For years Amazon has conquered millions of homes with its Amazon Echo smart speakers. From the smallest Echo Dot, through the Echo “without a last name”, to its top of the range, the Echo Studio, the company has been able to position its devices as the “ideal companion” for all kinds of needs and user profiles, playing for it with two winning cards: quality and prices below what its direct competitors offer in the same segments of the market.
In this case, Amazon’s most advanced speaker competes head-to-head with a price of 200 euros, with the now-defunct Apple HomePod and the Sonos One in the field of smart speakers; and with a varied number of “non-smart” speakers that move in a range between 150 and 400 euros. Its first generation, presented in 2019, quickly positioned itself as one of the best alternatives for “audiophiles” who also wanted to have the features that Amazon’s intelligent assistant could offer.
Its second generation now reaches our newsroom equipping all the features that made it an outstanding speaker in 2019 and with some novelties, the most interesting in this case being its compatibility with the Dolby Atmos and ultra HD spatial audio technology update, which which according to the manufacturer provides us with “a more direct sound, with greater amplitude, clarity and presence, for an enveloping perception”.
Available for the first time in white, it is worth noting its combined 3.5 mm input and Toslink mini-optics that we can connect, for example, to our smartphone, a CD player or even a turntable. It is something that was already included in the previous generation and, if we asked for it to offer RCA connectivity as one more option, we would find it more than interesting for those more and more users who are abandoning traditional audio brands to start looking for example, in the increasingly competitive Chinese companies. But perhaps even more interesting is what this device allows us to do when we combine it.
In the event that we acquire a second Amazon Echo Studio, we can pair them with each other and create a true high-quality stereo sound system in our living room, at a really reasonable price. If we also have a Fire TV device, we can similarly set up a Home Cinema system that we will have very little to blame. We will find few sound bars with that price-quality ratio. Rather the complete opposite.
In the home automation field, it maintains its compatibility with ZigBee as a hub from which to control everything from the thermostat to the smart lock or the surveillance cameras in our home. However, a few days ago the company announced in a statement that a large part of its Amazon Echo range (among which this Studio is included) would be updated to support Matter, which will increase its compatibility with all types of devices known as Internet of Things.
hardware and more
Amazon’s speaker revision actually keeps most of the features the original model had: if something works, don’t touch it too much. In this sense, both the dimensions (206 x 175 mm) and the weight (3.5 Kg) are the same. Would we have liked Amazon to have increased the size and weight somewhat in order to further reduce vibrations and why not, the diameter of some components? For asking not to stay.
That the construction base is the same, justifies in fact that the internal components have not changed either. That is, we still have three 51 mm (2”) midrange speakers, 1 25 mm (1”) tweeter and 1 133 mm (5.25”) woofer with bass opening. The truth is that taking into account the size of the box, we cannot ask Amazon for much more in this regard and, in fact, from any other manufacturer that moves in this price range. An Amazon Echo Studio Pro speaker for 500 euros in 2024? We wrote it down in our letter to the Magi.
We do find improvements on the other hand in the DAC, which has grown in capacity to process audio without loss. In this sense, the new from Amazon is compatible with FLAC, MP3, AAC, Opus, Vorbis, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos, Sony 360 Reality Audio/MPEG-H; and CD-quality (16-bit) and high-resolution formats up to 24-bit. This means that it supports the highest quality formats that platforms such as Amazon Music itself and Apple Music already offer. On the other hand, in this new review, we would have liked Jeff Bezos’ company to have worked with partners such as Qbuz or Tidal who are committed to offering their users the highest quality audio. Solution for some? Being able to connect a multimedia server or an audio NAS to its input port.
It is equally interesting that Echo Studio has bluetooth support both to receive audio from other devices (such as our computer) and to send it to other bluetooth speakers, so the possibilities to listen to audio in this sense are multiplied.
Audio quality and Alexa
As might be expected taking into account what we already knew about this device, what we find in the latest from Amazon is a detailed, dynamic and distortion-free midrange and treble sound, very much in line with what we can find in more expensive speakers. .
With a maximum power of 330 W, we will not have any problem when it comes to “filling with sound” quite large spaces, being ideal for use in rooms of up to 40 square meters. It is true that at maximum power, on certain tracks the deepest bass tends to present some distortion, but it is a situation that should not really concern most of the potential audience for a product like this. In any case, and if this could become a problem for certain people, Amazon sells its Echo Sub, that can be paired with one or two Amazon Echo Studios for an extra 100W of power to access that deeper bass in full quality.
From the Alexa application on our phone, Amazon also offers us the possibility of adjusting the audio of the Echo Studio with a small equalizer in which we can “work” with low, medium and high tones. And although it is certainly interesting, it is perhaps too basic for the amateur. In a future update of the application it would be interesting to be able to work with different pre-configured profiles.
As for its compatibility with Dolby Atmos, so far it depends a lot on the offer, which, in reality, is not much if we take into account the huge catalog of songs that services like Amazon Music have. Likewise, it is our opinion that spatial audio is a characteristic, which is enjoyed when watching a movie than when listening to music, creating a feeling of a certain “unreality” on some occasions. Let’s not forget that the original recording will be 90% of the time in stereo (when not in Mono for the oldest ones) and the spatial audio is still a layer of synthetic post-processing.
If we talk about its compatibility with Alexa, the micro has much more sensitivity than other smart speakers of the brand, so even when the music is loud it detects the magic word without problem. Little more to add in this field beyond the fact that in reality, most users who purchase the latest from Amazon will do so more for its facet as a music player than for its ability to hold long conversations with its assistant or try its different skills.
conclusions
With the new generation of Echo Studio, Amazon shows that it still has one of the best speakers (smart or not) in its price range. It is true that although the main novelties of this review are above all aesthetic, we do find greater compatibility with formats lossless and an update to connectivity options.
In any case, they are not enough to justify a change in the event that you already have a 2019 Echo Studio, but it is certainly a highly recommended purchase for those who want to enjoy their music without complications and with the highest quality.
Audio quality and features9
build quality9
