JBL Link 300 review: This Google Assistant-powered speaker delivers multi-room sound and smart home skills

That's a conclusion many shoppers will reach when spotting the JBL Link 300, the mid-range of JBL's Google Assistant-powered Link smart speaker lineup. Its $250 price tag makes for a reasonable port of entry for anyone looking to build a voice-activated, multi-room audio and home-control system on a miserly budget. And since this speaker also supports Google's Chromecast audio technology, the Link 300--and any of its bigger or smaller siblings--can be paired with any other speaker that supports Chromecast. Delivering JBL's signature "California studio monitor" sound--a warm, realistically fleshed out soundstage and presence with soul and the stamina to crank--the Link 300 outperformed the vaunted Sonos One in many of my listening tests. Side Effects), to the rich soloing sonorities of Yo-Yo Ma (Six Evolutions--Bach: Cello Suites) and the elegantly spare acoustic jazz sessions (think Sarah Vaughan, Hank Garland, Bobby Timmons, and Melody Gardot) that are stock-in-trade on TSF Jazz--Paris, my favorite compare/contrast streaming channel. The JBL Link 300 has a much larger footprint its rival smart speaker, the Sonos One, but that extra girth results in bigger bass response.