Google Nest Audio Speaker Review

[ninetylol]

has the connevtivity and pairing issues beeh solved by google? I would love to try a pair as desk top speakers but I'm hessitent due to all the reported problems.

After setting them up from scratch my work great again in stereo. You will have latency though, so i dont know if i would use them for anything but music.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

I'm temporarily relocated to the downstairs bedroom due to knee surgery and have been using my Nest Audio as my audio system. I mostly use BubbleUPNP as the control point. I can play local files and Qobuz effortlessly. I'm pretty happy with it. It's especially good, oddly enough, with program material where the frequency range is within what the speaker covers. Aside from the pre-WWII blues and country music, a lot of chamber music and small group jazz works great. One great discovery is that my $120 mini-pc plays streaming video. I'm sad to discover that you can't use Chromecast to send the audio to the Nest and keep the video on the display.

I got an A****** gift card for Father's Day and bought another Nest Audio. I have the 2 set up as a stereo pair on opposite sides of the head of the bed. I'm excited. Chromecast through BubbleUPNP and bluetooth from my mini pc work great. In the quoted post I should have said "In addition to..." rather than "Aside from..." Only thing missing is an aux in so I can use a 43131 dongle from mini pc for the audio from streaming video. All in all it's not a life changing experience, but it's considerably better than pleasant.

 

[Power Pop 23]

Best Buy (USA) is currently selling Google's Nest Audio Smart Speaker in Charcoal for $49.99 each. The listing says 'Deal ends tomorrow'

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/google-nest-audio-smart-speaker-charcoal/6428302.p

 

[D-Livs]

Best Buy (USA) is currently selling Google's Nest Audio Smart Speaker in Charcoal for $49.99 each. The listing says 'Deal ends tomorrow'

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/google-nest-audio-smart-speaker-charcoal/6428302.p

Wow missed it! I would have bought a bunch more! Let us know if you see another

 

[Philippe42]

Today, I can't change the sound balance on my Google Nest audio pair. I was able to do it before. New firmware ?

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

Today, I can't change the sound balance on my Google Nest audio pair. I was able to do it before. New firmware ?

I wouldn't be surprised. A couple of weeks ago an activity I set up to play a particular radio station suddenly began to give verbal confirmations when I told it to stop. The menu option that controlled verbal responses had disappeared. On the Google support forum I encountered the usual arrogance of support staff. The official response was that that menu option had never existed with the implication that I was hallucinating. I've encountered similar responses from the support staff before.

 

[Rottmannash]

I noticed the same thing as well-very annoying to have the verbal feedback. Just stop playing.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

I just discovered that LMS the music software formerly known as Logitech Media Server has a plugin called CastBridge that allows you to use Chromecast devices including the Nest Audio to play the music you own as well as several streaming services and a bunch of radio stations. I'd been using BubbleUPNP on Android to do more or less the same thing but it's nice to have another choice. LMS can run on Linux, Mac, Window$, Raspberry Pi as a server and has a web client that works pretty well. LMS plugins are easy to install from within the web client.

 

[dlaloum]

I just discovered that LMS the music software formerly known as Logitech Media Server has a plugin called CastBridge that allows you to use Chromecast devices including the Nest Audio to play the music you own as well as several streaming services and a bunch of radio stations. I'd been using BubbleUPNP on Android to do more or less the same thing but it's nice to have another choice. LMS can run on Linux, Mac, Window$, Raspberry Pi as a server and has a web client that works pretty well. LMS plugins are easy to install from within the web client.

Does it sync the players the way the native LMS protocol does?

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

Does it sync the players the way the native LMS protocol does?

I haven't tried it. I have a stereo pair that I use in one room. I believe it should, without objective evidence.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

Just look at the synchronize option. It's not greyed out so I assume it treats the Nest Audio as another player.

