DTS Play-Fi compatible speakers are starting to get an upgrade, in the form of Alexa support. Now this is “Works with Amazon Alexa” support and not having Alexa baked into the speaker. Which means that you can ask Alexa (if you have an Echo, or something else) to play music on one of these speakers. Similar to the Sonos PLAY:1. These speakers that are now compatible include the Phorus PS10 wireless speaker, Onkyo Smart Speaker P3 and Pioneer Elite Smart Speaker F4.
This compatibility is being delivered via an over-the-air firmware update, so if you do own one of these speakers, you’ll want to be sure that you apply any updates that are waiting for you. Of course, in order to really take advantage of Alexa with any of these three speakers, you’ll need an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot or Echo Show to use it. But you’ll be able to play specific music on these speakers from Alexa, as well as control the volume, skip tracks and so much more. DTS Play-Fi’s general manager, Dannie Lau stated that they are continuing “to expand our range of Alexa voice control solutions available to licensees, making DTS Play-Fi the first open wireless multi-room audio platform to offer both Alexa Voice Services and Works with Amazon Alexa.” He also stated that DTS Play-Fi looks forward to continuing a healthy relationship with Amazon in the future. So expect to see more DTS Play-Fi products adding Alexa support in the near future.
DTS Play-Fi is similar to Sonos, where it offers up multi-room audio that streams over WiFi versus Bluetooth. However, DTS Play-Fi is actually an open platform, unlike Sonos, which is why there are speakers from Phorus, Onkyo and Pioneer here. With the platform, you are able to stream music from Amazon Music, Deezer, iHeartRadio, Juke, KKBox, Napster, Pandora, QQ Music, SiriusXM, Spotify, TIDAL and a few others. It also offers up wireless surround sound as well as stereo pairing, music station presets and much more. It’s a great platform to use and bring multi-room audio to your home. The Alexa OTA update should be arriving in the coming days for the Phorus PS10 wireless speaker, Onkyo Smart Speaker P3 and Pioneer Elite Smart Speaker F4.