Audio is one part of the greater home theater experience, second only to the visual experience with video. That’s why I ended up swapping the soundbar I was using with my Amazon Fire TV Omni in favor of an Alexa home theater audio setup with the Amazon Echo (4th Gen). And you know what? I couldn’t be happier with the results.
One of my favorite Alexa smart speakers is on sale for Cyber Monday, with a generous 40% off discount courtesy of Amazon. It normally sells for $99, but it’s now down to $59. It’s been a bit cheaper at $54 but this is one of the best Cyber Monday deals I’ve seen, even better considering how I used it to upgrade my home theater surround sound.
In order to use the Amazon Echo (4th Gen) smart speaker as a surround sound system, I needed to get two of them for stereo output: one for the left channel, the other for the right. After that, I used the Alexa app to pair the two smart speakers with my Amazon Fire TV Omni. And that’s all it took for me to upgrade to an Alexa home theater sound system.
If you really want more of that surround sound experience, I also suggest picking up the Amazon Echo Sub — a subwoofer that adds more bass power to the experience. What I love most about my Alexa home theater setup is the crisp audio quality from the Amazon Echo (4th Gen) speakers, which never sound shrill even when I crank the volume all the way up for action sequences in movies.
Since they’re smart speakers, I also enjoy being able to control all of my favorite smart home gadgets by asking Alexa, like setting my smart lights to go into home theater mode, checking to see who’s at the front door with my Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2, and also telling my iRobot Roomba Combo j7+ to start cleaning up the area around the cat litter.
The Amazon Echo (4th Gen) also functions as an Eero Wi-Fi extender, which helps to eliminate Wi-Fi dead zones I may have around my home — like my detached garage, which is about 50 feet away from my Eero Wi-Fi 6 router in the living room. All of these features are reasons why I find so much value in Amazon’s smart speaker.
