Echo Studio (Newest gen) | Our best-sounding Wi-Fi and Bluetooth smart speaker ever | Dolby Atmos, spatial audio, smart home hub and Alexa | Charcoal

I have been an Echo nerd for a while, having set up a stereo system some time ago with the original Echo Plus devices. I always wanted to move towards the Studio at some point.I originally purchased a single Studio and linked it to my Fire TV Cube and was surprised at the quality of the sound, particularly the sense of immersion into the soundstage. The Studio is a substantial bit of kit, much bigger than the Echo it replaced and a lot heavier as well.Once the room scanning process had completed, it was a breeze to link to my Cube and set up in the app. The sound is detailed and crisp with a pleasant bass to it. The single studio did surprise me in its ability to give the impression of a stereo set up, but I knew that I wanted a bigger stage.I waited until there was a substantial price drop and purchased both a second Studio and also the Echo Sub.Good Points - the pairing process and setting up the new expanded cinema audio system was really easy to do. The Alexa app coupled with a video on the support page meant it was simple and intuitive.Being able to use the Alexa remote control to manage volume just works. I have everything set up on the Alexa remote, so my TV, Cube and sound are all controlled off one item. I am thinking to get the professional remote on prime day as I love the idea of light up buttons (geek).The bass provided by the sub is unbelievable. Where you need the bass - explosions, engines etc - the room simply moves and you can feel it in your chest. I ended up turning it down slightly as it was almost too overpowering.The music playback (I have Amazon Music Unlimited) is absolutely fantastic. The HD tracks are detailed, balanced and clear. OK, so a full on audiophile set up would probably be better, but then that would involve having high end components and speaker stands. I suspect that if I could position the current Studio speakers differently and put them on stands the sound would be even better.Volume on music playback is very very loud.The bad - It would be nice if Amazon would consider expanding the number of supported devices in a home cinema set up. To be able to add a couple of Echos at the back of the room to get 5:1 sound would be awesome and surely wouldn't be too hard to do?Playback from the TV is rather quiet depending on what you are streaming. I often find I have turned the volume up to 75% which can be a bit of a shock when you quit home cinema streaming and go back to music. Apparently this is a common issue and noone has managed to come up with a solution.I used to get situations where the sound would drop out when the Cube was waking up from sleep mode. This required the Cube to be restarted, whereupon the sound would once again connect. I haven't had this issue for months now so I can only assume it has been sorted in a software upgrade.Overall I am massively impressed. The quality rivals a bespoke home cinema set up yet is wireless. You also get all the benefits of the Alexa infrastructure. I have a lot of echo devices so being able to call and drop in is useful. I also have smart heating and it is great to be able to tell Alexa to alter the temperature.All in all I think the Studio is a brilliant investment. I am only dreading when Amazon eventually release an updated version as upgrading will be a costly process.

