The Dot has a small, mediocre speaker. The Dot's speaker is good for voice and okay for playing lower volume music (depending on genre) up to perhaps volume 5 or 6. It was not designed to rock out to heavy metal. If you want to turn up the volume on a Dot and rock out, then you need to connect it to a decent external speaker, otherwise it is more than adequate for the tasks it was designed to accomplish. Since the Dot costs less than 1/3 the cost of an Echo, and was never designed as a home stereo replacement, the speaker is about what we should expect it to be.