ASUS - Lyra Voice AC2200 Tri-Band Mesh Wi-Fi Router - Black

This is for the 2019 version of the Asus Lyra Voice AC2200 Tri Band Mesh Router. I have this setup in a small engineering office and I feel as though I am not giving the Lyra Voice the justice it deserves. At times there can be 3 – 5 people in the office and typically just myself. Anything can take place, streaming, gaming, downloading, office traffic for wireless printing, file sharing, etc. The main thing is it has to be robust and functionally reliable with no issues for the traffic and devices, which it is. The router comes with the typical bandwidth limiting, parental “controls”, guest access and suite of settings and plugins. Asus brand name, controls software and hardware – can’t lose. Solid performer and settings are a snap. I’ve used all app base setup on this router and do not need any of the advanced features or plugins. And I think that is where this router is a step ahead – simplicity. This is not going to be your VPN and heavy traffic business router. I feel it was meant to be a super simple router with some cool features, Alexa and Bluetooth. And with that being said, the AC2200 gives my office plenty of Wi-Fi bandwidth to do every day business, downloading and streaming. Setup – Super simple and a seamless transition from the older router. This was really a breath of fresh air compared to what I went through with another new home mesh router recently. Alexa? She’s there and honestly, I’m one of the paranoid people who’ve unplugged her at home. But she is there and slowly getting used to asking her simple tasks and I don’t mind having her on in the office. Bluetooth / Speaker: Amazing. The Surround sound function and overall clarity is just about unbeatable at this packaged size. Out of several Bluetooth speakers, receivers/speakers that I own and have used over the years, this is by far the best sounding for the size. The full range and clear highs are very pleasant on the ears. I’m pretty impressed with the capability of the bass and in a smaller room it would be more noticeable. With something like this, you could pair it to a BT compatible TV or Fire TV and I feel that would be the sweet spot. It is not going to fully rock out high DBs and it doesn’t come with a subwoofer, optic in or anything crazy. It is not meant for all that. Pair it, plug it in and forget about it in a simple, clean setup. For what it is it is one of those small speakers that you would never think could produce the quality of sound it does. I feel Asus put a lot of time and engineering into the sound of this unit. Again, It’s as good as sound can get from today's technology and the size of the unit. I digress to the comment about this being an injustice to have in the office. I can imagine if you had a small living area, apartment, etc. this would be a perfect fit. I can see this unit as a centerpiece below a TV in a small home or living area; all in one, attractive and solid performer for a full functional router and quality sound. Pros – does it all, Wi-Fi/mesh, Alexa and audio. Solid brand name and solid hardware. Cons – Sounds so good that you’ll want to move it around, but you can’t; it’s plugged into the power adapter and cable modem. It would be nice to have a volume remote or at least in the app or any kind of play/pause, next remote with the device since you will be streaming a lot of music.

