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Amazon Echo Input is a tiny $35 Dot for your own speakers

This is as close as we get to the Alexa Pancake...for now.

David Katzmaier Editorial Director -- Personal Tech
David reviews TVs and leads the Personal Tech team at CNET, covering mobile, software, computing, streaming and home entertainment. We provide helpful, expert reviews, advice and videos on what gadget or service to buy and how to get the most out of it.
Expertise A 20-year CNET veteran, David has been reviewing TVs since the days of CRT, rear-projection and plasma. Prior to CNET he worked at Sound & Vision magazine and eTown.com. He is known to two people on Twitter as the Cormac McCarthy of consumer electronics. Credentials
  • Although still awaiting his Oscar for Best Picture Reviewer, David does hold certifications from the Imaging Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology on display calibration and evaluation.
David Katzmaier
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Amazon

Like the Echo but don't like its speaker quality? Bring your own!

That's the promise of the Amazon Echo Input, a new $35 (£35) device that's designed to connect to whatever speakers you want.

Coming later this year to the US, UK, Australia and Germany, the little pancake-looking device lacks the built-in speaker found on the $50 Dot. (Australian pricing is yet to be announced.)

Just like the Dot it uses Bluetooth and a 3.5mm analog audio connection to mate with speakers. And just like the Dot those speakers need to be powered themselves, or connected to another powered device like an AV receiver.

The Input stands just 12.5mm so it can easily hide in the room, and Amazon touts its four-microphone array "so you can talk to Alexa from across the room."

To go with its new audio gear Amazon is improving its own Echo multiroom audio system. You can set up speakers as stereo pairs and designate one speaker to be the "preferred" speaker, device or group. This fall, it's also expanding multiroom music to be available on third-party devices like the Polk Command Bar.

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