Yes, the Google Nest Audio is a good buy! It has excellent far-field performance and you can easily mute the microphone if you don’t want to be heard. Overall, it is a good replacement for Google Home with its cute size and clear sound, plus it’s also Google Assistant supported.
The Google Nest Audio is a small speaker with a full crisp-clear sound that you can have for as low as $100. The Nest Audio replaces its previous Google Home pedestal, a new rounded, fabric speaker filled with equipment designed to provide fuller sound in your office, kitchen, bedroom, living room, or study.
Google was able to give us the low down on how and why they designed the new Nest Audio Speaker. Let me show you how good this small speaker is! Keep reading!
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Is Nest Audio sound very good?
The Google Nest Audio is a small speaker with built-in Google Assistant capabilities. Because of this, it can be activated using your voice and it can understand you even if you’re not close to the speaker.
You can also mute the microphone if you don’t want to use Google Assistant. Like the Google Nest Mini, Nest Audio is compatible with the Google Home app. And that means you can adjust the treble and bass and pair it with the Google speaker.
So yes it’s actually amazing doundwise, Nest Audio runs at 86 dB max loudness, at 77 dB max on bass. It may not get very loud and that doesn’t make it an ideal outdoor speaker. That said, it’s more suitable for use inside your room so you can enjoy great sound.
Check out my unboxing video on Google Nest Audio below.
If you want to set up a Nest login account without Google, I have written a comprehensive guide for you in this article. Check it out!
Nest Audio Heat Dissipation
The front of the Google Nest Audio is made of aluminum and the base has magnesium to help dissipate the heat generated from the sound experience.
Google put the Nest Audio through rigorous temperature testing to see how the sound would respond to intense environmental conditions.
The old Google Home has a full-range driver (2inch) and two passive radiators to deliver the bass. At lower volumes, you could hear the Google Home muffle or distort at lower volumes. While the new Nest Audio tweeter is dedicated to the bass, and the woofer is dedicated to high and mid-range sound.
Nest Audio Tested
- Tested in the thermal chamber, up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit to see if it could survive extreme weather. Even though Google knows that most people are not going to use it at this temperature, they did such a kind of test to get data on how the Nest Audio and future products would respond to extreme conditions.
- Google developed proprietary simulation software while creating Nest Audio. Google automated the simulation software to map out the characteristics of specific tuning changes.
- You should try at different volumes and see if the bass is still functional at lower volumes: The Nest Audio bass is still clear and significant at lower volumes.
- Nest Audio adapts to the content you’re playing:
- Ambient IQ: Lots of noise in the home; kids. Nest Audio meters background noise and adapts Google Assistant voice to respond at the right volume for you. It boosts Google Assistant. But Google Assistant might not hear you when it’s loud.
- Media EQ: Tunes the speaker to the content you’re playing, including responses to the Assistant
- Bass Extension: Delivers extra bass at lower volumes.
- EQ – Tunes for music, Google Assistant, and podcasts separately.
- The ‘Muffle’ nature of Google Home was off the charts due to the Google Home radiator. However, Nest Audio is able to deliver bass consistently throughout its range.
- Note: Google’s Audio Engineers had to bring all the right audio equipment to their home to test out the Nest Audio.
Nest Audio Performance
Google hopes that you can hear the full audio for all genres of music.
What is Google good at? They are good at hardware, and it gets better every generation. But the software is Google’s special sauce. Google realized that audiophiles will spend thousands of dollars to put speakers into their walls.
That said, Google optimized its software to get premium sound into the size and form factor of a Nest Audio speaker.
Nest Audio may be a small speaker but it has excellent sound quality. Plus, it has different colors to help fit in each room.
Nest Audio vs. Nest Hub Max
Google knows that the value and sound quality of the Nest Hub Max are the highest. However, not everyone would bring a Nest Hub Max to every room, so they decided to create the Nest Audio to be able to fill the sound space in each room.
The Nest Hub Max is a great way to watch your favorite Netflix show, but the Nest Audio gives you an affordable price point to add throughout the home.
Why should you buy Google Nest Audio?
You have to! It is said that, apart from it’s sound that is less than 80% louder and bolder than it’s predecessor, Google Home, it’s also much stronger by 50% when it comes to its bass. Here are some of the reasons to buy Nest Audio:
Nest Audio Design
Staring with Audio Design, Google had a few priorities in mind when designing the Nest Audio:
- Footprint: Google tried to minimize its footprint. They wanted to fit anywhere in the home after realizing Google Home did not fit in every room.
