Google'd Up But Echo for Audio Perhaps?

Kintarō Hattori

Hey Folks,

I have a Google Home in the living room by the TV, a Hub Max on a chest of drawers as well as a Lenovo Smart Clock. It works well but as I find myself watching most of my video content through a 4K Firestick I was wondering if I should look at an audio option for that.
I haven't thought too much about this so please excuse my lack of insight into it but could I use two Echo's in a stereo setup with the Firestick and eventually add an Echo sub?

dam099

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Hey Folks,

I have a Google Home in the living room by the TV, a Hub Max on a chest of drawers as well as a Lenovo Smart Clock. It works well but as I find myself watching most of my video content through a 4K Firestick I was wondering if I should look at an audio option for that.
I haven't thought too much about this so please excuse my lack of insight into it but could I use two Echo's in a stereo setup with the Firestick and eventually add an Echo sub?

You could but if your smart speaker needs are already well served by Google Home then a soundbar that has a sub might be another option.

bk

dam099 wrote: »

You could but if your smart speaker needs are already well served by Google Home then a soundbar that has a sub might be another option.

Note, there are also multiple soundbar options with Google home built in. Haven't tried any myself, but might be worth researching.

Kintarō Hattori

dam099 wrote: »

You could but if your smart speaker needs are already well served by Google Home then a soundbar that has a sub might be another option.

bk wrote: »

Note, there are also multiple soundbar options with Google home built in. Haven't tried any myself, but might be worth researching.

Realistically is there any delay in audio when using one of these? What's a half decent one cost? Part of the appeal with two Echos (I'm by no means set on this) is that I could kinda hide them behind the TV.... out of the way for the most part of tiny hands.

bk

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Realistically is there any delay in audio when using one of these? What's a half decent one cost? Part of the appeal with two Echos (I'm by no means set on this) is that I could kinda hide them behind the TV.... out of the way for the most part of tiny hands.

Delay in audio? Do you mean between the soundbar and TV?

Obviously you should double check reviews of whichever soundbar you are interested in to check that. But most of the higher end soundbars are basically AV's. They have HDMI in ports and then HDMI out to the TV, which should guarantee that the audio is in sync.

To be honest, I'd suspect there would be less likely to suffer audio delays issues with a soundbar, then with Echo's, since soundbars are specifically designed for this purpose. But I could be wrong about that.

Personally my setup is that I have an AV with 5.1 speakers and both a Nvidia Shield TV and a FireTV plugged into the AV. Separately I have a Google Home in the same room. I use the Google Home for general music listening and the AV for movies/TV. It all works fine, maybe not as neat and integrated as it could be, but pretty straightforward.

BTW I've got a sticky fingered monster too, but surprisingly she mostly left the 5.1 alone, of course your mileage might differ.

Having said that my AV is almost 10 years old, in the next year I'm planning to upgrade my TV and I'm also thinking of simplifying my audio setup to a soundbar too.

dam099

bk wrote: »

Delay in audio? Do you mean between the soundbar and TV?

Obviously you should double check reviews of whichever soundbar you are interested in to check that. But most of the higher end soundbars are basically AV's. They have HDMI in ports and then HDMI out to the TV, which should guarantee that the audio is in sync.

To be honest, I'd suspect there would be less likely to suffer audio delays issues with a soundbar, then with Echo's, since soundbars are specifically designed for this purpose. But I could be wrong about that.

Personally my setup is that I have an AV with 5.1 speakers and both a Nvidia Shield TV and a FireTV plugged into the AV. Separately I have a Google Home in the same room. I use the Google Home for general music listening and the AV for movies/TV. It all works fine, maybe not as neat and integrated as it could be, but pretty straightforward.

BTW I've got a sticky fingered monster too, but surprisingly she mostly left the 5.1 alone, of course your mileage might differ.

Having said that my AV is almost 10 years old, in the next year I'm planning to upgrade my TV and I'm also thinking of simplifying my audio setup to a soundbar too.

HDMI can occasionally have audio sync issues, most good AV receivers will try and auto sync and/or allow you to manually set an offset. Not something I have experienced other than very rarely so either the auto sync is doing its job well or its not much of an issue anyway (using a Sony AVR for all inputs).

Not sure if soundbars would have it, would probably have to be a decent one with a GUI to allow you to set it.

I would also still expect HDMI to be less susceptible to delay than the Echo's might be.

As an aside speaking of little ones and 5.1 gear, my old setup had a ported sub-woofer and I used to have to open it up (involving removing 20+ screws) every few months to remove the assorted small toys/Lego that used to accumulate in it.