Looking to use Echo Dot to stream music to main system

Has anyone found a wireless device (bluetooth or WiFi) in the $200 range that will take Amazon Echo Dot voice commands to stream Amazon Music?

My Denon AVR has HEOS with an Amazon skill that lets me start playing music (but it stops after one song), but I can’t pause, resume or go to next track. :frowning:

I have been looking at the Audioengine B-Fi and iFi Zen Blue that are both $189, but have not found definitive information that they can take echo dot voice commands to play Amazon Music.

I have an Oppo HA-1 headphone amp and DAC with Bluetooth. I can use it with the Amazon Music app, but I would rather have voice command than have to use an app on my phone.

There is the Amazon Echo Link, but the digital output is limited to 16/44.1, so no support for HD digital out.

The FireTV Cube will send 48 kHz Amazon HD by voice command through HDMI from which an inexpensive audio extractor delivers it to my system. You take it over $200 if you add iFi iPurifier in between as I did.

My whole house multi-zone setup gets music from Echo Dot via a Bluetooth receiver SPDIF’d to a decent DAC. All of these devices (except iFi) were < $60.

Well that’s interesting. So we can now say ‘alexa play jazz’ and push it out to a directstream dac via hdmi.

The Amazon Echo Link is the only real option.

That said, I have 24 speakers installed around the house that have Amazon HD, 24/192 DACs and Alexa control.

Neener! Neener!

I have 14 pair (28 speakers) of in-wall or surface mount powered by an analog preamp and 10 stereo amplifiers, hence the modest DAC as a source.

How do you achieve 24/192 times 24? Are these separate systems?

Sonos sells a $25 adapter that will take HDMI and convert it to optical.

It comes in the box with their Beam speakers for older TVs that don’t have HDMI ARC, but will cheaply, and without another power cable, give you an easy conversion for say an AppleTV that no longer has a TOSLINK out…

Don’t know if it meets your criteria, but have you looked at the Echo Link?

Edit: the Darko followup mentions other methods/devices as well.

Each unit is a self-contained streaming and speaker and lighting unit, all connected wirelessly and working via Alexa and a range of lossless and lossy protocols. They replace lighting, are wireless and linked in groups of between 3 and 6 units, but can link groups with Roon.

Alexa has a fairly select group of home automation partners. The Echo Link is complements other Amazon products. They partner with Marantz, I think also NAD and possibly a few others. As you appreciate the extent of control varies.

I have been playing with HEOS on my Denon AVR and I was able to add a link to my Amazon Music account. I can now turn the receiver On and Off and play Amazon Music using voice commands on my Echo Dot. The downside is that the music is limited to 16 bit 44.1kHz, even on Hi Res tracks. However, if I use the HEOS app on my phone, I can play Amazon Music at full resolution up to 24 bit 192kHz. With both methods I am getting some stuttering. Either way I am stuck with the AVRs DAC and need to connect to my preamp via analog RCA out to the Processor input on my preamp.

My next step will be to try an Amazon Fire TV stick 4k into a digital audio extractor and use digital out to my Directstream DAC.

I have had some success with the Amazon Fire TV stick 4k. I am using an old Kanex Pro HDMI Audio De-Embedder that I bought used on Amazon in 2016. It does not seem to be available anymore. It has both Toslink and SPDIF (RCA) digital outputs. I set the output to 2 channel stereo, and I am using the SPDIF output into my Denefrips Gaia D to D converter and then I2S to my Direct Stream DAC.

The HDMI output of the Kanex is video only (no audio). After a few updates to the Fire stick firmware and I think one to the Amazon Music app, the TV screen shows the bit and sample rate for the track, the capability of the device that is connected to the HDMI output and the playback resolution when you turn on streaming information. Ex. Track resolution: 24/96, Device Capability 24/192, Currently Playing 24/96. It also shows cover art and some songs have the lyrics (depends on the track).

I tried plugging the Fire stick into the audio extractor only, into an HDMI switch and into my Denon AVR-X3700H receiver, and the only connection that gave me the full 24/192 resolution capability was by plugging in to the Denon. That means that I have to turn on the receiver to listen to music.

The Fire stick has a voice remote, so I can select what to play by voice using the remote, but not from my echo dot.

The weird thing is that both the Denefrips Gaia and Direct Stream DAC indicate that the signal they are receiving is 24/192 regardless of the native resolution of the track being played. My best guess is that the Fire TV stick is upsampling to 192k, but I have not found any evidence that that is the case.

BTW: I saw a post on the Innuos forum that they are working on adding support for Amazon Music. :+1:

BTW: I saw a post on the Innuos forum that they are working on adding support for Amazon Music. :+1:

My vote is for BandCamp.