The JBL Authentics design is something different from the average smart speaker design. I, and my visitors, think it is a nice speaker so far. As a result, I prefer to place the speaker in a visible place, but that also ensures better sound. In addition, the nice rotary knobs on top for bass and treble are also very nice if you listen to a different genre.
The sound is generally very good, although you do notice that at full volume the bass can have some difficulty, but you are having quite a party if you have the speaker at maximum volume, which is very loud.
After the setup, everything works great, and you can speak to the assistants from anywhere in the room, even when there is music playing. I did have some problems during the setup, when I first set up Alexa, Google Assistant no longer wanted to detect the speaker. After a reset it went smoothly in the other order.
It is an expensive speaker, but the design, sound and functions are all top notch and once installed it works smoothly.