In case anybody's thinking about pulling the trigger on this, you should know there's a long-standing bug that causes the Home Max to frequently drop its WiFi connection. You can search for "Google Home Max keeps dropping wifi" and find a huge thread dating back a couple years, if you want to verify. Google knows about the problem, but hasn't done anything to solve it, and it's a lot more annoying than you might think it'd be.
Anyway, there's an easy solution that works for several people, including me: if your access point supports a 5GHz band, just put the Home Max on it, with no other devices.
If your AP doesn't support 5GHz, I'd seriously think twice about purchasing this, even at this discount. It'll drive you absolutely nuts.
Sound is fantastic on this. Built in assistant is a bonus, but great to have in the family room. Frozen II soundtrack never sounded so good!
Heads-up Google Home Max is discontinued by Google. That means no firmware updates but existing services are promised by 'Google' to work.
Google doesn't keep up their promise in most cases.
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Got one, hope the wifi issues are not as bad as described here. Was confused between Nest hub max and this one, don't think I need a non shutter cam in my room though. Was there any better alternative? My current JBL link 300 is great but the Bluetooth randomly disconnects ( probably due to phone interference?) Hoping the Aux out overcomes all Bluetooth issues when connected to my laptop. Thank you!
wifi issues are way over blown in this thread. I have 3 of these and dont have any issues. I've also gifted a few and had friends buy them the last time they were on super sale(they dont have issues either). I've run them in stereo and by themselves and also part of an all home speaker group. I've even tried running two with a splitter as PC speakers(massive lag and not what they are meant for). It truly is amazing how good these sound @$400. Getting them at 150 is ....jaw dropping.
I spent about $1200 a 2.1 channel hifi setup for my pc and yes it sounds better but not as much as you would think. (bro3,svspb1000,yamaha amp)
Just setup google home and enjoy. Congrats, you are going to love it.
I bought 4 of these at $150 each last dec. The sound is great! Really punchy bass, and a pair would fill most living rooms well.
I've only used it for music though. Connecting to TV has it's own set of issues, and I didn't both with it.
I bought Sonos One later on, and these have a much more room filling sound. Clarity of audio between the two is really a toss up, and each listener's preference.
The bad
- Google Home app is really screwed up. You set it these up as a pair, then as a group, and attach them to a room. In the end, the app makes the whole thing much more complicated than it should be. Plus, it's very buggy - it messed up the 2 stereo pairs I setup, and wouldn't allow me to delete them from the app. Got tired of messing with it.
- two - is the ability to play music. Google at some this year, limited the ability to stream music from online sources. You can stream music only in your uploaded library. That pushed me to go ahead and return them.
Later on, I replaced these spots with Sonos Ones for a little less. The most important thing is the ability to easily play music from many sources, and not having to deal with buggy app (Google Home and YT Music).
Hope this helps.
Got this last year from dell at $150 to use up the $100 dell amex credit. Very happy with it. No issues with wifi or anything. Room filling sound with good bass for it's bookshelf size.
In case anybody's thinking about pulling the trigger on this, you should know there's a long-standing bug that causes the Home Max to frequently drop its WiFi connection. You can search for "Google Home Max keeps dropping wifi" and find a huge thread dating back a couple years, if you want to verify. Google knows about the problem, but hasn't done anything to solve it, and it's a lot more annoying than you might think it'd be.
Anyway, there's an easy solution that works for several people, including me: if your access point supports a 5GHz band, just put the Home Max on it, with no other devices.
If your AP doesn't support 5GHz, I'd seriously think twice about purchasing this, even at this discount. It'll drive you absolutely nuts.
I bought 4 of these at $150 each last dec. The sound is great! Really punchy bass, and a pair would fill most living rooms well.
I've only used it for music though. Connecting to TV has it's own set of issues, and I didn't both with it.
I bought Sonos One later on, and these have a much more room filling sound. Clarity of audio between the two is really a toss up, and each listener's preference.
The bad
- Google Home app is really screwed up. You set it these up as a pair, then as a group, and attach them to a room. In the end, the app makes the whole thing much more complicated than it should be. Plus, it's very buggy - it messed up the 2 stereo pairs I setup, and wouldn't allow me to delete them from the app. Got tired of messing with it.
- two - is the ability to play music. Google at some this year, limited the ability to stream music from online sources. You can stream music only in your uploaded library. That pushed me to go ahead and return them.
Later on, I replaced these spots with Sonos Ones for a little less. The most important thing is the ability to easily play music from many sources, and not having to deal with buggy app (Google Home and YT Music).
Hope this helps.
I am not sure what you are talking about with the limited streaming sources. I can play Spotify, Pandora, SiriusXM in addition to YouTube music with no issues.
I've had every Google speaker, and I'm deep in the ecosystem.
