Google - Home Max - Smart Speaker with Google Assistant - Chalk

I'll be honest. I was skeptical of this thing from the get-go, because it is expensive. But all of that skepticism went out the door when I started using it. First, the criticisms. The touch sensitive bar isn't fool-proof. It doesn't register correctly 100% of the time, and I found myself accidentally pausing when I was trying to adjust the volume. However, you have more options than just touching the speaker or talking to it. You can adjust the volume in the Google Home app. This is my go-to way to do so, and I encourage other people to explore the option as well. For better or worse, most people have their phones nearby almost all of the time. And that's it. That's the only criticism I have. The sound is incredible. I actually experienced this kind of revelation when it comes to speakers. I, like a lot of people, had mostly relied on small units to provide sound at social gatherings- like UE's Boom 2 and JBL's Pulse 3. Until now, I'd have told you that these speakers were great. But after listening to the Max for ten minutes, I realized that I was more at ease with the sound. Even the most raucous songs were suddenly enjoyable at ridiculously high volume. It begs the question of whether most people simply don't know what good sounds like. The bass is rich and fills the room at even low volumes without being overbearing and high notes remain crisp and clear without distortion. Google Assistant? Amazing. There's not much to say here that hasn't already been said. The best part, though, is the free year of YouTube Red. That's $120 worth of pretty much whatever you want to listen to, even if you turn your screen off and walk away. Start up a playlist and forget about it. No ads. Google Play Music included. Nuts. Using that credit allowed me to cancel my Apple Music subscription. $120 in my pocket.

I absolutely love the Google Home products, and the Max is the best of the bunch. My first impression upon taking it out of the box was how large it is - it is bigger than it looks in pictures, and fairly hefty (shipping weight was 19.5 lbs.). Make sure you have a solid surface to place this on. The Max can be placed vertically or horizontally, and comes with a little oval-shaped rubber mat to place under it in either orientation so that it sits slightly off of the surface you place it on. Setting it up was a breeze - plug it in, download the app, follow the app's instructions, and there you go. It takes no more than 2 or 3 minutes. I have different uses for each of my Google Home devices, and my Max is used primarily for listening to Spotify. Google Assistant is a nice added bonus for sleep timers and alarms as well as other things, and gives me the answer I'm looking for most of the time. It is not perfect yet, but the great thing about these smart home devices is that they are always learning. Where the Google Home Max really shines for me is the sound. It has plenty of volume for my needs, and I like my music LOUD. I listen to almost everything, my preferences being electronic music such as House, Big Beat, Dubstep - basically anything that would fall into the techno category. You know, stuff with a lot of bass - which the Max delivers in spades. It has plenty of bass at the default setting, but I have mine bumped up to about 70% and it still sounds warm and punchy, not boomy or overwhelming by any means. Mids and highs are extremely clear as well, making this a fantastic speaker for any kind of music. I have tried rock, alternative, and a bit of Philip Glass, and they all sound great. I don't have any smart home gadgets like lights or thermostats yet, so I can't attest to how well those work, but I have streamed via bluetooth from my phone, and that works perfectly. It is a pricey product, no doubt, but is is exactly what I was looking for to fill my house with rich, warm music. I love it, and would highly recommend it to anyone.

I've been holding off on purchasing a smart speaker until one came along that actually sounds good. Let me say this right off, this speaker does sound good. Really good. It gets loud, has great base, and produces clear sounds. However, that's really where my positive impressions end. I was immediately disappointed that I couldn't use my voice to play music I'd uploaded to the Google Play Music service. I have albums that are not available digitally, so these are legally ripped and uploaded songs. Funny enough, although I couldn't use voice commands to play the songs, I could play them by casting from the Google Play Music app. Ok...fine. Whatever. It's a minor inconvenience, right? Well, it is until the speakers stopped taking cast commands from my phone. I'd try to select music to play, the speaker would make a "boop!" sound, then nothing. I called support several times, and to their credit, they did a decent job over the phone. Fixes included unplugging all the Google Home speakers (I had five, two Google Home Max and three regular Google Home speakers), reseting my router, uninstalling and reinstalling the Google Play Music and Google Home apps. The system would work for an hour, then right back to the same problems. You should not have to troubleshoot your speaker every time you use it. It should just work. It broke my heart to return these speakers, but Bestbuy took them back and let me exchange them. To summarize... PROS: Great sound. Super customer service from Google and Bestbuy. Design and packaging is beautiful. Setup isn't easy, but not overly difficult either. CONS: Can't play legal, uploaded music using voice commands. Casting capability drops out constantly requiring complete reset.

