Amazon Echo Studio | Our best-sounding smart speaker ever – With Dolby Atmos, spatial audio processing technology, and Alexa | Glacier White

Quantum Leap in Quality
The Echo Studio is a quantum leap from any other speaker that Amazon has produced to date. Everything else sounds like a transistor radio in comparison. The sound separation is fantastic and you can actually feel the bass at higher volume levels.There a couple of issues, however. The vaunted 3D sound is a waste on anything other than the songs that are specifically set up for it. DO NOT use it as a default setting. The music that is not 3D will sound muddy and the vocals will be lost in the mix. However, if you turn it off, the music will immediately brighten and the vocals will be clear and crisp. There are a lot of online reviews where they claim that the clarity of the vocals is lacking. That is because they were early reviews and took place before you could turn off the Spatial enhancement option. Second, if you combine the speaker in a group or as stereo pair, playing the amazon music app causes songs to stop playing at random and skip to the next song. I have read online where it stops playing altogether for some people. It does not happen when just playing though a single speaker. I have not experienced the problem, as yet, when playing through the alexa app. However the Alexa app navigation leaves something to be desired. Also the Alexa app doesn’t show the quality of the track that’s playing.Ok, issues out of the way, I have 2 of the Echo Studio paired for stereo and the sound is a revelation. Listening to the White Album in Ultra HD reveals melodies and instrumentation that I’ve never heard before. The clarity of the voices is amazing. It’s like listening to it for the first time. The 3D tracks sound great as well. There is a massive sound stage. The music really does envelop you. It’s not the same as surround sound. So those looking to relive the days of 5.1 SACD and DVD-HD will be disappointed. It’s impossible to get the same effect from one or two speakers. You won’t hear discrete sounds from behind you, but instead you get a full range from in front of you. It’s difference between sitting the front row for a concert (Echo Studio) and sitting on stage in the middle of the orchestra (5.1 surround). I haven’t tried out the pair for fireTV as yet. The current options for Dolby Atmos are limited and I’ve already watched the new season of Jack Ryan, but I may try this at some point in the future.The amazon credit for turning in an old Echo, sealed the deal on getting the second Studio. The wait for a second one was too long from Amazon, so I got it at Best Buy. They also participate in the Echo buy back program. So, I turned in an old echo dot and got 25% off the new studio (the discount is the same regardless of which echo you turn in), along with a $5 credit. So instead of $219 (with tax), I got the second studio for $155 (with tax). Great deal and with the discount it’s about the same price as an Echo Plus.The size may be an issue to some, but it wasn’t with me. In order to accommodate 5 speakers, there is no way for it fit into the same space as the Plus. The space is really need to fit the subwoofer and it certainly makes a difference.So my final thoughts: It’s a fantastic speaker. Much better than anything else you can get from Amazon. The price is right, especially if you turn in old echo dot (any echo really, but the dot is the cheapest of the bunch and you get the same discount). Don’t use the Stereo Spatial Enhancement. The songs in 3D will play that way regardless of the setting and it makes everything else sound worse (in my opinion). There may be point when Amazon releases an update to fix this, but at this point it’s worthless. I have never had a Bose or a Sonos, so I can’t compare, but I doubt anything in this price range can compete with what the Studio has to offer. If sound quality is important to you and you subscribe the Amazon HD music service (the studio is the only device Amazon offers that can play the Ultra HD music in full 24/196 quality), I would say run don’t walk to get one (or two) of these. You won’t regret it.UPDATE: I did try out the Dolby Atmos feature last night. I watched some of Jack Ryan and Carnival Row. The effect was just as outstanding as the music. Wide sound stage and clear, crisp dialogue. I do think that for watching movies the subwoofer might be a good addition. The bass was definitely present, but I think that the subwoofer would add some welcome bottom to the sound field (Perhaps that will be a Black Friday/Christmas purchase). The setup was fairly simple after restarting the 4K firestick. Initially the firestick was greyed out in the Alexa app, but after a restart it showed up. Set up involved just following the instructions after that.As stated before, there are very few options to watch Dolby atmos enabled content on Amazon. It does not allow it from Netflix, and as of yet, does not have the option for the Disney+. Hopefully that will change at some point in the near future (although I’m not holding my breath). However, since my main reason for buying the Studio in the first place was for music playback, I see the Atmos option as an added bonus.Update 2: they have fixed spatial enhancement mode! It sounds fantastic. If you toggle between the two modes, you can actually hear the sound field shrink. It’s now very worthwhile. Also I added a sub to the mix and it does wonders for the sound. If you are using the studio in the kitchen or a home office, one will work spectacularly. If you are using it in a living room or large space then 2 with a sub is the way to go. The sub adds so much depth when you are listening in a larger space. Currently playing through the app is a problem but voice commands still work fine.