I bought the Amazon Echo Studio a few weeks ago, after spending some time deliberating on how similar types of other speakers from BOSE Sonos, Sony etc would match up.If you're on a budget, but can manage around this cost, then look no further.Other manufacturers 'may' offer better quality sound, but then there will be something lacking such as the range of connectivity.Or they will not have the same range of music formats.Or, you'll end up spending substantially more than this costs.So bang for bucks, you can't do much better.The only niggle is that I connect mine to my Windows 10 computer, and it's a bit of a pain to do so. But if you look online, there's plenty of 3rd party advice on how to do it. And it is very easy once you've read up.1st Update...*Connecting to Windows 11 is yet again a bit of a pain if you want bluetooth, but for reasons I do not understand, Windows 11 keeps disconnecting from it.In the end, I've used an AUX cable and it does the job. But rubbish if you want to keep your wires down to a minimum, especially round your computer.*But otherwise, as a standalone device, it's easy peasy.And I've not sussed out how to connect it successfully to my Apple Mac. It isn't straightforward.But I just need to devote a bit more time to see if I'm missing something simple.Otherwise, this is a very good investment from Amazon.Next purchase for me will be the Amazon sub to compliment this.2nd update...*I bought the Amazon Sub.Top marks for the quality. However, it will ONLY connect to one of Amazon's echo speakers. Read the compatibility on its own page.Echo Studio is one of them.If your streaming your music to the Echo Studio and Sub, it's excellent.BUT, you can only stream music from your mobile etc using Amazon's own music app or one or two others.You cannot use any old music player app to connect to this as a Bluetooth speaker, and listen.And you practically cannot (at the time of writing this 03 September) then have the Sub work.The Sub wirelessly links to your echo device, which other than in the Amazon Alexa app, you cannot see it in your devices in settings on your mobile device.And unless you use Amazon music, the Sub does NOT work.I did go through Amazon support to double check, they did say, pending 'maybe' any future firmware updates, the Echo Studio does link to the Sub, and the Sub will only work with the Studio (and other Echo devices) with Amazon's own Music app.Other than that, the Sub sits there and does nothing.So be mindful if you're buying this Echo AND the Sub, it's not going to work as you may think.Such a shame really.I'd have spent a few tens of £'s more on both, if I could have connected with my mobile, and streamed to the Studio with my favourite app, AND that the Sub would have worked.But as it is, it's far too restrictive.So the Sub went back a few months ago.*Let's hope that Amazon think better of this, and do something about it with a firmware update, or at least it's sorted in the next Gen of Echo due to be announced shortly.

Sound is personal to each of us and what I hear, someone else will hear differently and vice versa.However, this Echo Studio speaker is absolutely fantastic in many ways. I spent the whole weekend sampling different tracks and different settings until I came up with the settings that worked for me. Which were, Bass, Treble, Mids all set to the middle (flat) and for all but 3D music I turn stereo spacial enhancement OFF.When I get a new speaker or headphones, there are various tracks I like to play though to check performance. There are a couple of excellent public playlists on Apple Music, Spotify or Amazon Music that people have created for this purpose, try them, sometimes hearing songs you are not familiar with help to 'hear' the quality as you have no pre00conceived ideas of what tracks should sound like.So, sound = 5*I connected my TV to the Studio (and I leave it connected) via the Optical out. I currently run an Apple TV and most things go via that, the sound - Superb. That is playing Netflix, Prime Movies or downloaded content. The 360 output from the Studio really is 360. Before receiving the Studio I didn't;t have a lot of hope for the 360 capabilities but having experienced it, I was extremely pleased. It could be to do with placement, not sure as I have not experimented with it in different locations. But for me, it sounds terrific.What works very well for me is that when. I turn the TV on, any music playing/streaming will stop and the Studio will wait for input from the TV. I can easily ask It to resume playing if I wish but in our house the TV only goes on when we want to watch something. Music rules our house, so this works perfectly. No switching inputs manually, no getting up and no fiddling. GreatSound from TV, Netflix, Prime