Amazon Echo Club

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

I am torn about the Tap. I put it in the kitchen, as I hated the cord of the original. But of course, the sound isn't as rich as the original Echo. But I really like the cordless look.

For now the original is in the bedroom. I have 30 days to decide about the Tap.

That's surprising. The Echo got some criticism for being an OK but not great speaker for the money.

I'd have thought the Tap, marketed specifically as a speaker, would be better than the Echo for music.

ApK

[mpeg2]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

It was easy to set up to our home theater. Just has a 3.5MM headphone jack. I replaced it with a 3.5MM to RCA cord I had (actually, it was a video cord, but I just used the red and white outputs). I plan to use it for working out-I have all my playlists in the Amazon Cloud, and they even have some Prime workout playlists. I can blast it!!

If you plug into the headphone jack, does it cut off the internal speaker??

Rich

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Best thing about the Echo-shopping lists. Mine has one item on the shopping list--Cubs winning the World Series. And Alexa says it every time I ask her.

Alexa's being played for a fool. When she wises up, she'll erase that entry.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by mpeg2

If you plug into the headphone jack, does it cut off the internal speaker??

Rich

According to aftvnews:

When the Echo Dot has a 3.5mm cable connected to it, regardless whether it’s even connected to a speaker on the other end, the internal speaker goes silent. So if you have it physically connected to a speaker, that speaker needs to be powered on to interact with Alexa on the Echo Dot in any way.

Okay, I got the Echo Dot to connect to the Amazon Tap via bluetooth. While connected to a bluetooth speaker, the Echo Dot pipes all audio through the bluetooth speaker, so again, the Echo Dot internal speaker is disabled while the bluetooth speaker is on. The advantage here is that when you turn off the bluetooth speaker, the Echo Dot automatically starts using its internal speaker again. Even if the bluetooth speaker is turned on, if you want to use the Echo Dot’s internal speaker, you can just say “Alexa, disconnect bluetooth” to switch to the Echo Dot’s internal speaker, and then say “Alexa, connect bluetooth” to switch back to the external bluetooth speaker on the fly. Because if this, I’d say the Echo Dot works better with bluetooth speakers then wired speakers. I’d even go as far as to recommend that wired speaker owners should get a bluetooth receiver so they have the flexibility to switch between the Echo Dot’s internal and external speaker source without having to mess with cables each time.

[tubemonkey]

AFTVnews has multiple articles on the Dot and Tap:

• Amazon Tap & Echo Dot Overview -- AFTVnewscast 33
• 10 things to know about the Amazon Echo Dot
• 10 things to know about the Amazon Tap
• The Amazon Echo Dot is more versatile with Bluetooth speakers than wired speakers
• Amazon Tap and Echo Dot pre-orders begin arriving — What would you like to know about each?

[tubemonkey]

BTW, I have specs listed for each Echo device in the OP.

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

It sounds loud enough for audiobooks.

I thought so, too. Seems like Dot would also work fine for the OTR (old time radio) shows you enjoy.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by DreamWriter

I thought so, too. Seems like Dot would also work fine for the OTR (old time radio) shows you enjoy.

You bet it would! Another idea I had was this:

I have a couple of old fashioned looking radios. I was thinking about taking one and stripping out the innards and replacing them with a Dot and powered stereo speakers. Then I'd drill some holes in the sides, top, and back of the radio to allow the Dot mics better access to voice commands.

When done, I'd have an OTR Dot. It'd be really cool looking.

[mpeg2]

Tubemonkey: THanks. I'd suspected that the wired speaker jack contained a switch, which is backed up by your links. I hadn't thought about the bluetooth option - which might make the application I had in mind workable.

Rich

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by mpeg2

Tubemonkey: THanks. I'd suspected that the wired speaker jack contained a switch, which is backed up by your links. I hadn't thought about the bluetooth option - which might make the application I had in mind workable.

Rich

YW; and good luck

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

You bet it would! Another idea I had was this:

I have a couple of old fashioned looking radios. I was thinking about taking one and stripping out the innards and replacing them with a Dot and powered stereo speakers. Then I'd drill some holes in the sides, top, and back of the radio to allow the Dot mics better access to voice commands.

When done, I'd have an OTR Dot. It'd be really cool looking.

I think it would be easy to strip out. That would be totally cool.

[WT Sharpe]

I've been looking for some video reviews of the Amazon Tap. The first few pages of YouTube seem to be saturated with content provided by Amazon, and even some of the "reviews" appear to be nothing but thinly veiled advertisements. What I'd love to know is how it stacks up in terms of sound volume and quality against it's wall-bound big sister. If the quality is good, I would consider buying one to take on trips to my daughter's house. Our car has no Wi-Fi or direct connections to the sound system, and trying to find an unused bandwidth on the radio dial on which to play my iPod is the pits. As it looks like the Tap could fit in a cup holder, and since we never go on trips over 9 hours, the Tap could be a real solution. It's certainly a lot cheaper than buying a new car.

[Tarana]

Got my new Dot yesterday. Took me a couple of hours to figure out that I had to have one device answer to Alexa and another to Echo. Drove me nuts until then. They are too close together. I plan to have the Dot in the kitchen, but I have to do some family training for that. In the meantime, it lives in my bedroom.

Otherwise, works just like the Echo except I have it plugged into my speaker. My brother's connected via Blue Tooth and so far, things have gone well with both.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I've been looking for some video reviews of the Amazon Tap. The first few pages of YouTube seem to be saturated with content provided by Amazon, and even some of the "reviews" appear to be nothing but thinly veiled advertisements. What I'd love to know is how it stacks up in terms of sound volume and quality against it's wall-bound big sister. If the quality is good, I would consider buying one to take on trips to my daughter's house. Our car has no Wi-Fi or direct connections to the sound system, and trying to find an unused bandwidth on the radio dial on which to play my iPod is the pits. As it looks like the Tap could fit in a cup holder, and since we never go on trips over 9 hours, the Tap could be a real solution. It's certainly a lot cheaper than buying a new car.

Not a video review, but check these two articles out:

• 10 things to know about the Amazon Tap
• Amazon Tap and Echo Dot pre-orders begin arriving — What would you like to know about each?

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

You bet it would! Another idea I had was this:

I have a couple of old fashioned looking radios. I was thinking about taking one and stripping out the innards and replacing them with a Dot and powered stereo speakers. Then I'd drill some holes in the sides, top, and back of the radio to allow the Dot mics better access to voice commands.

When done, I'd have an OTR Dot. It'd be really cool looking.

That sounds cool!

I used to collect early radios/shortwave receivers, but I sold all except one Stromberg-Carlson years ago. I miss them now.