Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

***Update 11/4/17: I wish I hadn't raised my review to 5 stars yesterday, because I got the firmware update that other reviewers have commented on last night on 2 of my 3 new Echoes (version 592452420), and I'd like to be able to bump it up another star now that I have. These speakers sound great for their size, better than the original Echo. And they are definitely a great speaker at the $99 price point (and an even better deal if you get them cheaper). It's unfortunate that these speakers didn't ship with this version of the software. It would have saved Amazon a lot of returns. I'm glad I had faith that Amazon would fix it, because they certainly did. ***Update 11/3/17: raising my review to 5 stars from 3. The more I listen to the new Echo, the more I like the sound when playing music (perhaps my ears are just getting habituated to them? Perhaps, but the sound really does seem to be richer than when they came out of the box). These speakers sound is just very different than the first generation. As you can see from reviews so far, those of us who had the first generation Echo have been unusually harsh, while those who are just buying this Echo as their first full Echo product generally love it. I think it’s all about expectations. —- 11/2/17: I purchased the three-pack of the All-new Echo because I wanted to grow my family of Echo products now that Amazon allows for multi-room audio syncing, which already included 3 of the original Echoes as well as an Echo Dot that I have hooked up to the Klipsch 2.1 Promedia speakers via a line-in connection. I think my impression of the new version of the Echo is in line with some reviews I've read online from some of the tech magazines, which is that the audio quality seems to be a step down from the original Echo rather than an improvement. The instrumental parts of a song get muddied together while the vocals get pushed forward a bit too much, and the bass is much weaker than it is with the original Echo. However, the size and looks of this speaker is a huge improvement over the original Echo (and it actually makes me much more aware of how ugly the grill on the original Echo really is [unfortunately, this had to be preserved on the non-cloth shells of the new Echo). That said, I noticed that the more I listened to one of the new speakers over a few hours, I started to notice that I was appreciating the sounds more. I'm not sure if my ear was just habituating to the speaker or if the speaker has a bit of a break-in period. But, when I went back to one of the other new speakers that hasn't been used much, I still noted a difference. I will also say that when I bought my first original Echo, I was likewise not very happy with the sound (and I had similar complaints). Yet, over time, the speaker seemed to sound better, and I eventually decided to buy two more on Prime Day last year. I think that Amazon regularly updates the software on their products, and I believe that they tweaked some of the EQ on the original Echo to make it sound better (however, I can't find any documentation to back that up; I have found the latest Tap update specifically says it was partially made to improve the bass on that speaker). Overall, I'd probably give this four stars if the "improved" sound hadn't been so hyped, only to see that they sound worse to me. I'm still impressed by Alexa and the ease with which I can play pretty much any music I want just by asking for it via Amazon Music Unlimited. I also love the multi-room audio feature. I'd love to see the ability to pair two speakers in a stereo mode, but just being able to sync them at all is pretty great for now. I also love the fact that Amazon appears committed to adding useful features, such as the ability to make voice calls with a simple voice prompt, which I've really appreciated when I'm trying to take care of my 8-month old. I will update my review as I use these speakers more, particularly if I notice any improvement in audio quality.