or other steaming services - TerrificI took out the 3 month free trial of Amazon HD and I have been moving from one HD Ultra playlist to the next (there is a lot of HD Ultra content from a whole host of Genres) - The sound from the Studio is simply stunning. Streams from Apple Music (my default music service) are also excellent, I have nothing but high praise for this device.Summary, this device is an absolute monster, it looks great, it sounds incredible with music and with TV, it is simply a joy to use.You may be asking, what is he comparing this too? I am a long time music lover and over the years have spared little expense on hifi kit. For now, this has replaced my Sonos Play 5 (2nd Gen), yes its that good but its also better sounding than my LINN setup from a few years ago. Not only that but it takes up less space and costs loads less.One last thing to mention as there may be some people interested to know. I hooked up my REGA P1 Planner turntable and pre-amp to Echo Studio for a bit of fun. I was very surprised by the output, yes stern separation was not the same as through the LINN but it sounded brilliant, I imagine if I had a pair, the separation would be as good. Try it for fun, you will be surprised.Alexa - Very responsive as you would hope/expect making this a smart speaker beyond all others available at this moment in time. It is going to take some time for someone to beat this in this price range.Price vs Performance - Stunning, what you get for your money here is amazing, this good at this price is unheard of. When you consider what you can get for £200 (Sonos One for example, which the Studio absolutely obliterates) this becomes an absolute bargain.Last but not least, 3D music. At the time of writing, the amount of 3D music tracks is limited (to find them on Amazon Music, search for 3D Playlists) - How do they sound? Different is what I would say. I think the 3D/Atmos mixes simply give the artist/studio another tool to work with. The tracks I have sampled certainly sound different but I am not sure what I expected thus I would imagine, as studios begin exploring the Atmos music mixes, the amount and quality of tracks will only grow and get better. For me, it's great to have a speaker capable of playing the new format ahead of the game.Come Black Friday I will be buying an Amazon 4K TV Stick and I will watch Jack Ryan on Prime first of all to see how the Atmos soundtrack works/sounds. Watch this space...Do I like this? What do you think :)

Created a Home cinema with My OMNI 65" TV, works well most of the time, However you cannot customise Bass, Treble, Mid section in the Alexa App, moving the settings only works when using it as a Bluetooth speaker with the TV but you loose the Dolby Atmos when using Bluetooth or Optical cable.*Edited* After adding a second unit to the system dramatically improves stereo separation, the bass level also drops slightly so it's not mega loud unless there is explosions or Gun fire scenes in movies whilst the above issues with customizations remains the sound with having 2 is much more balanced. But does have its flaws unfortunately, on occasions the sound becomes echoed like the speakers become slightly out of sync, so far the only resolution is to pause the film and resume which resyncs the audio, I'm not sure why this occurs as I have type 6 wifi and it's litterally 5ft away, with 1.5gbps Internet speeds. Reducing the settings in the home cinema setup does resolve sync issues but you loose Dolby Atmos capabilities which is rather pointless, perhaps stability issues can be rectified with software updates, for now as its occasional it's not a deal breaker just annoying, which I hope in time software revisions will fix.The sound is Good and powerful but I find I am constaintly adjusting the volume as watching movies for example loud scenes or explosions would certainly cause a nuisance to the neighbours, so it's rather annoying that any form of sound adjustment is not an option in Home cinema mode.Another issue I've experienced is every other day an issue occurs with movie playback regardless of video app it will have stuttering and tearing across the screen, eventually the Echo studio looses sound and I need to reboot the TV to solve this. This has only been an issue when I bought the Echo studio.On the Omni fire tv however other sources such as game consoles or TV boxes All still play sound no problem, I hear this was an issue with Firestick users, however with my TV this works seamlessly regardless of source which initially worried me after reading reviews.However if the sound customisation was possible I would have gave this speaker 5 stars as it has improved sound over the built in speakers, I'm sure this will be resolved with updates over time.

