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

Asus Lyra Voice Tri-Band Mesh Router. My college kid used to wear his “subvert the dominant paradigm” T-shirt around the house. I’m betting there’s an ASUS engineer wearing that same shirt and he’s on a team that's re-imagined home networking. This new All-In-One router—BT-speaker—Alexa Smart Home controller breaks away from the prevailing approach to bringing network technology into our homes. This Lyra Voice has removed the clutter in our living space while offering a number of desirable features in a really small, cute package. Of course, my first few days with the ASUS shows everything works well, because I’m not handing out “stars” for simply making an effort. SETUP: Super easy using the ASUS Lyra app (Android download) and plugging the ASUS in. Took less than 5 minutes to have the router function working. Using my Amazon Alexa account login I had music and NPR running at my command. We wasted no time putting away our black “spaceship” router and the white Echo which are no longer needed. PERFORMANCE: Be sure to go into your settings and enable the DTS. (That switch in the back is for power, not the DTS. The DTS logo is placed in a confusing location.) The sound is great, loud and nicer sounding than the Echo it replaced. Network speeds are the same as my bigger, unattractive, but featureless previous router. That single LAN port is easily connected to a (separate purchase) ethernet switch, but in this location, I only handed off to a Roku. SUMMARY: This Lyra Voice just looks great, sounds better, and performs all the functions I need in a small package. It’s a winner.

You can't ask for much more with this device, and especially for the price. Getting Mesh router, Alexa connectivity, and a powerful speaker all in one. The setup was pretty simple, and I really appreciated not having to have multiple devices laying around my house. It is basically already sitting out for the mesh coverage of my network, and then if I want to stream music I can just connect my phone via Bluetooth and be playing music at the touch of a button. This is a great device if you're looking to expand your wifi network, and are also in the market for a Bluetooth speaker that supports Alexa. The speaker is loud, has great sound, and Alexa picks up my voice from far away. It also has a sleek design and the ability to hardwire in via LAN port is a great feature for gaming consoles or laptops that may not have the best wireless cards. All in all I highly recommend this device as it is a very sound one stop shop for my music and LAN needs.

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 will sum up my review of ASUS - Lyra Voice AC2200 Tri-Band Mesh Wi-Fi Router. I like the idea of being able to use it as a smart speaker taking benefits of Amazon Alexa voice assistant, In addition to that it can be used as standalone router or repeater. after 2 weeks of using it seems stable in terms of connectivity but bluetooth disconnects several times and failed to reconnect until I unpaired and re-paired again. quality of sound is decent. with that being said. all in one at this range of price is a good deal.

The ASUS - Lyra Voice AC2200 Tri-Band Mesh Wi-Fi Router delivers. When used as an online MESH repeater, hardwired to a streaming device the speed on SPECTRUM is phenomenal. The sound quality is above average and the whole thing took less than 10 minutes including setting up the router Alexa and Bluetooth. Worth every penny.

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.

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 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.