Dot hooked to old school receiver

[Dorianwalk]

Hi, all - just joined and have a question. I saw a similar question here but wasn't quite sure what the answer was. I am expecting my Dot in a week; already have an Echo. If I use a 3.5mm to RCA cable to connect my Dot to my 15-year-old receiver, will the audio come from the Dot's speaker if the receiver is powered off? I'm talking about answers to questions I ask Alexa, not music. Thanks!

[jwlv]

Hi, all - just joined and have a question. I saw a similar question here but wasn't quite sure what the answer was. I am expecting my Dot in a week; already have an Echo. If I use a 3.5mm to RCA cable to connect my Dot to my 15-year-old receiver, will the audio come from the Dot's speaker if the receiver is powered off? I'm talking about answers to questions I ask Alexa, not music. Thanks!

A lot of new people seem to be confused about audio output from the Echo / Echo Dot.
On the Echo (the original), there are 2 output choices. Its internal speaker or Bluetooth.
On the Dot, there are 3 output choices. Its internal speaker, Bluetooth, or 3.5mm audio port.

A lot of confusion seems to come from the assumption that different audio goes to different outputs. That's just not true. It doesn't matter if the audio is music, synthesized voice, a recording, or anything else. It all goes to one output. That is, you cannot set voice audio to the internal speaker and music to Bluetooth. Everything goes to the same output. The outputs are the 2 or 3 choices I listed above (depending on whether you have the original Echo or the Dot).

To answer your specific question, if you plug in the 3.5mm audio output to receiver, all audio goes to that receiver. If the receiver is off, the Dot won't know that it's off. Audio still goes out through the 3.5mm audio output. In this sense, whatever you say to Alexa, you will not hear any response from her because your receiver is off.

[DParker]

On the Echo (the original), there are 2 output choices. Its internal speaker or Bluetooth.

Since when is Blutooth an output option for the original Echo?

[Dorianwalk]

jwlv: Thank you for your very clear answer. It makes perfect sense that the Dot wouldn't know if the receiver was off. Oh, well - I'm not cancelling my order. I still want to be able to hear music through my big system without having to change CDs. I jumped into the $3.99 Amazon Unlimited Music deal and will enjoy telling Dot to play whatever. The Echo's speaker is good, but nothing like my stereo setup.

Again - thank you so much!

[mike27oct]

@Dorianwalk

You got good info above, and I just want to add a little more: I bought one of the original Dots, specifically so I could add it to my stereo system.  You will need to add the audio output of the Dot to a high level input of the stereo using the cables you describe.  A high level input such as AUX in is perfect, unless, you like me have run out of high level inputs, then you will need to sacrifice one.  I had audio out from my iPod plugged into Tape 1 input, but I had to disconnect it so I could plug in the Dot output.

You have to switch between source inputs of your amp switch to play the Dot sound through the amp (this goes for any source input).  I have a lot of audio sources, so it is often a task to remember which is which!

One thing you can do, though, is even when the Dot is connected to the stereo, I can also send Dot output to Bluetooth speakers (e.g. a portable stereo one) and still use the amp for other sources.  That way you can use the Dot for Alexa use and play some other audio out of the stereo.  You just can't do both at the same time with Dot.  I have done this to see that it can be done; I do not do this as a regular thing.  But, it can be done.  Example: I want to watch a sport event on TV with its sound through stereo, but still use Dot's Alexa during the game.  I have an Echo nearby and another Dot, so I really don't need to do this.  But, if I didn't, I could use the Dot on the stereo this way.  In actuality, once a Dot is connected to stereo, there are limitations on using the Dot for Alexa all the time.

[mike27oct]

I jumped into the $3.99 Amazon Unlimited Music deal and will enjoy telling Dot to play whatever.

OK, I have a question for you, now:

I have looked into, and understand, the limitations @$3.99/mo except for this: 
Amazon says it can be used on a SINGLE Echo device, so does this mean I have to select the Echo device I want registered to play unlimited music stream (e.g. the specific Dot I want to do this,) and (2) can I swap to a different device at any time, such as a Tap, so that I can hear unlimited music on the Tap for an hour, day, or a weekend outing?  I don't want it stuck on a specific Dot forever and unable to swap devices quickly and easily when I need and want to.

Basically, if I can't have this kind of flexibility, then Amazon will not have me as an unlimited streaming music customer.  It sure isn't worth the $7.99/mo price to me to have it on all my devices all the time!

[Dorianwalk]

Thanks, @mike27oct, for the additional notes. Another question for you regarding "high level input" - my receiver has these choices: VCR  , CD, Tape Monitor, Phono. Something I read when I was investigating ways to get music from an iPod to my big speakers indicated that Phono would not be a good choice (can't remember now what it was). The CD input is hooked up to my CD changer. I don't have a VCR or anything else hooked up to that input. For some reason when I was dinking around with it, I settled on Tape Monitor to use with a Bluetooth receiver to hook up with a 3.5 to RCA cable. And that worked. Do you have an alternative suggestion for which input I should use for the Dot when she arrives?