I was rather excited to get this router not only because of the Alexa capabilities but also because I wanted to use it in a mesh with my existing Asus Blue Cave router with the Asus AiMesh capability. Unfortunately I've been a bit disappointed with the stability of the connection from the device. But first things first. The device itself came packaged in a long narrow white box with the Asus Lyra information plastered all over it as you'd expect, but once you slide the outer sleeve off of the box you're presented with a sleek white box with a lit, somewhat of a premium feel after the less-than premium feel of the outer sleeve. Pop the lid and you're presented with the device itself. It's actually much smaller than I had been expecting and it has a very nice look to it, the pictures really don't do it justice. The sides are shrouded in the mesh speaker cloth everyone knows and loves, while the middle has some alexa controls and an on-off switch as well as the blue alexa bar (which is vertical). There are 2 ethernet ports, one WAN and one LAN port, more on that in a minute. I was initially confused by the on-off switch placement because it resides directly below the dts logo so I thought that switch disabled or enabled dts, which amusingly enough actually is a functionality of the speaker, but it is not controlled by that switch. That switch, as you might otherwise expect, is the power switch for the router itself. As a side note, you can enable or disable dts from within the app. You can set up the router in one of a couple of ways, either through the Asus Router app, through the Asus Lyra App or through the web interface, and to be sure, each of them presents you with a polished, well thought-out experience that is streamlined and bug-free. I had the router up and running with the Wizard in less than 5 minutes. I then reset the router and did the expert mode which was just as easy. The router itself presents you with all the advanced features you know and love from an Asus router. Everything from AiProtection and AiMesh, to various levels of QoS, traffic monitoring and a number of other features, including, of course, the Alexa functionality. By the way, the router talks to you when you're setting it up. The voice of the router itself is somewhat of a poor facsimile of the Alexa voice, fortunately it does not take the place of the Alexa voice when you're using the Alexa functionality. Finally I reset it again and set it up as an AiMesh node with my Asus Blue Cave, which again went smoothly with no issues, although it is kind of annoying that you have to do that through the Asus Router app, I would have preferred a more direct interface to do that, but be that as it may, it worked fine (by the way, be sure to leave the app on your screen as you do the setup or the setup might fail, it did for me when I switched away from it, but when I stayed on it, it finished just fine). When using the Alexa capability it's actually quite good, albeit with a somewhat annoying ping whenever it recognizes a command. The sound quality from speakers of this size is excellent and full sounding and I really enjoyed my music coming from them. All of the rest of the Alexa capabilities are exactly as you'd expect from an Alexa-enabled device so there's not a whole lot more to add here. Which brings me to the actual router functionality. So while setup of the device was quite pleasant, I am fairly disappointed in the performance. As an AiMesh node the range seems woefully inadequate. My house is 1900sqft with the Asus Blue Cave situated centrally and high up on the first floor. When I set up the Asus Lyra Voice I was near the Blue Cave and the setup was quick and painless. As soon as I moved the Lyra Voice to the location I wished it to be it experienced nothing but connection instability. I am using it not only as an AiMesh node but as a wireless bridge as well (I connected a nearby 8 port switch to the LAN port on the router). It would work fine (200mbps via speedtest to the internet) then it would suddenly drop out and I'd get nothing, the light on the front would turn orange. I was approximately 50-75 feet from the Blue Cave on the second floor of my house.. So I moved the Lyra closer (about 30 feet) and it still experienced occasional drop outs. I get that I'm on the second floor of my house, but 30 feet should not be difficult for any router... by the way, my laptop maintains a constant connection to my Blue Cave in the same location. I'm sincerely hoping this is a firmware issue because otherwise it is extremely disappointing. It seems as though they spent more time making it look good and be alexa-capable than actually making it a decent router. On a side note. While in AiMesh, you're still limited to just the LAN port as a wireless bridge port. Unlike the Linksys Velop where either of the 2 ethernet ports can be used to bridge (or one as bridge and one as WAN on the primary node, whichever that is that you pick) this one does not change the WAN port to a LAN port when the device is in AiMesh mode even though there's no reason it would ever connect to a modem when it is functioning as an AiMesh node. Why is this important you ask since I'm connecting it to an 8 port switch? Well since the range was so poor I had to move it to another location in the room much further from my switch, so I had to run a long ethernet cable to that switch that was originally connected to a different device. Since at that point the Lyra Voice was sitting next to the other device I was hoping to be able to connect the other device to the WAN port and have it function as a LAN port since the LAN port was connected to my switch. Sadly I was wrong... this also seems like something that should be able to be fixed via Firmware. All in all I'm rather disappointed in this device. While it's a decent Alexa speaker, it's far to expensive to purchase solely for that reason as there are many decent Alexa-enabled speakers including Amazon's Echos themselves for much less money. The only reason to buy this device is for BOTH the router AND the alexa functionality, of which the router functionality is poor. Hopefully some firmware work is done to improve it or even I won't be using it.

