Echo vs competition (speakers with Alexia)

[maflynn]

Seeing other makers are now including Alexia in their speaker such as iLive Platinum Wi-Fi Speaker With Alexa and Sonos One, what is the difference between these vs. the Echo (or Echo Plus)?

For instance the Ilive platinum is on sale at Office Max for 49.


Does the Echo have more features or are you paying for the Amazon name? 50 dollars seems like a better deal then Amazon's discounted Echo at 80 dollars but to be honest, I don't know if I'm losing out on anything. The Sonos is a different situation as its priced at 180 and it seems to have some extra connectivity to other Sonos products. I guess if you don't own any other Sonos product the allure is decreased.

 

[bruinsrme]

I have the Sonos play.
Set up was not as easy as I thought it would be.
Sound is better on the low end but lacking on the high end compared to echo plus.
Sonos has to use Alexa which makes it extremely annoying when an Alexa commercial comes on. Sure it’s cute the first few times.

Not sure but Sonos with Alexa doesn’t fetch notifications.

Sonos is slower to react than echo plus

Sonos can not be paired with other amazon devices (at this time)

Sonos is a good looking speaker, decent sound.

I use my echo plus more frequently

 

[ericgtr12]

I think you're paying for the Echo's ecosystem and functionality but if just speaker quality is your thing something different may be worth it. However, if you have Amazon Prime or any of their other services they all integrate well into the Echo and as I understand it they're also now adding the ability to run things like Hue bulbs without the need for a hub, etc.

Personally, I have two of these in my house and will be adding a third soon, particularly because they now communicate so well with each other, sending notifications (also can act as an intercom) and the ability to play your Amazon music through all the devices (or any combination you specify) at one time. They routinely update it and they're compatible with just about any home automation solution out there.

It's safe to call me a fanboy!

 

[eyeseeyou]

I have a $25 echo dot plus the $35 mokcao speaker add on which basically turns it into a wireless echo plus.

Pretty awesome.

 

[ericgtr12]

I have a $25 echo dot plus the $35 mokcao speaker add on which basically turns it into a wireless echo plus.

Pretty awesome.

On one of our Dots we use a JBL bluetooth speaker as well, works great.

 

[Weaselboy]

Seeing other makers are now including Alexia in their speaker such as iLive Platinum Wi-Fi Speaker With Alexa and Sonos One, what is the difference between these vs. the Echo (or Echo Plus)?

I have both a gen. 1 and a gen 2 Echo, plus a Dot and a Tap... all running a bunch of home automation stuff. I was an early adopter of the original Echo.

What worries me a little about a third party device like this is how much love it will get in the way of upgrades as time goes by. Amazon has been really good about adding new features to their devices and I wonder if the same firmware updates will be rolled out to these third party devices? I also notice this device uses its own iOS app, and not the standard Alexa app that also gets updated often.

If you just want something that will give you time, weather, alarms, answer web queries.... that sort of thing, I guess it would be okay, but if you plan to take advantage of some of the home automation and expanded capabilities these devices can handle, I would be a little worried about a third party unit like this.

 

[eyeseeyou]

On one of our Dots we use a JBL bluetooth speaker as well, works great.

I’m sure the jbl sounds better.

This mokcao speaker also has a rechargeable battery so your echo dot doesn’t need to be plugged in all the time. Pretty awesome and found it at a good price for Black Friday.

 

[bruinsrme]

I have the Sonos play with Alexa.

Decent.

I would be interested in understanding what functions or limitations 3rd party products have. I can't seem to get notification on the Sonos and its rather frustrating. "Alexa play notifications" " I not quite sure how to help you with that." GRRRRRRR

Also, I had an extra ATV and computer monitor. The Sonos is not usable but the Echo plus with bluetooth makes for a nice little speaker.

 

[maflynn]

Update, I opted for the Amazon Echo. My wife got an exceptional deal with the iLive and I was going to live with it, but then as I started opening it up, I saw that it was battery based. I want this work in the living room and be always on, I'd rather not worry about trotting out the USB cable and charging it on my computer or finding an A/C adapter to plug the USB into the wall. Seems kind of silly.

Secondly and more importantly it seems that it doesn't have all the features of the Echo. There was a note about how they were eager to upgrade it, to allow you to stream music but until that happens they recommend setting it up as a BT speaker.

I may need to do that with the Echo but at least I have the option of using amazon's services to stream music, and if that's missing what else is?

In the end, with the Echo on sale, I bought one and will be picking it up this morning. I was really hoping to have it running over the weekend playing Christmas music so I was anxious to get it up and running ASAP.

 

[maflynn]

I now have the Echo and after a few bumps in getting it configured, its been smooth sailing. A great product and I'm happy that I opted for the real deal

 

[ericgtr12]

I now have the Echo and after a few bumps in getting it configured, its been smooth sailing. A great product and I'm happy that I opted for the real deal

Congrats on your new purchase, once you get everything setup you’ll probably never go back. We just bought our third (two story home) and are really digging the recent changes that allow us to play music through all of them at the same time and the ability to use them as an intercom system. As you probably know it doesn’t require Amazon Prime but if you already have it, it’s that much better. Far more music options, deliver alerts, etc.