1/26/2024 0 Comments The perfect assistant storyBose's Home Speaker 500 ($379) has Alexa, and a bit extra.Its odd shape keeps it from the top of our list. Don't buy it for music quality alone, but the Echo Studio is right up there with the Google Home Max in terms of bold bass and room-filling soundstage. Amazon's Echo Studio ($200) is the best-sounding Alexa speaker.Plus, it presents an easy way to get a smart assistant into the places in your home where you don't normally listen to music. You can also ask it the weather, have it answer random questions, and play white noise at bedtime to help you sleep. That makes it a better bedroom and kitchen companion. It can tell you when your timers are going to expire in the kitchen or when your alarm is set for the morning. The tiny display on the Echo Dot With Clock comes in handy. We used to prefer the Nest Mini for this reason, but now that Amazon has added a simple clock to the front of the Echo Dot, we like the Alexa-powered option a little better. The sound is very similar between models, and they have nearly identical footprints, so you can argue that one is better than the other based on the ecosystem alone. If you aren’t in it for the music, the Amazon Echo Dot With Clock (5th Gen) and Google's Nest Mini ( 7/10, WIRED Recommends) will give you most of the perks of owning a smart speaker, and you can use them to make existing speakers smarter on the cheap. Google also added support for group video calling through Duo, Zoom, and Google Meet, making this an even better pick if you regularly connect with friends or coworkers using those services. We like that it can use its camera to identify individual members of the house, only showing information pertaining to each, and the larger display makes it great for watching YouTube tutorials. The Nest Hub Max is our current favorite smart display for a number of other reasons, too. Plus, you can use a stop hand gesture to pause music without having to touch the screen or use your voice. You won't get the same fidelity as you'll get from stand-alone smart speakers, but it's enough to have a small dance party while the lasagna bakes. That's why we like the Google Nest Hub Max ( 8/10, WIRED Recommends), which boasts a pair of pretty impressive speakers below its 10-inch display. Smart displays are great in the kitchen, but they often have speakers too weak to help you dance your way through meal prep. Sonos smart speakers, however, have a track record of lasting longer than anything else we've tested, and that will likely continue in the Era Era. Unlike their analog predecessors, you can't expect them to last forever. There is now a fix to support legacy hardware, but unfortunately, this is a reality of computer-powered speakers. It's worth noting that Sonos was in a bit of hot water in 2020 over the fact that its older speakers weren't going to get software updates. If you want to keep things wired, the USB-C port on the back of the Era 100 lets you connect other devices with a dongle.Īs with its predecessor, you're also able to use a couple of Era 100s as surrounds with Sonos' soundbars in your home theater, and you can pair two Era 100s for use as stereo speakers. With the new Bluetooth connectivity offered by the Era 100, you can even wireless connect a turntable (I know, blasphemy!). It's just so easy to integrate them into your space. Multiroom audio support, as well as support for nearly every audio streaming app around, are what really set Sonos apart from other major smart speakers. Google Assistant will still work with your older Sonos speakers, however. If you’re used to asking Google Assistant to control your Sonos speakers, just know that the two new Era models (the 100 and the 300 mentioned below) don’t support Google’s voice controls. As before, it supports Alexa and Apple AirPlay 2 for easy integration with any smart home ecosystem. The new smart speaker also comes with a few physical improvements, including a large volume slider on top, and it has a switch that lets you easily mute the mics if you don't want any voice assistant action. It's not a gimmick: Bass sounds tighter, and highs shimmer even more. Built-in room tuning is especially awesome in this generation, with the ability to bounce a quick frequency scan around your room to help it automatically EQ itself for its exact placement.
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