So, you’ve narrowed your sensible speaker decisions right down to the highest two high-end fashions: the Google Home Max that got here to market in late 2017, and the Amazon Echo Studio that got here two years later. You have good style, my good friend. These are each very advantageous audio system even when they don’t compete with high-fidelity dumb loudspeakers from the likes of Bowers & Wilkins, Naim, or Bang & Olufsen.
Comparing the Google Home Max and Amazon Echo Studio on seven counts reveals some vital variations, and one vital similarity, that ought to assist you make up your thoughts.
Round 1: Audio efficiency
Even in case your sole cause for purchasing a sensible speaker is to manage your sensible residence, you’re nonetheless shopping for a speaker. You’ll nonetheless care what your digital assistant of selection feels like when it responds to your instructions and queries even in the event you by no means intend to play music on that speaker. That would possibly matter much less with an entry-level sensible speaker, however once you’re purchasing at this degree, a sensible speaker’s musicality is its most vital attribute.
The Google Home Max incorporates a extra conventional speaker design than the Amazon Echo Studio.
And on this rating, the Google Home Max is best than any sensible speaker in the marketplace. While I wouldn’t classify it as an audiophile product, its twin 4.5-inch high-excursion woofers and two 0.7-inch dome tweeters pushed by six Class D amplifiers ship thrilling audio performances with all sorts of music.
The Amazon Echo Studio is available in a really shut second on this rating, nevertheless, and that’s saying rather a lot. While its single 5.25-inch woofer is smaller, it delivers solely very barely much less bass response. The building of its enclosure, then again, does little to stop vibrations from the speaker from being transferred to no matter floor the speaker is resting on, coloring its sound within the course of.
AmazonThis cutaway illustration reveals how the Amazon Echo Studio’s drivers are configured to ship 3D audio from tracks encoded with Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio.
Amazon can also be distinctive in its assist for 3D audio, through Sony’s 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos. But you’ll have to pony up for a subscription to Amazon Music HD to get it. TechHive contributor and residential audio professional Scott Wilkinson has great things to say about Sony’s new format performed on headphones, however I was less impressed with it as rendered on the Echo Studio.
Both sensible audio system could be paired with an identical second speaker for stereo efficiency, and each could be nodes in a multi-room audio system. But solely Amazon presents the choice of including a wi-fi subwoofer for deep bass copy.
But constancy is extra vital than thump and sonic tomfoolery in my e book, so the Google Home Max wins this spherical.
Winner: Google Home Max
Round 2: Voice recognition
The main cause anybody buys a high-end sensible speaker is to take heed to music. And in the event you’re listening to music on a high-end speaker, you’re seemingly going to play it loud. The conundrum is that the microphones on the speaker want to have the ability to hear you say the wake phrase even whereas the speaker is blasting your favourite tunes. On this rating, I discovered the mics on the Google Home Max to be extra able to listening to me say (or shout, to be truthful) “Hey, Google” whereas the speaker was pumping music at full quantity than the Echo Studio was at listening to me yell “Alexa” whereas equally cranked.
Michael Brown / IDGThe Google Home Max has microphones on its proper facet, which turns into the highest facet when the speaker is vertically oriented.
At the opposite finish of the spectrum, there are occasions once you most actually don’t wish to elevate your voice when asking your sensible speaker to do one thing for you—once you’re in mattress along with your accomplice who you don’t wish to disturb. Amazon’s Alexa has a “whisper” mode that allows you to communicate very softly to an Echo and Alexa will reply in variety. Google Assistant’s Night Mode will cut back its quantity, emit a tone as a substitute of a vocal response, and restrict the brightness of its LED indicators; however this solely works at outlined instances on specified days.
In different respects, each audio system have wonderful voice recognition. You’ll have to resolve which of the 2 benefits described above is extra vital to you, however I’m calling this one a tie.
Winner: Tie
Round 4: Physical controls
Don’t underestimate the significance of buttons. Yes, you’ll use your voice to manage a sensible speaker 95 p.c of the time, however there’s nothing higher than the feeling of contact—at the very least once you’re close to the speaker.
