Google Nest Audio Speaker Review

[ROOSKIE]

I'm a day late to the party here, such is life! I'm impressed by what they've done with this speaker & especially for the money & within that kind of "lifestyle speaker" environment. Not sure I'm sold on the very jagged frequency response from 2-5.5kHz. I know they're sharp & narrow variations but my experience with a planar headphone (HE4XX) that has some sharp variations in places in the treble vs a planar headphone that doesn't have those sharp variations (HE400SE) (both EQ'd to Harman) makes me think that those sharp variations in this speaker could decrease overall detail/clarity within the music. I do really like the attention to detail & the scientific approach that Google had towards the design of this speaker though, they've obviously got quite a lot of the areas right with this speaker & for the money & surprisingly so for a lifestyle speaker.

It is probably from the front cover. Sound bouncing around in there creating little nulls and peaks.
They'd have to come up with an exposed design or removable grill.
I'd guess they definitely don't want fingers on the drivers so exposed is out and user friendly removable grill is not really a desired trait for this type of speaker by buyers.
We are stuck with these effects.
I wonder how it measures with that front cover off.

 

[pablolie]

It is pretty amazing how good stuff can be made to sound these days at ever lower price points. I remember when the Logitech Boombox came out (Novermber 2011, I just looked it up) and how the fact that -if you attached it to a sub- it could fill the entire 3 car garage (1 car spot was a home gym) with great sounding music - the power of DSP was made evident. I actually still use one in my bedroom. And I think it still sound very good, I mostly play New Age relaxing stuff there, but I can also play my fav jazz album and throroughly enjoy it.
This review further shows how easy and price efficient audio can be these days.

PS: They even published a white paper - foreshadowed many of the design principles behind these compact devices https://www.eetimes.com/white-paper-logitech-squeezebox-boom-audio-design/

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Great… I love cheap stuff….and I can not hear above 10,000 hz anyway. Maybe that’s why vintage good speakers only went to 15000 hz

 

[ninetylol]

I use two of these in Stereo downsizing from my Lintons. They Sound fantastic and measure better than any speaker Ive owned before including Lintons and Kali IN-8V2s. Just missing some lower bass. It's crazy how big these two little speakers can sound. Can only recommend.

Heres how they measure in my room (no EQ at all)

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Looks like it's maybe designed to be laid on its side and placed inside the arms of a davenport.

View attachment 402884

whats a davenport....just kidding

 

[lewdish]

Its -3 dB point is 85 Hz whereas the Google Nest Audio is 60 Hz. That would make a considerable difference in the perceived audio quality.

The f3 point there is most likely because of the THX certification requiring a 80ish hz crossover point, but its still an ortherwise good speaker as well!

 

[DanielT]

Thanks for your review Amir.

Two Google Nest Audio Speakers and, if a sensible solution can be achieved, together with subwoofers plus integrated with a smart TV might be something? Preferably if it would be possible to EQ (at least the subwoofers in that case). Maybe that's asking too much?

OT:
Not that it really matters, but is the person who puts together a solution like I sketched above interested in HiFi?
To spice it up even more. Or is he (or she, for once a possibility with Nest speakers) even consider being an audiophile? Or do you have to have brutally expensive low powered tube amps with equally expensive high efficiency half-room sized horn speakers to fall into that category?

Edit:
To make the sterotypical audiophile complete, of course an expensive record player plus only ten old vinyl records that are played over and over are then needed.
Having said that, these types of audiophiles are not people I get mad at. Not at all. People can do what they want and be happy in their own way. It's just a hobby. But joking about the whole thing can be done, I think.
I'm no better myself, in a way anyone who does any hobby (with intensity) can be seen as a bit of a goofball.

OT 2.
Just to do some advertising for a neighbor and active ASR member. I consider this to be good audiophile stuff:

Introduction of Vera Audio Coherence 12 - a high quality speaker many can afford

Want to introduce the Vera Audio Coherence 12 speaker to the ASR community. A speaker that we're getting quite close to release. The picture here is of a prototype. The final model will have a new and better looking platform. Disregard the plywood panel underneath the speaker here. The speaker...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[Robbo99999]

It is probably from the front cover. Sound bouncing around in there creating little nulls and peaks.
They'd have to come up with an exposed design or removable grill.
I'd guess they definitely don't want fingers on the drivers so exposed is out and user friendly removable grill is not really a desired trait for this type of speaker by buyers.
We are stuck with these effects.
I wonder how it measures with that front cover off.

