rlanza1054 Posted March 27, 2016 Posted March 27, 2016 I found a way to order the echo from a cnet website article. It never occurred to me to at least order two, for the two rooms I am always in. http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-order-an-amazon-echo-dot-without-an-amazon-echo/ But I'm concerned that if I actually get one ; it was ordered a 'pre-order'! There is talk here and elsewhere that if I actually receive the ordered one, it won't setup because its looking for the original Echo or some other Amazon device? Is that a possibility? Thanks! Rob Quote
stusviews Posted March 28, 2016 Posted March 28, 2016 The requisite that you already have an Echo is/was only to be entitled to order a Dot and/or Tab. You do need to have an Amazon account, though. Quote
Dr Pepper Posted March 28, 2016 Posted March 28, 2016 My date was March 31st. It is now April 11th. Not really that big of a deal but a little frustrating Quote
Tim McDermott Posted March 29, 2016 Posted March 29, 2016 The delivery date for my Dot seems to be holding fast at 3/31, to ship tomorrow. we'll see. Quote
Tim McDermott Posted March 30, 2016 Posted March 30, 2016 Well, I continue to keep my fingers crossed as far as a delivery date for my Dot of 3/31. It's supposed to ship "3/29," but here in Eastern time it's not looking good as Amazon still reports it as "preparing to ship." I believe I was probably one of the first to respond to the Prime invitation, so it will be interesting to see if dates slip. Quote
MWareman Posted March 30, 2016 Posted March 30, 2016 Mine says 'Shipping Today' - but - 'Arriving April 8th'... Strange. Quote
Thanatar Posted March 30, 2016 Posted March 30, 2016 Mine shows shipping today and arriving tomorrow. We'll see. Quote
Tim McDermott Posted March 30, 2016 Posted March 30, 2016 Mine shows shipping today and arriving tomorrow. We'll see. Ditto, now. It seems kind of expensive for Amazon to let the ship date slip while honoring the original delivery date. Perhaps they consider the expense an investment in customer satisfaction. Quote
stmrocket Posted March 31, 2016 Posted March 31, 2016 Mine shipped yesterday for delivery tomorrow. Quote
kjbbasic Posted March 31, 2016 Posted March 31, 2016 FYI, they are arriving...I have a couple dots up and running now. Straight forward in setting up as the "old" echo. Pending a SW update right now, then I'll move them to their final homes. I'm just waiting for them to start arguing some day.... Quote
imagamejunky Posted March 31, 2016 Posted March 31, 2016 My dot was delivered earlier this afternoon. I'm looking forward to being home tomorrow to check it out. I'm excited about the audio out jack the most. Junky Quote
MWareman Posted March 31, 2016 Posted March 31, 2016 Mine arrived at home earlier.... On my way there now.. Quote
Bekowies Posted March 31, 2016 Posted March 31, 2016 Ok, setup was a breeze as with the Echo. The Dot is even smaller than I expected. So I was standing where both could hear me and they both answered all of my questions. When I asked Alexa to play 'Sting', each device played a different song. Hmmmmm... Quote
imagamejunky Posted March 31, 2016 Posted March 31, 2016 Ok, setup was a breeze as with the Echo. The Dot is even smaller than I expected. So I was standing where both could hear me and they both answered all of my questions. When I asked Alexa to play 'Sting', each device played a different song. Hmmmmm... Those of us with more than one echo know this too well. This is exactly what Amazon needs to fix FIRST. All of the echoes and dots on the same network should be able to sync up and play the same song at the same time without question. No excuse. Junky Quote
stusviews Posted April 1, 2016 Posted April 1, 2016 Those of us with more than one echo know this too well. This is exactly what Amazon needs to fix FIRST. All of the echoes and dots on the same network should be able to sync up and play the same song at the same time without question. No excuse. Junky That would eliminate the capability for two people in different rooms to be able to listen to different music. An analogy would be that every TV in the home had to be showing the same move or program at the same time. I'm not opposed to syncing Echos being an option. Quote
imagamejunky Posted April 1, 2016 Posted April 1, 2016 I definitely meant as an option. Like sonos does Quote
accd Posted April 1, 2016 Posted April 1, 2016 Finished setting up the DOT....I'm thinking..."it can't be this easy!" Plugged one of my Sonos AMPs into the DOT out and NOW I have voice control and music, voice confirmation throughout the house via Sonos mesh network. I thought I would run into issues with home automation, all the Insteon devices, programs and scenes work exactly as they do through the Echo. Hoping to prevent issues, I did name the DOT differently, so only one device answers at a time. I uploaded my music library to Prime and pulled it into to Sonos, so now I have voice command access to my legacy music as well as Prime music. It's sort of interesting to here the dot respond through the Sonos network throughout the house. Just ordered a second DOT, but looks like deliver will be in July.... Quote
