The sound quality is very good. The major flaw is that once the subwoofer is paired to form a speaker set.... that speaker set cannot be part of a multi room music system.... so it effectively makes the speaker set ( speaker and subwoofer) a one room system. That totally defeats the purpose of having music in the whole house....and defeats the option to add the much needed bass to the Echo speakers. I understand the reasoning... but it hampers the expansive sound quality. Hope the developers address this shortcoming.
Update: I have contacted echo customer service numerous times and they have confirmed my suspicions.... the sub cannot be part of a group. They have agreed this is not possible... if you see in the photo.... it is unreachable. Customer service confirmed it and for the time being it can only be paired in a 2:1 or 1:1 system..... NOT in a whole home everywhere group. The biggest audio drawback to the Echo’s is lack of bass response.... so I have a to make a choice ..... whole home music (Yes) or bass in only one room (No) ..... really believe this is a very serious drawback. In a perfect world I live in a three story home..... would love to have the bass element on every floor..... if the sub could be part of a group I would have to buy TWO MORE..... Amazon could sell TWO MORE!!! GO FIGURE!!!..... Please fix this severe drawback!!
Update to the Update! I completely gave up thinking I could get the sub to connect to my existing everywhere group.... Prayers Answered!! I checked this morning and the sub proudly displayed itself as available. I selected it and it gladly joined the group!! Sounds fantastic. I am one Happy Camper!! Way to go Amazon!! Thank you for being so responsive..... perhaps when you do a backdoor fix..... don’t be so quiet about it!! I am very pleased!! Changed my original rating for the great customer service and additional features!!!
Update: I changed my rating from 2 to 4 stars. To see why it was initially 2 stars, you can read below. The important part I feel is this. I got a cord that worked and fired up my new Sub. The sound is amazing. It filled the room with full clear sound. An audiophile's dream. Setup was not hard. I was able to create speaker groups on the fly. Deleting and recreating till I found just the right pair and placement. To address a few other reviews THE SUB PLAYS IN GROUPS (EVERYWHER AND USER CREATED). It does not however play on Bluetooth...as of the time of this review.
Seriously great sound. But lets face it, It's new and a tad buggy. The software is being updated at a staggering pace, and though the roll out was glitchy at best, I think this is an awesome product. I am one of those geeks that have a device in almost every room. It controls my lighting, heat, plugs, etc. Playing music on the EVERTWHERE group is so cool, because now when you enter the Livingroom/Kitchen (open floor plan) area, the sound is full and expansive. If your adept with apps and electronics, get one now.
Original Review:
First Sub arrived a day late and initial setup went well. Plugged it in, found it in my app. Paired with my network. Setup a set of stereo speakers (gen 2 echo). Played music. Echos sounded awesome. Loved the stereo and the way the volume was linked. But no bass. Sub was dead. Spare the details, Amazon wanted it back and as fast as possible. Their recall team offered me $30 if I got it back to them in 48 hours. Within 12, UPS had it in their hot little hands.
A replacement sub was shipped. It arrived a day later than promised. No credit issued on my amazon account so far by the way. Still haven't heard back on that one. Opened the replacement Sub. Interesting. This one wasn't in a blue box like the first one, but a black box with a white seal. No worries, opened it up. There she was! What I assumed was my bright shiny refurbed Echo Sub!......and no cord to plug it in. Tore apart the packaging and yep. No cord. To be continued.
Update: Can't just send me a cord, got to replace the whole thing. Another week (5 days) before I can get the replacement (if it comes on time). AND I have to return the second one. My $30 credit however was applied to my account. Found a cord at work and plugged in my Sub.
I bought the sub/pair package with two 2nd Gen. Echos to replace my 1st Gen. Echo. Now that it’s all set up, I like it a lot. I play Spotify most of the time, which sounds great. A real step up from solitary speaker to L/R stereo and a sub. The sub itself delivers beautifully.
