Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsGreat as Individual Speakers - Multi Room Just Doesn't Work
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2023
I have fully automated, high tech and super luxurious AirBNB that I call the Cliffwood Experience in Houston Texas and it is a resort style vibe and we have hosted many famous and demanding clients. I wanted the best multi room speaker system I could get to complete the experience for my demanding clients. I had owned a few Alexas dating back to the original and they always worked great, but not so much for this application...
THE SETUP:
I purchased a mixture of Alexa Echos (4th Gen), Studio Alexas distributed over 10 rooms in this 3400 Sq Ft home. All rooms are setup in a stereo pair, and 3 of the rooms also have Alexa Subs and 5 rooms have Amazon Fire TV 65" Omni Series and those rooms are setup in Home Theater mode.
My internet is Xfinity is rock solid and fast at 1,000 Mbps down and 120 Mbps up.
The wireless access points were Eero which the Amazon site says "Works W Alexa" but it doesn't allow you to force all devices onto the same speed, which support says is required for muilti room sound to work properly. So I ripped out the Eero, and installed the $1,500 NETGEAR Orbi Quad-Band WiFi 6E Mesh System (RBKE963), Router with 2 Satellite Extender which I purchased on Amazon.com. This system is on of the most highly rated by noted reviewers like PC Magazine and Toms Hardware Guide.
I am using a paid Spotify account as well as the Amazon Music Family Plan. The default is the Amazon Music Family Plan account.
THE GOOD:
The Home Theater pairs work flawlessly, and its a simple and affordable way to have an easy to use home theater and the voice control is a huge plus. These are especially nice when you add a sub.
The Alexa Echo (4th Gen) speakers are very impressive for the size and the Studio Alexas sound downright amazing, especially when paired w a subwoofer which all 3 rooms w Studio Alexas are.
Its cool being able to play different streams in different rooms, which became possible when I changed to the Amazon Family play. The standard plan only allowed one stream at a time and it often would refuse to play at all stating that music was already active in another stream even though it wasn't.
This is a very simple and economical way to add theaters, stereo pairs and multi room to your house.
The Alexas work great for controlling lighting, HVAC, and other devices.
THE BAD:
The multiroom music is a disaster, my "Everywhere" group that includes all rooms, wont work at all. It starts playing the chokes out a few notes before giving up.
My "Central Speakers" group which includes 5 of the Rooms works intermittently. Sometimes it will play for seconds, sometimes minutes, but it always stops. More often than not it crashes after a few minutes.
I am also required to say "play music on central speakers" because the feature that allows you to always make a speaker or speaker group play in a room or group of rooms crashes each time I attempt to change it.
I have replaced the Orbi wireless system which was the best I could find, and this allowed me to force the same speed for all of the Alexas and TVs and Subs. Tried forcing all devices to 2.4, which made it worse, but forcing them all onto 5Ghz was a definite improvement. With 3 wireless access points I have very strong coverage throughout the house so the shorter range of 5Ghz is a non issue.
I have spent countless hours on the phone w Amazon support and they always do the same things. Update the firmware, delete and rebuild the speaker pairs, delete and rebuild the groups. Unplug all the alexas, TVs & subs for 30 seconds. I finally put all the network gear, Xfinity router and wireless access points on a battery backup so I could just kill power to everything by shutting off the main breaker to the home and not waste time running all over the house unplugging 30 devices.
SUMMARY
In short, if you want a simple home theater, stereo pair or even a single Alexa to listen to music, or control lighting and other smart devices in a single room these are great.
But if you have a large home and need a multiroom solution, you should look elsewhere. Amazon Alexa solution simply doesn't work for this application.