They do not take away from the speakers at all. I honestly sat stunned wondering for a moment. This product arrived on time and was exactly as described. She will definitely love it, and there was red (her favourite colour)We have loved it and it?s been used everyday. The omni-directional nature is also great for this type of space and works well. Perhaps these notification sounds are included as an accessibility feature for blind users, which I support but ideally it should be possible for sighted users to disable them. Sounds exactly the same. 9 Pairing is easy. I know they think I?m crazy at work for the past 2 weeks I have been switching between the two throughout the day. they claimed a 40% restocking fee was necessary.