Customer Ratings & Reviews

App wasn't available for my phone and when I plugged in directly the volume was non-existent, meaning at full volume it was not very loud at all.

If you can rate below one star, this speaker would get it. This is the worst purchase ever.

So bad don’t buy it so bad I want to return but time is based

I've tried everything to get this to work. No luck.

For the size, it provides room-filling sound in my rather large living room. The Alexa functionality exists but is really slow compared to an Echo... I mean so slow that you wonder if you have to repeat the command. The problem is that many times you do have to repeat the command because this unit can't figure out what you said. I was going to contact Pioneer to see if this is the way it's supposed to function but they don't appear to support their own product that is still being sold in stores. What I mean is that the product doesn't appear in their dropdown list of products when you try to get support online. It's on their website, but when it comes to a required entry on their online forms, it doesn't exist. Shows you how much care about customers and their own products which is to say they don't. It's really a pity because the sound is pretty darned good with deep bass for regular music and above average highs and mids. The bass can get a little muddy with bass-centric music. For $80 it's a good deal. However, if you want good Alexa functionality, you would be better served by an Echo. Also, my experience with Pioneer customer support hasn't been the best. I truly feel like once they have your money, they are done with you as a customer. I guess they don't realize that they sell other products and the way products are supported can play a big role in whether or not other products are purchased.

As a speaker this speaker is excellent for the price. The sound is way better than the echo speakers. As Alexa, the microphones are just as good as the echo. Do you like playing with apps and figuring things out? then this is for you. The downside is the app or which app do you use. Pioneer control app, play fi app, alexa app or probably 2 of the 3 apps? I recommend the pioneer control app, not the play fi. Pick yours and go without thinking too much because if you want something with a simpler set up get a songs one. I have both and prefer the sound of this one for the same price and I don't mind playing with different apps and trying to figure out how to use it best for me.

The design, build quality and price (If you shop carefully) of the Elite makes it a far superior product to Amazon, and other brands, even Sonos. There are places that are still selling the Elite at $299.00; that being said I picked up two at (20% of that) each! The consumers who paid $299.00 absolutely got what they paid for, if you acquired it for anything less you got a steal! This is a speaker at its heart, not a "smart control device"; it will nearly but not fully replace an Echo/Dot as a control device. It is however, a speaker with its soul centered in quality sound that is far superior to anything in the Amazon Echo Line. It provides room-filling sound FAR BETTER IN QUALITY than any Amazon Echo/Dot device. Alexa functionality does exists and is a second or two slower in response compared to an Echo. The voice response is slower than any Amazon device. If you are adding to your shopping list, don’t use this product with this condition: if you have an Echo/Dot in your residence. If you don't have an Amazon product then it will do a great job at that. It’s for music and fun and games. It streams very well, better than the Echo/Dot products. PROS: Fantastic Buy Superior Build quality Superior Design The BEST sound quality hands down Streams very reliably at distance It is a sufficient control device Cons: No man made product is perfect and as such the Elite has two areas that should be considered. 1. Their is a quirk if you already have an Echo or Dot; it would inexplicably stop or drop for some random reason when my Amazon Echo does not do this. Finally I realized the Elite's microphone input sensitivity is measurably inferior to the Echo or Dot and they (the Amazon products) will be executing commands intended for the Elite with placement 30 feet away around the corner before the Elite 3 feet away has done anything. I use Amazon Prime music and the drops or stops are because the Dot or Echoes hear and "grab" the service first leaving no device slot for the Elite on the Prime Music Service subscription. 2. Unbelievably Pioneer's support and web content fall far short on this product if you have a question beyond the one sheet "Quick Set Up" guide. Go figure, they have a far superior product than the other much more expensive competitive smart speakers on the market (including Sonos) and yet after all the product development and design investment that went into this they can't answer a question? CONCLUSION: Overall, extremely happy with the speaker and its performance, it isn't audiophile quality (and I did not expect audiophile quality sound with much presence or depth of field at this price). In fact no Smart Speaker under $4,500.00 is audiophile quality IMHO. Perhaps the VA-FW40 does not deserve the Pioneer "ELITE" branding which when seen brings things to my mind like at lest minimally THX Certified. It is after all a very small (in the world of audiophile speakers) and amazingly inexpensive smart speaker and it does that better than anyone else. Would I recommend it to a friend, OH, YES! Go get one now. PS: I am not an employee of or representative for any retailer or manufacturer and am not compensated in any way except, if I have helped you along the way of searching for the best smart speaker buy I am pleased to do so, as I too appreciate those who take the time to share great finds with others.

Quality of the speaker is really good in fact better than amazon or google one. It’s worth spending extra bucks to have good quality of speakers over amazon or google Home. Loving it. Setup instructions are not proper you may need to use your basics to use this product.

Not happy as this speaker is marketed as a wireless speaker and it is not. Also, it is not bluetooth capable and you cannot control it without downloading more apps.

This my first voice assistant, but I really got it for the Play-Fi built in. I'm a geek so it really didn't take me long to figure out. While Alexa is nice and she hasn't yelled at me yet, I don't use her very much which probably explains why she hasn't yelled at me yet. Anyways, the Play-Fi works great and works nicely with my other Play-Fi devices.

Got this for Alexa but it works intermittently and when it works takes too much time to respond. It also misses some of core Alexa features. Returned it and got an Alexa speaker straight from Amazon.

Horrendous setup. Constantly fails on wifi. In my mind Sonos is the real deal.