It goes without saying that the Nest Audio wins this contest hands down. But perhaps it’s not clear just how much better the sound is out of the Nest Audio.
Granted, the Home was released a veritable lifetime ago as far as consumer electronics aging goes. But if you’re sitting on a Google Home or two you’re probably not worried about the age of the device – I mean, it still works and it’s still updated – but rather whether there’s any reason to spend the money to treat your space (and ears) to a sonic upgrade. Basically – is there a reason to upgrade?
Well… yes. Now, full disclosure: I’m not one to upgrade my technology just for the sake of upgrading. There has to be a compelling, useful feature that the upgrade presents that the current device – or devices – does not. And even then the actual decision may be delayed just to make sure I’m not spending impulsively.
So in the case of the Home, it became clear that its audio just wasn’t matching the mid-range and high-range clarity of the Home Max or even the Home Hub Max. This became more obvious as I’ve recently started doing more listening on speaker groups, mostly listening to radio or music on all of the speakers on the main floor. The Home’s deficiencies were on display as I moved throughout the house.
Even so, at CAD$129 it didn’t seem to make sense to upgrade. I can’t believe that I’ve become a deal-seeker, but why not? It also helps to curb impulse buying if one at least waits for products to go on sale, so that’s what I did. And at CAD$99 the Nest Audio is more compelling, coming in at the same price as the Home was when I initially bought in if I recall correctly.
Ok great – but what are my impressions?
Well, first of all I was surprised by two things: the weight of the Nest Audio (considerably heavier than the Home) and the size (smaller than I was expecting, at roughly the same height as the Home). Then once the device was configured and I sent audio to the speaker group, I was again surprised: was the bass I was hearing coming all the way from the Home Max on the other side of the house, or was this little Nest Audio really hitting these impressive lows???
It was the latter. The Nest Audio represents a significant leap in audio quality over the Home. Like, night and day. It’s much clearer over the entire frequency range, and it actually produces discernible, clear and meaningful bass frequencies. Now, it does seem a little quieter than the Home, which seems to be the trend with all of these speaker upgrades that I’ve written about. But the sound is so much better at reasonable listening levels that I really do have to recommend the Nest Audio to anybody who has been holding on to their Homes for a number of years.
Which doesn’t mean that you should get rid of the Homes. Redeploy them if you can, or gift to somebody who’s new to the Google ecosystem or somebody who could use some more sources of audio. The Home is still capable and as I said earlier it is still supported. But if you have particular areas that can benefit from better audio – larger rooms, or primary listening areas – then go for the upgrade.
Now I just have to resist the temptation to upgrade my two remaining Homes before the sale ends 🙂
Deryk Piper's Blog 