By Nicole Nguyen

I listened to "Rhapsody in Blue" 36 times so I could tell you: Apple, Google and Amazon's new speakers, all released in the past few months, sound pretty dang good for their shelf-friendly size and $100 price tags.

This year's focal points are audio quality and multiroom playback. The latest HomePod, Nest and Echo speakers still want to set your timers and take your song requests, but now they're stepping up their attempts to compete with Sonos, Bose, Sony and others.

People have been buying up Google and Amazon speakers by the tens of millions, but -- until now -- Apple's hasn't had the same mass appeal, held back by an overpriced debut in HomePod and a limited virtual assistant in Siri.

If you're looking to add on, upgrade or maybe even switch, here's what sets apart the tech giants' new speakers -- and the virtual souls that inhabit them.

The Contenders

Apple's HomePod Mini starts shipping on Monday. Since the release of the full-size HomePod nearly three years ago, the integrated Siri has caught up with its peers in many ways: It can now set multiple timers (finally!), recognize voices and serve as an intercom. And Apple can uniquely give its speaker an iPhone advantage: Bring one close to a HomePod Mini and get music recommendations or sling music without fussing with settings. (As for the $299 original, there's little reason to buy one now. It's overdue for an upgrade.)

Next is Amazon's new -- aka fourth-generation -- Echo. The former Pringles can is now a glowing orb, which makes room for an additional tweeter for improved sound. An updated internal chip cuts Alexa's response time in half and uses less energy. The audio in/out port offers flexibility not found on the competing models: When the Wi-Fi's down, you can still plug in your phone and play music.

And then there's Nest Audio, a successor to the Google Home that trades the air-freshener look for a cleaner bar-of-soap aesthetic. It's louder than the original Home, and has a colorful all-fabric design. New software adjusts volume based on background noise -- getting louder when, say, a running faucet is drowning it out.

Sound Quality

These speakers shouldn't just be smart -- they should sound good, too, says Captain Obvious. All of the new models are best combined as two speakers in a stereo pair, which lets you hear a more 3-D mix of the music, as it was conceived in the studio.

The Nest Audio impressed me the most. Of the three speakers, it has the warmest, most pleasant tone. "Rhapsody in Blue," which my neighbors probably never want to hear again, sounded lush and full. Tracks such as Kacey Musgraves' "Slow Burn" and "So What" by Miles Davis excelled on the Google speaker. But when it comes to low-end punch, the Nest Audio can sound thin compared with the others.

The HomePod Mini produced accurate 360-degree audio with more emphasis on bass. The kick drum on AC/DC's "Back in Black" and a remixed version of Sylvan Esso's "Ferris Wheel" have a surprising amount of pop on the small speaker. But its compact size comes with trade-offs -- it's quiet. You need to pump up the volume to fill a room.

Meanwhile, the Amazon Echo has the volume and the kind of thumping bass you can feel. Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" and Megan Thee Stallion's "Savage Remix" were practically earthshaking. I was afraid to test it when my neighbors were home.

When I paired them with a Fire TV as a stereo home-theater system, that sound was unsurprisingly formidable. (HomePod Mini can also act as a single speaker or stereo pair for Apple TV via AirPlay. A Google spokeswoman said the company is working on Nest Audio-Chromecast integration.)

I could imagine the Echo being great for parties (remember parties?). But for at-home, personal listening, I'd prefer the Nest Audio or HomePod Mini. The Echo tended to sound muddled and hollow where its peers were nuanced and detailed.

You might be asking, what about Sonos? Well, I'll tell you: The $199 Sonos One (which the company will sell for $159 from Dec. 4 through 13) has a smoother, more well-balanced sound -- and it supports Google Assistant, Alexa and Apple's AirPlay 2. But it's twice the price, and unlike the other options, it doesn't have Bluetooth, voice calling or a built-in smart-home hub for easy setups.

