Spec me some speakers for Google Home

dirtychinchilla · 4 Dec 2017 at 08:36

Hi guys,

I'm buying my in-laws a google home mini for Christmas, probably with a chromecast to give them actual speaker connectivity.

I'm trying to get some speakers to go with it of course - budget is about £70 - so could you make me a recommendation? An amplifier isn't really an option, and I doubt they'd notice the quality, so I guess I'm looking for essentially PC speakers.

I've been leaning either towards the BOSE COMPANION 2 SERIES III or EDIFIER R1100 2.0.

Help! And thanks in advance.

Scam · 4 Dec 2017 at 13:58

Is it worth buying separate speakers for only £70? I'd imagine upgrading to a Google Home (standard) might be simpler for them, and sound almost as good. I hear the speaker is fairly decent in it, anyway.

dirtychinchilla · 4 Dec 2017 at 14:07

Scam said:
Is it worth buying separate speakers for only £70? I'd imagine upgrading to a Google Home (standard) might be simpler for them, and sound almost as good. I hear the speaker is fairly decent in it, anyway.

Well the standard is about £100 more expensive and I'm expecting them to use it between multiple rooms, so it would be good if they could hear it outside of whichever room they intend to put it in. I'm not sure that the built in speaker would be up to that. I'd rather spend £130 on getting the mini, a chromecast, and some decent speakers, than have the built in speaker.

Scam · 4 Dec 2017 at 15:35

Excuse the numbers of the top of my head but

Google Home Mini £45 + Chromecast £30 + Speaker £70 is £145.

Google Home standard is £129.

Like I say, I don't think a £70 speaker would give you much over the Google Home but hey.

dirtychinchilla · 4 Dec 2017 at 15:36

Scam said:
Excuse the numbers of the top of my head but

Google Home Mini £45 + Chromecast £30 + Speaker £70 is £145.

Google Home standard is £129.

Like I say, I don't think a £70 speaker would give you much over the Google Home but hey.

At the very least it would give you volume, though...

BMox81 · 5 Dec 2017 at 13:59

The Google Home speaker is pretty loud for it's size - something I wasn't expecting I must admit.

dirtychinchilla · 6 Dec 2017 at 08:10

Hmm alright!

Martini1991 · 7 Dec 2017 at 07:49

Google Home was 80 quid on the sales recently, I don't think I could ever in good faith tell someone to pay 130 pound for them.

dirtychinchilla · 7 Dec 2017 at 07:50

I'm absolutely gutted that I missed out on buying it for £80. I'm buying the mini anyway.

Dirk Diggler · 12 Dec 2017 at 17:37

Google Home is now £89. I'm going to get one for my wife's Xmas; why did you want to get a Chromecast too? Can't the Home be configured to play music from her Spotify account etc? Why would you need Chromecast, as that's a TV thing?

Also, if playing music through it is the volume controllable? Comment above appears to suggest not.

dirtychinchilla · 13 Dec 2017 at 08:14

String said:
Google Home is now £89. I'm going to get one for my wife's Xmas; why did you want to get a Chromecast too? Can't the Home be configured to play music from her Spotify account etc? Why would you need Chromecast, as that's a TV thing?

Also, if playing music through it is the volume controllable? Comment above appears to suggest not.

Annoying ********. I've got the mini and the chromecast now, though, so I'm not going to worry.

The chromecast is a chromecast audio, so it allows you to broadcast music to it, and it has an aux jack (which the home mini doesn't have) so it will be connected directly to the speakers to act as an interface between google home mini and the speakers.

Google have reenabled the volume control on the mini in the last few days. I don't know about the big one.

Scam · 13 Dec 2017 at 11:10

The reason for a Chromecast is so that you can cast your music to another speaker/device/amp. I have a proper hifi set-up so I'll be getting a mini at Christmas and 99% of the time any audio played through my Home will be casted to my hifi.

I'm not an audiophile, but I like my music. I'd never be happy with listening to my music through a little Home speaker. I don't think Sonos speakers even sound that great...

Dirk Diggler · 13 Dec 2017 at 11:25

Scam said:
The reason for a Chromecast is so that you can cast your music to another speaker/device/amp. I have a proper hifi set-up so I'll be getting a mini at Christmas and 99% of the time any audio played through my Home will be casted to my hifi.

I'm not an audiophile, but I like my music. I'd never be happy with listening to my music through a little Home speaker. I don't think Sonos speakers even sound that great...

Thanks. We've got a first gen Chromecast and a Sony soundbar so she's got options there. She might be happy with the default speaker on the Home but I'll have a play around with it.

Scam · 13 Dec 2017 at 11:34

Well, if you have a CC you might as well try it and/or use both