HomePod mini is packed with advanced technology at an economical price tag. Apple offers full-range driver and dual passive radiators, multi-room audio, stereo pair capability, and voice assistant support in this small 3.3-inch speaker. YouTuber Max Tech compared the sound quality of HomePod mini with speakers available at the same price to test which one delivers better audio.
Max Tech compared Apple’s small speaker with Google’s Nest, Amazon’s Echo Audio, and Echo Dot all available for $99 (Echo Dot is now on sale). So the speakers in the test were not picked on their similar technical specs and size but the same price tag. He played EDM, rock, and modern classical tracks on all four speakers to test the sharpness, bass, highs, and lows of audio. Here are the results of the comparison test.
HomePod mini vs. Echo Audio vs Echo Dot vs. Nest
Loudness
The HomePod mini sound was “fantastic” but in terms of volume was measured at 78 decibels while Nest and Echo Audio reached 81 decibels. In comparison to Nest and Echo, the YouTuber says that the HomePod mini is in the middle with great quality vocals and bass but lacking in loudness. Echo Dot had the worst sound quality out of all four speakers. Max Tech says it sounded “defected” with bad quality highs and mids and non-existent bass.
Sound Quality
A rock song was played to test the sound of the guitar, drums, vocals and other sounds on the speakers. The test revealed that Echo Dot again sounded terrible and the Nest did not deliver good quality audio either. On the other hand, HomePod mini and Echo Audio had good and very similar quality sound, despite the difference in sizes.
Note that the video has an editing error in the rock song test. The sound icon does not appear on the correct speaker. The YouTuber clarified that the speaker with bad quality sound is Echo and good quality audio is HomePod mini.
When testing a modern classic song on the speakers, the YouTuber left out Echo Dot because it had failed the previous two tests. The Nest speaker did a “little better” in this test than its previous one, and the competition was between Apple’s smallest and Echo Audio speakers which had very similar sounds. HomePod mini “was excellent in mids and highs and maybe could use a little bit more bass.” Echo could use some improvements to its high frequencies and a reduction in bass.
360 vs 180 Sound
Out of the four speakers, only HomePod mini gives 360 audio while Nest, Echo Audio and Echo Dot all have directional sound.
Final Results
HomePod mini has excellent sound quality with room-filling audio but lacks in volume. Amazon Echo has decent quality sound but wins in terms of volume. Nest had average performance while the Echo Dot was a complete disaster in all tests. The YouTuber’s vote gravitated towards Echo Audio because of loudness but it is impressive to witness that Apple’s 3.3-inch speaker delivers the same sound quality as the much larger speaker.
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