Vaux portable speaker

[scottrods]

I still can't figure out why tone control (s), bass & treble (or more) disappeared from sound systems. They have been standard since the 1920s then suddenly they went away. Powered speakers with a tone knob are rarer than hens teeth.   My point being that a stupid tone knob, consisting of a potentiometer and a capacitor, and costing fifty cents, could let plenty of cheap speakers sound great at lower volumes.

I understand where you're coming from for sure... everyone has different tastes and hearing needs and those controls were there to adjust to your personal sound tastes.

A decent crossover on a high end audio system can be pretty involved, more than just a couple of components anyway... but with miniaturization and technological gains we should have some tone control for sure. What ever happened to component stereo systems? They're being edged out by sound bars and portable bluetooth speakers and the like...

Now... if I could get a tone control for my neighborhood... I'd sure like to turn the bass down a little around here... (Frickin' thump cars...)

Still though, I just don't get it. A simple tone knob would only add fifty cents to cost of manufacture of ANY powered speaker. Why did EQ go away? It was SO important to have some kind of EQ until about the mid 2000s. Then it was just not a thing suddenly.

Likely gone the wayside due to so many that just didn't understand how to use them to enhance things beyond a smiley face setting on the average EQ... Most people know how to do that really well... Super duty Highs, and Super duty Sub Bass... however, quality items added to give a tone control (without destroying decent audio output) are not really going to come out at 50 cents a unit, I don't think. I consider myself a Wannabe Audiophile... I know lots but there's no way for me to afford audio equipment that will fill my "needs" so I settle a lot... and I mean a LOT... What I do now though, is to not buy anything that doesn't have just "decent" sound. If the volume is all they designed into their audio system... then I won't buy. I currently have a really basic Sound Bar set up and got rid of all the ancient dirty sounding components of years gone by, as the sound bar, with a well balanced wireless Subwoofer is really just a Theater set up... I don't sit and listen to music anymore, as no one can stand the stuff I play, and/or have no musical appreciation or education... some are even flat tone deaf... so I just gave up. once in a great while I go find a place with great audio and just sit for a few minutes and reminisce and enjoy.

As far as QUALITY of sound from the Full sized echo... It's similar in quality to the sound bar... Not much quality, but plays music {I can hear most of the activity and detail in] without mauling it too much.

Great audio equipment has become a thing only kings can afford anymore... You know... Sultans and Kings from oil rich countries and stuff...

[iolinux333]

It really is fifty cents:

http://www.guitartechcraig.com/techwire/tone.htm

I used to design and build my own circuits. I'm too busy in a completely different life path to bother with that stuff now. I'm not so much an audiophile, more a musician and composer (violinist).

I hear things most people can't hear. All of us bowed string players do.

Crap audio makes me nuts, but all I can do at this point is whine.

[scottrods]

It really is fifty cents:

http://www.guitartechcraig.com/techwire/tone.htm

I used to design and build my own circuits. I'm too busy in a completely different life path to bother with that stuff now. I'm not so much an audiophile, more a musician and composer (violinist).

I hear things most people can't hear. All of us bowed string players do.

Crap audio makes me nuts, but all I can do at this point is whine.

I have a similar taste in quality due to many years in Choral settings and my family for many generations have been musically talented and inclined... Somehow I think this is a genetic thing... LOL I hear things others do not as well... the devil is in the details.

It's been very disappointing how audio systems have evolved over the last 2 decades or more...

[Kyle76]

I ordered one of these units for our kitchen Dot in white.  It's got a 30-day satisfaction guarantee, so hopefully the audio will be at least acceptable.  I doubt we will ever turn it up to the max.

[iolinux333]

I ordered one of these units for our kitchen Dot in white.  It's got a 30-day satisfaction guarantee, so hopefully the audio will be at least acceptable.  I doubt we will ever turn it up to the max.

It's certainly better than Dot by itself. I'm surprised people use Dots as standalones.

I thought the whole point of the Dot was to plug into a preexisting audio system that people already owned.

[mike27oct]

Well, it's a point alright, but not the "whole point".  Not all of us want to listen to music from a Dot; with or without a Vaux enhancement.  I have one Dot dedicated to the home stereo and always plugged into the stereo's audio in.  The other Dots around the house are used for things like asking weather, time, control smart plugs, setting timers, connecting to BT speakers, etc.  Hardly ever listen to music from a Dot, Yecht!  We also have an Echo or two Taps if we want music directly from an Alexa gadget.  I would rather take the money spent on a Vaux and buy another Dot or direct it toward the cost of a Tap.  To each his own.