One star off because the setup turned out to be more complicated and took longer than it should have, if there had been better instructions. The idea is that, using the app, you form a “group” of speakers in one room. In this case, it is the sub and the two Echos. But there are instructions on the sub to set up the L/R speakers before you link the sub. To me, this meant making a group of the 2 Echos and later adding the sub. But that does not work. You cannot add to a group; to add, you have to delete the group and make a new one. Apparently, what they meant is to get the Echos online, then plug in the sub, then make a group of all of them. That does work. Even doing it right seemed to be bug-infested, as I had to reboot the app several times. But I finally got it done and it sounds great.
I did find that a couple days after the setup, Alexa started misunderstanding me and reacting to old commands in new and useless ways. This was fixed by restarting the whole setup. I have the three units all plugged into one surge control bar, so I can just turn the bar reset button off and on to restart the group. As I found with my first Echo, Alexa goes nuts once in a while and you have to restart her. So I suggest plugging the group’s units into a single surge control to make this more convenient.
Let me explain what this is NOT. You cannot use this sub with multi-room setup on amazon devices. To my knowledge it only works as a speaker pair with one or two echos. If you have a speaker in a multi-room setup, you need to delete that pairing if you want to use that speaker with the sub. You can't use this for bluetooth connection to a TV or stereo. You can't play music that is not supported by the Alexa app so it really only works for streaming music from Amazon, Spotify etc. Having siad that the setup is straightforward if you don't have multi room setup and use the correct echo devices although I agree that the instruction pamphlet is awful.
I purchased this subwoofer to pair with 2 Echo speakers in my family room. The setup was unbelievably easy with the program just wanting to know which speaker to be the right and which to be the left speaker. Once that was done, the three speakers were set up as a 2:1 unit. From then on controls worked for the group and not for the individual speaker.
The 2:1 setup is as good as a Sonos or Bose speaker setup which we have. The bass is quite good especially with the volume increased. At low volume it is not quite as good. The midrange and treble although able to be controlled are not quite as good as the Sonos speaker. Overall though this substantially enhances the musical experience with the Amazon Echo speaker.
Finally got mine paired with my speakers. I have been listening to music for about an hour. There is definitely a big change in the music sound Quality!! It sounds better!!!! One important thing to know, If you got your two Echo devices before you got the Echo Sub, and had them paired ahead of time, be sure and unpair them before trying to hook up your Echo sub. The echo devices must be paired at the same time as your sub.
Feature Product
- Echo Sub delivers down-firing, 100W deep bass sound through a 6" woofer.
- Pair with one Echo or Echo Plus (sold separately) to enjoy dynamic music that fills the room.
- Pair with two of the same Echo devices for rich left/right stereo sound.
- Simple to set up and use-just plug in, open the Alexa app, and wirelessly connect to your Echo device(s) to control music with your voice.
Description
Context Disclosure: I began writing and completed this review in real time during my setup experience of my Echo Sub.
Received the Echo sub after some issues with the carrier since Amazon ships it only signature required in my area, took an extra day for me to make arrangements to pickup the item elsewhere.
Upon unboxing the Echo sub the first thing I noticed is its fabric doesn't match the Charcoal echo design or any other currently available Echo fabric. I don't mind this much but it would have been nice if they matched. The Echo sub has this large sticker over the power connection that says to NOT configure it until I have configured my other Echo devices first.
I purchased this Echo sub with a pair of brand-new Echo devices as part of an Amazon Bundle. I unboxed my Echo devices and began setting them up. After completing the setup process and naming my 2 new echo devices (I have more than 10 echo devices in my home, it's becoming a little confusing when keeping track of the new ones) I proceeded to setup the Echo Sub.
I had already noticed in adding devices to my updated Amazon Alexa app that there is a new Echo sub option, so I proceeded through that setup process. The setup process makes you watch a video on your device that helps you understand the capability and recommended placement of your new Echo Sub. I really didn't need to watch this video for the information it provided so it would have been nice to skip this.
After the Video was completed I proceeded through the steps of connecting it to my home wireless network and setting up a speaker pair / group. I got to the screen where I could clearly see my new Echo devices that I had previously labeled "One" and "Two" and to my surprise they were unable to be added to the speaker pair / group. The reason for this is both devices indicated they needed an update and I should check back in "~2 Hours".