Yeah, would be an interesting little experiment, I wonder if @amirm would measure it again without the grill? On a practical level it's fugly without the grill though, but would be interesting to see if that's what's creating the jaggedness in the treble.

 

[jimmyjames8]

I assume you have to install an app on your phone and set up this device (wifi network name and p word). After that can I tell it to play a particular internet radio station and it will like KKJZ Long Beach? I just got a Echo Studio and would which will do this and I would like to compare the sound.

 

[Inertiaman]

Thanks for your review Amir.

Two Google Nest Audio Speakers and, if a sensible solution can be achieved, together with subwoofers plus integrated with a smart TV might be something? Preferably if it would be possible to EQ (at least the subwoofers in that case). Maybe that's asking too much?

Adding a subwoofer is relatively easy: find a long-discontinued Chromecast Audio dongle (might cost as much as the speakers) and plug it into the sub of your choice. Then add it to the group w/ the Nest Audio on the Google Home app.

But using w/ a TV isn't viable, due to latency. The one exception to this is if your viewing is exclusively through Google TV or a Chromecast dongle, in which case I *think* the Google s/w syncs up the audio/video.

 

[JDS]

This is a review, teardown, detailed measurements, listening tests and EQ of Google Audio Nest "smart" streaming speaker. It was kindly drop shipped to me by a member. List price is US $99.99 but I see it as low as US $65.
View attachment 402856
While not very unique in its looks, the Nest Audio nicely fits in the category with the obligatory gray fabric cover. Four or five LEDs shine through the fabric when on. When idle, they are orange but otherwise white. It shows the current volume among other things. Back side shows the plug for the 24 volt/125ma power supply and a hard switch to turn the microphone off:

View attachment 402857

I read that Google went all out with designing their own simulation tools and even conducting double blind listening tests in the process of developing this speaker! It shows when pry off the front cover:
View attachment 402858
Some kind of cast metal (aluminum?) contains the drivers. The tweeter has a built-in wave-guide courtesy of that shell. The 6 rubber screws/mounts provide acoustic suspension.

It was non-intuitive to use "Google Home" to configure the speaker. Configure I did using my phone and it all went nicely although I was annoyed by myriad of questions including what my address is! Firmware was updated and the speaker came alive and warned me in a nice female voice that the microphone was turned off. It did that on the next power cycle. I guess they want to avoid support calls for people who like me, thought the switch was for power and not microphone!

Speaking of power cycle, after that, I could not get Google Home to reliably connect to the device and let me change its volume. Roon player however, recognized it through Chromecast protocol and nicely let me change volume control there.

Google Nest Audio Speaker Measurements
Let's start with our standard anechoic frequency response measurements:
View attachment 402859
I could not believe my eyes when I saw that super smooth bass, midrange and lower treble! It is almost ruler flat with excellent directivity. Some kind of complex interaction occurs between drivers above that causing those jaggies. Fortunately our hearing bandwidth resolution shrinks as frequencies go higher, making us much less sensitive to those variations. To wit, here is the same graph but with 1/10 octave smoothing (instead of standard 1/20th):
View attachment 402860
There is still a deep trough post 10 kHz in on-axis response which may be due to some diffraction.

Note that I have read there is a bass limiter that reduces bass peak as you crank it up. I meant to test the speaker at my standard 86 dBSPL but somehow it switched down to 80. You can see the slight hump around 100 Hz which is fine in my book.

Good directivity results in good early window response:
View attachment 402863

Predicted in-room response is smooth as a result with some exaggeration of treble frequencies:
View attachment 402864
Beamwidth is rather wide which is good for a lifestyle speaker with just front firing drivers:
View attachment 402866
View attachment 402867

Vertical directivity likewise allows a bit of elevation change without the response varying a lot:
View attachment 402868

It is a pain to test these streaming speakers so I only ran one distortion test:
View attachment 402871
This is quite good for this tiny speaker!

Finally here is the step response:
View attachment 402872

Google Nest Audio Speaker Listening Tests and EQ
My first standard reference track sounded surprisingly neutral! It was as if I was listening to a small studio monitor. Further listening and cranking up the volume a bit more, resulted in perceived brightness. A single filter cured that nicely:

View attachment 402873

There is naturally no low, low frequencies. That made music that relied on that sound flat. Otherwise, even techno music sounded good to excellent. Speaker does an excellent job of keeping distortion at bay even at max volume. Then again, it doesn't get very loud by "normal" speaker standard.

