Gadgetory

if you want a smart speaker with more power this is the Google home max functionally it's just like the original Google home only this one has a big freaking speaker on it look at this thing when you want to get something done it has Google assistant built-in so you can use a voice command to make a phone call to your long-lost relative you can settle a debate with friends by searching the web you can even turn off the lights if you really don't feel like getting up when you're ready to play the max has you covered there too it's built specifically for audio files and good news it's the best sounding smart speaker out there even better than our previous favorite the Sonos one however here comes the other shoe the Google home max is a hefty $400 so do we recommend it that's tricky as far as those smarts are concerned you can get the same always listening Google assistant with all of the same capabilities in the $130 original Google home or the $50 Google home Mini the solace one is only $200 and it has an asan's assistant Alexa built-in with Google assistant on the way so if you primarily want always listening smarts and just use the speaker for background music you don't need to spend up for the max if you're more demanding in your music needs and access you covered with lots of specs aims to please audio files it'll automatically adapt its sound based on what room it's in you can use the app to fine tune the bass or the treble of your music it'll act as a stereo or mono speaker depending on whether it's horizontal or you flip it vertical and you can pair it with another matched speaker for true stereo sound it also kept up with similarly priced tabletop speakers from Sonos and Bose we like the Max's sounded better than the Bose soundTouch 30 we still like the Sonos play 5 a little more especially for rock but the max holds its own you might want to adjust the EQ to reduce the brightness and you want to keep the volume just short of full to avoid Distortion I also found the touch controls on the top insensitive but these are nitpicks the biggest problem for the max is that it gets caught in the middle it definitely can't keep up with a full stereo system even playing to Mac speakers in stereo doesn't add much depth it's not balanced right and it's too expensive if you just want smarts but thanks to Google assistant the max has features that the similarly priced Sonos and bose speakers can match and it's good enough to fill a room with excellent sound so if you want a smart speaker that can help you throw a dance party the $400 google home max is actually worth your consideration