'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
Echo Studio review: Is it really better than before?
Amazon Echo Studio
pros and cons
- Powerful punch that maintains crispness
- Easily compatible with Fire TV
- Rich, enjoyable sound quality
- Large footprint
- May be too much for those looking for a smart speaker only
The Echo Studio has been Amazon's most expensive and sophisticated smart speaker since its launch in the fall of 2019. And though many were thinking the e-commerce giant would launch a new generation at the end of 2022, Amazon opted instead to update existing Echo devices with improved spatial audio processing for deeper bass and crisper sounds, plus making a new white version of the speaker.
Also: How to trade in your old devices for Amazon gift cards
That being said, if you had told me a year ago that I'd have an Echo Studio front and center in my home entertainment system, I would've cackled. But even if we're a HomeKit family with a HomePod Mini, I can't say I was ever against buying an Echo speaker.
No, I welcomed Alexa into my home with the sole purpose of pitting her against Siri to see how the voice assistants performed side by side.
In the end, the Echo Studio has become a staple at the heart of our living room. It functions as a rich, powerful pseudo-sound bar for the TV, where we all gather to watch movies as a family; it's also our go-to speaker, with Alexa routines to play music and have the smart lights above change colors when the kids say "It's party time!"
Review: HomePod Mini: for Sirious Apple users
Slowly but surely, my home has been filling up with Echo speakers: Echo Dots, Echo Shows, and, as evidenced by the 8-pound Amazon box that arrived several weeks ago, an Echo Studio.
How the Amazon Echo Studio compares in size with other items.
Specifications
| Dimensions | 8.1 inches x 6.9 inches |
|---|---|
| Weight | 7.7 ounces |
| Speakers | Three 2-inch midrange speakers - One 1-inch tweeter - One 5.25-inch woofer |
| Peak output | 330W |
| Audio input | 3.5mm or mini-TOSLINK line in |
| Connectivity | Dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee |
| Power source | Plugin |
| Extra features | Dolby Atmos, spatial audio processing, 3D audio, automatic room adaptation, mic mute button |
The Echo Studio is Amazon's latest high-end smart speaker. It features 3D audio, Dolby Atmos, and high-fidelity sound with built-in Alexa, and doubles as a smart home hub with Zigbee and Matter support to control smart home devices.
Out of the box: A white Echo Studio
The Amazon Echo Studio has four buttons at the top.
Unboxing the gigantic Echo Studio was a task. Listen, I always rag on people for buying things and then complaining about the size when the dimensions are right there in the product description. But this time that was me. The Echo Studio looks like a sleek, full-size speaker, sure. But this thing is huge. And heavy.
ZDNET Recommends
A large footprint isn't a deal breaker for me, however. I have to give Amazon props for doing away with plastic packaging on this round: The smart speaker came wrapped in a reusable cloth Alexa bag inside of a cardboard box.
I chose the new Echo Studio color, Glacer White. Looking at it in a home, the new speaker looks clean and stylish, a touch more modern than the Charcoal color, to me. I feel black speakers tend to be reminiscent of the old subwoofers you'd expect to see at McMansions back in the early 2000s, so I appreciate more color options.
Sleek or monstrous?
The Echo Studio dwarfs the 5th Generation Echo Dot.
The Echo Studio isn't meant to fit onto a tiny shelf or be tucked away next to a little plant; it's here to serve a purpose, and that purpose is to deliver room-filling, calibrated, 3D, Dolby Atmos audio.
Also: What is a bookshelf speaker, and which brand is best?
This smart speaker stands 8.1 inches tall, measures 6.9 inches in diameter, and weighs 7.7 pounds. The Echo Studio has four buttons at the top to summon Alexa, mute the mic, and adjust the volume up or down. There's a light ring at the top of the speaker that comes on when Alexa is listening, when a notification is available, or when the volume is adjusted.
Jam-packed with sound, the Echo Studio has a horizontal gap at the bottom to openly distribute audio and maximize bass output from a 5.25-inch woofer, and it also has three 2-inch midrange speakers and a 1-inch tweeter.
Setting it up
If you already have the Alexa app on your phone, setting up a brand-new Echo device is a breeze. Simply plug it in and open the app so Alexa can add it to your home network, and it's ready to go. Alternatively, if you don't have Alexa devices in your home yet, just download the Amazon Alexa app to set up an account and follow the prompts.
