The Echo family of smart speakers, featuring Amazon’s Alexa personal assistant, gives owners an easy way to get answers to questions, carry out certain tasks, and listen to music. In addition to playing music themselves, Echo speakers offer the functionality for wired inputs. This means they can be also used as more conventional speakers, playing music from other devices.
Many of the functionalities offered by Echo speakers have been added or extended over time via software updates. But, while Echo speakers have gone through some drastic design changes, the auxiliary input port has remained a near-constant feature. Given the voice-controlled nature of the Echo’s Alexa personal assistant, some users may not know that the speakers can play from wired input devices too.
Amazon devices that support wired connectivity include the new Echo Studio, the Echo Flex, Echo Spot, Echo Show, Echo Plus, Amazon Tap, second-generation Echo speakers, and every Echo Dot iteration available. However, some models, such as the original Echo speaker, Echo Look, and some variants of the Echo Show, don’t have this option. For those that do, the auxiliary port is usually found sitting right next to the power button or charging port, and are usually positioned at the rear of the device. Some might be wondering: why use wires when there’s wireless? Well, there are some advantages of connecting phones, computers, or other media devices directly into the smart speaker’s auxiliary port. For example, audio playback via Bluetooth requires compression, while audio interference can also occur in certain conditions when using a wireless connection. Using Echo smart speakers as an audio input device guarantees no latency and provides a more consistently stable connection, all while preventing sound stuttering or dropouts.
Using Amazon Echo Speakers With A Wired Connection
To pump sound directly into the Alexa smart speakers, users simply need to connect a 3.5mm cable into the auxiliary port, with the other end connected to the audio input source of choice. The next step requires users to open the Amazon Alexa app, tap on the ‘Echo & Alexa’ tab then find and select the respective Echo speakers from the list. From here, they should scroll down to the ‘General’ section of the settings, select the ‘AUX’ audio option then select ‘Line In’, after which they’ll be good to go.
Conversely, users can also play audio from their Echo device out through other speakers by choosing the ‘Line Out’ option. This means that, if a user has speakers that are louder and/or have a better audio quality than their Echo device, they can connect it to them with the minimum of fuss. Considering that some pricier alternatives don’t give owners any wired connectivity options at all, the auxiliary ports on Amazon smart speakers are an underrated feature that’s often overlooked.
Source: Amazon
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