Finding the right combination of Amazon Echo devices can be a tricky balancing act, we'll walk you through it.
Editors' Note, January 31, 2017: Thanks to Amazon's ESP feature, you no longer have to worry about device overlap since only the closest Echo will respond to you if multiple devices hear your command. The second half of the piece has been updated to reflect this change.
It's time to think big picture now that we've reviewed all three devices with Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant. What if you want to roll out Alexa to every room in your house?
A quick refresher: Alexa is the speech-recognition technology built into Amazon's Dot, Echo and Tap smart speakers. Alexa is programmed to respond to a wide variety of voice commands. She can tell you the weather or the news, she can add an event to your calendar or you can use her to make a shopping list. Alexa can play music from streaming services such as Spotify, Pandora and, of course, Amazon Prime. She can also control an impressive list of smart-home devices. Thanks to an aggressive expansion plan from Amazon, Alexa gets support for new products and digital services weekly.
In addition, Amazon has two other Alexa-related products:
It's surprisingly easy to add multiple Alexa devices to a single Amazon account. The Amazon Alexa app for iOS and Android walks you through the process. If you sync control of any smart home devices to one Echo unit, any other Echo products tied to the same account will also recognize them.
The Tap and the Dot make a compelling combo.
Thanks to an audio line-in on the Tap and the magic of Bluetooth, you can link the Tap to the Dot either over a cable or wirelessly. This combination gets you the better speakers and the portability of the Tap with the always-listening Alexa feature via the Dot. Buying both the Dot and Tap will cost $180, the same as a single Echo, and it gives you a more flexible set up with portability when you need it -- and always-on Alexa convenience when you don't.
Another way to extend Alexa is a single Echo and a Voice Remote. That will cost $210 and it will give you the best speaker of the set, plus an Alexa contact point in one room. The Voice Remote uses Bluetooth, and I was impressed by the range when I tried it out in the CNET Smart Home. I placed an Echo on the top floor, went one floor down into the basement, and the Echo still responded to my commands via the remote.
The Voice Remote works with either the Echo or the Dot.
The most affordable way to extend Alexa to multiple rooms is to buy the Echo Dot and extend it with the Remote. That setup will cost $80. This makes sense if you already have a speaker system for the Dot, or if you don't care about using Alexa for music streaming.
Although adding multiple devices to your Alexa app is seamless, you can't combine two Echo devices to create a stereo effect or surround sound audio setup like you can with Sonos speakers. The Echo's main competitor -- Google Home -- does let you group speakers for synched audio, so Alexa's trailing behind here.
Putting multiple Echoes too close together used to lead to another annoyance -- if you told the Echo in your kitchen to play a song, the Dot in your living room might also have heard the command, and then you would get both speakers playing the same tune, but without syncing up.
Fortunately, as of last October, Alexa's ESP feature fixed that issue. Now, if you have multiple Alexa devices in hearing range, only the one that hears you best will respond. You'll need to have them all synched to the same account for this to work, so you could still get overlap if your kids or significant other have their own Amazon accounts and they're logged into one of your Echos.
The guidelines below will help you plan for complete coverage with minimal overlap. You don't need to be as cautious anymore, thanks to the ESP feature. If you do have a family member with a different account and an Echo device in an adjoining room to yours, simply switch the wake word for one of the units. In the app, you can program Alexa to respond to "Amazon," "Echo" or "Computer."
The Dot is our favorite. It's the best, most affordable choice if you don't care about music quality and just want an always-listening assistant. It's also the best choice if you care a lot about the sound quality of music. In that case, you probably have your own speaker setup, and the Dot can just plug right in.
The original Echo's a fine choice if you want a virtual assistant, and a device to fill a large space with only decent-sounding music. $180 price tag aside, it's still the best stand-alone product of the bunch.
The Tap loses some of the charm of the other two since it's not always-listening. It's a good option if you want Alexa and a portable speaker in the garage or patio from time to time. That said, the Voice Remote is a cheaper way to fill in the gaps in if you just want to bring Alexa to the far corners of your home.
As always with planning out a smart home set up, your best bet is to start small with one or two Alexa devices to see how you and your family will really use them. Build out only once you get a feel for them.
Then, if you find yourself wanting to talk to Alexa in both the kitchen and the bedroom on a regular basis, put an Echo or a Dot in both rooms. It no longer matters how close the rooms are.
Use the following guidelines if you know you want a whole home Alexa set up.
One always-listening Alexa device should cover it. Put either an Echo or an Echo Dot in a central spot in the room you inhabit most often, and you'll rarely be out of shouting distance. Both can pick up your voice through one closed door. Buy a Voice Remote if you have lots of interior doors, or to minimize yelling.
Most of the time, one Echo or Dot will be sufficient if you place it in a central room in a medium-sized home. One wall of separation is the limit if you want Alexa to clearly hear you, though, and you'll want to be in the same room if you want Alexa to hear you over music or the television.
I used to recommend a Tap for family members interested in a device in their own space near a center room, but now you can pick your always-listening device of choice.
The Tap still comes in handy if you want to take Alexa with you to work in the garage or out to the patio. Use a Voice Remote for any peripheral areas where you don't care about music, but you still want to issue commands to Alexa.
In general, you'll be fairly well covered with one Echo or Dot per floor. Keep in mind the one wall guideline. If your home floor plan is wider than it is long, you may need more than one Echo device for full coverage.
If you find Alexa can't hear you over your TV, the best way to mitigate the problem is with the Voice Remote. For instance, you can place an Echo in the living room at one end of your main floor, hook a Dot into the entertainment center at the other end, and then place a Voice Remote in any areas in between and you'll always be able to give voice commands.
In general, Taps are better for moving between areas where you only want to play music on occasion, though it's not too much of a hassle unplugging and replugging the Echo or the Dot.