Echo Plus (1st Gen) with Built-In Hub (Scratch & Dent)

[Update 1.3.2018] - I've been continually researching home automation/smart home designs & have learned that this Echo Plus is a bit worse than initially thought. My discussion regarding the radios of this device "Unfortunately the Echo Plus only supports Zigbee & WiFi (Perhaps Bluetooth Mesh if your equipment supports Bluetooth 4.0 LE or better" is inaccurate in that the Bluetooth is only for streaming audio. It will not for example, operate the GE Bluetooth Smart Switch (In-Wall), 13869 or other Bluetooth devices using Bluetooth Mesh. Still hoping Amazon will improve this hub to accept Z-Wave, Zigbee, WiFi, AND Bluetooth Mesh but I'm sure it'll be a while before it happens, perhaps another year? [Update 11.14.2017] - I've sent the Echo Plus back. I've waited this long for a decent hub, I can wait a little longer. Wink is on my radar now as it has the hub which supports (4) of the aforementioned wireless standards & it is designed for a home security system as well. I'll still wait a while though to see what the winds blow in. [Original review 11.3.2017] I am new to the smart home setup so I will rate this as "ok" as it does what I currently need or use but does not have the flair nor do I think the hardware I will eventually need. I'm considering sending it back, lemme esplain. A little over a year ago I bought the Echo Dot as it was cheaper than the full blown Echo & I wasn't sure yet if I wanted to go with Google's Home, Amazon's Echo, or one of the other lesser known brands. They each have their positives & their negatives. I would also prefer to use my voice for MOST of my activities at home rather than have a machine (phone) stuck to my hand all the time. Call me lazy but I think there's more effort involved in picking up my phone, opening one of a gazillion different apps to access the light bulb I want on, then traversing through three different screens to get to the 'on' button so I can turn a light on rather than just flipping a switch when I first walked into the room. Anyway, I digress. I eventually bought a smart switch from TP Link that does NOT require a hub as I currently do not have a hub. This switch works great but it is a single pole switch meaning it has to be used to turn a light on/off from one location, not two different locations. In order to have a smart switch which you can turn lights on/off in two different location's, you need a more advanced switch which requires a hub. Or, you can go with smart light bulbs but again, you need a hub for control. While following the hype in smart home advances I am leaning toward Amazon as I have an account & they are still ahead of Google in regards to the voice & in-home capacities. Don't get me wrong, Google is far advanced in their data collection to search things out much easier & quicker but Amazon has the corner for being in the home currently. I think Google can quickly catch up but it is also pushing Amazon to work harder as well. So I'm leaning toward Amazon's Echo as my smart home control center. So when I heard Amazon was coming out with the Echo Plus which has a hub built-in, I jumped at it. Now I have been researching hubs for at least a year if not more & trying to decide when & if I have the money to jump into the smart home arena. Hubs have come a long way in the past year & most all of them now support not just one wireless standard, but several if not all. These wireless standards are as follows: There's Zigbee, Z-Wave, WiFi, Thread, & Bluetooth Mesh. I'm not going to go into these in depth as this is a review of the Echo Plus however if you're interested, google Zigbee vs Z-wave & have a few reads or you can use tomsguide.com/us/smart-home-wireless-network-primer,news-21085 for a beginning. As I mentioned, most hubs in today's market support not just one but at least three to four of these wireless standards. I was under the assumption the Echo Plus would be the same as I could not find any information of such in all their advertising pre-Echo Plus sales. So shame on Amazon for hiding that little tidbit of information. Unfortunately the Echo Plus only supports Zigbee & WiFi (Perhaps Bluetooth Mesh if your equipment supports Bluetooth 4.0 LE or better). Now Zigbee is a good wireless standard & has been around for quite some time however the hardware that most people who've jumped into the smart home arena before me are utilizing both Zigbee & Z-wave. You can find for example one smart switch which supports Zigbee & one that supports Z-wave at the same cost. Difference is one works out of the box & the other is a pain to setup. Light bulbs are the same scenario. The best setup would be to have a hub that supports both protocols then you're not stuck with some hardware that works great & other hardware that you really struggle with & never get it work the way you need it to work. This is my biggest disappointment with Amazon's Echo Plus. My second disappointment is the sound. Out of the box, this unit sounds much like my stereo system other than the sound is coming from one area & not from the surround of three to four speakers. Still, it has it's base, mid-range, & highs & sounds great. The Echo Dot I mentioned earlier was originally hooked up to my stereo via bluetooth & so I got all the bases, mid-range, & highs from around the room & I got used to it. So hooking the Echo Plus up via the same bluetooth, I lost a majority of the sound. Alexa has a volume control via voice from 1 - 10. At half volume (level 5) it's almost mute. At volume level 10 through bluetooth it's the same level as my Echo Dot at volume level 6. At volume level 10 with my Dot, it distorts through my speakers & I usually have to turn it down some. This tells me that even the bluetooth connectivity is different between the two Amazon units. I have not yet tried direct plug-in via the 1/8" jack on the back of the unit yet. In conclusion, I'm still wavering on the fence as to whether I want to keep this unit or send it back & mainly this decision rests on the radio hub, do I want to be tied to just Zigbee or do I want to wait & see what Google has under it's sleeve (Thread mentioned earlier is Googles Wireless standard which promises some very good things). Or perhaps Samsungs new voice controller coming soon or even one of the other latecomers to the smart home voice controlled arena. If any of these have a hub which supports multiple wireless standards they will quickly win a lot of loyalty I think.