My favorite speaker is so, so smart, but I wouldn’t call it a smart speaker
 

I love my Google Nest Mini. In fact, I have a couple of them sprinkled around my fairly small apartment because I want to ask for a Spotify playlist, set a timer, or ask Google Assistant for the weather whenever I need it. It’s about as smart as I could ask a piece of my smart home to be, and yet I wouldn’t call it my favorite smart speaker — not even if I have both of them and my Nest Hub Max playing in symphony.

Instead, my absolute favorite speaker is smart when it comes to music, but it leaves everything else behind. Here’s why I still think a “dumb” speaker like the Marshall Stanmore III is the smartest way to go.




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