Amazon’s Echo Studio usually sells for $200 and rarely goes on sale, but you can get the supersize Alexa hub right now in Charcoal or Glacier for $160. While that’s not an all-time low for the device, it’s still only $5 off its price from last year’s Black Friday sales. We called the Echo Studio the “best sounding speaker Amazon has built” in our review when it was released in 2019. The company has released more speakers and smart displays since then, but the Echo Studio remains a solid option for immersive, high-resolution music streaming.Â
We gave the Echo Studio a score of 88 in our review and praised it for having excellent audio quality best demonstrated by high-definition and Ultra HD tracks. While HD songs can show how much more detail you’re getting with the device compared to normal tracks, the speaker can upmix regular stereo audio content with Dolby Atmos, giving it more “space, clarity and depth.” Because it has excellent audio quality, the Echo Studio also works great as a home theater speaker, though only with Fire TV devices. In addition to Dolby Atmos, the speaker also supports Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus.
Like other Echo devices, the Echo Studio supports Alexa voice commands. You can ask Alexa, through the speaker, to play, pause or skip music, answer calls, play audiobooks and set alarms and timers, among many other things. One thing to note is that the Echo Studio requires more space than, say, the Echo Dot, at eight inches in height and seven inches in diameter. Amazon also recommends putting it in a place where it has six inches of clearance from walls. If space isn’t an issue, the Echo Studio is an affordable option for what it can do, especially now that it’s $40 off.Â
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