Knowing you can force Echo devices to update faster by muting them I placed both on mute and began typing this review. I'm pleased to report that by the time I got to this paragraph that both devices had completed the update and have rebooted themselves... One moment while I continue through the setup... (you can imagine, as I did, that I thought I was going to come back 15 minutes or so later after playing with the devices before reading the following paragraphs and my summary)
I still had the app open on my screen before the updates took place. Post the echos completing their self update, the devices still said they needed to be updated in the app. I couldn't select them, and my only option was to add other devices to the group or cancel. I chose the cancel button which took me back to the previous setup screen and I again was able to select "Continue" to setup a group. After the page refreshed, I could now select my "One" and "Two" Echo devices.
I selected my One Device and immediately all other devices went into "Connectivity Error/Not Compatible" on the app. If I unselect "One" all devices go back to available. If I select "Two" all devices co back into "Connectivity Error/Not Compatible".
As I was unable to select 2 devices to pair together with my Sub. I again could not continue with the setup process. I again chose to "Cancel" the creation and go back to the previous screen. I repeated the same steps above and this time both devices showed "Online”, and I was able to add them to the group/pair and continue. I received a message requesting I select which channel Left or Right for "Two". I selected Right and both One and Two devices began to flash white while the app indicating it was connecting to the speakers.... (waiting while I'm still typing this for this step to complete)
...well I think the step completed, not sure as the app went back to an "Add Group" Screen with no indication of a success or failure of the task. I scrolled down on the app and found a new group called "Stereo Pair" that has been created. I selected the "Stereo Pair" and was show the option to unpair them... not doing that. One moment while I jack with this app and figure out if its working or not... (insert Jeopardy music)
Well I can't rename Stereo Pair on the app, let’s see if I can do it from the Web Interface https://alexa.amazon.com ... nope group doesn't exist there yet or at all, maybe it takes some time. Let’s see if the pair even works. Yup it plays music on the speaker pair but WITHOUT the sub in the group... Wasn't I setting up an Echo Sub when I started this?
I proceed back to the app and attempt to add a group and I'm greeted with the message that I must unpair existing speakers before adding them to a pair. So, I proceed to unpair the Stereo Pair group I just created. (wish it would let me give this a name other than "Stereo Pair")
Recreating the Speaker Group, I realized I found my error. I must select One, Two, and the Sub to pair the 3 devices together.... Funny because I was setting up the Echo Sub when this pairing screen was presented, you would think they would have included the sub automatically.
To locate the Echo Sub in my case, I had scroll down on the pairing screen to find the Sub at the bottom. I suspect I wouldn't have made this error if I didn't have a ton of Echo devices already. Attempt to add all 3 to the group "Failed to Initiate playback on Stereo Pair" Error message yet it still created a new group called "Stereo Sub Pair" (these group names are awful).
Success? I tried playing some music to the "Stereo Sub Pair" group and it's working!
First impressions are it's significantly better sounding than I thought it would be for such a small setup. Upped the Volume, Upped the Bass, now it sounds perfect for my listening enjoyment. Now to go set the devices where I plan on using them and try it out.
Lastly, I tried to see if could rename the “Stereo Sub Pair” Group name to something else by the time I completed reviewing my notes from this review and unfortunately, I can report you can’t change the group name yet. However, once the speakers are paired you don’t need to say the group name to get them to play together like you do with multi-room music.
Summary: I am pleasantly surprised with the Echo Sub and despite the issues above from being an early adopter of the device, I would buy it again. Sound is great and just what I needed for my "Bass-lacking" audio space.
Overall, I give this experience 4 stars only because of the issues I encountered that I’m sure will be resolved in time combined with the fact the sub doesn’t match the echo devices themselves. The Sub audio itself, I give 5 stars.
I ordered the sub during the promo, bundled with two 2nd-gen Echos. Setting up the "trio" (can't call it a speaker "group", since that term has a very specific meaning in Echo-land), I had some difficulty during the initial setup, but realize in retrospect that I should have powered up the new Echos by themselves first, and let them perform the online software update. Once I did that, the second time I tried to create the 2.1 "trio", the process went almost flawlessly.
