THIS INFO IS LIFE CHANGING! After watching your video, I found an old echo AND the cable laying around. I took my 30 year old Harmon Kardon receiver to basement and connected to our old but very good speakers. Now I have streaming music in my basement for ZERO dollars. OMG thank you so much.
You’re very welcome! 😁 I’m glad I could help you connect the “dots”…. connect the Echo “Dots” to your stereo that is 🤣 And thank you for watching and commenting! 🙌
Does anyone if there is a difference in quality of sound out the hifi when using the echo dot 2nd, 3rd or 4th gen? (I think the 5th lacks a 3.5mm output).
Hi Dylan! Do you know what rate comes out of the echo dot? I have Amazon music hd subscription, but but not sure if echo dot sends a lossless rate to my receiver. Thanks!
Great question! I have not measured the bitrate myself but it would stand to reason that if you are using Wi-Fi to stream the HD audio 16-bit music stream and *not* Bluetooth from your phone, then the full strength of that 16-bit signal should travel through the audio out port of your echo dot to your receiver. Hope this helps!
Thanks for this review Great video thanks for the info 👍 I got a few echos and alexas around the house...what better way than to connect it to my Yamaha tsr-700 (" Awesomeness 👌
hey, nice video. if you want better audio, which device would you recommend? I don't need voice control, so a wireless solution would be enough to connect somehow my phone with the amplifier
Thanks for the kind words! Great question, what kind of situation would work best for you? For instance do you have iPhone and want to use AirPlay? Or are you an Android user looking to use Google Cast? Mixed household of devices? Let me know and I can offer suggestions 👍
Great question! To achieve this you could purchase a smart plug from Amazon or similar. Plug the stereo receiver into the smart plug, and give it a name like “stereo receiver”. That way, you could ask Alexa to “turn on the stereo receiver”. If you are using this method, you would have to leave any power button or switch on the receiver itself in the “on” position, because the smart plug will be handling the on/off behavior. Further, be cautious using this method- depending on the type of receiver you have you may hear loud pops from your speakers when Alexa turns the receiver on/off because the smart plug is essentially abruptly “unplugging” or “plugging in” your stereo receiver. The stereo in my living room handles this no problem without popping noises, but my stereo on the porch pops every time so I’ve stopped using this feature with that stereo. So, it really just depends what kind of receiver you have. Hope this helps!
Great idea but it wouldn’t work with my receiver - Harman Kardon AVR1700 which powers up into standby mode. You are then required to press the power on option on the remote or press the power button on the receiver to turn it on. I’m using an Echo Dot with the 3.5mm jack to RCA connection to the receiver’s AUX input. I can only power it on with an Airplay connection. One option is to downgrade my receiver which may work if I can figure out how to get the smart plug to work with the Echo Dot \ Amazon Alexa app. I’ll start to research this right away, thanks for the suggestion.
Great question, the 3rd gen echo dot has an audio output jack, not an audio input jack. So, you can use the echo dot to output your streaming services audio from the Echo Dot, to another speaker. Essentially in this video we are upgrading the sound of the echo dot’s internal speaker by bypassing to a preferably bigger, better stereo system. However, you can not play audio from another source through the Echo Dot’s internal speaker since the jack on the 3rd gen Echo Dot is not an input, it is only an output. I hope this helps!
Great question! I’ve just Googled your issue as well and found a Reddit post describing that it could be a bad firmware making it so quiet! There doesn’t appear to be a way to roll back the firmware easily, and it’s doubtful that a device from 2017 will receive any further updates to correct this. So if this sounds like your issue, I might try looking for a Gen 3 Echo dot if you’re looking to stay with the Alexa system, otherwise you might want to look at a different device like a WiiM mini for example. I hope this helps!
My echo doesn’t have any aux output so I just plugged a Bluetooth receiver with the rca to 3.5mm connecting it to my speakers and it works perfectly with blue tooth from the Alexa. Always connected.