Wireless wi-fi Routers come in all shapes, sizes and prices these days but the Asus Lyra Voice is the only one I know of that combines so many functions in one box: State-of-the-art wireless wi-fi router, mesh wi-fi device, bluetooth speaker, full blown Alexa device and hardware-based home internet protection device. And despite the all saw about being "a jack of all trades, master of none," this stylish little gadget is pretty darn good at everything it is supposed to do. Let's start with how it looks, which is nothing like a home wi-fi router. There are no antennas and no bank of flashing lights. Instead, it looks a lot more like a small stylish bluetooth speaker, clad mostly in a tasteful textured charcoal speaker cloth. The only visible controls are fours small buttons on top for volume, and to access Alexa. And the only light is a single vertical LED in the front that glows Amazon blue when you call out for "Alexa" to do your bidding. Very attractive. Fine. But does it work as advertised ? And is it easy to install? The answer to both questions is a definitive yes. Since I already had an Asus Blue Cave as my primary wireless router, I opted for the mesh approach to extend the reach of my home wi-fi network . This made setup dead simple. Just plug in the Lyra Voice, download and launch the excellent Asus Wireless Router App and tell it to search for new AirMesh nodes. The Lyra Voice should popup pretty quickly and start configuring itself automatically. Give it a few minutes to connect and then use the app to link the Asus Lyra Voice with your Amazon account. Once that's done, it functions like any other Alexa device, During setup, the light on the front changes color, remains solid or blinks to indicate what is going on. That's all explained in the brief instructions. Overall, setup was a breeze. And it worked great. I have a TV in my bedroom and stream Playstation Vue for entertainment. Streaming was much snappier once the new Lyra voice was in place, since it is much closer than the Asus Cave on the other side of the house. Exactly what a mesh device should do. But that's only half the story. This thing looks more like a Bluetooth speaker and actual excels at that job too. Sound quality is surprisingly good for such a small, two speaker device, with pretty strong bass and nice clean highs. Balance is excellent. It sounds best on a table top with a bit of flat space in front of it to help pump up the bass. It's not the best Bluetooth speaker I have ever heard but it's one of the best I have hard that is this small. Alexa functionality is excellent too. The built in microphone (which you can turn off) has no trouble hearing you, even with music playing, and reacts just as fast any Amazon made device. The Lyra Voice is less capable stand alone wireless router since it has only one ethernet port, which is not going to hack it for some folks. But if all you need to do is plug in a single device, it will get the job done. The only other port on the back of the Lyra Voice connects to your cable or DSL modem. Despite those limitations, the Lyra voice is a very capable wi-fi router. It sports seven internal antennas and has most of the latest capabilities, including simultaneous tri-band wi-fi ( Two 5ghz channels and one 2.4.ghz channel) with speeds up to 2200 mbps. And MU-MIMO is built in, which means the router can stream to two devices simultaneously, which reduces delays and stalling . As is that were not enough, TrendMico's AiProtect Pro also is built in and updated regularly at no cost for as long as you use the router, giving an extra level of security for everything on your network. Bottom line: If you can live with limited number of ethernet ports, the Lyra Voice is a great little device that offers a lot bang for the buck. You could easily spend as much as this costs on a single bluetooth speaker, Amazon Alexa device or home wi-fi wireless router. And this does all three.

