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More on the echo Dot and Vintage gear

Posted by DavidLD on December 31, 2016 at 05:51:30:
OK I have by Echo Dot wired into an AUX input on a vintage receiver and connected to some of my project loudspeakers. I have tunin and free accounts that I registered for on Pandora and iheart radio. These three give me access to literally what must be thousands of radio stations that are streaming digitally in the us and around the world.

the voice control on Alexa likes me to say play XXXX where XXXX is the call letters ofthe station I want to listen to. I can adjust the volume by simply telling Alexa to raise or lower the volume of the signal going to the amp.

BUT, sometimes I dont even know the call letters and am too lazy to look it up.I want to just look through the stations and see if there is anything I would like to listen to. say i want to hear what the kids are listening to on the Greek Islands.

I am sitting at my laptop. I bring up the Alexa app at alexa.amazon.com I see a long list written out of the stuff I have been asking for with my voice. i see there is a logo that pops up whenever I listened to a station streamed from Pandora, iheart or tunin. each of those has a different logo. I click on one of these and up comes ways to search the library in each. The laptop asks me if I would like to sort through the stations by location. I click on that and pick a continent. I find Europe then Greece then Greek Island stations. I click on one of those. suddenly my stereo across the room starts to play the station I clicked on that is on the Greek Islands. Some of the music sounds very "Greek" with influences from the music of the Middle East

I feel like an old-school shortwave radio operator controlling my vintage stereo gear but with the ability to instantly and precisely go to anywhere in the world I want to go...

All you need is a power amp with an extra set of RCA type inputs, as the Alexa Echo dot is your preamp. I control sound volume with my voice or with the slider right there on the laptop screen. I'm sure if I was operating from my tablet or a smart phone, this would work equally well.

Some of you may complain that the signal is digitally streamed and not "real" FM. I hate to burst your bubble but the "real" FM from a tuner is all now just digital stuff that has been converted back to analog. i am listening to AM stations now with the clarity of FM. And FM stations always come in. This has got to be worth SOMETHING. my old receiver is doing a fine job.

BUT I also have a Bluetooth speaker next to my chair. If I am too lazy to get out of the chair and walk across the room to push the power button on the receiver, I can always turn the tiny Bluetooth switch on. The Echo immediately senses the Bluetooth speaker is active and the music starts to play out of that. I COULD go out and BUY an amp with a remote, but then I would get no exercise getting up from my easy chair at all. Gotta get some exercise!