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Again, the scale of the sound is the main benefit here, and there’s considerably more depth and energy to the sound than you’ll find from your TV’s own inbuilt speakers. The only caveat to that is that where a soundbar is emits sound from directly below your TV, if you opt to use a single Echo Studio you’ll have to get used to the sound coming from the left or right of the screen. That’s something you can fix, albeit at considerable extra expense, by adding a second Echo Studio. 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.
It's not without its faults, but we were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the Echo Studio’s sonic performance. It’s a powerful speaker, absolutely booming with bass force and overall volume, and easily the best-sounding Echo speaker to date. Five separate drivers hide behind the fabric grille cover of the Echo Studio, arranged in different directions to provide Dolby Atmos-compatible positional audio. A 5.25-inch woofer fires downward from just above the bass ports, a one-inch tweeter fires directly forward, and three two-inch midrange drivers fire left, right, and directly upward. The woofer provides the low-end, while the tweeter and three midrange drivers all work in tandem with each other to create a sound field with more precise (and more vertical) imaging than a set of stereo speakers. All five drivers are driven by a peak total of 330 watts. Meanwhile, frequency range extension technology has been implemented with the aim of improving mid-range clarity and delivering deeper bass. Of course, only time will tell how much difference these technical-sounding improvements make to audio quality. The Echo Studio can also upmix other music to 3D on its own, but the effect isn't nearly as prominent or capable. And, of course, there are still limits to what a single speaker can do, even if it has drivers pumping out sound in all directions. PerformanceThe 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. Like all previous Echo devices, you'll still find the trademark ring of LEDs around the top of the Echo Studio. 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. 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? 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.
As ever with virtualized surround sound, we're not of the mind set to consider it more impactful than having discrete physical speaker channels above and behind you, hooked up to a AV receiver. But that's a huge expense, and not practical for all living room arrangements, making the powerful Echo Studio an impressive value option. Don't be fooled by its squat size, the Echo Studio can get plenty loud. Sure, it can't quite match the Apple HomePod in terms of sheer volume (Apple often uses a single or pair of its smart speaker to DJ to its expansive retail stores) but it's more than loud enough to boogie while cooking, or fill the living room with music at your next party. Again, it can't produce a true surround sound field that completely wraps around you, but the Echo Studio offers some impressive stereo imaging and forward-facing verticality that gives the impression of a pair of stereo speakers with additional upward-firing drivers. At high volumes, the speaker fills the room easily, bringing the exciting thunder of guitar strums and drumrolls while letting Bellamy's voice come through clearly. When he sings that no one's going to take him alive, his voice can be heard directly in center, while the harmonies can be placed in the distance, to the left and right.
On the top of the unit is the familiar blue glow of the Alexa smart home hub; you’ll know by now what these are capable of but if your home has smart lights from Philips Hue, or robot vacuums, then you’ll be familiar with the concept of having a central hub device which tells all the others what to do. You can, of course, still fire random questions at Alexa in the same way you would do normally, only now asking her to play music is a much more rewarding experience because the sound quality you get is a huge step up from previous iterations of the Echo range. 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. Well, this is what the Echo Studio is really about. Sure, it looks pretty good. And of course, it's capable of all the amazingly clever stuff you've become accustomed to from Alexa over the years – but does it sound any good?
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