As others have said elsewhere, the instructions accompanying the unit are severely lacking -- just shy of useless. If you've configured the full range of other Echo devices (we have over 30 just in our primary house), it's fairly easy to navigate the new setup features for creating and pairing the three devices into the "trio". Having had Echo devices since the very first early-order days nearly three years ago (I even have echo dots in all of my vehicles), the Alexa app and the configuration processes for new devices as they came to market have evolved dramatically. So in some way it's understandable that the setup instructions -- for any of the Echo devices -- has to be somewhat vague, since the setup processes are also constantly evolving, and specific setup instructions in the box of the device you buy today may be totally irrelevant and even more frustrating should you try setting up the same device 6 or 12 months later.
The sub creates such a vast improvement in the sound experience that it's hard to describe it accurately. My biggest complaint is that the bass can be overpowering in some room environments. The room I chose to install the "trio' in is a 14ft x 14ft room with uncovered, polished hardwood floors, and otherwise sparsely furnished. With certain types of music (I like loud, bassy music, like vocal trance and EDM), the bass can be so intense that it actually vibrates the windows, and overpowers the mids and highs coming from the individual Echos. To compensate, the only option is to use the equalizer for the "trio" and dial down the bass, but this also reduces the bass coming from the Echos themselves. I'd like to hear more bass from the Echos, but can't because of having to dial down the low frequency equalizer slider in order to lower the drive to the sub, just to make the listening experience more balanced (and enjoyable). As a practicing audio and RF engineer, it seems to me that a very quick and easy fix to my specific problem (and I'm sure others) would be to have a configuration setting for the sub only that allows you to "dial in" a certain amount of attenuation to the bass drive. A simple set of selections in steps of 3 db (up or down, depending on your individual setting) would be a perfect quick fix for this In my case. The fact that the room is basically a flattened cube, it's easy for the sub to deliver sounds that match the natural resonant frequency of the room. The better (long-term?) fix for this kind of problem would be to have a separate equalizer function for only the sub, to configure the response of only the frequencies the sub is designed to produce. A 3- or 5-band equalizer would essentially allow me "dial down" the band of frequencies that tend to resonate in the room. A fantastic fix to this type of problem.
Having watched Amazon's evolution of fixes and improvements to the individual Echo devices, as well as to the Echo-sphere overall, I have to believe that they'll eventually be able to configure a 2.1 "trio" to participate in a system group as though it was a single device entity. Seems like it should be a a basic software upgrade issue. The same with the ability to support audio inputs other than just streaming services (as I see it, if you want to bluetooth a stereo signal to your Echo(s) from your phone or other device, Amazon would have to develop the ability to allow you to make a bluetooth connection to an Echo stereo pair first. Once that feature works, it might then be possible to add the sub to the stereo pair for the 2.1 config (still not sure if the sub has to grab the audio stream via WiFi first for the "trio" to actually function).
Regarding the disappointment that so many people are expressing regarding the limited Bluetooth functionality, it seems that their expectations were misplaced. When I read the early product release announcement, it was clear to me that the Sub was specifically intended to work with only a subset of Amazon-specific Echo devices. But after re-reading the promotional info on Amazon's web site regarding the Sub, there is definitely some ambiguity about it's intended configuration limitations. I would strongly recommend to Amazon that they re-write the capabilities and features sections regarding the Sub so that there are NO ambiguities regarding exactly what the Sub is and is not intended to do or capable of, or how it is intended to operate.
Lastly, I wish Amazon would introduce a "big sister" version of the Echo with more power, making them a better match to the capabilities of the Sub. It seems that the Sub is definitely in a power/performance class that is a notch above the capabilities of the current Echos.
AS a final comment, I would have gladly given the Echo Sub 5 stars if the drive level to the Sub could be controlled independently from the equalizer profile for the Echos.
This thing is terrific. I have the very first Echo that came out, and adding this sub to it has given it a new life. I listen to classical music, and I can now hear the double basses and tympani clearly!
UPDATE:
I’ve had time to actually get the sub completely integrated into my multi-room setup, so if you’re interested in the ins and outs of how to get it working, read on.
I read a few of the reviews while I was waiting for this device and on the basis of these reviews I did these things:
- Updated my Alexa app on my iPhone, iPad and Kindle Fire. The Fire was the most difficult to do. I had to google how to do it and, after a few tries and reboots, got it done.
