The Google Home Max, our favorite smart speaker for music, gets discontinued

Well, that’s a shame. Google has announced that it's no longer making its music-focused Home Max smart speaker, which is—or was—the best-sounding smart speaker on the market.

Mentioned in this article Google Home Max Read TechHive's review$179.00MSRP $179.00See iton Best Buy In a statement provided to TechHive, Google says that the $299 Home Max will continue to work normally, and that it will still offer software and security patches for the device. The statement also points smart speaker shoppers toward the Nest Audio, a new music-focused speaker with a smaller design and a more palatable $99 price tag.

Here's the full statement from Google:

We’ve sold out of Google Home Max and will no longer be manufacturing the device. With the launch of Nest Audio, we’re offering a range of great home audio solutions, particularly with two Nest Audios paired for stereo sound.

Existing Google Home Max users shouldn’t worry as they won’t see
any change in their service. We'll continue to offer software updates and security fixes to Google Home Max devices. We're committed to delivering great sound and whole home audio features across all of our Assistant-enabled products.

The Google Home Max first shipped three years ago this month. When we reviewed shortly following its ship date, we called it a “sonic superstar” compared to other smart speakers on the market, complete with “excellent sound reproduction” as well as “powerful” amplifiers, not to mention on-board Google Assistant.

[ Further reading: The best smart speakers and digital assistants ]But from the very beginning, the Home Max was saddled with a hefty price tag: a whopping $399, which was eventually cut to $299. That’s a lot of cash to cough up for a smart speaker, particularly one that doesn’t have a display.

Mentioned in this article Google Nest Audio Read TechHive's review$99.99MSRP $99.99See iton Google Store Another hurdle that the Google Home Max never overcame was its big, bulky design. Measuring more than a foot long and seven-and-a-half inches high and six inches deep, the Home Max certainly lived up to its name. Google execs later admitted that would-be customers frequently noted the speaker’s size when explaining why they decided not to buy one.

So, if you’re in the market for a music-focused smart speaker, what now? Well, there is the new Nest Audio, a great-sounding Google smart speaker considering its $99 sticker price, and if you want something approaching the Home Max’s power, you could always snap up a couple of Nest Audios and connect them as a stereo pair. We’re also fans of the Amazon Echo Studio, a Dolby Atmos-enabled smart speaker, although going for the Echo Studio entails moving to Alexa from Google Assistant.

Finally, if you really have your heart set on the Home Max, now is a great time to buy one. While it’s sold out on the Google Store, you can still find the Home Max at third-party retailers for just $179Remove non-product link, the speaker’s Black Friday price.

Updated shortly after publication with a statement from Google.

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