And about your question: since I haven't gotten my second device yet, I'm not sure of the answer. But I think I read on an Echo users FB group page that someone did have 2 devices and could use the Unlimited Music on each of them, but not at the same time. I will report back when i receive mine (on Oct. 27!).

[Dorianwalk]

Also, when I signed up (on my Kindle Fire) for the service, I didn't have to specify a device to use it on. We'll see what happens when I have the Dot and the Echo. You could always subscribe for a month and then cancel if it's not for you.

FWIW, I'm very pleased with the selections available so far. Much better than plain old Prime.

[jwlv]

On the Echo (the original), there are 2 output choices. Its internal speaker or Bluetooth.

Since when is Blutooth an output option for the original Echo?

My mistake. The original Echo does not have Bluetooth output. It only has Bluetooth input.

[DParker]

On the Echo (the original), there are 2 output choices. Its internal speaker or Bluetooth.

Since when is Blutooth an output option for the original Echo?

My mistake. The original Echo does not have Bluetooth output. It only has Bluetooth input.

Thanks.  I'm getting old and beginning to question my own memory at times. 

[joshsimpson79]

I jumped into the $3.99 Amazon Unlimited Music deal and will enjoy telling Dot to play whatever.

OK, I have a question for you, now:

I have looked into, and understand, the limitations @$3.99/mo except for this: 
Amazon says it can be used on a SINGLE Echo device, so does this mean I have to select the Echo device I want registered to play unlimited music stream (e.g. the specific Dot I want to do this,) and (2) can I swap to a different device at any time, such as a Tap, so that I can hear unlimited music on the Tap for an hour, day, or a weekend outing?  I don't want it stuck on a specific Dot forever and unable to swap devices quickly and easily when I need and want to.

Basically, if I can't have this kind of flexibility, then Amazon will not have me as an unlimited streaming music customer.  It sure isn't worth the $7.99/mo price to me to have it on all my devices all the time!

I'm guessing it's whatever device you are near at the time, but it only streams the unlimited service on one device at a time...at least in my experience over the weekend.

[mike27oct]

Dorian >>>  Thanks, @mike27oct, for the additional notes. Another question for you regarding "high level input" - my receiver has these choices: VCR  , CD, Tape Monitor, Phono. Something I read when I was investigating ways to get music from an iPod to my big speakers indicated that Phono would not be a good choice (can't remember now what it was). The CD input is hooked up to my CD changer. I don't have a VCR or anything else hooked up to that input. For some reason when I was dinking around with it, I settled on Tape Monitor to use with a Bluetooth receiver to hook up with a 3.5 to RCA cable. And that worked. Do you have an alternative suggestion for which input I should use for the Dot when she arrives?

Basically, all inputs to a stereo amp/receiver OTHER THAN PHONO are high-level inputs.  Hi level signals are measured in volts whereas Phone cartridge outputs are in the millivolt range.  A hi-level output plugged into a phono input could actually damage a phono input with too much voltage applied.

Any of the ones you mention (other than phono) are appropriate to plug a Dot into.  My preamp that feeds the amp has a lot of inputs; Phono, FM tuner, CD, two Tape Ins, and video/aux in.  Audio output from TV goes to video/aux in (and there are lots of audio signals plugged into TV (via HDMI,  e.g. media player, Fire TV, Chromecast, Blu-ray player, DVD recorder; even a laser disk player, etc. Even with all these inputs, I still needed more for audio, so I got a 4-port audio switch box for the overflow!

If you do not have enough inputs you could also get an audio switch box and plug audio from 4 devices in it and plug the output of box into Aux in or Tape in.

(It all gets even crazier since HDMI cables came into existence, so that even with the TV's 4 HDMI inputs I needed more and have filled a 5-port HDMI switch box that feeds one of the TV's input.  All the gear and switches are stored in a well-designed, six-foot long low-boy entertainment cabinet with TV atop.  It really is all manageable (until maybe this weekend when I need to roll the cabinet away from the wall, pull the TV cable box out, and replace it with the new upgraded model from cable provider.  Whew.) 

Yea, TMI, but I'm not looking real forward to rolling back the "main frame computer" and dealing with all the wires in it this weekend!  But gotta say, it is all one heck of a home entertainment center!

[Dorianwalk]

Totally not TMI, @mike27oct. I appreciate all the info. Silly as it seems, my receiver has Tape Monitor, but not Tape input; and no Aux, either. Who could have imagined that there'd be all these devices we need to hook up?!?

Have fun with that cable box switch-out! 😁

[mike27oct]

I imagine the Tape monitor selection has on the back of the receiver, inputs from and outputs to a tape machine.  Just be sure you plug the OUTPUT of the Dot into the Tape IN of the back side plugs, and plug nothing into Tape OUT plugs.  With your having so few source inputs, you may need an audio switch box which likely can be purchased from Radio Shack (or even Best Buy, Walmart, etc.).  My switch box has inputs for L and R channels and even has the old Yellow video input (all of which are unused on my switch box since it is used only for audio switching).