Music in the kitchen

Syph · 28 Feb 2017 at 11:49

We're currently having our new kitchen fitted and have a plug or two available to the top of one of the cupboards. I used to run 2 speakers from the adjoining hallway/office room we had, but the puppy destroyed the sub so that's gone now.

I have Amazon Prime, so have been using their music service quite a bit. My initial thoughts are to buy a little Bluetooth speaker or something I can leave on the top of a cupboard and connect it to an Amazon Echo Dot - that could let me either stream via Bluetooth from any phone or just use the Echo.

I only want it for some decent quality music when doing the cooking or whatever. I've looked at the Sonos stuff, but I think it's quite big to go on top of a cupboard - that and I don't think a bit of music to the kitchen needs £200 splurging on it. I've looked at 2.1 systems but I imagine the sub will sound awful rattling the glasses and cutlery etc beneath it!

Any advice or recommendations? £100 is about the magic number.

varkanoid · 28 Feb 2017 at 14:43

Musical Kettle ?

Martynt74 · 1 Mar 2017 at 13:29

I think the Echo would be great. The voice control is superb when you're cooking and have raw chicken all over your hands. It handles radio and any music you have on Prime.

The echo isn't bad but both of mine are connected to external speakers so can't comment too much on the inbuilt speaker quality. I'd suggest buying one and seeing how you find it. If you're an Amazon Prime member then you can get £5 off using primenow with the code "5OFF50"

If the sound isn't enough then you have the option to add an external speaker afterwards if you need to.

Syph · 1 Mar 2017 at 13:46

Marvt74 said:
I think the Echo would be great. The voice control is superb when you're cooking and have raw chicken all over your hands. It handles radio and any music you have on Prime.

The echo isn't bad but both of mine are connected to external speakers so can't comment too much on the inbuilt speaker quality. I'd suggest buying one and seeing how you find it. If you're an Amazon Prime member then you can get £5 off using primenow with the code "5OFF50"

If the sound isn't enough then you have the option to add an external speaker afterwards if you need to.

Thanks for the response. I was thinking of getting the Dot rather than the Echo and getting a separate speaker anyway, as long as aside from speaker functionality, the Dot does the same as the Echo.

Martynt74 · 1 Mar 2017 at 13:51

Sorry i meant the Dot, i have 2 of them

For the sake of £45 it's a no brainer for me.

Syph · 1 Mar 2017 at 14:48

Marvt74 said:
Sorry i meant the Dot, i have 2 of them

For the sake of £45 it's a no brainer for me.

I agree. Just need to find a reasonable sounding speaker to pair with it.

Syph · 14 Mar 2017 at 13:27

For anyone else in a similar situation, managed to get a Dot for £30 with a voucher. Nearly went for the Jam Heavy Metal speaker, but took a gamble on the TaoTronics speaker for £32. Absolute bargain and sounds good enough for the kitchen with a surprising amount of bass. Weighs a ton and has a lovely aluminium finish.

The Dot works really well for the most part, but I have gone for a Spotify trial for the range of music. Wife is a midwife so we can get it for £5/m after the trial expires.

neil3k · 17 Mar 2017 at 14:07

Sonos one with a wall mount will destroy a dot for quality.

signs · 17 Mar 2017 at 16:13

Syph said:
but the puppy destroyed the sub so that's gone now.

seems harsh , but i would have done the same

easyrider · 23 Mar 2017 at 22:50

Echo

grahamjenks · 24 Mar 2017 at 16:15

We have a Dot with a Creative Bluetooth speaker D200 I think) attached. Dot is connected to Spotify and it works really well. At the moment our 3 year can ask Echo to play stuff but luckily she doesn't recognise him yet - it's only a matter of time though. You've also got Radio on Dot which works really well.

Syph · 24 Mar 2017 at 16:29

signs said:
seems harsh , but i would have done the same

I was tempted! It was an old system from 2002 but still sounded good.

In any case, Echo Dot + TaoTronics speaker has been really, really good. Very impressed and makes me want a load of Dots around the house.

Speed · 24 Mar 2017 at 17:39

Syph said:
I was tempted! It was an old system from 2002 but still sounded good.

In any case, Echo Dot + TaoTronics speaker has been really, really good. Very impressed and makes me want a load of Dots around the house.

Which TaoTronics speaker do you have?

We have a Echo Dot in the kitchen and as the Anker A3143 gets decent reviews for around £40 we were going to get one to see what it is like.

Martynt74 · 24 Mar 2017 at 17:49

Thats the danger, i find myself standing the in bedroom saying "alex play music by...." and then realising i have no bedroom dot

Syph · 25 Mar 2017 at 08:40

Speed said:
Which TaoTronics speaker do you have?

We have a Echo Dot in the kitchen and as the Anker A3143 gets decent reviews for around £40 we were going to get one to see what it is like.

Boom X. I did look at the Anker but liked the look of the TaoTronics one, even though I'd not heard the brand.

Be advised my kitchen is approx 3m x 2.5 so hardly a huge space to fill, but I'm impressed at the price. I've not heard Sonos systems in a similar space, but then the prices are incomparable.

Marvt74 said:
Thats the danger, i find myself standing the in bedroom saying "alex play music by...." and then realising i have no bedroom dot

I used to stream from my phone to the smart TV in the the bedroom, and have been using Amazon Music instead. That'll be the next place for a Dot.

Speed · 25 Mar 2017 at 08:52

Syph said:
Boom X. I did look at the Anker but liked the look of the TaoTronics one, even though I'd not heard the brand.

Be advised my kitchen is approx 3m x 2.5 so hardly a huge space to fill, but I'm impressed at the price. I've not heard Sonos systems in a similar space, but then the prices are incomparable.

Shall take a look thanks, our kitchen isn't very big either so can't imagine it being a problem.