Amazon Echo

[tenohfive]

B17NNS said:

Just go with whatever deal is the cheapest to get the bridge.

Then get your bulbs from Ikea or Innr.

I'll have a look at Ikea etc. But Innr don't seem to be that much cheaper than Hue right now - £10/bulb for E27/B22, same as Hue (Black Friday offers) and I know that ST has a device handler for Hue (whereas it's looking iffy about Innr.) And I need that as I'm not planning on getting a Hue Bridge. Ikea bulbs are £9 each, so it's all much of a muchness for simple bulbs right now.

Edited by tenohfive on Monday 20th November 22:07

[Blue Oval84]

I've bumped another thread to ask this, but this thread is pretty busy so I'm hopeful that I may get a more specific answer in here...

Just did the maths, and due to Google requiring a Chromecast in order to get audio, it's going to cost me about £80 more to kit out three rooms (two with full speakers and one with a Mini and a Chromecast) compared to using Echo products.

Only technical downside I can see of using Alexa is that to get the quality audio from my existing stereo I'd be using an Echo Dot, which means that in my main living room, I'd have to switch the stereo on manually each time I want to talk to her (or unplug the 3.5mm jack so that she responds on the internal speaker - this isn't an issue with Google Home) Less of a concern in the bedroom, and in the kitchen I'd use a regular Echo.

My main concerns are, how clever is Alexa at playing Spotify? If I start asking her to play specific play lists, or artist radio based on whatever, how good is she at picking this up? Multiroom playback from Spotify is essential for me, I understand this is on the way but not here yet. I've trawled eBay but detailed reviews like this haven't appeared in my results.

If anyone can give a direct comparison to Google Home I'd be overjoyed (Chromecast already supports multi-room Spotify but of course means an additional dongle to make it work)

I have to say I'm still struggling to make my mind up, as basically everything I own is in the Google/Android and Spotify ecosystems at the moment, I also have Hue on it's own Bridge, which I gather can be controlled by either option.

[ecsrobin]

Remember that the google mini doesn’t have a 3.5mm jack.

[Philemon]

Blue Oval84 said:

I've bumped another thread to ask this, but this thread is pretty busy so I'm hopeful that I may get a more specific answer in here...

Just did the maths, and due to Google requiring a Chromecast in order to get audio, it's going to cost me about £80 more to kit out three rooms (two with full speakers and one with a Mini and a Chromecast) compared to using Echo products.

Only technical downside I can see of using Alexa is that to get the quality audio from my existing stereo I'd be using an Echo Dot, which means that in my main living room, I'd have to switch the stereo on manually each time I want to talk to her (or unplug the 3.5mm jack so that she responds on the internal speaker - this isn't an issue with Google Home) Less of a concern in the bedroom, and in the kitchen I'd use a regular Echo.

You don't need to unplug anything. The internal microphones are active listeners on the Echo Dot.

[ecsrobin]

Philemon said:

You don't need to unplug anything. The internal microphones are active listeners on the Echo Dot.

I think he’s saying if it’s connected via 3.5mm to the larger sound system and it’s off will he not hear anything?

[Blue Oval84]

Philemon said:

You don't need to unplug anything. The internal microphones are active listeners on the Echo Dot.

So even if I have my echo plugged into my stereo via the 3.5mm jack, and my stereo is switched off (it won't switch on automatically, it's 20 years old) the echo dot will talk back to me via the it's own speaker and not just output the voice to my dead stereo? One of my you tube results said that if you have something plugged into the 3.5mm then it will always default to that but it can't tell if the thing it's connected to is on or off.

I'm aware that Google needs a chrome cast to hook up the speakers, this is about the main reason I figured the dot may be better.

[Philemon]

Aah. Semantics from my reading. It sounded to me as though you were asking whether the Dot would hear you?

It will not playback over its internal speaker whilst the 3.5mm jack is plugged in.

[RizzoTheRat]

Will the stereo turn on in the correct mode if you turn it on/off at the mains with an alexa activated switch?

