one big dot advantage

[renegade600]

just wanted to share.  found one big dot advantage.  With the echo, sometimes it took several tries to cancel or disable when the alarm or timer is going off, or music and news is playing.  However, with the dot, this is no longer the problem since I have it connected via bluetooth to speakers across the room.  Made it a whole lot easier to give commands  :-)

[renegade600]

What's an "alarm"..?? I'm retired.. Sorry, couldn't resist..

must be nice  :-) 

[leehop71]

I'm semi-retired.  The key to being retired is to keep busy with something. 

[mike27oct]

OK, renegade, I got it; the distance between the Dot and the speaker is greater.  Makes sense.  How's this for the flip side disadvantage:  The Dot is on corner of entertainment cabinet, plugged into stereo and next a big Hummer-size right speaker.  Dot doesn't hear commands as well. Fortunately, volume control of stereo is directly below.  Oh well, such is life with Alexa.   

I am beginning to believe the Dot really wasn't ready for prime time, and got released to us "early adopters", and the initial small production run sold out quickly as planned so that Amazon can get feedback to confirm the Dot really does need a better speaker, and a better one shows up inside next production run of Dots.  The Dot's speaker is laughable. My kid-version, first transistor radio sounded better.

[renegade600]

OK, renegade, I got it; the distance between the Dot and the speaker is greater.  Makes sense.  How's this for the flip side disadvantage:  The Dot is on corner of entertainment cabinet, plugged into stereo and next a big Hummer-size right speaker.  Dot doesn't hear commands as well. Fortunately, volume control of stereo is directly below.  Oh well, such is life with Alexa.   

I am beginning to believe the Dot really wasn't ready for prime time, and got released to us "early adopters", and the initial small production run sold out quickly as planned so that Amazon can get feedback to confirm the Dot really does need a better speaker, and a better one shows up inside next production run of Dots.  The Dot's speaker is laughable. My kid-version, first transistor radio sounded better.

if anyone placed their dot anywhere near any hummer sized speakers is asking for trouble   ;-)

amazon said from the beginning the speaker was not going to be good for the dot.  Amazon said from the beginning that you would need speakers if you want good sound.  Amazon said from the beginning that their speakers were for voice.   Anyone who believed otherwise were idiots - the dot is exactly as advertised.  Users need to start believing what they read instead of second guessing.   IMO, it was a lot better than what I thought it was going to be.  From what I read, There is only one common complaint that could be an issue is heat when constant playing otherwise, in my book, the dot is 100 percent ready for primetime.

[mike27oct]

Renegade, my dear friend, I don't think you read my post correctly, I did not say I was trying to listen to the crappy Dot speaker with the stereo going strong,  I said my Dot is "plugged into stereo", meaning the Dot audio out is directly plugged into the stereo's audio in for listening to music and not the Dot speaker at this time, and when the Dot is plugged into the stereo the audio from Dot is in the stereo speakers, not the Dot speaker.  But, the music going on from stereo makes it difficult to give commands to Dot's mics when stereo volume is above a gentle volume level is just like with the Big Echo when it plays somewhat, or a lot more loud.  I hope I have been clear explaining the situation better this time.

So, I am not disagreeing with what you first said, I am agreeing with you. I have the same issue you described of the Dot speaker and its mic are in close proximity making it difficult to give commands.  And, you said that you have the Dot at Point A in the room and the BT speaker at Point B in the room and it makes it easier to give commands to Dot that way.  Am I understanding correctly what you stated?

Therefore ,your chewing me out rant and inferring I did not know what I was doing, and that I even could possibly be an idiot was a bit over the top, and I would appreciate whatever sort of an apology you can muster up for your misunderstand this idiot.

And, my last general comments about the quality of the Dot speaker stands. I have a second Dot in bedroom, and when I listen to its speaker I know it is a crappy speaker -- even for voice.  For maybe 50 cents more in production costs I feel that Amazon could have put in at least a speaker one notch above "sounds crappy" Jeeze, some kids pull toy speakers sound better than the Dot speaker does, for Pete's sake.  I know they can't put in a speaker almost as good or better than Echo; if they did, nobody would buy the Echo anymore.  I will say, that the Dot is ready enough for primetime, but the speaker and heat issue are not.