stusviews Posted April 1, 2016 Posted April 1, 2016 Badda bing. badda boom Echo's in another room My words can fly As easy as pie Over the house, my voice does loom. Quote
mwester Posted April 1, 2016 Posted April 1, 2016 Nice. The Dot just replaced the Echo in the kitchen. Looks nicer there (less obtrusive), and now the Echo can go to my office, where it was always supposed to go (I made the error of setting it up in the kitchen, and once we started using it there, well, it just wasn't going to leave...) The spoken audio quality of the Dot is noticeably less than the Echo - not objectionable, but I guess we just got spoiled by the better speakers in the bigger unit. The appearance, however, is far nicer - the Dot doesn't "vanish" on a table by any means, but it's not at all "in your face" like the Echo tended to be. Quote
stusviews Posted April 1, 2016 Posted April 1, 2016 (edited) No doubt, the Echo sound exceeds that of the Dot (hey, Amazon, add Dottie as a name). But, if listen as I do, I prefer a significantly better sound system, even for background music. I wholeheartedly agree with mwester, the appearance is far nicer. Around here, neatness counts--on its own support, of which it gets little. So the first Dot did disappear Dot did disappear Dot did disappear Dot did disappear. Post here to voice support (pun intended) for a feature and/or add your expertise. Edited April 1, 2016 by stusviews Quote
imagamejunky Posted April 1, 2016 Posted April 1, 2016 Ok. My first impressions.. I installed the dot in my game room so that I could connect it to a Sonos play five via the auxiliary cable. For testing purposes I set the wake word to ECHO for the dot. My two echoes in the house are already set for ALEXA as the wake word. I was quite surprised that the included audio cable is so short. I was thinking that you should get this dot far away from any speaker so that the microphone is not impeded by the music coming out of the speaker. I will experiment with some longer cables later on. I am honestly shocked at how well the dot's microphones are able to pick up my voice in a room with pretty loud music playing. It really is impressive to me. With a pretty loud song playing I can easily say "echo" and it will mute the music and listen to my commands. I didn't realize that the echo dot would play music out of its little speaker system. I guess I didn't read the specifications very clearly before. Without an auxiliary cable connected you can use the echo dot to play music although the sound quality is nothing compared to the echoes sound quality. I'm not saying that I expected the dot to have excellent sound quality I'm just giving a comparison now that I know it has this capability. The gain on the auxiliary out on the dot is pretty low. You have to turn the volume up really high on the Sonos play five and then turn the volume up on the dot pretty loud as well. Don't get me wrong it's working really really well. But I just wish it had more volume output. I've already figured out that I should have ordered two of the dots instead of just one. I would like to have another one in my living room connected to another sonos play five that I have there already. I love the Sonos connectability with that auxiliary cable. I just love it! Here's why. With all of my Sonos speakers grouped together and using the auxiliary input on the Sonos that is in the game room, ALL of the sonos speakers now are broadcasting the voice of Alexa from the dot. This whole house voice that is synced together is exactly what I was hoping having multiple echoes would do but that has not been an option yet. Here is a short video I just posted on YouTube. This is just a simple microphone test example. Junky Quote
Bekowies Posted April 1, 2016 Posted April 1, 2016 So let me make sure I understand that. If I plug one of my Sonos into the Dot it plays the music on all of the Sonos speakers? It would now have full voice control...."Alexa. play Sting on Pandora" would give me whole house sound? Quote
imagamejunky Posted April 1, 2016 Posted April 1, 2016 So let me make sure I understand that. If I plug one of my Sonos into the Dot it plays the music on all of the Sonos speakers? It would now have full voice control...."Alexa. play Sting on Pandora" would give me whole house sound? Yes. That's exactly right. You will need to group your sonos speakers together and have the input set as aux (it's labeled as audio component in the sonos app). And as I explained you also now will have alexa's voice synchronized over all of your grouped sonos speakers. THIS is exactly why I pre ordered the dot. The only downfall is that you will only have voice control in the area of you home where the dot is located. This is why I want another dot. Just so you are aware you can already run your sonos speakers from the echo but it's definitely NOT as easy as this. I've described this other way on other threads. You need a harmony hub, and IFTTT. Since this is a task, you must use the word trigger. This is how I have been running sonos for a while. But I didn't have alexa's voice over the sonos speakers. Junky Quote
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