Best Buys – Audio & AV – July 2019

Best Buys Audio & AV 2019-#2

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into which it is installed, and a white faceplate
clips over this. The faceplate is square, 133mm
on a side. The round hole in its middle exposes
the face of the Echo Dot so that its four control
buttons can be accessed and its microphones
can cleanly receive your spoken commands from
the room. And the faceplate can be painted, if
required, to match room décor.
There’s more to the VAIL Amp package.
Included is a 24V DC power brick, a lightswitch-
sized wall plate (pictured below) with additional
connections, and two connecting cables, plus an
adaptor cable. The wall-plate has a power socket
for the 24V power supply, plus three gold-plated
RCA sockets. Two of those are for left and right
audio inputs, while one is for a subwoofer output
from the VAIL Amp. The inputs mean that you
can use an additional audio source — say a CD
player, perhaps a turntable with a built-in phono
preamplifier, perhaps even your TV. (Some
experimentation revealed that this input is simply
mixed in with the signal from the Echo Dot, so no
source selection is needed.)
The other RCA socket means that you can
supplement whatever speakers you are using with
an active subwoofer. Vanguard Dynamics doesn’t
give any specifications for this output.
Included are two 1.5-metre cables to connect
the wall plate to the VAIL Amp. One is for power
and the other — this is a standard Cat6 Ethernet
cable — is for signals. Both can be replaced
for longer runs. The power cable has screw-on
connectors on both ends. These can be unscrewed
and transferred to a longer cable. If you want
to keep things simple and don’t need the extra
connections on the wall plate, you can dispense
with it. An adaptor is provided to allow the
power brick to be connected directly to the VAIL
Amp rather than via the wall plate. If you have
properly-installed ceiling power, you can keep that
out of sight as well.
The loudspeaker outputs of the VAIL Amp
use ‘Euroblock’ plugs, common in the installation
industry. Although they are relatively unfamiliar
to consumers, they are easy to use. You just place
the bared ends of cable into the openings on the
plug and tighten the screws. Then the whole thing
plugs into the socket.
One of the good things about
modern network devices such
as the Echo Dot is that anyone
reasonably handy can install it.
I’d suggest that the same extends
to the VAIL Amp. If you can cut
a hole in plasterboard and are
able to feed cables through wall
cavities (that’s the hardest part)
you should be fine.

LOUDSPEAKERS
Vanguard Dynamics is a
Californian firm that primarily
produces installation and
commercial speakers. So you won’t

be surprised to hear that you can buy the VAIL

Amp as part of a package with installation speakers.

We’re sure that in that role it will do as well as any

30W amp pressed into servicing such speakers.

And you can see how well this would work as a

practical matter. The speakers are installed, perhaps

in the ceiling. The VAIL Amp with its Echo Dot

is installed, most likely, on a wall. Importantly,

it can be placed so as to most reliably hear your

commands. The bane of many voice-controlled

speakers is that with the microphones and speakers

in the same unit, the former can’t hear you over

the music produced by the latter. The VAIL Amp

usefully separates microphone and speakers.

With everything wall or ceiling installed, you

have a visually inconspicuous but much higher

performance voice-controlled audio system. Plus,

of course, it will do all other Alexa things for you,

like control certain powered appliances, answer

your questions and so on. Whenever Alexa needs

to speak to you, her voice will emerge from the

speakers connected to the VAIL Amp — which can

be a bit spooky if you’re used to Alexa or Google

coming from a tiny little driver in the corner. And,

of course, you can control the volume level by

spoken command.

We did our listening in part with a pair of instal-

lation speakers. These are a pair from a well-known

brand, and they feature an 8-inch bass/midrange

and 20mm tweeter. They normally perform the

function of ‘Height’ speakers in our Dolby Atmos/

DTS:X listening room. The rest we did with a pair

of high-quality, largish stand-mounted speakers.

PERFORMANCE

We jury-rigged our installation, not wishing to cut

holes in our walls for a device in our possession

only temporarily. But we secured the VAIL Amp

with Echo Dot 2 in place hard against a wall, to

replicate its normal performance. We’d already set

Vanguard Dynamics

VAIL Amp

• Useful installation solution for Amazon
  Alexa functionality


• Good audio performance


• Easy installation


• Uses Echo Dot 2; incoming VAIL Amp 3
  from September will fit new Dot 3

Price: $499 (VAIL Amp 3 $599 from Sept.)

Power: 2 x 30W, 4/8 ohms switchable

Inputs: 3.5mm (for Echo Dot Gen 2),

analogue stereo RCA on wall panel

Outputs: Subwoofer line-level (RCA) on-wall

panel, stereo Euroblock terminal for speakers

Cut-out dimensions: 114mm diameter

Wall-panel dimensions: 133 x 133mm

Mounting depth: 66mm

Weight: 215 grams

Contact: Canohm

Telephone: 1800 636 026

Web: http://www.canohm.com.au

This wall-plate is part of the

VAIL package, along with cables

to run to wherever it might be

conveniently placed for plug-in

power, an additional source input,

and subwoofer output.

up our account to use Spotify rather than Amazon’s

own music service. The Echo Dot/VAIL Amp

worked brilliantly. Because we placed them on the

wall closest to our usual seated position, they picked

up our spoken commands without marked interfer-

ence from the music, even when we were going at

quite extreme levels. That’s an unusual experience.

The VAIL Amp easily drove our ceiling speakers

to quite high levels, and cleanly. But we used the

other speakers for critical listening, not only with

Alexa music, but with uncompressed audio played

from a high resolution network audio player via the

auxiliary inputs. The quality was excellent. Modern

amp technology is remarkably effective, even in a

device that weighs only a couple of hundred grams.

Importantly, when using the 1.5-metre

connection cable (which we purposely draped in

some less than ideal locations), there didn’t seem

to be any breakthrough of electrical interference,

continuing a fine low-noise performance.

CONCLUSION

This VAIL Amp did its job admirably, but it isn’t

quite the end of the story. Since the Echo Dot

2nd Gen is now pretty much end of life (we

couldn’t find one for sale on Amazon Australia,

for example), a new VAIL Amp ‘3’ is due to arrive

in September, slightly larger to accommodate the

bigger Dot 3, and priced at $599, with otherwise

exactly the same abilities. Meanwhile, if you can

snaffle a cheap 2nd-gen Dot or two, the current

VAIL Amp is a great way of turning it into a

high quality music source, while retaining its

general functionality.

“If used as part of a package which includes

installation speakers, the speakers are installed

perhaps in the ceiling. The VAIL Amp with its

Echo Dot is installed, most likely, on a wall.”