Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen)

The Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen) has Fair overall sound quality. The unit is monophonic. Bass has so-so impact is somewhat subdued and lacks deep bass. Midrange is fairly even but is grainy and somewhat hazy, and can sound rough with some content. Treble is subdued, smeared, and upper treble is muted. Does a so-so job of recovering room ambience and is congested. Provides an adequate listening volume for a small sized room but is best suited for near field listening and gets compressed sounding at louder volumes. Can be combined with a second unit to form a stereo pair. As a stereo pair they can be placed to provide better stereo separation than many other models. There was no significant difference between Wifi and Bluetooth sound quality. Note: The unit can get a little louder than the last generation Echo Dot and has a bit more treble and bass. Also, we noticed at time of testing that Bluetooth and Wifi content can play at the same time.

Versatility is Excellent. It's a monophonic speaker, with multi-room support and can stereo pair with another Echo Dot (4th Gen). Wireless: WiFi supports dual-band and this unit has Bluetooth and can output to another speaker but lacks speakerphone functionality. Communications: Has support for calling and messaging - called "Drop In", but lacks SMS texting capbability. Digital Assistant Muting: Has a dedicated button to disable the digital assistant by muting its microphones. Audio Connections: Lacks analog audio input but has an analog audio output. Audio Tailoring: Has Bass, Mid and Treble user tone controls. OS Support: Fire OS, Android and iOS. Other connections and features: Lacks a USB device port. Streaming by voice command: Supports voice command of many common streaming services such as Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify, Tune-In, and iHeart Radio. Voice ID: Supports voice identity - a feature which allows the account holder with their "voice print" to access personal information.

Overall ease of use of the Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen) is very good. Wireless setup: Setup requires an app downloaded to a mobile device, easy and intuitive, may or may not involve inputting WiFi network password and account setups. Console controls: Volume controls are prominent +/- control buttons with non-persistent graphical position (but graphical indicator is somewhat obstructed ring of light lowest part of unit) markings of volume level is easily repeatable via verbal commands and easy to actuate. Audio mute: Lacks a physical mute control. Microphone mute: Dedicated control but the marking is not the most obvious, clear indication when it is engaged. Source selections: Requires app to be installed, app installation is straight forward. Once app is installed switching between wireless sources is fairly intuitive within the app. Can't select Bluetooth but Bluetooth can be connected by verbal command to previously paired device - ready to play. App remote: Volume control symbol, then volume slider, lacks index markings so not easily repeatable, but easy to actuate. Shown for currently playing streamed WiFi music. Mute: (Remote) Well marked, well placed, clear indication when it is engaged. Voice transport controls: Natural language control of transport (Play/Pause/Skip/Mute), volume controls and source selection was easy and intuitive.