Amazon as per usual delivered this item on time and packaged safely. I will list a few pros and cons as I have found them with this speaker but in short I'll say if you can grab one on a deal like I did then buy it.Pros.Sound quality - whilst the absolute volume of this product isn't super loud it is louder than all other echo speakers to date. It does not distort and the clarity is superior to any other echo device. The speaker layout allows for a greater spacial sound (though to get the most out of this you'll need two speakers).Build quality - it's heavy and built like a tankAlexa integration - with an array of mics that actually hear me when music is playing and the built in hub make this speaker great for smart home uses.Connectivity - with the usual Bluetooth connection and now optical connection I have this connected to both my PC and TV to replace my aging sound bar. Games sound great and pump out gunfire and clear voices as well as my old set up ever did.HD music - Great sounding, 3D Audio is great on most tracks.ConsHD music - as great as it is, with me already paying £15 a month for music unlimited family plan I don't feel the need to spend another £5 a month for better sounding music I think amazon should include this with the unlimited plan.Connectivity - Anything I have will connect to this speaker, but to get the dolby atmos etc it'll only do that through Amazon music HD or FIRETV. Again, I don't want to keep having to pay more to use a speaker that I have bought but won't utilise its speakers unless I subscribe to services like HD music.In short if you can get a good deal on this product I can whole heartedly recommend it. But, be prepared to spend more to get the most out of it. My pc has dolby built in but neither optical nor Bluetooth will be accepted by the speaker to produce atmos sound. It is a great sounding speaker with amazon bass and mids and does not sound at all flat.I have many alexa devices in my smart home including echos, dots, plus models and shows 8 & 10 but this is the first time I've been conflicted to return or not as, though its a great speaker if I didn't get it at £50 off I not sure it would be still here.Update.I decided in the end to return it. The studio would not always activate when a external sound source was plugged in and had to be restarted at least twice a week to resolve this issue.For price it was good but I feel the extra costs that I still feel should be included in an unlimited music family pack, plus it only offers dts and atmos with more amazon services resulted in me using it as a paperweight pretty much.Update #2 19-05-21Amazon have now included HD music in there family plan, so with this in mind (other than the atmos shortcomings) I would definitely recommend this speaker to anyone. I also know if you can stretch to it, these speakers sound amazing as a stereo pair.

The Amazon Echo Studio promises to be the best-sounding Echo speaker yet, but a smart speaker truly fit for audiophiles – bold claims for a product costing just £190. As well as boasting upgraded internals fit for CD-quality and hi-res audio, which are both now available from Amazon Music HD – the latest incarnation of the company's music streaming service – the Echo Studio also promises to deliver 3D audio via tracks encoded in Sony's 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos.So can the Echo Studio make Amazon's smart speakers a realistic proposition for those who value good sound, and give Sonos, Audio Pro and Apple a run for their money?The Echo Studio continues the same design language of previous Echo speakers, being cylindrical in shape and covered with a charcoal-coloured fabric mesh. It’s considerably larger than any previous Echo and manages to dwarf the Sonos One and Apple Home Pod. Its beefed-up appearance helps to pack in 330W of power driving two 5cm midrange speakers positioned left and right, a 25mm forward-firing centre tweeter and a 5cm upward-firing midrange speaker. Bass is taken care of by a downward-firing 5.25in bass driver.There are volume buttons on the top, along with a mic mute and Alexa-wake button. And yes, the blue ring of light remains so you know when Alexa is listening.The position of the drivers allows the Echo Studio to use a new feature of the Amazon Music HD service, its library of 'hundreds' of songs available in Dolby Atmos Music, which sees the audio format used to mix tracks with greater control over different elements and the positioning of different elements in the soundfield. Elsewhere, the Studio has all the typical features of Echo devices. You can set timers, reminders and alarms; control smart home devices; play music; get facts and trivia, all by asking questions or barking orders at Alexa.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.