Pioneer VA-FW40 Elite F4 Smart Speaker (Black) 2-Pack Bundle (2 Items)

06/29/2020 Update to my Original review below:I still am enjoying my Elite F4s but just wanted to update my review based on two recent events. The first is the DTS PlayFi app recently updated to v6, which downloads some updates to the F4s. This update includes some enhancements to Amazon Music, including the ability to select streaming quality. Spotify connect seems to be much more responsive now.The second update was a change on my end. We had a 10 year old wireless router in our house that thanks to work from home, was not cutting it anymore. So we upgraded to a mesh WiFi system and the F4s seem to be much more responsive and stable now. They seem to respond quicker to commands, both voice and on the app, and I have noticed much less crashing. I have one of the mesh nodes in the same room as the F4s. Still very much enjoying the sound from these speakers!Original ReviewI purchased two of these together for $85.00 total, which in my opinion is a steal. Let me start out by saying that my home audio situation has been deteriorating over the last several years and now we are essentially down to one Gen 1 Amazon Echo. That has been ok for listening to music with our toddler but I've been longing for some better sound. Unfortunately it has been very low on the priority list. So when I saw this deal after doing a lot of research, I decided this was a compromise for some better sound without dropping a lot of money on a really good system. I've only had them a couple days so I am still getting used to them, but here are my impressions thus far.On to the speakers.First, I give props to Pioneer for the packaging. Both speakers arrived new, in unopened packages, and we very well packed. Now these did originally cost $200 a piece 2 years ago when they were first released so I would hope they spent some time packaging them well. The build quality seems good. They have decent weight, and the fit and finish seem very good.A couple things to note. First, not only do the Elite F4s have Alexa built in (not full Alexa) but they also have DTS Play-Fi. Play-fi is what really peaked my interest in the speakers. I highly recommend going to the Play-Fi knowledge base and reading the FAQ's if you are planning on purchasing or using a Play-Fi device. In particular, pay attention to the "Setup" section and "Optimizing your router configuration" sections. This FAQ section may help eliminate some heartache or frustrations people have with setup. I downloaded the DTS Play-Fi and Pioneer Music Control apps to my android phone, and also the Play-Fi app to my Windows PC. I plugged the speakers in one at a time and connected the speakers to the wifi and performed firmware updates on the speakers using the DTS Play-fi app on my phone. It was pretty painless.For signing into Alexa, I needed to use the Pioneer Music Control app. Again very painless and just required me to sign into my Amazon account.Once everything finished updating the speakers rebooted and everything started working. The second speaker did give me a little trouble at first because the update kept failing. I rebooted my phone and it started working. Then I needed to restart the speaker after the updates finished. Since then, both speakers have been working very well. I was initially worried that Alexa was going to be useless on the Pioneers because on other reviews I read however, it has been working almost as well as my Echo. There is a light delay from when I give my command to music playback starting (maybe 1-2 seconds) but Alexa acknowledges my response almost instantly. Again this is only after a couple days of testing.I will make one suggestion, and this is based on another review I read: If you have another Echo or Alexa device close by, I suggest either making sure the devices are far enough apart or muting the microphones on the devices not being used. It sounds like another device could pick up your command and cause some issues. I haven't experienced this yet, but it is something to keep in mind.The DTS Play-Fi app has been working well for my use so far. I love the multi-room playback and really love the ability to use the speakers as a stereo pair. Music playback sounds really good when using the F4s as a stereo pair. I also really like having a line in and line out on the back so I can connect an external device to them.A couple quirks: Free Spotify Connect seems to work intermittently. Also, I do not believe you can use the speakers with Alexa's multi-room streaming options, only through Play-Fi. This would have been nice to be able to use my existing Echo with the Pioneers for multi-room but it's a small compromise for me. There is no bluetooth. You can play music stored on your phone or through your computer using the Play-Fi app, but pay attention to supported file formats (.wma files not currently supported). Finally, sometimes when using Alexa it will occasionally crash and reset when giving a command, but it seems somewhat random.Sound quality is good, much better than my gen one echo but I am sure not as good as other, newer speakers. If the Pioneers still cost $200 a piece, I would not have gotten them (or any other speaker for that matter) but for less than $50 a piece, I think they are worth it. It has some quirks and limitations, but so far I have been fortunate not to experience any big issues. Things may change the more I use them but so far I am happy with them. I like the idea of the DTS Play-Fi because you can use it with any speaker / system that has it, regardless of manufacturer and I hope it sticks around.

Could be great. Great sound as far as sound quality goes (also own sonos play:one, Google home, Google home mini, Amazon echo dot 3rd gen). Sound quality-wise, it competes with the Google home but falls short of the sonos (this is a given). I purchased two of these for about $80 so for the quality, I think it's worth it, especially with the streaming options available to use with these speakers (spotify, Amazon music, etc). The ability to make a group of speakers like the Google family of speakers is a plus (cannot include in Google speaker groups, at least I have not been able to figure it out yet).Now to the bad. It is simply worthless as an Amazon smart speaker. Any question I throw at it receives a response of <beep> and a red ring... I've tried numerous questions from playing music to simply what time it was.If you want some decent quality wifi speakers, these will work. They cut out sometimes probably due to the weak wireless structure they're built on (probably the culprit behind the Amazon assistant not working either). I've had them stream 8+ hours of classical music as background music for the kiddos to have some brain stimulation while playing and both speakers were flawless. For much else, they're useless...Edit: the smart speaker aspect is heavily dependent on your internet connection. I say this because I had them connected to the company provided router/modem combo and I got the red ring every time I requested anything from Alexa. I replaced the router/modem combo with my own separate router and modem setup and alexa on these pioneer speakers work! Answers questions, controls smart home devices, plays games with the kids, etc. Occasionally the speakers would lose connection or just disconnect and restart themselves but for the most part, they've sounded wonderfully and worked when I wanted them to through the pioneer app. Added a star back to the review for the discovery.

For the price this is an excellent speaker. Sound quality is decent but is not comparable to Sonos. Works great when paired to fill room with sound.

Set up was kinda clunky and Play-fi is not ideal but sound is great and Alexa built in works well.

It kept disconnecting

I purchased 8 total speakers. I have them set up in various groups, kitchen, family room and whole house. Great sound, I can play from my phone or PC. Great sounding ambient music throughout the house when I don't want to play off of our main sound system. I would highly recommend these as opposed to buying some of the newer systems. 8 speakers for the price of some single speaker systems. I have a high-end Dolby Atmos 11.4 audio/video entertainment system and know good sound quality. I think these speakers are great.

Good sound quality and great value. The Alexa setup is a bit more difficult than other devices I have, could be challenging if your not tech savvy.

Challenging to setup, but once you download the new version the system works and sounds great.