That was probably a bad phrase to use. Ignore it. I just want to listen to Tidal lossless audio streaming with something that sounds pretty good. My budget isn't large but to give you an idea I was looking at two Amazon Echo Plus with an Amazon Echo Subwoofer which costs about £300.
In terms of pure musicality, Amazon's Echo Pluses are kind of mid-table as far as sub-£100 interactive speakers go. They're okay, but not leading in their field. Judged solely on their musical ability then, all the interactive speakers are akin to 1st division football teams; entertaining, but not Premiere League. Pluses sit in the middle of the 1st division.
Adding the sub doesn't help change that. It does add bass, but there's only so much that can be done for £120 retail. Amazon's specifications are hopelessly over-optimistic.
The bass it adds is lumpy and obtrusive thanks to too much reliance on the bass port to create a sense of impact. The other thing that I suspect is that the sub only comes to life with Amazon's premium music subscription service. i.e. it's not available to play with other music sources. If that is true -
and you should do your own research on this - then that has to be a deal breaker.
Where you want something that does brilliantly as a music speaker, then the Ruark MR1 mkll really deserve an audition. Compared to your Amazon option, it will seem like you're getting less; but these are active speakers from a company that really knows what it is doing with sound.
Buy the Amazon kit if you want the Alexa features. A single or pair of Sonos Play 1 will do better for music, but they cost more. They're still not Hi-Fi, but they are a better music speaker. The Sonos Play ONE adds Alexa integration.
Other options exist if all you need is some amplification and transducers.
)
