Echo Studio review: Better than ever, but is that enough?

professionals and cons

Execs

• Highly effective punch that maintains crispness
• Simply suitable with Hearth TV
• Wealthy, pleasurable sound high quality

Cons

• Massive footprint
• Worth might be decrease in comparison with the competitors

extra shopping for selections

This assessment was initially printed on November tenth, 2022, and was up to date on Might fifth, 2023.

The Echo Studio has been Amazon’s most costly and complex good speaker since its launch within the fall of 2019. And although many have been considering the e-commerce large would launch a brand new era on the finish of 2022, Amazon opted as a substitute to replace current Echo gadgets with improved spatial audio processing for deeper bass and crisper sounds, plus making a brand new white model of the speaker.

Additionally: The way to commerce in your previous gadgets for Amazon reward playing cards

Should you had instructed me a 12 months in the past that I would have an Echo Studio entrance and heart in my residence leisure system, I might’ve cackled. However even when we’re a HomeKit household with a HomePod Mini, I am unable to say I used to be ever towards shopping for an Echo speaker. 

I welcomed Alexa into my residence with the only goal of pitting her towards Siri to see how the voice assistants carried out aspect by aspect.

Ultimately, the Echo Studio has develop into a staple on the coronary heart of our TV room. It capabilities as a wealthy, highly effective pseudo-sound bar for the Hearth TV, the place all of us collect to look at motion pictures and exhibits as a household; it is also our go-to speaker, with Alexa routines to play music and have the good lights above change colours when the youngsters say “It is social gathering time!”

Evaluation: HomePod Mini: for Sirious Apple customers

Slowly however certainly, my residence has been filling up with Echo audio system: Echo Dots, Echo Shows, and, as evidenced by the 8-pound Amazon field that arrived a number of weeks in the past, an Echo Studio.

What’s new with the Amazon Echo Studio?

The Echo Studio is Amazon’s newest high-end good speaker. It options 3D audio, Dolby Atmos, and high-fidelity sound with built-in Alexa, and doubles as a wise residence hub with Zigbee and Matter assist to regulate good residence gadgets.

1. Out of the field: A white Echo Studio

Unboxing the large Echo Studio was a job. Hear, I all the time rag on folks for getting issues after which complaining concerning the dimension when the scale are proper there within the product description. However this time that was me. The Echo Studio appears to be like like a glossy, full-size speaker, positive. However it’s enormous. And heavy. 

A big footprint is not a deal breaker for me, nevertheless. I even have to present Amazon props for casting off plastic packaging on this spherical: The good speaker got here wrapped in a reusable material Alexa bag inside a cardboard field.

I selected the brand new Echo Studio shade, Glacier White. The brand new speaker appears to be like clear and classy, a contact extra fashionable than the Charcoal shade, to me. Black audio system are typically harking back to the previous subwoofers you’d count on to see at McMansions again within the early 2000s, so I recognize different shade choices extra. 

The white shade has additionally confirmed to be much less more likely to present mud over the previous few months.

2. It’s fairly large in comparison with mainstream good audio system

The Echo Studio is not meant to suit onto a tiny shelf or be tucked away subsequent to somewhat plant; it is right here to serve a goal, and that goal is to ship room-filling, calibrated, 3D, Dolby Atmos audio.

This good speaker stands 8.1 inches tall, measures 6.9 inches in diameter, and weighs 7.7 kilos. The Echo Studio has 4 buttons on the prime to summon Alexa, mute the mic, and regulate the amount up or down. There is a mild ring on the prime of the speaker that comes on when Alexa is listening, when a notification is offered, or when the amount is adjusted.

Additionally: What’s a bookshelf speaker, and which model is greatest?

Jam-packed with sound, the Echo Studio has a horizontal hole on the backside to overtly distribute audio and maximize bass output from a 5.25-inch woofer, and it additionally has three 2-inch midrange audio system and a 1-inch tweeter.

If you have already got the Alexa app in your cellphone, organising a brand-new Echo system is a breeze. Merely plug it in and open the app so Alexa can add it to your house community, and it is able to go. Alternatively, if you do not have Alexa gadgets in your house but, simply obtain the Amazon Alexa app to arrange an account and comply with the prompts. 

Additionally: The way to add your HomePod to the Residence app and Wi-Fi

A part of the setup course of entails calibrating the Echo’s acoustics by having it play a collection of sounds and listening to how they reverberate across the room.

3. Improved audio

As soon as the Echo Studio is calibrated, the sound high quality is nothing in need of marvelous, which is shocking, actually. 

It is obvious the calibration works, because the speaker can definitely put out room-filling audio with deep, wealthy bass rivaling that of different high-end audio system, just like the Sonos One (although it did not maintain a candle to the newer, Sonos Period 100).

Additionally: The 5 greatest good audio system proper now

The audio is delivered with crispness and readability, making your front room really feel like a soundstage. Earlier than this model got here out, one of many Echo Studio’s faults was how diminished the readability of vocals was, particularly when the amount was turned up. 

