Amazon’s New Echo Studio Smart Speaker Actually Sounds Good

As much as we’ve grown to rely on the convenience and the myriad of features available with Amazon Echo devices–you know what we’re talking about if you’ve ever attempted to yell at Alexa to set an alarm while you’re in a hotel–the one thing they’ve always been missing is quality sound. Sure, you can play whatever you want from Amazon Music, iTunes, Spotify, Pandora and the like, but it all sounded weak, tinny and flat. That changes with the new Echo Studio. How does the speaker billed by Amazon as a “high-fidelity smart speaker with 3D audio and Alexa” hope to stack up sonically against the likes of Sonos? It’s significantly larger in size, which allows it to accommodate five separate speakers in its capsule shaped housing–three 2″ midrange drivers spaced around the shell, a single 1″ tweeter that fires out the top and a 5.25″ down-firing subwoofer. It’s also built with individual Class D amplifiers, a 24-bit DAC and Dolby Atmos technology to “turn stereo tracks into a multidimensional audio experience.” Outside of the upgraded hardware and audio, it also performs all the usual Amazon Echo Tricks that you’ve come to expect from all their smart devices. The Amazon Echo Studio will be released on November 7, but it’s available for pre-order now.