Audio Video News

Onkyo Previews Super Smart Speaker

SV Staff  |  Jan 13, 2017

Onkyo previewed an Alexa voice-enabled wireless smart speaker at CES last week, marking its foray into the super-hot product category Amazon created with its line of Echo smart speakers.

In addition to supporting Amazon’s cloud-based Alexa voice service and streaming over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the VC-FLX1 is described as a full-range speaker with a built-in web camera for “monitoring the surrounding area” and sensors that keep tabs on motion, temperature and humidity.

The idea behind the sensors is that you would be notified via a smartphone app if an unusual condition—such as extreme heat (caused by fire) or humidity (a burst pipe) is detected.

Speaker and smart-home functions can be controlled by voice and the speaker will support a variety of streaming music services and Internet radio, according to Onkyo.

Pricing and availability were not announced.

COMMENTS
mlknez's picture
Submitted by mlknez on January 13, 2017 - 10:50am

Many speakers over $100,000 aren't full range

dommyluc's picture
Submitted by dommyluc on January 14, 2017 - 5:11am

Hey, I have an Onkyo network receiver, and I love the sound and the convenience of streaming digital radio stations and Pandora and all of the hundreds and hundreds of CDs I ripped to my PC in WAV format. So please don't say this thing is "full range". This magazine constantly pushes people to download hi-res audio files at outrageous prices, but to even hint that this 21st-century transistor radio is "full range" is an insult to my intelligence and, more importantly, an insult to my ears. A product like Alexa can be quite useful, but why doesn't someone design a product based on Alexa that connects to ones HT system, either wirelessly or by a digital or HDMI connection? They could use the transmitter/receiver model employed by countless other devices. That way, one could stream Alexa to every HT in the house - to receivers, soundbars, etc. Maybe Pandora and digital radio, with their formats limited mostly to mp3, do not sound as good as my streamed WAV files or streamed hi-res downloads to my Onkyo, but they sure as hell sound better than a device with the audio quality of a Fisher-Price See N' Say, when played through a truly "full range" audio system. If you only want to use an Alexa product for weather and traffic reports - hey, great. But don't try to push this on us as a high-end audio product.

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