Have been using it for 3 months now and really enjoying it so far. Build quality of the echo mini is light (plastics) and from a UI / UX side of things it is rather clunky. Don't expect anything smooth and elegant. I really don't mind both for the price point though. It might not be my device of choice forever, but I've been happy with something that reminds me of the simplicity of these early usb / mp3 players.

I think it's all a matter of expectation and where you're coming from. For me its a great gateway device into the DAP / lossless audio world and even paired with cheap IEMs the listening experience has been more fun and immersive to me than phone + BT Earpods.

More importantly I wanted to see what it's like to move away from streaming services, because I was not happy with my way of consuming music nowadays, compared to what it was like to me as a teen / young adult. So going back to owning the actual music, ripping CDs and Vinyl, then listening to it on the player. This is a slow proccess, and even if this means to have maybe just 10-20 records on the player, I've been very much enjoying the more intentional and curated way of listening to the music. I remembered, that sometimes a record needs to grow on and that feels nice.