- To look great as a pair: Nest Audio was made to work as a pair of speakers. You can create a left-right stereo pair and in turn, get wider sound space.
- Capacitive touch controls: Interesting locations. I’ll just say that. If you look at the video given at the top of this article, you’ll see where they are placed.
Nest Audio Colors
Moreover, its colors! Google Nest Audio comes in 5 different colors – sage, sand, sky, chalk, and charcoal.
I didn’t expect anything different from Google. The pastel colors are basically Google’s basic colors. However, sky blue, chalk, and charcoal caught my eye… just my opinion.
Nest Audio Sustainability
Google Nest Audio is made with 70% recycled materials. Google is using plastic from 1.2 recycled plastic water bottles per manufacturer of Nest Audio.
Nest Audio Processing Power
1 Teraflop of processing power. Local processing occurs on the Nest Audio. The experience is much faster, twice as fast as the original Google Home. The hardware is the same as the Nest Mini, but the software gets better over time. Soon, Google Assistant will learn your favorite commands and get better to respond over time.
The Nest Home Max pair costs $598. However, there are other products (Google Home Mini, Nest Mini) that can be paired for a lot less. Perhaps Google didn’t think that stereo pairing is going to be the best indicator for buying a pair of speakers.
There was speculation that the Nest Audio speaker was going to be a truly portable Bluetooth speaker. However, to have access to Google Assistant and all the functions that Google provides on the Nest Audio, it needed constant power. Google is focused on ensuring that when you install the Nest Audio, you will have full access to Google Assistant, therefore they focused on the Nest Audio to get you Google’s main product – Google Assistant.
On the other hand, it might come with a slight CONS too. I’ve summarized the data on this table:
| Benefits | Cons |
Affordable Supports Group Pairing | Multiroom voice controls are unreliable |
| Compact Size, good for travel | Its size slightly limits bass and output |
| Google Assistant supported | Tendency for Google Assistant to pick the wrong music via voice commands |
| Strong and Loud Bass | Sound can crack with network issues |
| No hassle with track skipping and adjusting volume |
Can I use Nest Audio as Bluetooth speaker?
Nest Audio comes with built-in Bluetooth and a Chromecast with capacitive controls making it a great audio for home theater. However if you’re planning of connecting it via port, it doesnt come with a ethernet port nor the 3.5mm jack input.
Furthermore, we also sked Google about Thread communications. We didn’t see any chip noted for the Thread in the Nest Audio in Google’s presentation to us or in the Launch Night In Press Release.
Google would only say that most of the devices have a lot of connectivity options. They were not able to confirm that Thread was available on Nest Audio.
When the Google Connectivity Team had their hands on the Nest Audio design, they looked into whether the Nest Audio would be WiFi mesh capable and have a separate Bluetooth stream.
They stress-tested the WiFi connection when using stereo pairing. Are the stereo pair speakers working as separate WiFi devices? My understanding (which I will clarify later if I’m wrong) is that each speaker might have its own sound channel, so they send two streams, and each speaker is working on its own stream and synchronized.
Nest Audio in groups, pairs, or anywhere in the home
You can create groups, a whole home group, stereo pair.
- Speaker Groups: You can create speaker groups with Nest Audio with other Nest speakers and the Chromecast.
- Multi-room control: You can add to another room with a few taps on your display. You can also move your music to any location in the house by asking Google Assistant to move your music to other Assistant-enabled smart speakers.
- Stereo Pair: Nest Audio supports stereo pairing much like the Google Home Mini and the Nest Mini. Google hopes that you can hear the fullness of sound from the Stereo pair of Nest Audio. Can you imagine having a pair of premium sound Nest Audios for $200?
Don’t you know there’s also Nest Doorbells? But before you buy one, I think it’s wise to study it first. I have a rundown of Nest Doorbells and some guides in this article: How to Reset Nest Doorbell (Explained)
Final Say
Overall, I approve of it. Google found a way to bring premium sound into your home for an affordable price.
They looked at the best speakers on the market and scaled down that design into a smaller, aesthetically looking smart speaker. If you see the colors, they’re very much in the “2021st”. So it’s actually a speaker that will make you feel up to date.
Google was really excited to provide a speaker that you could pair into stereo pairs so you can immerse yourself into any genre of music and still have the convenience of Google Assistant. Google used the magic of software to specifically tune the Nest Audio to fill the sound space with clear sound and great bass throughout its range.
For $100, you’re going to get some amazing sound. Google is betting that your experience will find a way to bring Nest Audio to all your listening spaces.
Got get your Nest Audio now!