Amazon Echo

[louiebaby]

We have a latest Dot, the ball shaped one. It's fine for our living room as a replacement for the radio or whatever.

We're not audiophiles by any stretch, but at volumes that you would want in a relatively small house, it's fine.

[Shnozz]

Aside from gen 1, I have been of the view that the echo provides perfectly decent quality sound for a small room.

My gen 1 now lives in the garage, where’s its tinny sound is no match for the echo (ironic given its name).

[feef]

I don't use Spotify much, and don't subscribe to it, but there's a couple of playlists that I have on there from external links.

I found there is a skill that allows you to play Spotify playlists on Alexa but it's only available to subscribers

BUT, I found there's an app called "SongShift" that allows you to syncronise playlists across platforms, so I just used that to export the Spotify playlists to Apple Music and job jobbed.

[Origin Unknown]

Thanks louiebaby and shnozz

[Hoofy]

I'm more than happy with my 3rd gen one. Currently on sale for £25, while the new one is £30. I don't know if it's worth the extra £5?
https://amzn.to/3av85J9

The 4th Gen is also at that price in Argos... and the 3rd gen is also at the cheaper price in Tesco (saw it just now).

Alternatively, you could get the Echo Flex for £15 (sale price) and connect it to a decent BT speaker.

[Shnozz]

Hoofy said:

I'm more than happy with my 3rd gen one. Currently on sale for £25, while the new one is £30. I don't know if it's worth the extra £5?
https://amzn.to/3av85J9

The 4th Gen is also at that price in Argos... and the 3rd gen is also at the cheaper price in Tesco (saw it just now).

Alternatively, you could get the Echo Flex for £15 (sale price) and connect it to a decent BT speaker.

I bought an echo input before to match to a Bluetooth sound bar. Wouldn’t recommend it as often a pain in getting connection and you can’t enable things like dropping in to speakers. For the negligible price difference I wouldn’t bother.

[LordHaveMurci]

Origin Unknown said:

Being lazy rather than read the whole thread. Wife wants an Echo for her office. We have a few first generation dots around and they are st, in audio terms. She wants to listen to music and use it as an assistant, which Echo should I look at?

We have a Dot1 which isn’t great, Echo 1 which is Ok (listening to as I type) but keeps dropping out now, Dot 3 which is a big improvement over 1 & an Echo 4 which I’m pretty impressed with.

[Hoofy]

Shnozz said:

Hoofy said:

I'm more than happy with my 3rd gen one. Currently on sale for £25, while the new one is £30. I don't know if it's worth the extra £5?
https://amzn.to/3av85J9

The 4th Gen is also at that price in Argos... and the 3rd gen is also at the cheaper price in Tesco (saw it just now).

Alternatively, you could get the Echo Flex for £15 (sale price) and connect it to a decent BT speaker.

I bought an echo input before to match to a Bluetooth sound bar. Wouldn’t recommend it as often a pain in getting connection and you can’t enable things like dropping in to speakers. For the negligible price difference I wouldn’t bother.

I've not had any problems with the cheap but loud BT speaker I have. What am I missing?

[funinhounslow]

Just taken advantage of current Amazon offer of 2 x Echo autos for £40. The car seems such a logical place for an Echo and at that price it’s almost stocking filler money.

[feef]

funinhounslow said:

Just taken advantage of current Amazon offer of 2 x Echo autos for £40. The car seems such a logical place for an Echo and at that price it’s almost stocking filler money.

I'm tempted.

Do you know if they work as, effectively, just a bluetooth audio interface too such that I can just play music via the car's AUX using Echo Auto, or does the music have to be played via an "Alexa, play...." command?

[funinhounslow]

feef said:

funinhounslow said:

Just taken advantage of current Amazon offer of 2 x Echo autos for £40. The car seems such a logical place for an Echo and at that price it’s almost stocking filler money.

I'm tempted.

Do you know if they work as, effectively, just a bluetooth audio interface too such that I can just play music via the car's AUX using Echo Auto, or does the music have to be played via an "Alexa, play...." command?

I’d imagine it has to be via an Alexa command. I think it works the same way as the “home” Echoes- you ask it for what you want - music, news etc. It also has a mute button.

Connects to your car via your phone’s Bluetooth or AUX cable. And of course uses your phone’s data allowance.

Mostly positive reviews for the things so I thought it was worth a go. Especially as my car doesn’t have DAB.

Supposed to be delivered on Wed so we’ll see...

[funinhounslow]

funinhounslow said:

Supposed to be delivered on Wed so we’ll see...

It actually came today and I've just set it up and had a quick test.

Very impressed. Cig lighter power adapter included and AUX cable. Plug it in and use like like a "domestic" Alexa. Phone doesn't need to be unlocked to use. I can see me getting a lot of use out of this esp as my car only has a CD player and FM radio...

Can't argue with the price either - £45 for two...

[xeny]

feef said:

I don't use Spotify much, and don't subscribe to it, but there's a couple of playlists that I have on there from external links.