I have been wanting a voice assistant for quite some time now. My biggest pause was not only selecting the right assistant, but a device that served my needs. I think I’ve found just that device in the ASUS Lyra Voice. First thing you notice when picking up one of these is the stellar packaging. It’s top notch, giving you that feel of assurance in selecting a quality product. I think some companies could stand to learn a thing or two about premium packaging. Not only does it make a great impression on the buyer, but also gives the purchaser a sense of security about the well being of the product. ASUS did well in this area. Upon removing the router from the box, the first thought that comes to mind is exceptional build quality. Handling it for the first time, the weight and worth of the device can be felt. It’s slick looking, premium feeling, and uniquely designed. It’s the first router I’ve seen that looks like a Bluetooth speaker (and serves as one when needed), and I view that as a good thing. The instructions reveal the true flexibility of the device from a connectivity standpoint. You can hard wire it to your modem, allowing it to serve as your primary router as well as a base for a Lyra/AiMesh network. You can also wire it to your existing network, bridging the device in AP mode allowing it to serve as a wireless extension. Lastly, you can connect it to an existing AP in wireless bridge mode. Kudos to ASUS for giving this level of flexibility in connectivity. My connectivity choice was wireless bridge, as I already have a non-ASUS wireless mesh installed in my home. Installation of the Lyra Voice requires the ASUS router app on your iOS or Android device. I found installation to be fairly simple and straightforward. There were minimal steps involved, and the setup guide was very informative and user friendly. Once connected, and following the obligatory firmware update, it was time to get to use. One thing I like about ASUS is their router management OS. It is one of the most flexible, informative, and robust interfaces on the market. Even as a wireless bridge, you have information on connected devices, security controls, real time data statistics, etc. The wireless seems to have sufficient range for a small to medium-sized home, depending on placement – of course, you will place this in some centralized location due to it’s voice assistant capabilities. About that voice assistant: it’s Alexa, and she is good. The fact that this is built into what could be your primary router makes the responses that much snappier. Alexa is quite the little assistant, answering day to day questions, providing movie and music selections, and even manipulating devices (when applicable). If you don’t have a voice assistant, you will definitely love the convenience and overall experience one brings. The Lyra Voice has a pretty decent set of speakers built right in. The sound is very good, although not the best I’ve heard when compared to other Bluetooth speakers I have listened to. Most will be just fine with the sound quality. There is actually not much negative I can say about this device. When you look at it on paper, it comes across as somewhat of a mash-up of technologies, but this was a very smart move by ASUS. I think the flexibility of this device makes it one of the best I have used this year. It can actually take the place of 3-4 devices, and it is very well made and executes it all flawlessly.

Asus Lyra Voice What’s in the box ————————— 1. ASUS Lyra Voice Wireless AC2200 Tri-Band Wi-Fi Smart Speaker Whole Home Mesh Router 2. Power Adapter 3. Ethernet Cable 4. User Guide Pros —— 1. Compatible with ASUS Ai-Mesh devices for a mesh networking 2. Its got Built in Alexa voice 3. Its a Bluetooth Speaker 4. Works as an extender on your existing non Ai-Mesh nEtwork 5. Inbuilt Network security with automatic updates 6. Can connect to Pandora, Spotify Etc to Play music 7. Advanced Parental controls to help you: 1. Control the time when each device can be online 2. Hide inappropriate contents from kids 3. Check what they are watching 4. Can block certain type of activity like instant messaging etc Cons —— 1. A little expensive. 2. Wish it had a little more bass on the speaker The Review —————— Its a bluetooth speaker, its a mesh router, it’s an Alexa device! Its like the all in one thing & I think it does most of the “all in one” functionalities really well. LOOKS- It looks like a bluetooth speaker and not like a router. Its got a blue light in the center which turns on when you say Alexa. The router/speaker has volume buttons on the front and also a mute button. The power button is behind and it also has 1 ethernet port. SETUP - Its a very straight forward setup, download the Asus APP on App Store (Apple & Playstore) and you should just follow the onscreen instructions to Setup the router. It will also ask you to connect to an amazon account so that you can use it with Alexa. The router can be setup as: 1. A standalone router 2. As a Ai-Mesh Router to work with other Ai-Mesh routers 3. As a repeater router The app also has advanced mode for other functions such as parental control , AiProtection etc USAGE - I setup the router as a standalone and as a Ai-Mesh Router. I already have a RT-68U router that I own and its better than most routers in its range in the market, its a few years old but it still performs like a champ. I got this one to go hand in hand as a Ai-Mesh router. In the initial setup, I set this router as a standalone because I wanted to compare the performance vs my RT-68U (AC-1900) and I have to say that previously wherever I used to get weak signals, I got much better signal with this router. I have a 100/100 connection and I was about to get around that speed with this router which made me think that I really did not need a need for this router to be connected in a Mesh mode. But since I got it anyways, It would serve as a bluetooth/Alexa device and as a router. The router also has a ethernet port so that you can connect your desktop, So I could listen to music and be connected to the internet wired or wirelessly. I also setup the router as a Ai-Mesh and I could see an improvement in the speed. Although I think this thing could cover my 3000sqft house adequately.

