On Prime day I finally gave in a bought an Echo dot. I have been hesitant do to privacy concerns but I did see some benefits and I thought my wife might enjoy the music function. For Christmas last year I bought her a Bose Wave Soundtouch. She has wanted one for years but I held off until they added Bluetooth. It’s in our kitchen and she does enjoy it, even with its overly “bassy” sound. When I got the Echo I linked it to the Bose via Bluetooth and we listen to all sorts of playlist with a much improved sound vs the Echo alone.
One big drawback I did not think of was the lack of stereo. My wife does not notice but I do. I guess I was naive but I believe most if not all of the Amazon devices are mono only. Also, looking for a Bluetooth speaker for use around our deck/pool area, a good share (not all) of those are mono also. I got me thinking. People are already moving away from decent sounding music in stereo but now mono becoming perfectly acceptable.