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Whether or not the Echo Studio earns the title of best-sounding smart speaker on the market is up for debate, but I found the audio quality to be leaps and bounds above that of other smart speakers like the Echo Dot, and it's also better than the HomePod Mini. If you want full stereo sound, you can even pair two Echo Studio speakers in one room, and you can also add the Echo Subfor a fuller audio. As with 3D Music, it’s a good idea to moderate your expectations when it comes to the Echo Studio’s performance in this regard, however. Though can generate more of a sense of space than you’d expect of a single speaker unit, it certainly couldn’t compete with the Vizio 5.1.2 Home Theatre Sound System we were testing at the same time, either in terms of detail or immersiveness. It’s a decent upgrade on your TV’s speakers, for sure, but don’t expect miracles. Again, it can't produce a true surround sound field that completely wraps around you, but the Echo Studio offers some impressive stereo imaging and forward-facing verticality that gives the impression of a pair of stereo speakers with additional upward-firing drivers. At high volumes, the speaker fills the room easily, bringing the exciting thunder of guitar strums and drumrolls while letting Bellamy's voice come through clearly. When he sings that no one's going to take him alive, his voice can be heard directly in center, while the harmonies can be placed in the distance, to the left and right. Again, the scale of the sound is the main benefit here, and there’s considerably more depth and energy to the sound than you’ll find from your TV’s own inbuilt speakers. The only caveat to that is that where a soundbar is emits sound from directly below your TV, if you opt to use a single Echo Studio you’ll have to get used to the sound coming from the left or right of the screen. That’s something you can fix, albeit at considerable extra expense, by adding a second Echo Studio.
On the top of the unit is the familiar blue glow of the Alexa smart home hub; you’ll know by now what these are capable of but if your home has smart lights from Philips Hue, or robot vacuums, then you’ll be familiar with the concept of having a central hub device which tells all the others what to do. You can, of course, still fire random questions at Alexa in the same way you would do normally, only now asking her to play music is a much more rewarding experience because the sound quality you get is a huge step up from previous iterations of the Echo range. Although it doesn’t quite match the HomePod for outright sound quality, the Echo Studio delivers a bigger and more immersive sound than any Echo speaker to date, while offering many features that Apple’s similarly shaped smart speaker is crying out for.As ever with virtualized surround sound, we're not of the mind set to consider it more impactful than having discrete physical speaker channels above and behind you, hooked up to a AV receiver. But that's a huge expense, and not practical for all living room arrangements, making the powerful Echo Studio an impressive value option.
Like all previous Echo devices, you'll still find the trademark ring of LEDs around the top of the Echo Studio. You can access tone controls through the Alexa app for Android and iOS, plus change volume manually and pair another Echo Studio or manage and group any other Echo speakers you own.
The Amazon Echo Studio squeezes in loads of smart audio tech into a single affordable speaker, with mostly-great results.
It's not without its faults, but we were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the Echo Studio’s sonic performance. It’s a powerful speaker, absolutely booming with bass force and overall volume, and easily the best-sounding Echo speaker to date.
Meanwhile, frequency range extension technology has been implemented with the aim of improving mid-range clarity and delivering deeper bass. Of course, only time will tell how much difference these technical-sounding improvements make to audio quality. And since the Echo Studio has a line-in and optical-in port, it can be used with televisions as a sound bar regardless of the streaming device you have.
It’s an open, airy presentation that suits the 3D environment well. The speaker sits you in the jaws of a tall soundstage, where there's a good amount of detail to percussion and high frequencies. In addition to built-in Alexa, the Echo Studio also supports Zigbee, a communication protocol used in low-power smart home devices, and Matter. This means you can easily add any Zigbee- and Matter-enabled devices to your smart home network via the Echo Studio, effectively making it a hub for compatible smart home devices. What I'd like to see in the next model
The Echo Studio tries to do some impressive things with its five drivers and 3D audio mixing. It doesn't quite succeed to the extent that an Atmos-compatible soundbar can, or an even more expensive Atmos surround sound system, but at that point you'll be spending several times the price of the Studio for the improved audio imaging. As it stands, the Echo Studio puts out a large sound field with modest but surprising directionality. Alternatively, as pictured above, you can create a stereo pair with two Echo Studios, placing them either side of your TV and creating that standard central sweet-spot between them. Although it can be used as a TV speaker, however, it’s worth pointing out that the Echo Studio doesn’t come with a remote control, and this poses problems when it comes to the simple task of adjusting the volume. Simply put, the only way of adjusting the volume of the speaker when it’s connected via the optical input is to ask Alexa to do it or walk up to it and use the physical controls on the speaker. You can’t use the volume control in the Alexa app to do that, although weirdly it does work for streaming music. Fire up the Echo Studio for the first time and Alexa will tune its sound for your room's acoustics by firing out a number of different test tones and reacting to its readings. The whole process doesn't last longer than a few seconds, but you will need to recalibrate the speaker if you move it around. Its size means you’re going to have to think about where you’re going to place the Echo Studio – it won’t fit quite so discreetly onto a shelf as other Echos have.That’s far from ideal when you’re midway through a movie because Alexa momentarily mutes the audio to listen to commands – and it’s a slow, rather laborious way of adjusting the volume anyway. Again, it can't produce a true surround sound field that completely wraps around you, but the Echo Studio offers some impressive stereo imaging and forward-facing verticality that gives the impression of a pair of stereo speakers with additional upward-firing drivers. At high volumes, the speaker fills the room easily, bringing the exciting thunder of guitar strums and drumrolls while letting Bellamy's voice come through clearly. When he sings that no one's going to take him alive, his voice can be heard directly in center, while the harmonies can be placed in the distance, to the left and right. (unknown) The Echo Studio can also upmix other music to 3D on its own, but the effect isn't nearly as prominent or capable. And, of course, there are still limits to what a single speaker can do, even if it has drivers pumping out sound in all directions. Performance
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