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.Amazon has also built added flexibility into the Echo Studio. You can wirelessly connect one or two of the speakers with either a Fire TV Cube (1st or 2nd Gen), Fire TV Stick 4K or Fire TV (3rd Gen) to create a Dolby Atmos home theatre set-up. It's not 5.1 surround sound, but hooking up a stereo pair presents a decent opportunity to upgrade the audio coming out of your TV.That Sound!!Producing immersive, directional audio is always going to be difficult, but doing it from a single speaker source is even more challenging. So how does it fare?I tried a couple of tracks designed to showcase the Echo Studio’s handling of 3D audio. Ariana Grande’s 7 Rings played through Amazon Music HD is presented with height and space, elevating the lead and background vocals. 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.The deployment of the track’s bass raises an eyebrow, though. There’s power and weight, but also a tendency to overpower the track. The Echo Studio isn’t the most controlled or subtle when it comes to dropping the tune's big, bold bassline.I then listened to Gregory Porter’s Mona Lisa cover and, again, the speaker is in its element with this particular 3D mix. There’s impressive height to all the various sections of the orchestra, mixed with good dynamics and an impressive sense of scale. There isn’t much in the way of bass to accompany this track, so you’re mainly left with an ensemble of detailed and entertaining mids and highsThe Jackson 5’s I Want You Back, remied for 3D audio and things are a bit more hit and miss. Michael’s lead vocal sounds a bit lost in the soundstage and the balance feels slightly off. But still pretty good.Of course, only a fraction of songs are mixed this way, so it's important to note many of the positive attributes transfer over to stereo tracks. Destiny’s Child’s Say My Name delivers a clear vocal cutting through and a good sense of separation between the different percussive elements.The Studio is also capable of a little processing wizardry to add height to stereo mixes – simply keep the 'upmixing' setting enabled on the Alexa app. But don’t expect the same quality of results you’d get from a well-tuned Atmos mix.With the Destiny's Child track, the setting sucks some of the drive and impetus from the song. The result is a loss of drive and drama. Similarly, the Manic Street Preachers' Motorcycle Emptiness sounds solid, cohesive and balanced in normal mode. But, enable the ‘Stereo Spatial Enhancement’ in the app and it all sounds a little unbalanced and over-processed. (But this should get better with time and updates? Hopefully)Amazon recommends keeping this setting on at all times so you can enjoy the effects of the new sound, but ID be tempted to turn it off. (Each to their own though)There's no doubt the Amazon Echo Studio sounds bigger and goes much louder than some rivals, such as the Sonos One. It can't summon the 3D processing of the Echo Studio..My VerdictAmazon's eagerness to push sound quality and its adoption of hi-res audio has to be a good thing, and the Echo Studio is a capable contender in the crowded smart speaker market. It sounds big, goes loud and there's a good level of detail and dynamics. I'm not convinced entirely by the way it handles bass, and i wouldn't exactly call it audiophile quality, but for the money, the Echo Studio has a lot going for it.

The price finally dropped below my camel^3 search and I bought one. I’m very impressed with the sound quality, BUT when connected via Bluetooth to my TV phone etc. it is far quieter than when streaming from Apple Music or the BBC. I don’t want it permanently loud, but as it has the capability I should be able to use it on all sources. It has to be turned up to volume 10 (max) when streaming audio from my iPhone via Bluetooth - I need more headroom than that.It was incredibly easy to set up as Amazon had done all the work for me by linking it to my account. If you are giving this as a present (lucky recipient) don’t activate this. The Alexa voice control is responsive and as good or better than the dots, 1st gen. and 4th gen. Echos elsewhere in the house.I’m undecided about spatial audio, or whatever it is called. I listen to classical music mostly and on balance think this feature is better turned off, but with pop music there is a definite effect that on some tracks improves things and on others is so-so. It’s easy to turn on and off so you can have fun deciding which setting you like. As an old HiFi addict I believe powerful amplifiers and speakers need to be big and heavy to work properly - the physics backs this up. For an Alexa Echo device this IS big and heavy. It’s not in the same league as a pair Quad 22’s and Tannoy Autographs, but it does a good job of packing a punch in the right direction for the post bookshelf brigade.I watched a tear-down of the Echo Studio on YouTube and you are getting a lot for your money, but that is no reason not to hope that Amazon will push the price down still further in future offers. I might even buy a second to create a stereo pair if they do.