Conclusions
Amazing what happens when you apply proper engineering and science to even a tough problem. Small, lifestyle speaker that sells for next to nothing which teaches many speakers what good design is like! Objective performance is excellent up to a few kHz after which it gets a bit wiggly. Subject performance, sans a bit of brightness, is better than anyone deserves in this category. And let's remember this is a streaming amplifier with all the features that come with that and not just a passive box!

I am going to recommend the Google Nest Audio speaker. Someone cared that we get good sound even in this category product.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

When I built my HT setup, the one thing I couldn't do was add true rear speakers. I would love to use a pair of these on my kitchen counter (behind me when I am in the sweet spot), but I can't figure out how to feed them just the rear channel signals from my HT receiver. Does such a solution exist?

 

[Old_School_Brad]

When I built my HT setup, the one thing I couldn't do was add true rear speakers. I would love to use a pair of these on my kitchen counter (behind me when I am in the sweet spot), but I can't figure out how to feed them just the rear channel signals from my HT receiver. Does such a solution exist?

RCA to Bluetooth adapters are available, though I'm not sure how it would work. But it might be worth a try.

 

[ROOSKIE]

When I built my HT setup, the one thing I couldn't do was add true rear speakers. I would love to use a pair of these on my kitchen counter (behind me when I am in the sweet spot), but I can't figure out how to feed them just the rear channel signals from my HT receiver. Does such a solution exist?

Even if you figured out how, the speakers will gave high levels(noticable) of latency.
There are other choices that use wifi that may work, if your Receiver has rca outputs.
Maybe try Parts Express or Amazon?
Connect the wifi transmitter to the rear rca outputs, connect the wifi receiver to a set of active speakers on your counter.

These were the 1st ones to show on Amazon search, just to start with.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com

 

[DanTheMan]

These things are literally Buy one get on free at Best Buy right now. IOW, $100/pr. No affiliation and I have no need to buy these for myself, but it’s tempting just because they are so cheap and pretty good no matter the price. For a bedroom system, these are all you’d need or really even want. Plus you could give the guys at the NSA an earful.

 

[JDS]

Even if you figured out how, the speakers will gave high levels(noticable) of latency.
There are other choices that use wifi that may work, if your Receiver has rca outputs.
Maybe try Parts Express or Amazon?
Connect the wifi transmitter to the rear rca outputs, connect the wifi receiver to a set of active speakers on your counter.

These were the 1st ones to show on Amazon search, just to start with.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com

Thanks. I know about the latency issue. In theory, I think Dirac Live can compensate, but does anyone know if the latency is consistent enough for that to work well? And can this Google speaker pair with any app/BT transmitter, or is it a walled garden system?

 

[agnarok]

Turn off the microphone and isolate the speaker from the web via parental controls or similar. I do that with my older iPads I exclusively use as Roon displays

It is really easy to open this speaker and disconnect the lights. So when the mic is turned off you will not see the orange lights.

 

[Jason]

Thanks. I know about the latency issue. In theory, I think Dirac Live can compensate, but does anyone know if the latency is consistent enough for that to work well? And can this Google speaker pair with any app/BT transmitter, or is it a walled garden system?

These can work visa normal Bluetooth but do require the Google Home to do the setup/pairing which is a bit of a clunky process and (in my experience) not totally stable connection.

I have a stereo pair on my computer desktop and stream either YouTube Music or Roon where they sound excellent for low (ish) volume background music.

It was the original review by Napilopez that made me get them, and the resulting excellent sound that 100% made me appreciate the value of the objective review.

 

[olieb]

These can work visa normal Bluetooth but do require the Google Home to do the setup/pairing which is a bit of a clunky process and (in my experience) not totally stable connection.

Seriously? Setup, I understand - but pairing? You need the Google Home app to pair these with Bluetooth?
Does anyone use these with iOS?

 

[ninetylol]

Seriously? Setup, I understand - but pairing? You need the Google Home app to pair these with Bluetooth?
Does anyone use these with iOS?

You need the Google home App to setup and pair two speakers in one stereo system once. After that you can just say "okay Google pairing Mode" and you dont really need the App anymore. Or just chromecast any app like Spotify or Tidal.

 

[olieb]

You need the Google home App to setup and pair two speakers in one stereo system once. After that you can just say "okay Google pairing Mode" and you dont really need the App anymore. Or just chromecast any app like Spotify or Tidal.

Ok, I did not make myself clear enough. I want to avoid the app and the microphones even more so, just Bluetooth. Maybe I am just naive. ;-)
About Chromecast, that does not work on iOS, does it?