Why Use a Fire TV Stick on your Audio Receiver Instead of an Echo Dot

The Amazon Echo is a fantastic device. It does all the cool things you've heard like tell you the weather, how far it is to Fargo, ND, sports scores, news and of course it can play music using Alexa, Amazons budding AI.

If you want to play Amazon Prime Music or Prime Music Premium the big problem with the big Echo is that it has no audio out. Enter the Amazon Dot which does have an analog audio out built in. This is a great solution for sure.

The Better Solution for Music and Theater in your media room
But if better music from our home theater or stereo system is your aim then pass on the Dot and get an Amazon Fire stick and plug it into one of the HDMI ports on the back of your audio receiver and you're ready to rock, literally. The Fire stick has Alexa built in but you need to use the remote to start the music playing but Alexa works just as well without the Echo. Hold the button and say "Play top pop songs from the 80's" or "Play the sound track from Hamliton"*

What are the benefits?

1. Bypass the clunky input interface your TV likely has.
2. Get a direct connection to your receiver rather than delivering an analog audio feed.
3. Likely you'll use one button to turn on the receiver to the correct HDMI port.
4. If you have a multi zone receiver you can play the Fire Stick on a remote set of speakers while someone else can still watch the TV.
5. It costs $10 less than the Echo Dot.

Granted you need to pick up the remote and press a button to talk to Alexa with the fire stick but I personally find this a better solution than a Dot because it has a dual purpose of giving me easily accessible music and video from one inexpensive streaming device.

*Amazon Prime Music has a little over a million songs you'll be able to access if you have a prime account. But add Prime Music Unlimited you get over 10 Million songs and Prime members get that for less than $7 per month.

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