Hi @dylanmacintosh - I have an old mini stereo from the 90’s with a cassette and cd player that I sometimes like to use. The speakers on this sound FAR better than my Echo Dot. Is there a way to at least be able to play off of Spotify on my old stereo? I’m not good at these things so any tips are welcome!! Thank you 💿
Great question! The first thing I would ask you is to look at the back of your old mini stereo and check what ports you have back there- if you have anything that’s RCA or there may even be a 1/8” (3.5mm) labeled INPUT or PHONO or AUX- that’s what we’re looking for. If it says “headphone” then unfortunately that port won’t work, but those are usually on the front. If there is a selection knob between Casette and CD on the front that may also be a clue as to what other sources it might have available, for instance if the knob says (casette, CD, aux) on the front, then you know there must be aux input somewhere on the unit. So, depending on what audio input ports you have available, you will just need the appropriate cord with the appropriate ends. The cords end for the echo dot is 1/8” (3.5mm), but the other end varies based on what’s available on your receiver. So, if there happens to be an AUX input that’s also 1/8” (3.5mm) then great, you can use just any regular aux cable lying around. However if you need the receiver end of the cable to be RCA, you may not have one lying around and might need to order 1/8” to RCA Male cable on Amazon or similar. I hope this helps!
Great info, thanks for putting it together. I have a Yamaha natural sound AV receiver AX- V667. I have the 3.5mm to RCA cable and I used the port on the back of the receiver labeled AV5. Voice commands to Alex work fine BUT when the music turns on, through my Polk floor speakers, I can hardly hear it (at the DB range I use for turntable and CD player). I have to turn it WAAAY up to get a decent volume. Any suggestions to fix this, please? I have a headphone jack in the front of the Yamaha. Should I just use a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable to connect that way? Not sure I like seeing the cable sticking out of the front of my receiver though. OR, is there a better port on the back of my receiver that I should use? Didn’t see anything labeled AUX. Appreciate any help. BTW, audio1 and audio2 ports are being used for my turntable and CD platter player (yes, I still play CD’s, lots of them, can’t bring myself to throw them out). Appreciate your insight.
I think I figured it out. I need to turn up the volume on the Dot first. Push it to max on the Dot. THEN when the sound goes through the receiver/floor speakers the volume range is greater.
I'm not sure you can still buy an Alexa device with a headphone jack. Looking for previous generation Echo dots, none show up. If you have a link please post. Thanks
It’s funny you mention that, I was just looking to get another one over Prime Day last week but none of the new ones have a 3.5mm headphone jack anymore! What gives, Amazon?? I would suggest to check out eBay and search for an Echo Dot 3rd generation- but if you want to go with something new, the one that comes mind is the WiiM Mini- let me know if that helps!
Per your suggestion, I ended up getting a WiiM Mini. Thanks for the advice! I was impressed with the cable and fiber cable options they supply, of course for about $100 they should! It took a bit of messing around, but it's now wired to my stereo amp and connected to my late model Echo (the one with no headphone jack) Right now I'm just telling Alexa to play music on the stereo and it all goes through the main amp. It looks like the WiiM is capable of more, but so far it's doing all I wanted. When the amp is turned off, Alexa reverts to normal, but when you turn the amp back on, you have to say play "music" on the "name you have assigned to the amp". I wonder if Amazon was on a cost cutting binge when they eliminated the headphone jack, or if they just wanted people to buy all their bluetooth speakers. Maybe both. Anyway, thanks again.@@dylanmacintosh
@@floyd-VerobeachYou are wrong. The output the echo dot (at least the 3rd generation model) puts out via the 3.5mm jack is STEREO and not mono. A quick Google search tells me the same is true for the 1st and 2nd gen Dot as well.
Is there some way to connect good home stereo into Amazon music system with high quality DIRECT line out? I hate using headphone jacks a line out as the signal is going through what is probably a 50 cent cheap headphone amp circuit. Weakest link theory. Thanks.
