The Amazon Echo Studio claims to be not only the best-sounding Echo speaker yet, but also a smart speaker fit for audiophiles – bold claims for a product that costs only £190 / $200 / AU$329.
The Echo Studio supports 3D audio via tracks encoded in Sony’s 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos, as well as upgraded internals fit for CD-quality and hi-res audio, which are both now available from Amazon Music Unlimited – the company’s latest incarnation of its music streaming service.
The Echo Studio follows in the footsteps of previous Echo speakers, being cylindrical in shape and covered in a charcoal-colored fabric mesh. It’s significantly larger than any previous Echo and dwarfs the Sonos One and Apple Home Pod.
Its beefed-up appearance aids in the delivery of 330W of power to two 5cm midrange speakers on the left and right, a 25mm forward-firing centre tweeter, and a 5cm upward-firing midrange speaker. A downward-firing 5.25in bass driver handles the bass.
On the top, there are volume controls, a microphone mute button, and an Alexa-wake button. Yes, the blue ring of light remains to indicate that Alexa is listening.
The positioning of the drivers enables the Echo Studio to take advantage of a feature of Amazon Music Unlimited, its library of “hundreds” of songs available in Dolby Atmos Music, which uses the audio format to mix tracks with greater control over different elements and the positioning of different elements in the sound field.
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