Michel Brown / IDGThere’s no thriller about what the Amazon Echo Studio’s controls do.
The Amazon Echo Studio and Google Home Max each have bodily controls, however the Echo Studio’s distinct buttons for quantity management are superior to the touch-sensitive slider on the Google Home Max. Pushing buttons delivers reassuring tactile suggestions that non-haptic touch-sensitive controls can’t match. I’d like old school rotating knobs much more, though they won’t be as aesthetically pleasing.
Winner: Amazon Echo Studio
Round 5: Privacy protections
Neither Amazon nor Google are within the vanguard of private privateness safety. There’s no scarcity of horror tales about privateness breaches from each: Amazon admitted that human error led to one Echo user gaining access to greater than 1,000 voice recordings made by one other Echo person. And Google admitted final yr that it had been utilizing paid contractors to listen to audio clips recorded by Google Assistant, together with person names, addresses, and different private data.
Michael Brown / IDGThe purple ring encircling the Amazon Echo Studio offers unambiguous visible suggestions that its mics are muted for privateness.
While every firm has made strides to enhance its efficiency on this entrance, there’s no query that placing a sensible speaker in your house opens your private house to a 3rd get together.
Both audio system permit you to mute their microphones, however this step is less complicated to carry out on the Echo Studio than it’s on the Google Home Max, and Amazon’s speaker offers the higher visible cue that its mics are turned off. To mute the Echo Studio’s mic, you merely have to faucet the button on the left-hand prime of the speaker. When you do, the LED gentle ring encircling the tweeter turns a deep purple.
Michael Brown / IDGA row of orange dots isn’t essentially the most intuitive indication that the Google Home Max’s microphones are muted for privateness.
To mute the mics on the Google Home Max, you’ll want to achieve round and slide a swap on the again of the speaker. This just isn’t solely much less handy, however the speaker’s visible suggestions—4 static orange dots displayed beneath its material grill—is a a lot much less apparent cue that the speaker isn’t listening to you. So, the Amazon Echo Studio wins this spherical—nevertheless barely.
Winner: Amazon Echo Studio
Round 6: Smart residence ecosystem assist
Google is working exhausting to shut the hole on this rating, however Amazon maintains a really slight lead when it comes to assist from third-party sensible residence system producers. Most ship new merchandise with assist for each digital assistants, however none—barring the Google-owned Nest, maybe—ship with out supporting at the very least Alexa.
It additionally simply feels extra pure to say “Alexa, turn on the light” than to say “Hey, Google. Turn on the light.” Alexa has a character, the place Google Assistant by no means seems like rather more than a cold-hearted robotic. That final evaluation may be one thing of a private bias for me—you would possibly really feel in another way. Google Assistant runs away with the subsequent class, however Alexa wins this spherical.
Winner: Amazon Echo Studio
Round 7: General information queries
There’s no contest on this spherical. Google Assistant’s hooks into the Google search engine imbue it with an incredible benefit once you’re on the lookout for basic data versus needing to play music, activate a light-weight, lock your door, arm your safety system, or get related duties achieved in your sensible residence.
The two platforms are on a fair keel solely once you ask quite simple questions, for instance: How many ounces are in a cup? But in most different respects, even the place you’d anticipate Alexa to have a leg up—answering questions on who starred in or directed a film, for example, since Amazon owns IMDb—a Google Home sensible speaker beats an Amazon Echo each time.
Winner: Google Home Max
Michael Brown / IDGThe Google Home Max (left) has a a lot smaller footprint when it’s vertically oriented.
Bottom line: It’s a detailed name, however…
I’m placing better weight on this comparability’s first spherical, musical efficiency, to declare the Google Home Max a superior sensible speaker over the Amazon Echo Studio.
Yes, Google’s speaker gained solely two of the seven rounds and tied Amazon’s high-end speaker in a 3rd. So, yeah, I’m placing my thumb on the size. But in the event you don’t care a few sensible speaker’s audio constancy, there’s actually no cause to spend a number of hundred {dollars} to purchase one—decide up an entry-level Nest Home Mini or Amazon Echo Dot, as a substitute.