Smart speaker/smart display reviews

greenhorn

greenhorn

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Like a lot of us, I was pretty sceptical of paying to install a wiretap in my house. Then I got a second generation echo and was blown away by the sound quality vs size, and now I have three of them, a JBL smart display, Alexa show 8, home mini and home.

My main use is for whole house audio. Earlier, getting whole house audio meant blasting my stereo at full volume and pissing off my neighbours, but these let me get music at sane volumes all around the house. In terms of audio quality, I find the JBL link view the best, then the echo show 8, 2nd Gen echo, Google home all sound similar, with the mini bringing up the rear.


I'm interested in how the mi smart speaker sounds. Anyone else has reviews?
 
Am using MI smart speakers and they are pretty average. They don't seamlessly connect with Mi devices (am spoilt by Apple's ecosystem) and certainly not meant for blasting loud music. They are best suited for a 10X15 room, at 4k they are certainly not worth the price. (I got them at 2k)
 
Google nest mini 2 has deceptively good sound quality and seamless integration with Tidal, Spotify and all other chromecast apps. Easy to manage as groups etc on Google Home app.

I have an Amazon echo full size one as well and compared to that the google home nest mini 2 (not the first one) has very good or similar sound which is just amazing for such a small device.

The 2nd gen google mini is in a different league compared to their 1st gen
 
The Mi speaker is not bad - thats the best i can say about it
It goes loud but distorts a bit and has boomy bass..
I got it for 1499/- so cant complain though
 
Where does it slot in between the mini and standard size speakers? Some say that it's almost as good as the regular size previous Gen home and echo
 
greenhorn said:
Where does it slot in between the mini and standard size speakers? Some say that it's almost as good as the regular size previous Gen home and echo
Click to expand...
its hard to say
The size and associated physics naturally mean that the sound is fuller than the miniature echo/ home
It is however not close to The full size echo and home (i have both) and absolutely nowhere near the full sized homepod

Google, Amazon and esp apple have done some phenomenal work on their internal DSP to make even their miniature speakers sound good despite the physical limitations - while the Mi one (I think) handles the audio as is.

The net result is a fuller sound (compared to the miniatures) for sure but The overall SQ is very mediocre at best .
If its coming At 1499, do consider - but not at full price
 
greenhorn said:
Where does it slot in between the mini and standard size speakers? Some say that it's almost as good as the regular size previous Gen home and echo
Click to expand...
In fact, I had a similar requirement of casting music across several rooms in low volume.
Had various echo devices in the group setup, before I got the Mi ones on offer.

I have two of these Mi speakers connected in stereo mode and the soundstage of these is too good for the price.
They sound a bit harsh at times on higher volumes,
but I found the overall quality similar if not better than 2nd gen Echo, probably because of my stereo usage.

They double up as a wireless Bluetooth speaker pair and actually sound better than many 20k soundbars without sub.

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I needed another and bought the mi speaker instead of another home mini. Once I saw the speaker I was expecting some decent sound. But after listening to it, I'm extremely underwhelmed. The sound is only slightly better than the home mini and nowhere near the home or the echo second Gen. And worse, the music is audibility compressed. I can hear the vocals being supressed every time there is some bass. And the bass isn't particularly audible. Given the size of the enclosure and the driver in the teardown videos, I was expecting some decent low end. Despite having a bigger enclose and a bigger driver, the mi still manages to sound worse. Maybe because it has only half the power of the Google.
 
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