The Amazon Echo Dot is the smaller sibling of the full sized Echo. And because of its smaller size, the sound has been severely sacrificed. That’s why products like the Ninety7 Vaux Echo Dot Speaker Dock exists.

The dock itself requires very little setup, and to tell you the truth, acts literally as a speaker for your Amazon Echo Dot to enhance any sound that comes out of the device. It works relatively well if you connect your Dot to your Spotify or Amazon Music account.

The whole thing is made to resemble a 360° speaker, although in reality its not. The cylinder portion is covered in a felt cover which looks pretty neat, but lacks a certain premium quality that you would find in other WiFi speakers. It is available in two different colours though, to match that of the Echo Dot. We were sent the black one as our Dot is black.

When I said the setup was easy, it really only needs to use the two passthrough cables in the rear of the dock: the jack for sound and also a microUSB for power. It doesn’t come with its own plug and cable, but because you’ve already got the Echo Dot, it’s fine as they come with that.

Now as for sound, it passable as a speaker for music. It’s great for hearing the audio prompts Alexa gives you, and for things like setting an alarm, but music sounds very empty with the lack of bass. Mid and treble playback however are pretty crisp, and would definitely suit some kind of bedroom or kitchen speaker. I wouldn’t go too loud either, because it will distort above anything around 50% volume.

There’s an audio jack on the back which will passthrough the Amazon Echo Dot to the Vaux speaker. You can connect your mobile phone or another audio device directly into the speaker. Take note that if you do this, you will cut out all sound from the Dot itself so no more Alexa until the audio device is unplugged.

The battery life is pretty good too, and works for the advertised 6-hours that Vaux claim. However, if you’re pushing the volume towards the louder end, then you will definitely get significantly less time. An in-built battery does mean that it’s portable for around the house use. If you take it outside, you will love that Alexa support due to it losing signal from the wireless network.

The Ninety7 Vaux Speaker Dock for the Amazon Echo Dot is a pretty worthy purchase. It’s currently on offer for around £60, and will definitely augment the Echo Dot you own, and bring it closer to the full sized Amazon Echo. For more information, you can visit the Ninety7 website.