Echo Link - Stream hi-fi music to your stereo system

The Echo Link shines as a music streamer. How you hook it up to a source and your sound system matters. The quality of your source and the quality of your speakers and amplifier are going to be the biggest confounding factors when it comes to your sound quality. Let's be clear, bit depth above 16 and sample rates higher than 44.1Khz for anyone not a sound engineer are not going to make a difference you can hear. If you are a sound engineer mixing tracks then yes these things matter significantly... sometimes. 16 bits will give you a loudness range of 96db while 24 bit will give you 144db range... your ears would be bleeding if you could actually reproduce 144db. Hearing protection is required at 85 DB and higher. You can't hear higher than 20khz so sample rates at 44.1KHz capture all the frequencies you need for a full spectrum human hearing range audio experience. If you are one of the super humans who enjoys audio up to 96Khz then yes you will need source files sampled at 192KHz and equipment to reproduce those higher frequencies. Finally lets discuss jitter. This is a psychosis of some in the audiophile crowd. The vast majority (read as all) of interface jitter is not louder than the sound floor of the sample. If interface jitter becomes noticeable then it means there has been some serious component failure perhaps accompanied by a burning smell and visible smoke. So if someone starts mumbling about all the jitter the Echo Link produces out its digital interfaces please direct them to an audiophile clinic where they can receive certified audiophile antipsychotics. OK now that is out of the way. The Echo link is pretty awesome especially if you are looking to stream music to it. The software is great you have an equalizer and a crossover. Is there another product in this price range that can do all this with all these inputs and outputs... no, no there isn't. First the pros: Giant volume knob with lights and you can control the volume via the software too Front headphone jack Tons of inputs and output ports including coax, optic and a subwoofer out! Excellent sound via digital inputs and Bluetooth Excellent software controls via the app gapless playback Cons: Configuration for the Echo link is a bit buried in the Alexa app Firing off a music stream in Spotify from the Alexa app will cause playback control in the spotify app to not work as expected until Alexa gives up the control... which as we all know Alexa is a control phreak and will not give it up easily. Audio timeout and audio delays. Well this is most likely not the Echo link. Weird things happen when you chain multiple DACs together. I can't tell you 100% it is not the Echo link but look at your setup first and ask yourself "Am I the cause of this problem?" because it is probably you.

Hello, I purchased this because I wanted have improved sound quality and to use the link in a multi speaker group. I also wanted to be able to play local music from my collection over a multi-speaker group and the source of the local music would be from the very same receiver this is connected to. However, this has been a challenge because I'm still trying to figure out how I can make this happen. I'll try using the zone 2 output from the receiver. I'm using a Shiit Dac Modi 3 to help improve the quality of sound. Still learning and I'll update more as I go. If anyone has any advice on how to improve my listening experience, please chime in. Thank you! UDATE: Can’t play local files through it. Only streaming. Direct Line Audio input from other source does not work. Disappointing in that regard. It does sound slightly better than just an Echo Dot hooked up to the receiver and it can be used in a multi speaker group. My Yamaha receiver has Alexa built in but is very limited, that is partially why I purchased the Echo Link. I like having good sounding quality on my stereo and the ability to play across the house to different Alexa speakers. Just wished I could play my local files with Plex or other sources directly from the Yamaha receiver. The Schiit DAC is still in the equation and I haven’t compared the quality of sound without it. Update: 2/24/2020. I added a Bluetooth Transmitter (1Mii 230ft LONG RANGE Bluetooth Transmitter Receiver Bluetooth Audio Adapter Wireless Transmitter, Support AptX Low Latency & NFC, Digital Optical, RCA AUX 3.5mm for TV PC Bluetooth Earphone/Speaker )to the Echo Link by plugging it into the audio line Input and it actually works! I used my phone to play the Plex server to a group of speakers that I have designated. So I can play my local media over a multi speaker group. Pretty Cool. UPDATE: I’m going to connect a Chromecast to the line in on the link to play music from my Plex Server. I like listening to my FLAC music files from my own collection. This way I don’t need to tie up my Bluetooth connection on my phone but can still control the music from my phone via the Chromecast connection. I’ll let you know how this goes. UPDATE: April 30. I connected Chromecast to an Audio Extractor then split the Audio to the audio input on the Echo Link. I connect Plex to the Chromecast that sends My local music Files to the Echo Link. On Echo Link I can distribute my music to what ever Echo or Echo group I want to. It’s my work around to have Plex play on multiple speakers in different rooms. UDATE: May 8, 2020. Echo Link randomly goes off the network. Still online but won’t play music in a multi speaker setup. Went to try and fix it and it’s extremely annoying. The Amazon Alexa App now Crashed. I’m frustrated with this product. So much potential and it’s line audio distribution is really great idea. I think Amazon really needs to fix these buggy issues with firmware upgrades. Time to reduce my star rating. I really don’t like to do that but like I said it’s frustrating. Update: Use the Echo Link to stream my local music files. I connected a Chromecast to the audio line in and now I use the Plex App on my phone to cast to the Chromecast. Music is distributed over my echo multi speaker group including the Yamaha Stereo where the Link is connected to. It’s nice to have control and flexibility of where in my house I can play my local music collection through the Plex app.