Compatibility

The relationship between the tech companies and their competitors' products is a complicated one. The right speaker for you might already be determined by which of your preferred music services can be directly controlled via voice:

-- Spotify works on Nest Audio or Echo.

-- Apple Music works on HomePod Mini and Echo.

-- Amazon Prime Music works on Echo and HomePod Mini.

-- YouTube Music works on Nest Audio.

-- Pandora works on all of these speakers.

Your device matters, too. The Echo and Nest Audio are compatible with iOS and Android. The HomePod Mini is, yep, iOS only.

Smarts

These "smart" speakers don't have Star Trek-level intelligence yet. ("Hey Siri, write a HomePod Mini review" didn't work. Surprising!) But they can complete most simple tasks, such as reminding you when to take out the trash and adding items to your grocery list. All of the assistants readily report today's weather and answer the contextual follow-up, "And what about tomorrow?"

For more complex general-knowledge questions, Alexa was the fastest to answer, but Google Assistant was the most accurate. For one query, about the ideal internal temperature for cooking burgers, the Assistant responded that the minimum safe temperature is 160 degrees Fahrenheit to avoid E. coli. Alexa replied with an oven recipe and Siri sent web results to my phone, as she most frequently does -- not useful when my hands are full of raw meat.

Software

Setting up the HomePod Mini was truly plug-and-play. It grabs all the information it needs from your iOS device and it's ready to go. Apple's AirPlay standard allows the HomePod to play simultaneously alongside speakers from other brands, such as Sonos. But, unlike the Echo and the Nest Audio, you can't get a HomePod to call you an Uber or order Domino's. Siri doesn't have third-party app integration on HomePod.

Google's is the most customizable. You can set your food preferences for more personalized recipe responses. The speaker supports multiple simultaneous languages -- my husband gets Assistant answers in French, and I get responses in English.

Amazon's Echo has the most bells and whistles. Two standouts: Alexa Guard uses the Echo's microphone to detect smoke alarms going off or glass breaking, and Alexa can read books in your Kindle library aloud. You can pick up where she left off on your Kindle device or app.

Yet in testing, when I paired two Echo speakers for stereo sound, there were lots of bugs, including sound cutting out, and fits and starts with Apple Podcasts. Unlinking the speakers made the problem go away; an Amazon spokesman said a fix is coming soon.

Privacy

The virtual assistants are always listening for your commands, and when they think they hear one, they send it to the cloud. It's why they're so useful, and why they come with privacy concerns. Smart speakers accidentally activated about 22 times a day, in a study by researchers from Northeastern University and Imperial College London. And because speech-recognition software often requires human review, a stranger could end up hearing snippets of your life.

The companies are aware of their devices' creepiness, and offer settings to give users control over their data.

Apple and Google automatically opt users out of human-recording review. In Alexa's privacy settings, disable "Help Improve Amazon Services and Develop New Features" to prevent use of your recordings for robot training. To delete your voice requests, you can ask Alexa to "delete everything I said today." On Google, go to the My Activity page and filter by Voice and Audio. For Siri, you have to manually delete your history in Siri & Dictation settings from each Apple device you own, because the recordings aren't tied to your Apple ID.

And the Winner Is...

For my multiplatform household, Nest Audio is my pick. Google Assistant has the smarts and the Nest Audio delivers dynamic audio fitting for my small space. And they just look nice. While I wasn't a big fan of the new Echo speaker, it isn't bad if you're already locked into Alexa's feature-rich world. However, for an all-in iOS home, the new HomePod Mini is a far more compelling product than the original -- and a way for Apple to finally horn in on the smart-speaker action. For fewer features and higher fidelity, Sonos is always an option.

Whichever you choose for your whole-home sound system, just beware the terrible power of our Wi-Fi-enabled, voice-controlled future: Anyone in your family will be able to call up any song and make it ring throughout your house, just by uttering the simple phrase "play everywhere."

(Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has a commercial agreement to supply news through Apple services.)

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Write to Nicole Nguyen at nicole.nguyen@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-12-20 0914ET