To close, I will say once again I love the Tap; so glad I got it. I set it up on the Comcast local hotspot, walked around the neighborhood, quickly lost internet connection to my router and soon got back the internet from the hotspot and hardly lost it at all on my walkabout. And, when I got back inside the house, Tap automatically reconnected to my router again.

[jratliff]

I haven't searched yet to see if anyone else mentioned it but I don't like that if I start music or a timer on the dot in one room (say in the kitchen) then the timer goes off while I'm sitting in the living room, I can't tell the echo right next to me to stop the timer alarm or stop music coming from the dot... I'm sure this can easily be addressed with software changes later.

I didn't really notice any problem with the speaker myself, but only use one of them for on off stuff really. And the second dot I have is talking through Sonos so haven't used its built in.

[Kelleytoons]

Can you have both a speaker plugged in as well as use bluetooth?  And does it pair automatically from a previously paired output?

I'm trying to figure out if I can use this to play music *sometimes* and the rest of the time use it as I use my Echo (IOW, most of the time the bluetooth receiver won't be turned on). 

I assume that if you have it paired with a bluetooth receiver the onboard speaker, tiny as it is, won't even be used (and I guess that's also true of plugging it into a speaker but then I wonder if it will switch to bluetooth if that becomes available).

[renegade600]

I haven't searched yet to see if anyone else mentioned it but I don't like that if I start music or a timer on the dot in one room (say in the kitchen) then the timer goes off while I'm sitting in the living room, I can't tell the echo right next to me to stop the timer alarm or stop music coming from the dot... I'm sure this can easily be addressed with software changes later.

I didn't really notice any problem with the speaker myself, but only use one of them for on off stuff really. And the second dot I have is talking through Sonos so haven't used its built in.

could get confusing if more than one user at the same time on different echo devices.   however it sounds like a good feature to have. 

[renegade600]

Can you have both a speaker plugged in as well as use bluetooth?  And does it pair automatically from a previously paired output?

I'm trying to figure out if I can use this to play music *sometimes* and the rest of the time use it as I use my Echo (IOW, most of the time the bluetooth receiver won't be turned on). 

I assume that if you have it paired with a bluetooth receiver the onboard speaker, tiny as it is, won't even be used (and I guess that's also true of plugging it into a speaker but then I wonder if it will switch to bluetooth if that becomes available).

never thought about doing this but seems to me, it is either one or the other, not both.  I may have to give it a try myself just to see what happens :-)

[mike27oct]

Saw mention of this being done over at lovemyecho.com  Using a stereo Y connector was the key ingredient, so check that site; just saw it there a few days ago.

[45Wheelgun]

I have both my dots connected to harman Kardan Onyx speakers via Bluetooth. If the hk is turned off it rolls over to the dot. Turn on the hk and then say "Alexa connect to my speaker" and it reconnects instantly.  No "re-pairing" necessary.  The Onyx speakers are available as referbs  on ebay for $60 delivered and are absolutely amazing.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[leezard]

Can you have both a speaker plugged in as well as use bluetooth?  And does it pair automatically from a previously paired output?

I'm trying to figure out if I can use this to play music *sometimes* and the rest of the time use it as I use my Echo (IOW, most of the time the bluetooth receiver won't be turned on). 

I assume that if you have it paired with a bluetooth receiver the onboard speaker, tiny as it is, won't even be used (and I guess that's also true of plugging it into a speaker but then I wonder if it will switch to bluetooth if that becomes available).

Yes you can, thats how I have mine. It is connected via blutooth to a JBL Charge 2+ by both bluetooth and wired. By default I have it playing via the wirted connection, but if I say "Alexa connect to my speaker" it connects to bluetooth and starts playing via bluetooth. There is a brief pause where it says it is connected but other than that the music never skips a beat.