The Google home max is both a speaker and an assistant such as Amazon's Alex or Apple's Siri. My opinion of the speaker portion of the product is that it produces excellent sound quality comparable to mid-price speaker. It can be used in mono mode or by adding a second speaker paired to the first it can play stereo. The best part of the Home Max is the assistant part. No more buttons to push. Aside from answering questions (weather, time etc) it can also control what plays. It has built in apps that allow it to play radio stations from anywhere in the US. It can be told to set an alarm for 7am tomorrow; chime in 20 minutes or play music and go to sleep in 10 minutes. It has a large set of voice commands. Technical support from Google is outstanding. I have used their chat support system and they quickly understand my issue/problem and provide a solution. Inputs are WiFi, Bluetooth and wired. you can use your smart phone to "cast" several music services such as Pandora on your iPhone directly via WiFi to the speaker. The Pandora app detects the presence of the Google Home Max and automatically adds a "cast" button on its song page (lower right). From conversations with Google support I learned the firmware is updated so your speaker always has the latest fixes and new features.

I received a Google Max as a birthday gift, purchased from Best Buy. It worked fine for a few weeks, but I soon noticed that it wasn't playing music when I tried to stream, nor would it tell me the news when asked ... the Google AI does respond, affirming the action requested, but nothing that requires streaming will actually play on the speaker. If I tell it to "play my thumbs up playlist" the AI responds that it is doing the requested action, and the app shows that music is playing, but nothing actually is playing from the speaker. I have a several regular Google Home and Home Minis, and they all work fine, and I can broadcast streaming on all of them simultaneously, but the Max remains silent. I contacted support, and have gone through many layers of technical support, but now it's with 'development' and has been for almost 2 months with no promise of a fix, or even a time I can expect a fix to be completed. So now I have a very expensive, but mostly useless 'premium' speaker. I asked for a replacement since it's been so long but they would not send one, saying a new speaker wouldn't necessarily work either. I can use it to turn on and off my Hue lights, but that's about it, so $400 is a lot to spend for that functionality when and a mini would do the same for 1/10th of the cost. When it worked I liked it, but now I wouldn't recommend it to anyone now.

Best BUY is PREMO don't confuse the two. Now back to the facts! I purchased the whole SMEAR the GOOGLE MAX, 2 MINI'S, NEST doorbell and the NEST thermostat. The NEST products are like BESTBUY PREMO. Anything that relates to the GOOGLE speakers DANGER stay away the BRIDGE is out trouble ahead if you purchase. The support staff for this product can't support themselves let alone these SPEAKERS. If you purchase for the use of the SPEAKERS you may get what you purchased SPEAKERS. For two weeks I've spent time on the phone with GOOGLE support but all is a waste of time. Don't believe anything about escalating your issue to another department for a call back from the engineering department. Iam 68 year old Vietnam Veteran who purchased this JUNK with the intentions of using the features to integrate all my SMART electronics with GOOGLE Max/Mini's. Please don'y make the mistake and purchase this JUNK AHEAD.

I want to start out with saying I bought two of these speakers to pair for my entertainment system. There were cheaper options, but I like the ability to have google built in. Now here comes the review. The speakers sound great and look great in the way they are setup in my entertainment center. They are Bluetooth capable and their lies the problem. The speakers by themselves play great and have no issues (using Spotify). The issue is when you connect the speakers through audio cable or through bluetooth using you're phone, iPad or TV there is a notable lag in audio. The lag is software and google is aware of the issue according to multiple forums. When connected through bluetooth to your TV and you’re watching a movie the last thing you want to SEE is the words from actors before you HEAR them through the speakers. The sound is wonderful, but this lag is annoying considering 399.99 per unit. Just keep this in mind if buying for entertainment or a DJ or anything that will make a lag in audio a huge deal breaker.

This speaker is on an entirely different level compared to the other Google Home speakers. I replaced the standard Google Home speaker I had in my kitchen with this monster and popped it on top of the refrigerator (since that's the only place it would fit without being obtrusive) and, wow. It has no problem filling out my entire downstairs. If I combine it with my home theater (via chromecast multi-room audio), and crank everything full blast I'm sure to have the police come knocking in a moments notice. Or, turn everything down a tad and have awesome full sound throughout the house at a lower volume and still be able to talk with your friends. This thing sounds good cranked or at lower volumes. It's awesome. Is it necessary? Absolutely not. But if you can swing it and you're on the fence, just buy the thing. You'll be glad you did. Oh yea, and all of the Google functionality works flawlessly as well. Thumbs up