This is an honest review after a few days intensive listening. I’m seriously questioning sending them back because of a couple of issues.Firstly, for the price, the studios are pretty good, not great but good. They are pretty impressive sound from a relatively small unit. But don’t expect too much from them.I have an old 7.1 system that needs replacing and am having to compromise with the other half regarding less visible speakers etc. The old system spoiled me but I had realistic expectations for the studios. I bought 2 studios to run paired as a home theatre with my fire tv cube. Set up was pretty easy even with the limitations of the Alexa app. And once connected I set about watching a couple of movies and playing with positioning of the studios. They really need to be pretty close to the screen to get the best effect, I tried them on the floor below the screen but it was obvious where the sound was coming from. I ended up directly below and just in front of the bottom corners of the screen. This was acceptable.So movies, after initial viewing you begin to get immersed in the film and the speakers disappear, which is good, it’s what speakers should do. Admittedly I missed the surround sound with no effects coming from behind etc. but it’s not a surround sound system so it has limitations. But the overall effect is very good. There isn’t a true separation between the speakers which is disappointing, sounds struggle to be defined as coming from one speaker or the other, during testing you find a sound effect or voice will come predominantly from one speaker but is still evident from the other which makes it a bit cloudy. They were clearly designed to be used as a single speaker and the fire cube software isn’t able to split the signal definitively. But like I said I was willing to compromise, and so far it was acceptable. I have a reasonably small sitting room and had to lower the volume of the studios 2 clicks (on the remote) from max volume (remote gives finer control than voice control) and that’s when another issue reared it’s head.Volume levels, movies the volume needs backing down slightly from max. Now that’s when I tried them out for music. And disappointment came over me. Even at max volume, listening to Amazon music, Apple and Spotify was lower volume than movies, surprisingly so. With the fire cube remote you get something like 1-28 clicks to max volume, voice control is 1-10, listening to music you get zero sound from the speakers at half volume, you have to go past 10 clicks on the remote before sound becomes audible. And then when you get to full volume I feel it needs 2 clicks more to be acceptable, full volume on movies is deafening and sounds like you will damage the speakers, in music it doesn’t even get to the same level, not even close. And that’s a dealbreaker for me. I like my music loud, as loud as I have the movies but I just can’t get that.Now it seems to be a software issue, I have experimented with paring in theatre and stereo, unparing with cube, playing through Bluetooth etc etc and nothing has changed the volume. Except one thing…..I had an online chat with Amazon customer services who advised all sorts and eventually it worked!!! Volume was loud in music!! Too loud, just like movies and I had to turn down the volume. Great, problem solved, chat ended and then a few minutes later I realised only one studio was working!! So more testing was done. One studio is very loud, so tried the other and that was very loud. But as soon as you pair them the volume changes. Also, if you listen very carefully, you realise the software is controlling the volume. Listen to music and you will hear volume being controlled in louder parts of the tracks, the music doesn’t get louder when you expect it to, it’s not clipping, it’s definitely being controlled by the software. And that leads me to another issue with listening to music, pair them as a stereo pair and you don’t get true stereo, you get a messy version of it, similar to movies. Which is a little disappointing to say the least, it’s obvious the software isn’t sending a true stereo signal to each studio speaker but rather some sort of pseudo stereo signal. Listen to tracks that have definite left and right sound stage and you don’t get a clear separation, you get something with less clarity, guitar that should be coming from the right speaker sounds like it’s near the centre to the right because there is still the left speaker joining in. It’s definitely a lower effect from the left speaker but it’s noticeable and makes things messy.Overall, these are good speakers, they have limitations which I was expecting. What I wasn’t expecting was the volume issues and messy soundstage. All of which seems to be software rather than hardware, the performance of the actual speakers is impressive for the size, to be honest I was considering adding a subwoofer after watching a movie because I feel they are missing some real deep lows in the soundstage, which is understandable for a 5 inch woofer in these. Music also could benefit from a subwoofer too as they struggle with bass heavy tracks.Now I’m left with a decision, do I keep hold of them and hope Amazon updates the software to address the issues I’ve mentioned? Which Amazon doesn’t have a great track record of doing, and regret doing so. Which also means investing in a sub too. Or do I send them back and find something else.It’s such a shame because Amazon came so close to making a great speaker.Sorry for the long review but I think it’s necessary for anyone thinking of investing in them.