New Music
Songs
The Dirty Guv’nahs - “Little Blue Eyes”
Bea Miller - “Wisdom Teeth”
Marc Scibilia - “How Many Times”
Tennis - “Superstar”
Bebe Rexha, Doja Cat - “Baby, I’m Jealous”
Kongos - “Terrified”
Anderson .Paak - “Jewelz”
Albums
Almost Monday - Don’t Say You’re Ordinary EP
Patrick Droney - State of the Heart EP
Ellie Schmidly - Balance & Composure EP
Dinner Party - Dessert
Darlingside - Fish Pond Fish
Bahamas - Sad Hunk
Review - Google Nest Audio
Google’s new smart speaker Nest Audio has its pros and cons, but at $99, its price is its most compelling draw.
I’ve been trying out Google’s new Nest Audio speaker for the last week. It’s 6.9-inch height and 4.9-inch width is smaller in person than it looks in pictures. Because it’s compact it can fit pretty naturally throughout a home. It comes in several different colors and looks great. More important than anything else, especially because it has “audio” in its name, is its sound quality. In that regard, its results are mixed.
For its physical size, Nest Audio sounds impressive. For its $99 price, it sounds pretty good. But just in general, compared to any other speaker, it only sounds fine. The bass is by far the sound aspect which makes it impressive. The low-end sound is tight and full bodied. Several times I found myself staring at the speaker a bit perplexed that the thin and small unit was producing the low frequency it was. Its mid-frequency range seems acceptable, but the high-end and upper range is where the speaker loses any mystique.
To produce the sound, Nest Audio uses a 75 mm woofer and a 19 mm tweeter. But even when Google Assistant is speaking, feels like its hits a ceiling of the range it can produce. The mid to high end is where the speaker feels small.
I was able to test two units in a left-right stereo mode and it generally felt the same — just a bit louder and more spacial. I ran through some different songs with a pair of Nest Audios and compared the same songs using a HomePod and a Sonos Play:5. I used “Freeze Tag” by Dinner Party, “Los Angeles” by Haim, and “Magnetic” by Joan.
Nest Audio routinely felt like a snowman. By that I mean the bass was big and round. The mid-range was smaller and less robust. While the high-end where the presence comes from felt small and constrained. Comparatively, the HomePod takes up the physical space of about 1.5 Nest Audios, but has a bigger low-end and a much wider dynamic range overall. The Play:5 felt massive and was the best at filling a room with tall 14-foot ceilings. Two Nest Audios retail for $200. The HomePod sells for $300. A new Sonos Five is $500 — this isn’t a fair comparison. But, is the HomePod $100 better than two nest Audios? I think so. Is the Sonos Five $300 better as a speaker than two Nest Audios, or $400 better than a single one? Yes. If you really want a speaker to listen and enjoy audio, I think there are better choices out there.
Where Nest Audio excels is its ability to wear multiple hats for a low cost. It’s a decent voice assistant (though I have had trouble with its mics hearing me) and a decent speaker with flexiblity to be put almost anywhere in the home. The better comparison would be to a Nest Mini at $49. Nest Audio is much better than two Nest Minis and should be the default voice assistant purchase.
News
Speaking of HomePod, the latest rumor suggests that Apple will announce a new, $99 HomePod Mini at its event on Tuesday, October 13.
Ava Max drew a crowd of 1.2 million people to her Roblox album launch party. Artists and managers should not be sleeping on Roblox potential to drive traffic, eyes, and ears.
Spotify launched some new charts for weekly top 50 albums and songs. Spotify has also launched lyric search on mobile. And, if you’re curious how Spotify CEO Daniel Ek works, you can check out a new productivity interview with him.
Gear
Devialet is getting into portable audio with its new $299 Gemini wireless earbuds.
Bang & Olufsen remade the Beogram turntable and it’s stunning. It’s also expensive at $11,000.