Sure, in this day and age we are thankfully very fortunate that there are options for nearly every use case and budget. I am a bit confused by your question though, what are you referring to by “direct line out”? I’ve only ever heard of line-out and direct-out separately, and direct-out is more of a mixing console thing. If you’re looking for a higher quality device with more output options though I might point you to a device recommended to me by other commenters called the WiiM mini. It retails for $99 US and can stream many services including Amazon Music, and also includes a SPDIF digital audio output port. I hope this helps!
I hear ya, headphone jack output is quick and dirty for sure, good enough for most people but if you’re looking for that next level of quality there’s definitely some higher end options over the Echo Dot, like the WiiM lineup for example. Hope that helps you in your journey!
@@dylanmacintosh So you gave me impetus to research this further. The WiiM lineup certainly does look like a solution. But unfortunately even its best quality outputs SPDIF and COAX wont to Dolby ATMOS. That requires a HDMI connection. So it occurred to me to try the ROKU ULTRA which does have HDMI output.
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THIS INFO IS LIFE CHANGING! After watching your video, I found an old echo AND the cable laying around. I took my 30 year old Harmon Kardon receiver to basement and connected to our old but very good speakers. Now I have streaming music in my basement for ZERO dollars. OMG thank you so much.
You’re very welcome! 😁 I’m glad I could help you connect the “dots”…. connect the Echo “Dots” to your stereo that is 🤣 And thank you for watching and commenting! 🙌
Does anyone if there is a difference in quality of sound out the hifi when using the echo dot 2nd, 3rd or 4th gen? (I think the 5th lacks a 3.5mm output).
Can I blow my Amp if the volume from the echo is too high
Hi Dylan! Do you know what rate comes out of the echo dot? I have Amazon music hd subscription, but but not sure if echo dot sends a lossless rate to my receiver. Thanks!
Great question! I have not measured the bitrate myself but it would stand to reason that if you are using Wi-Fi to stream the HD audio 16-bit music stream and *not* Bluetooth from your phone, then the full strength of that 16-bit signal should travel through the audio out port of your echo dot to your receiver. Hope this helps!
Thanks for this review Great video thanks for the info 👍 I got a few echos and alexas around the house...what better way than to connect it to my Yamaha tsr-700 (" Awesomeness 👌
Exactly!! Glad you’ve got yours connected. Thanks for watching!
Can I get stereo Mode with connection with Fire Tv Stick
Great question!! I’m not sure what this is in reference to, could you explain what you’re trying to achieve with the Fire TV Stick?
I can link this in my phono input like a cd player,, Cool...
hey, nice video. if you want better audio, which device would you recommend? I don't need voice control, so a wireless solution would be enough to connect somehow my phone with the amplifier
Thanks for the kind words! Great question, what kind of situation would work best for you? For instance do you have iPhone and want to use AirPlay? Or are you an Android user looking to use Google Cast? Mixed household of devices? Let me know and I can offer suggestions 👍
With this setup, how do you turn on your receiver using a voice command to the echo dot?
Great question! To achieve this you could purchase a smart plug from Amazon or similar. Plug the stereo receiver into the smart plug, and give it a name like “stereo receiver”. That way, you could ask Alexa to “turn on the stereo receiver”. If you are using this method, you would have to leave any power button or switch on the receiver itself in the “on” position, because the smart plug will be handling the on/off behavior. Further, be cautious using this method- depending on the type of receiver you have you may hear loud pops from your speakers when Alexa turns the receiver on/off because the smart plug is essentially abruptly “unplugging” or “plugging in” your stereo receiver. The stereo in my living room handles this no problem without popping noises, but my stereo on the porch pops every time so I’ve stopped using this feature with that stereo. So, it really just depends what kind of receiver you have. Hope this helps!