My initial intention was to install just the ASUS – LYRA VOICE AC2200 Tri-Band Mesh Wi-Fi Router to replace a dated router as an upgrade to stabilize wi-fi coverage in my home. Since pressed for time, though ALEXA is a unique feature of the LYRA VOICE Router, I intended to activate the capability at a later time. Starting with the installation of the LYRA VOICE, if you don’t want to follow an online manual, be certain to schedule your calls to ASUS TECH SUPPORT during their available hours. Since they are not 24/7, avoid frustration and be sure to time your calls accordingly. Also, be sure to pay particular attention to their shorter weekend hours. Thankfully, with my hectic schedule, set up was made simple with a phone call to TECH SUPPORT, especially since the Quick Start instructions have some points of ambiguity that I feared would lead me to dead ends and late hours, trying to back track bad moves. ASUS TECH SUPPORT was so competent and personable in walking me through installation of passwords for the TRI BAND set up for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz that I decided to allow the TECH to optimize my call. I was encouraged to download the AMAZON ALEXA APP to immediately explore what I had intended to save for later. All of my wi-fi capable devices --- my flat screens, home security, tablets, etc --- in the house quickly appeared at the ALEXA APP control center on my Android phone, a Galaxy S7. Voila, I now have the hub of my SMART HOME installed. The ALEXA APP networked my devices allowing me to request news media, forecasts, traffic updates and summon music then control volume, forward and replay for BOSE level audio; establish To Do Lists; search, purchase and track AMAZON orders, among other options that afford lots more room to grow. I want but yet don’t have the smart doorbell, smart lights or smart thermostat; but, now I have a user friendly platform on my phone to work through the additions. My non-ASUS RANGE EXTENDER (i.e. not proprietary to ASUS) easily integrated with the ASUS LYRA VOICE ROUTER; but, the higher logic would have been to start with the ASUS branded ‘Ai MESH Nodes’ to extend i.e. repeat the wi-fi signal throughout the house then also have access to the ALEXA VOICE enabled Nodes at every remote location in the home. For now, the ALEXA LYRA VOICE Router is in a location where I spend most of my time. Bottom-line, if you have large square footage, map out the location of your ALEXA enabled nodes then purchase accordingly. Overall, the LYRA VOICE is a sophisticated but reasonably priced point of entry to a Smart Home network, especially because it’s compatible with most range extension platforms; but, as in my case, even without informed foresight, I have a system that provides uninterrupted wi-fi coverage indoors, soon to be expanded to outdoors. Occurs to me that AMAZON ALEXA enabled nodes deepen our stream of consciousness lifestyle from thought to spoken word to action taken by ALEXA...until time to reboot. LoL! BTW, TREND MICRO, a brand I have trusted on my personal and business cpu's promises encrypted security against malware as well as parental controls.

