As others have said, the Nest audio sounds great, but is lacking in SPL capability. Here is the spin:
This was at 2 feet/0.6m so it is at about 70dB @1m. Note the bass increase is built in equal loudness compensation. The treble roll-off may be partly because i was measureing with bluetooth plus there might've been a sample rate mismatch, b
A single speaker maxes out at 86dB and by then bass compression has set in significantly (Google rates it as 77dB "max bass" though there are no specifics for what that means), but you can add 3-6 dB for a pair.
As @Trouble Maker said high SPL is not a requirement, it seems to me that a pair of Nest Audios would be hard to beat in this budget. However, I have not used it in stereo and can't guarantee its reliability, though I haven't heard many complaints about this. I have heard there is a significant delay in stereo, if that's something that matters at all to you.
I have not done a direct comparison with the KH80, but I think the Nest Audio is closer to that than the iLoud in sound quality, although with less SPL capability (however distortion appears to be very well controlled within its SPL range).
There were some ex-JBL folks behind the nest audio, by the way
This was at 2 feet/0.6m so it is at about 70dB @1m. Note the bass increase is built in equal loudness compensation. The treble roll-off may be partly because i was measureing with bluetooth plus there might've been a sample rate mismatch, b
A single speaker maxes out at 86dB and by then bass compression has set in significantly (Google rates it as 77dB "max bass" though there are no specifics for what that means), but you can add 3-6 dB for a pair.
As @Trouble Maker said high SPL is not a requirement, it seems to me that a pair of Nest Audios would be hard to beat in this budget. However, I have not used it in stereo and can't guarantee its reliability, though I haven't heard many complaints about this. I have heard there is a significant delay in stereo, if that's something that matters at all to you.
Curious to hear your impressions! Since my review I've done a few comparisons. Mono to mono on my desk, I thought it quite clearly outclassed the iLoud micro monitor and JBL 104, which I pulled out of storage for comparison.Part of me still kinda doubts it will even sound better at low levels, but I guess we'll see.
I have not done a direct comparison with the KH80, but I think the Nest Audio is closer to that than the iLoud in sound quality, although with less SPL capability (however distortion appears to be very well controlled within its SPL range).
There were some ex-JBL folks behind the nest audio, by the way