- Removed all Bluetooth devices from every Alexa speaker I own
- Decided which speaker I would pair with the sub. I picked my original Echo 1 because it needed more bass than my only other available device, a 2nd Gen. Echo Show
- Removed the Echo 1 from every multi-Room group so it stood alone.
When the sub arrived, I plugged it in right next to the Echo 1 I was going to join it to. It took several tries between my Kindle Fire, iPad Pro and iPhone X to get it on my WiFi network, but finally it made it online. Then, it took several more tries to get it joined to my Echo 1.
But, finally, after an hour, they were a “Sub Pair” and showed up as such in the “Speaker Groups” section in the “Devices” screen of the Alexa app. I was then able to add this pair back into my various multi-room groups, like Everywhere, Upstairs, Living Space, etc.
Now the real fun started. My Echo 1 is in the Kitchen. My Echo Show 2nd Gen. is in the Living Room. The Family Room is in between. I was able to put the sub in the Family Room so when I play music Everywhere, Upstairs or in the Living Space, the Kitchen and Living Room are playing with the sub between them in a completely different room!!! Bazinga! The Echo 1 is easily 20 feet from the sub, and when I’m in the kitchen, it sounds just fine. And when both the Kitchen and Living Room are playing with the Sub in the middle in the Family Room, it all sounds just awesome. This sub provides all the low notes that have been missing for a while.
So, get it. Once you get it all set up, it works great. And even though I have two pretty decent sound systems set up, one upstairs and one down, it’s so much simpler to just get Alexa to play something. She’s always on, always listening, and responds with music from a bunch of services.
Original: All my other Echo devices have been set up using my PC and the web-based version of the Alexa management system. When I tried to set this up, it says "Please use the Alexa mobile app to set up your Echo Sub". Nowhere in the description does it say it has this limitation. I am not going to buy a smart phone for the sole purpose of setting up an Alexa device. If the PC-based page is updated later to allow setting up the Echo Sub, I'll modify my review.
Updated: I got a call from Amazon customer service, and they set up my speakers for me (required temporarily giving them access). Since the speakers and sub were already on my network, it only took a minute for the tech to pair the speakers. I now have stereo echo plus 2nd gen speakers with a sub woofer. It works, and it is what I expected: much improved sound. Once the speakers are paired, any adjustments you might want to make (up or down treble, mid-range, bass) can be done with voice commands.
These take up minimal space in my modest size room, and work well for the purpose. And, of course, they are still Alexa, which I use for a lot more than listening to music.
I'm so disappointed!! As an avid Echo user of 19 devices (love the music Everywhere feature) that I bought the new Show (gen2), addl echo 2's and a Sub. The idea of pairing 2 x Echos to a sub sounded great and then adding to the Everywhere group worked as I had hoped and I ordered another sub to create another pair in another room. Well, seems once I added this to the everywhere group the entire Everywhere group failed. Only 1 song at best would play before it failed. I had to unlink this 2nd stereo sub group from the Everywhere group for all groups to work. So, 3 devices operate by themself for the greater good. The thot of a sub in every room has been tossed out.
I have reached out to Amazon via feedback with no response. Before I'm asked, I have +300mbps (+20mpbs upload) speed with an awesome Velop mesh system. If an update is forthcoming, I wish Amazon would indicate it. I have spent way too much money on Echo devices to allow the Subs to ruin them
Ok, I'm updating this. Because of a previous rating of 2 stars; Amazon reached out to me via phone. I was on the phone with a customer service rep and an engineer and they helped to get to the bottom of issues where info wasn't previously posted.
* keep number of alexa devices below 12 in any group.
*you can now create sub groups and link devices to different groups at the same time.
Dianne and Paula were so helpful I even ordered a 3rd sub pair (22 devices now... lol) tonight. I only wish I could provide positive feedback to their bosses as well since they took a bad experience and turned it completely around. The conference call I hope provided feedback to the engineering department in suggestions (ie custom names for sub/stereo groups, a system reset, online faq to provide help and system limitations.
Thank you Dianne and Paula; you define customer service and show you care about your job!!
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