I was skeptical that the Asus Lyra Voice could truly do all that is advertised (router, wi-fi mesh extender/repeater, blue-tooth speaker, AND Alexa personal assistant). It was truly a surprise that Asus pulled this off. Not only did they pull it off, but they pulled it off and managed to make the whole thing look good while doing it! The Asus Lyra Voice comes packaged in a rather flimsy sleeve that covers the actual box. Once you take the sleeve off, the packaging is above average. Included are the router/speaker combo, power cord, ethernet cable, and a pretty basic owner's manual/instructions. Out of the box, the build feels quite nice with most of the unit wrapped in a black/grey speaker mesh in a sort of heathered color pattern. I feel like this gives the speaker a nice distinct look rather than solid black. What isn't covered in the mesh is very nicely molded plastic with a high quality feel. Nothing about the unit feels cheap. Additionally, there aren't a bunch of flashing lights that make you feel like you could pilot a 747. There is a very nice vertical LED light that reacts like your typical Alexa lights do. Setup can be done several ways. Via the Asus router app, Asus Lyra app, or the routers web interface. I used the Asus router app and was up in approximately 5 minutes using the Asus as my primary router plugged directly into my cable modem. Coverage was better than my current Xfinity provided modem/router combo (no shocker there). Since this unit can also serve as a extender/repeater, I also tested using my Xfinity router as the primary and the Asus Lyra as the repeater. The app guides you through the process, but it is more complicated than if you are just using this as your primary router. I didn't experience any issues connecting or staying connected and was able to stream UHD, surf the web, and still have full usability on my phone so I'd say it's definitely doing it's job. The bluetooth speaker is definitely a nice addition, although it isn't the best sound that I've had in bluetooth speakers. Granted, those standalone speakers easily cost around $100 more than this combo unit. The sound it puts out is also just as good if not better than some of the $100-200 range speakers out on the market today. Is it a Beats, Bose, or high end Sony? No. But it's still getting my vote simply because it is built into a freaking router AND includes Alexa which can connect to your Amazon account and reorder cat food on command! In all, I think this is a really neat product. Who ever thought about combining a router, wifi-extender, Alexa, and bluetooth speaker!? AND, whoever thought that it would be done well enough to to actually succeed? Not me. But Asus has done it. Pros: *Price (for essentially 4 distinct products) *Ease of setup *Built-in wifi protections that update automatically *Build and design. Cons: *No real cons. It doesn't knock each aspect out of the park, but it does each one well enough to be extremely useful as a all-in-one combo product which means it gets the five star rating from me--especially at the price point of around $210.

I've had the Lyra hooked up for a few days and here's what I've observed. First off, I use Cortana with my Harmon Kardon Invoke and Google Home with a mini and a Insignia (Best Buy) clock. Adding Alexa to the mix seemed like a good idea. That said, here we go. I had a hard time getting my Linksys EA9500 and the Lyra to work together. I knew I was going to set it up as a bridge/repeater and following the instructions failed miserably. The android phone app never would see the Lyra. I finally chose the add a new network button and got it to work. Once you enter the new network button/link on the phone app, it gives you the option to use the Lyra as a repeater. Then just read carefully what the app wants. I thought it was asking me to set up new passwords, when it was asking for my local network and password. No biggie! When it wouldn't connect, I figured it out and just repeated the process with my home network info. Tada, it works. Well sort of. Once I got the app working and the Lyra stable, I unplugged the unit to move it to the kitchen. I plugged it in and again it too a bit to get it to sync up. Once it did, I thought it was okay. I ran it through some questions, Got it to play KOLA on tunein and KGB on Iheartradio. So what's my issue? Every few hours it reboots (I guess) and I hear a gong and the blue light goes on and off. It doesn't do anything else, so I'm guessing it loses the network and reboots. I haven't had to resync it, so it must figure it out on it's own. Two, at least 2 times a day, it spouts off and starts to answer a question from the tv. My tv doesn't say Alexa, but it must say something close enough for it to start a dialog. Overall I'm happy to add Alexa to the mix. With do it yourself home automation still in its infancy, I want the opportunity to see what each company brings to market and how each one can improve daily tasks. I enjoy the ability to listen to music, get the weather, set a timer and/or alarm as well as ask it how to pronounce words in different languages. I had light bulbs in the mix, but they failed to respond after about a month. I contacted the manufacturer and they are sending replacements plus a few extra or so they say. I should have them next week and I'm excited to see if they work with Alexa and Google. I'd recommend this unit because the music sounds good enough while I'm in the kitchen doing chores. You can say Alexa, set the volume to anything between 1 - 10 and it works. 10's pretty decent and 7 is enjoyable. Also for the price, I'd recommend trying different systems to see what works for you.