Strictly sound quality wise, Max in Stereo > Nest in Stereo > single Max > single Nest > single 1st Gen Home. Never waste money on the donuts.
Tuning wise you have Google home's rudimentary high & low, few steps EQ, and the Max is supposed to apply auto room correction to itself over time, *but* the sound profile of the whole product line (same for all $100-$200 speakers) will be heavily favoring bass.
$300 a pair is right where it compares equally to other choices, but you still won't want to use it with TV as the setup will be complicated. So it ends up depending on if you have such a large space that couldn't be filled with 2 Nests. Also the Max is actually huge.
Last edited by chacobo May 14, 2021 at 11:19 AM.
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these are excellent. I've got one set up in a speaker group set up with 2 nest audios paired in stereo and this really fills out the low end. product may be discontinued, but it's a speaker so I'm not worried that it'll stop working. I've had zero connection issues. it is large though, so take that into consideration for placement.
I was going to comment that while just a speaker, it's still cloud based, but it turns out all models of Google Home's have bluetooth so you can pair like normal, even without wifi.
I bought this a couple of years ago, sounds great compared to the rest of my smart speaker world,( I have a bunch), the bass really drops but doesn't overpower the treble or mids. Occasionally it fails to play the correct song but I dont know if its a Google thing or speaker thing since I mainly use Google assistant on this speaker.
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Strictly sound quality wise, Max in Stereo > Nest in Stereo > single Max > single Nest > single 1st Gen Home. Never waste money on the donuts.
A caveat to this. The mini's are excellent when paired with a Chromecast or Chromecast Audio. The TV or receiver does the heavy lifting. But you get voice commands for you setup. It's also nice having a dedicated speaker for the Google Assistant so that you don't have to worry about the volume for music vs Google Assistant.
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Anyway, there's an easy solution that works for several people, including me: if your access point supports a 5GHz band, just put the Home Max on it, with no other devices.
If your AP doesn't support 5GHz, I'd seriously think twice about purchasing this, even at this discount. It'll drive you absolutely nuts.
Google doesn't keep up their promise in most cases.
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I spent about $1200 a 2.1 channel hifi setup for my pc and yes it sounds better but not as much as you would think. (bro3,svspb1000,yamaha amp)
Just setup google home and enjoy. Congrats, you are going to love it.
I've only used it for music though. Connecting to TV has it's own set of issues, and I didn't both with it.
I bought Sonos One later on, and these have a much more room filling sound. Clarity of audio between the two is really a toss up, and each listener's preference.
The bad
- Google Home app is really screwed up. You set it these up as a pair, then as a group, and attach them to a room. In the end, the app makes the whole thing much more complicated than it should be. Plus, it's very buggy - it messed up the 2 stereo pairs I setup, and wouldn't allow me to delete them from the app. Got tired of messing with it.
- two - is the ability to play music. Google at some this year, limited the ability to stream music from online sources. You can stream music only in your uploaded library. That pushed me to go ahead and return them.
Later on, I replaced these spots with Sonos Ones for a little less. The most important thing is the ability to easily play music from many sources, and not having to deal with buggy app (Google Home and YT Music).
Hope this helps.
Anyway, there's an easy solution that works for several people, including me: if your access point supports a 5GHz band, just put the Home Max on it, with no other devices.
If your AP doesn't support 5GHz, I'd seriously think twice about purchasing this, even at this discount. It'll drive you absolutely nuts.
I've only used it for music though. Connecting to TV has it's own set of issues, and I didn't both with it.
I bought Sonos One later on, and these have a much more room filling sound. Clarity of audio between the two is really a toss up, and each listener's preference.
The bad
- Google Home app is really screwed up. You set it these up as a pair, then as a group, and attach them to a room. In the end, the app makes the whole thing much more complicated than it should be. Plus, it's very buggy - it messed up the 2 stereo pairs I setup, and wouldn't allow me to delete them from the app. Got tired of messing with it.
- two - is the ability to play music. Google at some this year, limited the ability to stream music from online sources. You can stream music only in your uploaded library. That pushed me to go ahead and return them.
Later on, I replaced these spots with Sonos Ones for a little less. The most important thing is the ability to easily play music from many sources, and not having to deal with buggy app (Google Home and YT Music).
Hope this helps.
Strictly sound quality wise, Max in Stereo > Nest in Stereo > single Max > single Nest > single 1st Gen Home. Never waste money on the donuts.
Tuning wise you have Google home's rudimentary high & low, few steps EQ, and the Max is supposed to apply auto room correction to itself over time, *but* the sound profile of the whole product line (same for all $100-$200 speakers) will be heavily favoring bass.
$300 a pair is right where it compares equally to other choices, but you still won't want to use it with TV as the setup will be complicated. So it ends up depending on if you have such a large space that couldn't be filled with 2 Nests. Also the Max is actually huge.
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Great deal though - been waiting for this deal to come back for months
Does it work good?
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