Amazon Echo and Google Home - For Music Lovers

[garak0410]

Some quick thoughts on Amazon Echo and Google Home from a music lover point of view.

We have two Amazon Echo's and one Echo Dot in our home and I received a Google Home for review. As a music "nerd" the first thing I did was try music on my Google Home (I do subscribe to Google Music.) First up, it doesn't play music directly from the cloud. It casts from your phone, which I guess makes sense ChromeCast is a part of it. But that was kind of disappointing in that your phone is needed for that. Also, it doesn't play from your personal Music Library, which is often a mix of uploaded music and streaming music you personally add to library. It will play playlists you make though.

Whereas the Amazon Echo will play music from your personal Amazon Music/Unlimited library on command without casting. So for me, if you are in the Amazon ecosystem, it is a no brainer to go Echo. Plus the Echo's do also double as Bluetooth Speakers, so if you want to still "cast" Google Music, you can with Bluetooth.

I did decide to keep giving Google Home a try, so had it play my playlists. It would often get 1, maybe 2 songs in and just stop, so guessing the casting on my phone failed.

I am sure the Google Home will be refined over 2017. But I think the Echo is much more mature and useful especially if you love Amazon as we do.

 

[garak0410]

UPDATE - It seems to only CAST when you are on the same Wi-Fi with your phone. I wonder if that can be turned off? Would rather no cast.

 

[posman53]

Read in the Google Home forum that it will play your music from the cloud when you turn off wifi. I haven't unboxed mine yet to test.

 

[maskedcarrot]

The only thing bad about the music on the Google Home is that if you upload your own music to Google Play Music, you can only play it back if you have it on a playlist, you cannot play it back individually. Other than that, I think Google Home is the better product.

I have both. I have 2 Google Homes and 1 Echo Dot, so I can speak with experience with both.

For Music, they both support Pandora, iHeart Radio, Tunein, Spotify. But Google Play Music is way better than Amazon Music Unlimited. Plus with Google Play Music you get YouTube Red and YouTube Music. So for Music I would defiantly give the win to Google Home there.

Otherwise, they both have their plus and minuses.

1) Google uses Google for informational searches, Alexa uses Bing.

2) Personal opinion, but I prefer Alexa's Voice better.

3) Both work great with Home Automation products.

4) Echo Dot can hook up external speakers via Bluetooth or AUX cable.

5) You can only use wake words "Hey Google" or "Ok Google" for Google home, whereas saying Alexa sounds more natural, and can even say "Computer" like on Star Trek.

6) Google Home cannot add reminders or calendar entries yet wheres Alexa Can.

7) Alexa has a ton of Skills to download, most of which are useless anyway.

8) You can talk to Google Home more naturally, just like talking to a real person. Most of the time you need to be more exact when talking to Alexa.

I like them both, but I prefer Google Home. Google seems to be taking their time adding new features, but I think when they do, it will stand out over Alexa.

One of the main feature requests on the Google Home support forums is the ability to choose your own wake word. Saying "Ok Google" or "Hey Google" just doesn't sound natural.

Both are working on Multi-User support, and also I read that they are both working on voice recognition to be able to recognize different people talking to it.

So that's my take on both of them. You can't go wrong with either one.

 

[maf113]

The GH plays from the cloud. The phone is used as a controller. It may play from the phone for songs only available on you phone. Otherwise it streams from the cloud if you are connected to the Internet by wifi or via your carrier.

 

[bob13bob]

i've had the echo 2nd gen for awhile, and just got a google home to try.

within 5 min i decided to send google home back. The sound quality if a lot inferior to echo 2nd gen. I didnt' bother to learn the system because of the big difference. google home really needs and update.

I’m an audiophile and i’ll get it to Sound quality below. You may not understand all, but anyone who listens to them side by side can immediately tell the quality difference even if they don’t understand why.

The echo has much much better clarity in the highs and vocal range. google home might have a more even neutral balance signature, but high’s are very muddy. Also the echo gets quite a bit louder. The google home has 2” drivers, that all. The echo 2nd gen has a 2.5” driver and .8” tweeter. That tweeter makes all the difference. The google home makes the music sound like a low quality compression.

 

[TrevionCannon]

Yeah I agree

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