Amazon Echo Dot

but I look forward to being able to use it with Alexa and Siri down the road.
Yeah...it's pretty great. We have 2 HVAC units and have complete remote control with the Nest iPhone app. But it's a really nice/convenient parlor trick to slap em around with the Dot. Plus, that creature comfort command was the only thing that lit/de-glazed the wife's eyes when shes asked me, "So, what does this thing-ama-doo do beside play your music? :D

She didn't admit it...but I know, she'll sheepishly fall right in soon and be all warm & fuzzy with Dot down the road. The heating/cooling control will be her gateway drug. :rflmao:
 
Music. Works as advertised..much better/forgiving when you set a default music service I discovered.

My first pass run was with Spotify. Artist/Song/Stations worked fine. And once I learned the proper cadence, it did great pulling plists as well.

Only caveat I have experienced on the tunes front is no gapless playback. bummer.... :(
I am mainly using Amazon's Prime "free" service. The Echo in the kitchen is used more as a Bluetooth receiver than a stand alone player. However, now that I have uploaded several thousand tracks,they have a great idea of what I want to hear. I simply tell "her" to play Prime music and she always plays something I like.
 
Mine arrived on Thursday. It's surprisingly small and works very well. The quality of the analog audio out is pretty good, and the microphone seems to work better than that of my regular, full-sized Echo. That is, it hears me better over loud music.

Here it is in my bedroom system. Dot --> TPA3116 chip amp --> Optimus Pro LX4

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I don't know why I waited so long to get a DOT. I was one of the first to get the regular Echo when it came out and have used it extensively in the kitchen, but since it can't hook up to a stereo, I never really listened to it in any other part of the home. I sent Amazon an email almost immediately when I got the standard Echo that they needed to make a model with either Bluetooth Out or Wired Out to hook up to a home stereo or speaker system. Yet, when they produced the DOT, I sat on the order process before ordering.

I finally ordered a DOT last week (version II) and put it in the bedroom hooked up to the Kloss 88 Stereo. Wow. I'm instantly spoiled. I have ripped my entire CD collection to Amazon, so I have access to all my CDs now in bed via voice command. Also, it's great to wake up to the alarm and then say, "Alexa, play my wake-up Jazz playlist". After a shower, "Alexa, play my flash news briefing".

I'm ordering another for my AV room to hook up to my AV Receiver. It's just too convenient. And inexpensive. I'm entrenched in Amazon anyway. Might as well just swan dive into their technology.
 
One thing's certain, Alexa is much easier to understand via a pair of QUAD ESL-63s vs the Echo, lol.

Fun stuff, can't wait for the full Sonos integration.
 
I read that they have improved the microphones on the new versions, but haven't tested it myself. I just got my $10 coupon for ordering it through my old Echo. Quite a bargain at $40! So nice to use with SimpleControl and my Phillips Hue lights in my office.
 
Update on my Dot long distance Motorola radio combo caper. It works!...sometimes. :rflmao:

It took a few tries getting the receiver's volume and proximity dialed in to where the transmission would take & wake the Dot. At first it appeared that the PTT chirps were blowing Dot's "mind". LOL

Once I got it waking somewhat reliably, it struggled at times deciphering the command. While my Moto radios are pretty dang clear and discernible to the human ear, my guess is that to the Dot, the "faint" swishy/swirly RF noise confuses the wench. That said, with some practice I was able to call up and play with some tuneage. By no means practical at this point. But it was fun for me to **** with. :rolleyes:

If nothing else, it confirms how finely yet forgivingly tuned the mic array & interpretive logic is to the "standard" frequency range to that of a human voice.
Fascinating. :D
 
Update on my Dot long distance Motorola radio combo caper. It works!...sometimes. :rflmao:

It took a few tries getting the receiver's volume and proximity dialed in to where the transmission would take & wake the Dot. At first it appeared that the PTT chirps were blowing Dot's "mind". LOL

Once I got it waking somewhat reliably, it struggled at times deciphering the command. While my Moto radios are pretty dang clear and discernible to the human ear, my guess is that to the Dot, the "faint" swishy/swirly RF noise confuses the wench. That said, with some practice I was able to call up and play with some tuneage. By no means practical at this point. But it was fun for me to **** with. :rolleyes:

If nothing else, it confirms how finely yet forgivingly tuned the mic array & interpretive logic is to the "standard" frequency range to that of a human voice.
Fascinating. :D
Yes, very interesting. I have it wake up when someone says Alexa on the TV, though. It must be something about the way these walkie-talkies work vs regular speakers. As you mentioned, there is probably RF noise going on.
 
I have it wake up when someone says Alexa on the TV, though. It must be something about the way these walkie-talkies work vs regular speakers.
Yeah, compared to even a cheesy TV speaker, the WT lacks sufficient fidelity and/or is too noisy. I am amazed how it can pluck the wake word out of the fog of relatively loud music and/or far distances. "Echo"...heh, that hints of what the sonic poindexters who developed this tech went through crafting the algorithms & such.