Great idea but it wouldn’t work with my receiver - Harman Kardon AVR1700 which powers up into standby mode. You are then required to press the power on option on the remote or press the power button on the receiver to turn it on. I’m using an Echo Dot with the 3.5mm jack to RCA connection to the receiver’s AUX input. I can only power it on with an Airplay connection. One option is to downgrade my receiver which may work if I can figure out how to get the smart plug to work with the Echo Dot \ Amazon Alexa app. I’ll start to research this right away, thanks for the suggestion.
@@rohitnaval5589Try a wifi IR blaster. It mimics IR signal for non-smart devices. For simple features like turning on and off, it works.
Great - Thank You!
Glad it was helpful!
So can this not be used as a regular computer speaker using 3.5mm to 3.5mm male cables?
Great question, the 3rd gen echo dot has an audio output jack, not an audio input jack. So, you can use the echo dot to output your streaming services audio from the Echo Dot, to another speaker. Essentially in this video we are upgrading the sound of the echo dot’s internal speaker by bypassing to a preferably bigger, better stereo system. However, you can not play audio from another source through the Echo Dot’s internal speaker since the jack on the 3rd gen Echo Dot is not an input, it is only an output. I hope this helps!
On a an echo dot (2 gen)3.5mm output is extremely low, even at 10 on the echo dot I have to turn up the amp a lot, any fixes for this?
Great question! I’ve just Googled your issue as well and found a Reddit post describing that it could be a bad firmware making it so quiet! There doesn’t appear to be a way to roll back the firmware easily, and it’s doubtful that a device from 2017 will receive any further updates to correct this. So if this sounds like your issue, I might try looking for a Gen 3 Echo dot if you’re looking to stay with the Alexa system, otherwise you might want to look at a different device like a WiiM mini for example. I hope this helps!
Can I use an echo dot with a b1 audioengine b1 Bluetooth Receiver that’s connected to my Yamaha ?
My echo doesn’t have any aux output so I just plugged a Bluetooth receiver with the rca to 3.5mm connecting it to my speakers and it works perfectly with blue tooth from the Alexa. Always connected.
Hi @dylanmacintosh - I have an old mini stereo from the 90’s with a cassette and cd player that I sometimes like to use. The speakers on this sound FAR better than my Echo Dot. Is there a way to at least be able to play off of Spotify on my old stereo? I’m not good at these things so any tips are welcome!! Thank you 💿
Great question! The first thing I would ask you is to look at the back of your old mini stereo and check what ports you have back there- if you have anything that’s RCA or there may even be a 1/8” (3.5mm) labeled INPUT or PHONO or AUX- that’s what we’re looking for. If it says “headphone” then unfortunately that port won’t work, but those are usually on the front. If there is a selection knob between Casette and CD on the front that may also be a clue as to what other sources it might have available, for instance if the knob says (casette, CD, aux) on the front, then you know there must be aux input somewhere on the unit. So, depending on what audio input ports you have available, you will just need the appropriate cord with the appropriate ends. The cords end for the echo dot is 1/8” (3.5mm), but the other end varies based on what’s available on your receiver. So, if there happens to be an AUX input that’s also 1/8” (3.5mm) then great, you can use just any regular aux cable lying around. However if you need the receiver end of the cable to be RCA, you may not have one lying around and might need to order 1/8” to RCA Male cable on Amazon or similar. I hope this helps!
Great info, thanks for putting it together. I have a Yamaha natural sound AV receiver AX- V667. I have the 3.5mm to RCA cable and I used the port on the back of the receiver labeled AV5. Voice commands to Alex work fine BUT when the music turns on, through my Polk floor speakers, I can hardly hear it (at the DB range I use for turntable and CD player). I have to turn it WAAAY up to get a decent volume. Any suggestions to fix this, please? I have a headphone jack in the front of the Yamaha. Should I just use a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable to connect that way? Not sure I like seeing the cable sticking out of the front of my receiver though. OR, is there a better port on the back of my receiver that I should use? Didn’t see anything labeled AUX. Appreciate any help. BTW, audio1 and audio2 ports are being used for my turntable and CD platter player (yes, I still play CD’s, lots of them, can’t bring myself to throw them out). Appreciate your insight.