Attempting out stereo tracks from each Amazon Music and Apple Music on this upgraded model, I discovered that vocals weren’t misplaced within the background in any respect, which is an issue with many bigger audio system that focus extra on intense bass and a giant punch. If you transfer across the room, the Echo Studio not solely maintains energy and readability, however the spatial audio function makes it so it looks like you have got a set of stereo audio system with simply the only unit.

This Echo speaker goes past the Amazon Music app, with assist for Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, Pandora, Sirius XM, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn.

Additionally: The perfect music streaming providers: Can Amazon prime Spotify?

To get probably the most out of your speaker, the Amazon Echo Studio goals to get you to subscribe to Amazon Music Limitless, a service that prices $8.99 a month for entry to its ad-free music library that includes HD and spatial audio tracks. Whereas Amazon Music’s HD and Extremely HD tracks sound greatest on the Echo Studio, I used to be in a position to get pleasure from high-quality sound by Apple Music.

4. Performance past the music

As a wise speaker with built-in Alexa (and a mic mute button), the Echo Studio makes for a incredible speaker for events, gatherings, and music-playing typically. However I’ve discovered a nifty alternate use for it: Utilizing the speaker consistent with my front room’s TV media console.

I have never bit the bullet of shopping for a sound bar for my televisions simply but, so the Echo Studio has been a incredible various. Since my residence resembles a wise speaker graveyard, we have made my different HomePod Mini the speaker for an Apple TV 4K, the Echo Dots as stereo audio system for a Hearth TV Stick 4K, and the Echo Studio the principle speaker in our TV room.

Attempting it with each the Apple TV 4K and the Fire TV Stick 4K, the Echo Studio was an excellent speaker for our front room TV, placing out immersive cinematic audio for motion pictures and, in my view, successfully changing a top quality sound bar. Now that we have moved it to the Hearth TV within the smaller TV room, it makes for such pleasurable film nights.

And for the reason that Echo Studio has a line-in and optical-in port, it may be used with televisions as a sound bar whatever the streaming system you have got.

Additionally: Amazon Hearth TV Stick fashions: How they stack up to one another

Along with built-in Alexa, the Echo Studio additionally helps Zigbee, a communication protocol utilized in low-power good residence gadgets, and Matter. This implies you possibly can simply add any Zigbee- and Matter-enabled gadgets to your good residence community through the Echo Studio, successfully making it a hub for suitable good residence gadgets.

What I would wish to see within the subsequent mannequin

The Echo Studio, although a superb good speaker, does have room for enchancment. 

1. Improved audio, a lower cost, or each!

I do know, Amazon already improved the audio on the Echo Studio, however my hope is that newer variations of this good speaker function even higher audio high quality. If you hear that the Echo Studio retails for $200, it appears like too excessive of a value for a wise speaker with Alexa — and, it’s. 

Although the upgraded sound high quality of the Echo Studio is on par with some high-end audio system in its value vary, the Sonos Era 100 that value simply $50 extra blows it out of the water. If I have been selecting between the 2 audio system, I would go together with the Sonos, because the excellent audio is definitely value the additional cash.

Backside line

Whether or not or not the Echo Studio earns the title of best-sounding good speaker in the marketplace is up for debate, however I discovered the audio high quality to be leaps and bounds above that of different good audio system just like the Echo Dot, and it is also higher than the HomePod Mini. If you need full stereo sound, you possibly can even pair two Echo Studio audio system in a single room, and it’s also possible to add the Echo Sub for a fuller audio.

The Echo Studio is pretty giant, however I prefer it. The ensuing sound high quality from the 5 audio system packed into the system makes each the dimensions and value value it. It is constructed and engineered to rival a number of the greatest audio system of its dimension in the marketplace, and its efficiency exhibits that.

Ought to I purchase one?

Not everybody can purchase an Amazon Echo Studio at its present $200 value, however I would in all probability advocate it to anybody with an Alexa ecosystem who’s wanting so as to add both a high-quality speaker or a soundbar to their tv setup. I do think about it to be the best-sounding Echo speaker out there proper now. In any other case, look to the options under.

Alternate options value contemplating

BEST HOMEKIT ALTERNATIVE

Apple HomePod (2nd Gen)

The brand-new HomePod is Apple’s top-tier smart speaker, doubling as a HomeKit hub with built-in Siri. Though physically quite similar to the discontinued HomePod, the new version works with Matter and Thread, and has temperature and humidity sensors.

BEST SOUNDING ALTERNATIVE

Sonos Era 100

The Sonos Era 100 speaker is one of the best-sounding smart speakers and supports Amazon Alexa. It features touch controls instead of buttons on the top panel and is slightly more compact than the Echo Studio.

BEST CHEAPER ALTERNATIVE

Echo (4th Gen)

At half the price of the Echo Studio, the full-sized Amazon Echo touts rich sound plus built-in Alexa. It also has Zigbee support.