Smart Speaker for A Smart Home
The JBL Link Music speaker is an interesting addition to the world of smart speakers
When I first unwrapped the box, my initial thought was can something this tiny really be sufficient enough to fill up an entire room with sound? The JBL Link Music speaker soon put my worries to rest. First off, the look and feel of the speaker hints at a premium device. The speaker is covered in a nice mesh fabric and the fabric itself feels very good and durable. The speaker chassis that is wrapped around the fabric on the inside is made out of metal so it is nice to know that it is well-built, which is a no-brainer from a company like JBL.
On the hardware side, it rocks a Bluetooth 4.2 and supports 2.5GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi or 5G. It can be used as a Bluetooth speaker as well. It has two microphones and is able to work in a 360-degree system so it doesn’t matter where you are in your house, when you call out to the speaker, it will activate. On the top of the speaker, you get the volume controls and the Google assistant button which you use to press if you want to summon the assistance or you could go hands-free and use a phrase to call it on.
Being that this is a smart speaker, this is what JBL calls it their Link Music line. What this is basically is a lineup of music speakers that they make that are compatible with Google Assistant. The difference between this one and the others is that this is meant to be a home speaker. This one is meant to be plugged in at all times as it has no external batteries and you can’t take it with you.
Taking a deeper look into the speaker one can find that it has a downward-firing woofer. It comes with dual passive radiators on the side which not only help to amplify the base, but it also gives it a nice 360-degree sound. Now, being that this is JBL, their sound signature is probably one of the best out there in the market, there’s no doubt about that. JBL has done everything from soundbars to Bluetooth speakers to home speakers to party speakers — this is JBL at its finest.
The music sounds very good at high volume and there is no decipherable distortion or overpowering of anything. The bass especially is nice and punchy and has a nice depth to it. Being that it is a smart speaker, it allows you to use Google Assistant after downloading the Google Home app. All things considered, this is a pretty good smart speaker for a smart home.