[Philemon]

That all depends on your "stereo". Mine doesn't turn on automatically when powered off at the mains. It has to have the panel switch pushed to power back up.

You can test yours by powering it off at the mains whilst it is "on" , and then turning it on again at the mains. What state does it return?

[Blue Oval84]

RizzoTheRat said:

Will the stereo turn on in the correct mode if you turn it on/off at the mains with an alexa activated switch?

Sadly not, it comes on into standby. Essentially, I worked a paper round for years to pay for the bloody thing, I still remember fingers going numb with the cold (it was a 2 hour round) in the winter so there's no way on that I'm changing it for another, I'm stuck with it.

To be fair, it's no real hardship as the stereo is right next to the sofa, but it'll still be less than slick having to switch it on every time I want to talk to Alexa, or more likely, having to plug in the 3.5mm jack every time I want to use music.

It seems to me that the advantages of Google are-
1) It responds more intuitively to voice commands
2) I won't ever need to plug it in and out
3) It has Spotify multi-room today and not "coming soon" like Alexa, this also allows easy casting of anything from my phone including YT videos etc.

The advantages of Alexa are-
1) Cheaper due to less need for Chromecast dongles
2) Her "wake up" name is way cooler - and so are the lights
3) More third party apps

Argh, I'm still really struggling here!

[JimbobVFR]

I was also undecided but ended up trying a GHM for £34. When I first read about the Home Mini I thought the lack of 3.5mm output was a massive mistake but having used it in conjunction with a CCA it makes absolute sense. You can also use either Home device just like a standard Chromecast Audio, add it to a group or select it in your music app.


It helps that I already had the CC Audios (plus I payed 15ea for them when they were on offer) but they do work very well together

[Kermit power]

I've just taken delivery of an Echo Dot to play with, but I'm getting frustrated with it!

I thought I could simply ask it anything I wanted, and it would do a search for answers, but it seems to be frankly bloody awful at it!

"Who is the England Football Manager?" OK, it can tell me that. "Who is the England Rugby Head Coach?" Sorry, no idea.

"Who is the England Football Captain?" That would be Wayne Rooney. Eh? I've never watched an England match in my life, but surely that's a bit out of date?

"When is the next train from London to Liverpool?" No idea, but it takes an hour to fly there! Well... It might do, if there actually were any flights from London to Liverpool, which Expedia appears to believe is not the case?

Am I supposed to do something to point it at a search engine that works?

"OK Google" on my phone seems to be able to provide answers to everything, so is the Dot just a pointless gimmick to be chucked in the back of a drawer somewhere?

On the plus side, I'm amazed at its ability to pick up my voice when I've got music playing at the same time!

[dmsims]

You can make! the Dot ask Google

Alexa ask Google Who is the England Rugby Head Coach?

gives Eddie Jones (which I had to check is correct)

Edited by dmsims on Wednesday 22 November 15:14

Edited by dmsims on Wednesday 22 November 15:16

[ecsrobin]

dmsims said:

You can make! the Dot ask Google

Alexa ask Google Who is the England Rugby Head Coach?

gives Eddie Jones (which I had to check is correct)

Edited by dmsims on Wednesday 22 November 15:14

Edited by dmsims on Wednesday 22 November 15:16

I just get cannot perform google searches.

[768]

Might be a skill you have to add?

[RizzoTheRat]

There's an unofficial Ask Google skill that you need to manually set up and install, not tried it yet though.
http://alexamods.com/guide-install-ask-google-alex...


dmsims, have you installed the above or is yours doing it without any specific skill installed? Given that Google have a rival system, I'd be surprised if they'd make it easy.

[dmsims]

I installed the above hence the exclamation mark after make

[RizzoTheRat]

I take it it works well then? I had a look at it the other day but not got round to trying it yet,

[ecsrobin]

dmsims said:

I installed the above hence the exclamation mark after make

I just assumed you had fat fingers

[tenohfive]

Quick heads up for British Gas customers - you can potentially get a free set of Hive controlled lights and hub:
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/free-hive-light-b...

I don't see any down side there.