What I mean by that is that the sound produced sounds good and isn't distracting. If you have the regular home/nest mini you'll notice that there's a lack of quality and bass but it gets plenty loud. The nest mini sounds very flat but this one not so - it sounds great but won't satisfy the audiophiles that are trying to reproduce a more nuanced sound. It just works and I gladly will use this for casual audio listening vs my home theater system for the voice capability.

I got the Google Home when it first came out and I was looking for a significant upgrade to replace it. While the Nest has quicker response and connection times compared to the Home (instant connection from my phone vs. a second or two of lag), it fails to fill the room in the same way that the Home could. The directional speaker set-up means that it only really sounds good when you're directly facing the speakers.That being said, when I sat directly in front of the speaker, it sounded pretty good! The bass response is impressive for such a small speaker and you can even hear some sub-bass! The Nest really shines if you place it in the corner of a smaller room like a bedroom or a bathroom. If you need something that can do 360 sound, maybe opt for the Nest Mini?