CHATTER BOXES

Speakers used to be made to listen to, not talk to; but the advent of Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant and Apple’s Siri means the sound now goes both ways

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AMAZON ECHO (4TH GEN)

Hush hour

Woken up in the night and need Alexa to turn alight on? With the new Whisper mode turned on, if you whisper to her she'll whisper back.

Loudbusting

Amazon has added 'adaptive volume', raising or lowering Alexa's voice according to background noise, but it's currently US only.

While Phil Collins probably never imagined people would listen to In the Air Tonight in their kitchens on speakers that double as sausage timers, musicians of the world are just going to have to accept that this is how a lot of us choose to consume music these days. And while Amazon’s Echo is by no means a replacement for a proper hi-fi system, this fourth-gen model sounds surprisingly accomplished for something that looks like a melon from the future.

Inside the fabric-coated globular shell you get a 3in woofer and a pair of 0.8in tweeters – which, combined with the auto-tuning tech, means it sounds fuller and more expansive than you’d expect given its size, with the extra space inside allowing for more powerful bass than the previous cylindrical models. It supports all the major music streaming services too, even Apple Music.