It's incredible how quickly smart wireless speakers have embedded themselves into our lives. I have an Alexa smart speaker; I hardly ever use my old FM radio. It's much easier to talk on." Alexa, play Greatest Hits Radio!" and then sit back and enjoy the music. What's not to like?

However, passive wireless speakers are going downhill because people want Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant speakers, not models that offer Bluetooth or AirPlay. A prime example is the new SODLK. I've been testing this wireless speaker for a few weeks. It's the company's first step into the smart speaker market, offering premium build quality and Edifier's high-quality signature sound.

The SODLK looks great. It has a gorgeous cherry wood finish and a cloth-covered grille to protect the woofer and tweeter. The system draws a total of 40W (RMS) to create a lot of sounds. A 4-inch woofer providing midrange and low frequencies is powered by 25W of digital amplification. Meanwhile, the 0.75-inch silk dome tweeter receives a 15W power output to ensure that the higher frequencies are well focused. The overall result is a compact and robust speaker with a satisfyingly powerful sound. The digital-to-analog conversion is built around the AP6265 chip.

Connecting the speakers to your home Wi-Fi network is easy, and the companion Edifier Home app will take you through the process. Once set up, you can use the Amazon Alexa app to add the speaker to your Alexa device so the MS50a can be turned into loud speakers. Here comes the first disappointment. the MS50a doesn't have a built-in microphone, so you can't simply turn it on and ask for it." Play the greatest song ever broadcast!". Instead, you have to use your smartphone and the Alexa app to make the speaker smart.

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It's a shame because once you live with a smart speaker that has its own microphone, it's hard to go back to using the Alexa app, especially on my iPhone, which is a clunky and unreliable implementation. In order to get the Alexa app to accept a voice command, I had to restart it to get the hands-free feature to work, but only for one command.

For those who don't like or want to use Alexa, the SODLK can be used as a standalone speaker, offering Apple AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth connectivity. This means you can stream music from your smartphone or any Apple AirPlay or Bluetooth-enabled device. However, if you want to adjust the speaker's EQ settings, you have to do it through the Alexa app, and the settings aren't sticky, meaning you need to reapply them every time you turn the speaker on. Amazon's app is disappointing because it doesn't even support TIDAL streaming outside of the US. More work needs to be done to make it a better system.