I think I figured it out. I need to turn up the volume on the Dot first. Push it to max on the Dot. THEN when the sound goes through the receiver/floor speakers the volume range is greater.
I'm not sure you can still buy an Alexa device with a headphone jack. Looking for previous generation Echo dots, none show up. If you have a link please post. Thanks
It’s funny you mention that, I was just looking to get another one over Prime Day last week but none of the new ones have a 3.5mm headphone jack anymore! What gives, Amazon?? I would suggest to check out eBay and search for an Echo Dot 3rd generation- but if you want to go with something new, the one that comes mind is the WiiM Mini- let me know if that helps!
Per your suggestion, I ended up getting a WiiM Mini. Thanks for the advice! I was impressed with the cable and fiber cable options they supply, of course for about $100 they should! It took a bit of messing around, but it's now wired to my stereo amp and connected to my late model Echo (the one with no headphone jack) Right now I'm just telling Alexa to play music on the stereo and it all goes through the main amp. It looks like the WiiM is capable of more, but so far it's doing all I wanted. When the amp is turned off, Alexa reverts to normal, but when you turn the amp back on, you have to say play "music" on the "name you have assigned to the amp". I wonder if Amazon was on a cost cutting binge when they eliminated the headphone jack, or if they just wanted people to buy all their bluetooth speakers. Maybe both. Anyway, thanks again.@@dylanmacintosh
@@RogerGy Of course, I'm glad I could be of some assistance!
One more bit of information: The full size Echo, which runs about $100, still has an output jack. Haven't tried it yet.
Ah I see, at least that’s another option. In the Apple side of things the HomePod mini is $99, but still doesn’t come with a headphone jack 🙄
Hey, is the output from 3.5mm jack of Echo Dot 3rd gen stereo? Or is it monaural? Thanks!
Great question, the 3rd Gen Echo Dot has a 3.5mm stereo audio output!
@@dylanmacintosh thanks for reply! Keep up the good work!
Echo Dots put out a mono signal through the 3.5 (headphone) jack. NOT a stereo signal at all.
@@floyd-VerobeachYou are wrong. The output the echo dot (at least the 3rd generation model) puts out via the 3.5mm jack is STEREO and not mono. A quick Google search tells me the same is true for the 1st and 2nd gen Dot as well.
Is there some way to connect good home stereo into Amazon music system with high quality DIRECT line out?
I hate using headphone jacks a line out as the signal is going through what is probably a 50 cent cheap headphone amp circuit. Weakest link theory. Thanks.
Sure, in this day and age we are thankfully very fortunate that there are options for nearly every use case and budget. I am a bit confused by your question though, what are you referring to by “direct line out”? I’ve only ever heard of line-out and direct-out separately, and direct-out is more of a mixing console thing. If you’re looking for a higher quality device with more output options though I might point you to a device recommended to me by other commenters called the WiiM mini. It retails for $99 US and can stream many services including Amazon Music, and also includes a SPDIF digital audio output port. I hope this helps!
@@dylanmacintosh
Ya I just meant line out.
Direct 🙂
Thanks.
Using headphone jack as output sucks.
I hear ya, headphone jack output is quick and dirty for sure, good enough for most people but if you’re looking for that next level of quality there’s definitely some higher end options over the Echo Dot, like the WiiM lineup for example. Hope that helps you in your journey!
@@dylanmacintosh So you gave me impetus to research this further.
The WiiM lineup certainly does look like a solution. But unfortunately even its best quality outputs SPDIF and COAX wont to Dolby ATMOS. That requires a HDMI connection.
So it occurred to me to try the ROKU ULTRA which does have HDMI output.