I changed my wake name to Echo. Mainly because... uttering "Alexa" sounds a bit too fruity to me. :)

"Echo" is arguably a tad more obscure and possibly less prone for false phonetic hits. So far so good...time will tell.
 
Odd that the Amazon Music app, which is actually pretty decent, doesn't interact with Dot or Echo. Seems like there should be a cast icon, just like with Chromecast, for when you want to browse/search and play. Voice control is great, but plenty of use cases where app is superior. I'll assume they're working on it...
 
Odd that the Amazon Music app, which is actually pretty decent, doesn't interact with Dot or Echo. Seems like there should be a cast icon, just like with Chromecast, for when you want to browse/search and play. Voice control is great, but plenty of use cases where app is superior. I'll assume they're working on it...
You can access a lot of the music features in the Alexa app.
 
I have an Echo Dot set up in my kitchen, which is my primary sound system, connected to my new Peachtree Audio Nova 150 and then to ELAC Uni-fi Ub5 bookshelf speakers on top of my kitchen cabinets pointing down, and an ELAC S10EQ Debut subwoofer. Initially I was disappointed that the Echo Dot didn't have the capability to use an optical cable into my Peachtree, but I've gotten over that and am happy with the sound quality using an RCA input (red and white plugs) into my amp. Now that I've gotten used to the Echo Dot:

* I really like the ability to start up a Spotify playlist using voice commands. Also, skipping songs, turning up the volume, and changing playlists while my hands are occupied with cooking so I don't have to touch my iPhone 7P. Very convenient and nice. I figured out that I have to change the default music player to Spotify in order to do this, but that was easy enough via "Settings" once I became aware of it.

* I changed the name from "Alexa" to "Echo" because my wife was getting really pissed off at me saying Alexa do this and Alexa do that. Echo is less offensive to her, but she still wonders why all the voice robots have to be female. (!!!)

* It's really cool that the unit is able to hear the word "Echo" (or "Alexa" or "Amazon" if you have it set to that) above the sound of the music. I can be listening to music pretty loud, say "Echo" with a normal voice, and the unit will detect it and await for further instructions. Seems like really sophisticated technology.

Loving the Echo Dot! Cheers all ~ Ben
 
* I changed the name from "Alexa" to "Echo" because my wife was getting really pissed off at me saying Alexa do this and Alexa do that. Echo is less offensive to her, but she still wonders why all the voice robots have to be female. (!!!)
Siri can be changed to a male voice and you also have access to accents. I don't think the Echo is as sophisticated in that area yet.

My guess is that they default to a human voice and name because they want to make it feel warmer and less techy. That is why they default to Alexa instead of Amazon or Echo.

If I had to guess why they use women's voices by default, it is most likely related to the creepiness that HAL left us with from 2001.

 
Ordered a Dot yesterday. Said to arrive later this week. Will be interesting to add voice control to some of my home automation like the Philips Hue lighting and Harmony Hub remote control system (primary reasons for purchase).
 
Add Crestron to the systems adopting Alexa integration (announced at Cedia Dallas a couple weeks ago). Will be beta testing it in one of our homes in a couple weeks.
 
Spotify Connect works very well with Dot. My phone doesn't even need to be connected to WiFi , will connect to and control Dot nicely via 4G, with very little lag. I am not a fan of Spotify's app, but Spotify Connect does control Dot nicely, something Amazon's own music app can't do, oddly.
 
Mine arrived as scheduled and was pretty easy to get going. That said, it's clear I will need to simplify some of the naming conventions I've used in Hue and Harmony Hub. Not that Alexa can't understand them, just that it makes it easier for the human part.
 
Mine arrived as scheduled and was pretty easy to get going. That said, it's clear I will need to simplify some of the naming conventions I've used in Hue and Harmony Hub. Not that Alexa can't understand them, just that it makes it easier for the human part.
With The Harmony skill do you just say " Alexa, turn on tv" or "Alexa, tell Harmony how turn in TV"? I love it with my Hue lights. Just got some Hue 3rd gens. They are supposed to be brighter and have more accurate colors than the 2nd gen. Unfortunately, one of them was shattered in the box when it was delivered, so I only have 2 of them to try out.
 
Yeah, "Alexa, turn on TV." works. Then some other activities I have set up like "Alexa, turn on smart TV." that turns on all the same gear but sets the TV to the Smart Apps home rather than the HDMI input. Still have to select the smart app itself, like Netflix, with the remote because the TV does not have a direct command/hotkey for Netflix.

Also, with favorite channels set up in Harmony, can say "Alexa, turn on National Geographic" or "...turn on SyFy", etc. and it will change the cable box to those channels.

Edit: It seems to struggle recognizing channels having abbreviated names; ABC, CBS, CW23, etc. I have not yet been able to voice command those sort of channels through Alexa/Dot.
 
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