Face-Off: Sonos One Beats HomePod, Google Home Max and Amazon Echo

[mprospero]

After evaluating sound quality, design, smart features and more, the Sonos One is the smart speaker to beat.

Face-Off: Sonos One Beats HomePod, Google Home Max and Amazon Echo : Read more

 

[cwoodphotos]

This is probably the best review of smart speakers I've read. Being somewhat of an audio perfectionists and having worked in high end audio equipment design and manufacturing, I appreciate the thoroughness. As the late Gordon Holt of Stereophile Magazine once said, "if you don't have good midrange, you have nothing". Actually, you have boom/tweet. The SONOS would seem to have it all in terms of the best octave to octave balance.

 

[fireitup913]

It is clear from the pictures you are not using the silicone pad under the Google Home Max. I believe you confirmed this in your article about checking smart speakers on a wood surface for marks. These rubber/silicone pads isolate the speaker and reduce low-end vibration transfer; this affects sounds quality. This is why almost all speakers have them or come with them. Google just made theirs for either speaker orientation. If you buy a pair of regular bookshelf speakers they will come with similar pads to stick on. They are typically referred to as "isolation pads" and have a very real affect on sound quality as they help stop vibration transfer. You can find many articles and forums about this and people noting the increase in sold quality, especially if the speaker was on a hard surface. This will most likely negatively the Google Home Max's sound quality especially since its shown on a hard wood surface where its going to have vibration transfer . Considering every other speaker had their pads because they are permanently attached, that is a disadvantage to the Max and may have affected its audio quality score.

 

[pavpev]

I could be going mad but how did the Sonos score 10 in Smart Home Compatibility? I don't believe it has any function here, shouldn't that be a zero? That would make Google Max the winner (just)

 

[phydrean]

Biased. 3x the weight on speaker. It's a smart speak, so the emphasis should be on smart. Amazon wins hands down. Look at your own chart!
Suggest a more objective viewpoint, but then you will have to return any money received by Sonos for the analysis.
I like Tom's Guide, but we all saw right through this...you tried to tweak it in Google's and Sonos's favor and tried to look objective, but it became obvious in the end, you were not. How many Sonos's did you get to keep for this report?