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For most products, most of the time, we unbox them when they show up at the office, spend some time with them, and then create a review. The Google Home Max has been a bit of a different beast, though. Without having a slew of new, undiscovered functionality or a unique set of specs, this speaker ends up being just that: a speaker. The need for review, then, isn't the same as something like a Chromebook.
We never did a review of any of the other Google Home speakers, so why start now?
All jokes aside, trying to put together a review felt forced and odd. Instead, I really felt like most of you would benefit from my slightly longer-term thoughts from using the Google Home Max for a couple months. After all, this thing is a little pricey and doesn't perform any tasks that its cheaper siblings can't at fractions of the price.
That isn't to say it isn't a compelling device, though. Quite the opposite, actually. There's a lot to like in the Google Home Max and it could very well be a great speaker for you and your family.
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[Music]
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hey folks probably paying with chroma
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and boxed and today we're gonna take a
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little bit deeper look at the Google
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home Max and I'm not calling this a
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review because we review Chromebooks and
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we talk about specs and functionality
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and all that kind of stuff and that
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really just doesn't apply to a smart
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speaker so this device doesn't really do
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much more than its other counterparts
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the Google home many in the standard
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Google home but it does one thing that's
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much much better and that's the way it
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sounds now if you're in the market for a
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speaker that sounds great and can fill
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very very large rooms this might be the
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device for you but if you're just
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looking for a smart speaker to do
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functionality stuff you're looking for
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it to set reminders and timers and that
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kind of thing you might want to kind of
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stick around to the end of this thing
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and decide whether or not four hundred
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dollars is realistic for you to spend
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but let's talk about sound because
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that's probably the most important thing
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here this device sounds incredible I
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mean I don't know that I've had any
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other speakers around me that sound
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quite as good now Google has colored the
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tonality of this device so it's not just
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a standard speaker it wouldn't stand in
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for like a studio speaker it's not
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completely flat you can tell the bass is
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enhanced a little bit and the highs are
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enhanced a little bit but I really don't
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care
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it sounds freakin amazing and matter of
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fact let's let's take a break real quick
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and actually get an audio sample
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[Music]
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you can't do
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[Music]
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so as you can tell it sounds amazing I
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mean it is a great speaker and again I
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can't put it up against the home pot I
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don't have a home pot to put here and
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there are some reviewers that would say
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it sounds better than the home pod and
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some let's say that the home pod sounds
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better I'm really not here to debate
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that and I don't think that in your
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purchasing decision you even need to be
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thinking about that and I'll get into
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that here in just a second as to why
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suffice to say it sounds amazing and
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it's gonna fill just about any room I've
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the biggest room I've put it in it's
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probably a 25 by 25 space in in our
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office and it fills it up at maybe a
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quarter of the volume we pushed it to a
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hundred percent and it doesn't distort
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it just keeps getting louder and the
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bass keeps getting fuller in the highs
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keep getting crisper so if you're
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looking to fill up a massive space was
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sound the Google home acts is for you if
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we start talking about functionality
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there's there's really not much that
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differentiates this from their standard
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Google home and the Google home Mini
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there's some touch controls on the top
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you can slide left and right in order to
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turn the volume up and down if you want
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to actually physically interact with the
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device in the center of that bar you can
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play pause and then you can talk to it
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that's that's basically it it does a
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couple other cool tricks we turn it
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upside down it'll tell you Google home
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is upside down please turn it back over
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so it's got a gyroscope in it and
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there's a reason for that there's a
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silicon pad that magnetically hooks
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itself to the bottom and/or the side of
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the device and so you can actually tilt
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it up on one end pair a second one into
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a audio group in Google home and you can
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then create a left and right separation
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with the two if you wanted to hook it up
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to say a mixing table or something like
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that I can't imagine how loud it would
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be with two of these things in one room
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let alone just one of them so I'm sure
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there are people that would want to use
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it that way and drop the coin to be able
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to do that but honestly one is plenty
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and when it's in its standard layout
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when it's left and right kind of kind of
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set this way in its landscape form it
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already does stereo separation so inside
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you're getting two tweeters and two
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woofers and they just do the job
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incredibly well but other than that