Also: How to add your HomePod to the Home app and Wi-Fi
Part of the setup process involves calibrating the Echo's acoustics by having it play a series of sounds and listening to how they reverberate around the room.
Audio: The verdict
Once the Echo Studio is calibrated, the sound quality is nothing short of outstanding, which is surprising, really. When you hear that the Echo Studio retails for $200, it sounds like too high of a price for a smart speaker with Alexa. But the truth is that the upgraded sound quality of the Echo Studio is on par with high-end speakers twice its price.
Also: The 5 best smart speakers
It's apparent the calibration works, as the speaker can certainly put out room-filling audio with deep, rich bass rivaling that of other high-end speakers, like the Sonos One. But intensity, though overwhelmingly satisfying, is not the only benefit.
A view of the internal workings on the Echo Studio.
The audio is delivered with sheer crispness and clarity, making your living room feel like a soundstage. Before the upgrade announced by Amazon in September 2022, one of the Echo Studio's faults was that the clarity of vocals was diminished, especially when the volume was turned up.
Trying out stereo tracks from both Amazon Music and Apple Music on this upgraded version, I found that vocals aren't lost in the background at all, which is a problem with many larger speakers that focus more on intense bass and a big punch. When you move around the room, the Echo Studio not only maintains power and clarity, but the spatial audio feature makes it so it feels like you have a set of stereo speakers with just the single unit.
Whether or not it earns the title of best-sounding smart speaker on the market is up for debate, but I found the audio quality is 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 pair two Echo Studio speakers in one room, and you can also add the Echo Sub for fuller audio.
This Echo speaker goes beyond the Amazon Music app, with support for Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, Pandora, Sirius XM, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn.
Also: The best music streaming services: Can Amazon top Spotify?
To get the most out of your speaker, the Amazon Echo Studio aims to get you to subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited, a service that costs $8.99 a month for access to its ad-free music library featuring HD and spatial audio tracks. While Amazon Music's HD and Ultra HD tracks sound best on the Echo Studio, I was able to enjoy high-quality sound through Apple Music.
More than music
As a smart speaker with built-in Alexa (and a mic mute button), the Echo Studio makes a fantastic speaker for parties, gatherings, or music in general. But we've found a pretty nifty alternate use for it as part of our living room's media console as the speakers to our TV.
We haven't bit the bullet and bought a sound bar for our televisions just yet. It's on the list, sure, but it continues to stay low on our priorities. Since my home resembles a smart speaker graveyard, we've made the HomePod Mini the speaker for an Apple TV 4K, we're using the Echo Dots as stereo speakers for a Fire TV Stick 4K, and now the Echo Studio has joined the lineup.
Also: Amazon Fire TV Stick models: How they stack up to each other
Connected to both the Apple TV 4K and the Fire TV Stick 4K, the Echo Studio became an outstanding speaker for our television, putting out immersive cinematic audio for movies and, in my opinion, effectively replacing a quality sound bar.
The audio is intense, yet maintains crispness. It is several steps above our defunct HomePod in sound quality, though I can't speak for how it compares to the new, resuscitated HomePod -- yet. 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.
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.
Is it worth it?
I'm not torn -- I can't pretend I am. Sure, the Echo Studio is fairly large, but I like it. The resulting sound quality from the five speakers packed into the device makes both the size and price well worth it. It's built and engineered to rival some of the best speakers of its size on the market, and its performance shows that.
The Echo Studio sits prominently in the center of our media console table, working several jobs as a smart voice assistant, a smart home hub, a TV speaker, and a music player.
Frankly, I can't say everyone should buy an Amazon Echo Studio at $200 each, but I'd probably recommend it for anyone with an Alexa ecosystem who is looking to add either a high-quality speaker or a soundbar to their television. I do consider it to be the best-sounding Echo speaker available right now.
Alternatives worth considering
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. Though more expensive than the Echo Studio at $300, it's the best choice in smart speakers for an Apple ecosystem.
The Sonos One speaker is one of the best-sounding smart speakers, and it not only supports Alexa, but also Google Assistant. It features touch controls instead of buttons on the top panel, and is a couple of inches more compact than the Echo Studio in both height and width.
At half the price of the Echo Studio, the full-sized Amazon Echo touts rich sound plus built-in Alexa. The biggest differences between this Echo and another alternative, the more compact Echo Dot, are the superior audio quality and that it supports Zigbee as a smart home hub.