What Does This Have To Do With Kindle Fire?
If you own a Kindle Fire and have been buying music for it from Amazon, you’re already using Amazon’s Cloud Player app on your Fire. This post is about playing that same music through speakers in your home—specifically, your TV speakers.
Made The Switch From Apple; Now What?
As many readers will already know, I’ve made the switch from iTunes to Amazon Cloud Player, and from iPod to a Samsung Galaxy Player, and I’m really happy with those decisions. However, I hadn’t yet replaced the bedroom clock radio speaker dock I still had from my iPod days and have been keeping my eyes open for a good deal on a similar device for my Galaxy Player.
Wanted: Better Sound Quality When Listening To Music In My Room
I’ve never used the ‘wake to MP3’ feature on my existing dock, I mainly just wanted the speaker functionality for my bedroom. Even though Cloud Player runs on my laptop, its speakers aren’t the best. Using my Galaxy Player’s speaker isn’t ideal either—it drains the battery more quickly and sound quality can never be as good as that from full-sized speakers—, and if I have earbuds in for very long I tend to get a headache.
Charging Speaker Docks = Expensive!
So I watched, and I waited, and the quality speaker docks for non-Apple MP3 players just never seemed to get much lower than $70 or so.
Plus, only the much more expensive speaker docks also charge the device when it’s docked; the Grace Digital model pictured in this post is currently priced at $116.
Roku to the Rescue!
I didn’t want to spend that much money for a speaker dock, but just as I was about to bite the bullet and drop the dough, Amazon rolled out its Cloud Player app for Roku. Two problems solved, all for less than half of what I was looking at paying for the speaker dock alone!
I have a bedroom TV with stereo surround speakers built in but it’s not web-enabled. I’d been thinking for some time it’d be nice to get another Roku, like the one I have in the living room, so I could watch my Amazon Instant Videos in my room. Still, I couldn’t justify the $50 expense to myself when I could just as easily walk the 30 feet or so and watch my Instant Videos in the living room, or watch them on my Kindle Fire HD in bed.
The addition of Cloud Player for Roku made this a very easy purchase decision. Now I can listen to my Cloud Player music in my room AND enjoy my Instant Video library on my bedroom TV, and I spent much less than I was expecting to pay just for the speaker dock! The entry-level Roku is currently priced at just $48 and it’s Prime-eligible, so if you’re a Prime member, 2-day shipping is free!