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there's really not a ton of
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functionality going on here there's some
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ports along the back as well USB see
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that you can char
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of being like a phone or a pixel book or
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something like that if you if you choose
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to and then there's an auxilary port on
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the back that you can actually plug
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something in so again I mentioned a
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turntable earlier so say you have a
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turntable or something like it or you
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wanna hook your phone in and just play
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music directly from that if you're not
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on Wi-Fi for instance then then you have
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the choice to do that as well but again
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we're not really talking about a ton of
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functionality here we're talking about a
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smart speaker with Google assistant that
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sounds amazing and at the end of the day
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that's what it is and so really we have
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to look at price when it comes to this
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this thing because there's other ones in
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its family so we have the Google home
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which can be found anywhere from a
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hundred to $129 and then you've got the
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mini that goes on sale sometimes it can
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be as cheap as twenty nine bucks and so
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again if you're looking for something
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that's gonna set reminders and timers
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and do all the cool stuff that Google
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assistant can do in a smart speaker the
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Google home Mini actually does all of
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this really really well if you're
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looking for something to give you
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ambient small sound the Google how many
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does that well two now if you're looking
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for something that you know might give
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you some decent room filling sound and
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have a little more richness to it the
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standard Google home does a great job
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with that it's got all the touch
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controls on the top just as this one
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does but if you're looking for something
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that has premium sound and you're not
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just looking to buy a smart speaker
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you're looking to buy a piece for your
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home that's actually going to provide
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really really great audio then the
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Google home max might be for you I
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haven't seen it on sale yet so it's
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usually gonna be $399 so you really got
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to think do I want to spend this much
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money on a speaker I can't answer that
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for you
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I can tell you that for me personally
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I'm not there yet now I have a Bose
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home theater system at home that we cast
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music to our TV and it plays on there
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just fine and it sounds amazing so I
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don't have as much need for it and our
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home is a two-story so each level isn't
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isn't that huge so when I did take the
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Google home max home the kids loved it
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and they loved playing with it and they
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love hearing how loud it got and all
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that kind of stuff but ultimately when I
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thought about like would I use this
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thing at home for me it was just a no I
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I can't my home is just not big enough
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but the office has been plenty big
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enough and there's been multiple time
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where we maybe had some get-togethers or
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had a few people in the office at one
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time and we needed some music and you
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can put this thing on at medium to low
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volumes and the bass stays around and
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the highs stay around and it just
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provides room filling sound at any
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volume and so you got to think through
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what you're gonna use this thing for and
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if you don't have a premium home speaker
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and you want something that provides
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just great and awesome audio then ya
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think about this because other speakers
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that sound as good as this are gonna
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cost at least this or more and then you
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get Google assistant thrown in so this
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isn't going to be for everybody I
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completely understand that but if it's
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if it might be for you and you haven't
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had a chance to listen to one you
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haven't had a chance to mess around with
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one you're not missing much as far as
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functionality goes there's there's not
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gonna be much to do whenever you get in
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front of it except turn on some music
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sit back and listen and if that's what
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you're after $399 is a lot for a speaker
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it's a lot for a smart speaker but if
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you're in that market and you're looking
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for awesome sound this thing delivers so
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I hope I've helped you make a little bit
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of a purchasing decision here I know I'm
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saying that maybe it's not for me and
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it's not because it's bad it's just
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because for me for my house for the
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things that I do it's just not a good
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fit but I think for a lot of you it
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could be and if it's not hey check out
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the standard Google home or the Google
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home Mini or have a few of each who
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knows whatever fits you best hopefully
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it will help you out guys if you like
7:40
this video give it a thumbs up subscribe
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down below and until next time we'll see
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you
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[Music]