I found there is a skill that allows you to play Spotify playlists on Alexa but it's only available to subscribers

BUT, I found there's an app called "SongShift" that allows you to syncronise playlists across platforms, so I just used that to export the Spotify playlists to Apple Music and job jobbed.

The Spotify web app, or android/IOS app lets me redirect audio to any Alexa device - I've had to add the Spotify skill to my Alexa account and then it just works. This is with free Spotify.

It appears to be this functionality https://www.spotify.com/us/connect/ but in my experience the devices don't need to be on the same WiFi network, I can play music on an Echo at home from my phone when I'm out of the house for example.

[louiebaby]

Does anyone have an Echo Flex?

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07PDJ9JFF/

It looks perfect to allow the voice functions in a compact unit, where music isn't needed. I'm thinking about my landing, so I can control the smart bulbs without the need for a full Dot.

It was a USB port on the bottom, which would be great as it could also power my dog-cam, which kind of looks down into the hall where the dog stays if we pop out for a bit. (USB powered.) Here's question:

Can you set up the USB port as a "THING" you control like you can with the smart plugs and so on. Can the port be named "DOG CAM" and be switched off remotely, but keep the Echo Flex on and still listening?

I know I could buy another smart plug to sit along side it and call it "DOG CAM", but it would be great to have one less device, and it would sit closer to the wall, as a smart plug would also need a USB adapter.

Smart Plug, for example:

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B082YTKC47/

Someone's going to make Alexa certified wall sockets with USB ports soon, right? Then the whole house can be on a smart socket.

[matrignano]

Any ideas when the new Echo Show will be release?
I’ve been waiting a few months now!

[Hoofy]

louiebaby said:

Does anyone have an Echo Flex?

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07PDJ9JFF/

It looks perfect to allow the voice functions in a compact unit, where music isn't needed. I'm thinking about my landing, so I can control the smart bulbs without the need for a full Dot.

It was a USB port on the bottom, which would be great as it could also power my dog-cam, which kind of looks down into the hall where the dog stays if we pop out for a bit. (USB powered.) Here's question:

Can you set up the USB port as a "THING" you control like you can with the smart plugs and so on. Can the port be named "DOG CAM" and be switched off remotely, but keep the Echo Flex on and still listening?

I know I could buy another smart plug to sit along side it and call it "DOG CAM", but it would be great to have one less device, and it would sit closer to the wall, as a smart plug would also need a USB adapter.

Smart Plug, for example:

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B082YTKC47/

Someone's going to make Alexa certified wall sockets with USB ports soon, right? Then the whole house can be on a smart socket.

I have a Flex... but I don't know about the USB port usage. I think it's just a power output.

[BIRMA]

I've just bought two Amazon Echo Studios for my home office, okay the sound isn't super hifi as I like my hifi and have a dedicated proper high end system in my lounge.
But I bought one and had positioned it about a metre away from my computer screen and quite liked the sound so I thought what would another one do for the sound, so I bought a second one.
Probably because of my computer abilities/age I did bugger around for some time trying to get them to work in stereo but got there in the end.
I'm sure once they 'wear in' they'll sound even better, as I'm running Amazon HD Music the results are pretty good and I feel a little more easier to live with as opposed to headphones.

[Desiato]

louiebaby said:

Does anyone have an Echo Flex?

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07PDJ9JFF/

It looks perfect to allow the voice functions in a compact unit, where music isn't needed. I'm thinking about my landing, so I can control the smart bulbs without the need for a full Dot.

It was a USB port on the bottom, which would be great as it could also power my dog-cam, which kind of looks down into the hall where the dog stays if we pop out for a bit. (USB powered.) Here's question:

Can you set up the USB port as a "THING" you control like you can with the smart plugs and so on. Can the port be named "DOG CAM" and be switched off remotely, but keep the Echo Flex on and still listening?

I know I could buy another smart plug to sit along side it and call it "DOG CAM", but it would be great to have one less device, and it would sit closer to the wall, as a smart plug would also need a USB adapter.

Smart Plug, for example:

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B082YTKC47/

Someone's going to make Alexa certified wall sockets with USB ports soon, right? Then the whole house can be on a smart socket.

We have a Flex on the landing for controlling the upstairs lights, works well.
Not too sure on the USB port, there is a motion sensor and a nightlight available that can plug into it but not sure about anything else.

[illmonkey]

Managed 2 weeks without Alexa playback fault.

Yesterday she'd play a song, today she says "playing X everywhere" and won't even play a song. All devices rebooted.

Fecking useless.

[Gadgetmac]

Desiato said:

We have a Flex on the landing for controlling the upstairs lights, works well.
Not too sure on the USB port, there is a motion sensor and a nightlight available that can plug into it but not sure about anything else.

I’ve tried to get the Motion Sensor which would be a great add-on but can’t get it from Amazon or anywhere else ie e-bay.

“This item is currently unavailble and we don’t know when it will become available again”.