 

[Homard]

After reading Amir's favorable review last year, I purchased a handful of the nest speakers for $49.95 each. Initially, I had difficulty setting up a stereo pair but eventually succeeded. As others have said, the Google HOME app is not good. I use Roon to feed the nests and find the speakers pleasant enough as nearfield desktop speakers that are used infrequently in a small room . Recently, I gave a "new" unboxed speaker to a friend to serve as an internet radio. It worked well for a week and then stopped responding to voice commands rendering it useless for him. This gave me the opportunity to conduct an experiment that I had thought about when the speaker review came out-basically to try the speaker as a passive one. So I eviscerated the nest removing all the electronics, connected a small, inexpensive two-way crossover (a YLY-2088) that fits nicely on the back of the nest, and started thinking about what source and amp to use to try it out. Staring me in the face was a laptop with Tanchjim Space dongle, so I tried that and, lo and behold, there was music at a reasonable level! I have yet to try a proper amp and play around with the crossover settings but will get to that in due course. However, I thought others might find the experiment interesting and suggest other, better mods.

 

[D-Livs]

Well, how did it sound? I assume the nest internals were heavily DSP’d

Post a photo plz!

 

[Homard]

Well, how did it sound? I assume the nest internals were heavily DSP’d

Post a photo plz!

It sounded rather decent. I have not done any critical listening yet.

 

[D-Livs]

It’s like a little terminator on your desktop

 

[Homard]

Indeed, I rather like how it looks and it will be even better when I clean up the wiring a bit. This was just a test prototype. I think it might also look cool painted black.

 

[capslock]

How did y'all get them to work as a stereo pair? I haven't tried in more than half a year but the last time I did, everything failed including starting a new home.

 

[Rottmannash]

How did y'all get them to work as a stereo pair? I haven't tried in more than half a year but the last time I did, everything failed including starting a new home.

It took me multiple attempts and finally it worked but talk about a confusing process!

 

[josb25]

Hey everyone,
The passive mod in #332 is a great solution, but I’m working on a solution in parallel to keep the stock amplifier and footprint, while ditching the Google SoC. I'm designing a custom, replacement PCB that drives the stock TAS5825M (which sits on the seperate power board) via an ESP32 S3 (I2C, I2S).
The goal is a 100% local, zero-latency monitor (UAC 2.0, ESPHome/Home Assistant compatible) that reuses the original 24V supply.

I successfully got the Amp/DSP to play sounds from the ESP32 but now to my Problem:
My donor mainboard is dead, so I can’t capture the initialization sequence which defines the DSP settings. I would need a 'Logic Sniff' of the I2C lines (SDA/SCL) from a functioning unit during boot-up to get the baseline Hex Dump for the TAS5825M registers.

The stock tuning is a consumer compromise, but since we will have full I2C control over the TAS5825M’s Biquads, Crossovers, and DRC via the ESP32, we aren't limited to Google's settings. I can handle the hardware engineering, but I was wondering if the community could help to
extract the OG tuning via sniffing and to possibly expand on it in the future.

If anyone has a functioning unit and a logic analyzer, your help in capturing the initial dump would be greatly appretiated. You can tap into the I2C lines on test pads on the underside of the power board (Message me for more info). From there, the floor is open to anyone who wants to help establish a new, better-tuned Hex profile for these drivers in this specific housing.

If anyone has access to PPC3 (the Software which Ti advertises to configure the DSP) help would also be very welcome, since I can't get access myself.

Would love to hear your thoughts or if anyone is interested in collaborating on the DSP side!

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

I set up a mesh network using two routers about 10 days ago. I had been using two routers and had a network for each radio. Now I have two routers I could operate independently if I want but also can use them as a mesh system. I've been having some problems with the Nest Audio stereo pair. I have a feeling that it has to do with the devices seeing different radios and thinking of them as separate networks even though they operate as though they were the same network. After stumbling around for a day before I got a stereo pair configured, my only problem has been having one speaker or the other drop the network connection and need to be rebooted. All of my other network devices seem to coexist with the new system without any problems.