Amazon Echo Studio
£190 / amazon.co.ukAMAZON TURNS
IT UP(WARDS)
When it comes to weather
forecasts, pointless pub
trivia and conducting the
smart home, Amazon’s
Echo speakers are
peerless. But with the
possible exception of
the Echo Plus, they don’t
have the sonic muscle
to do your Rick Astley
back catalogue justice.
That changes with the
Echo Studio – the most
powerful Echo to date.OStudio apartment
This is the first smart speaker
capable of delivering 3D audio,
with Dolby Atmos and Sony’s
360 Reality Audio bringing added
depth and height to your tunes.
There aren’t many songs that
support the format yet, and you’ll
need to subscribe to the new
Amazon Music HD service, but
even on its own the Studio is
a room-filling monster capable
of giving Sonos a scare.OAnother fine mesh
Under its grey mesh hood, the
Echo Studio has five directional
speakers – one of which fires
upwards – while a 5.25in woofer
and 330 Watts of peak power
produce big bass. That’s
complemented by a 1in tweeter
and three 2in midrange drivers.
There’s a 24-bit DAC and the
power amp has 100kHz of
bandwidth for hi-res music
playback. Echo Studios can
be stereo-paired or connected
to some Fire TV devices for 5.
surround sound.OGoing commando
This is also a proper smart home
hub with voice commands. It has
an Alexa wake-up button, volume
controls and a mic disabler on the
top, and – like the Apple HomePod
and Sonos Move – is capable of
calibrating its output based on the
acoustics of where you position
it. Pre-order now for its release
on 7 November.The Studio can
use Alexa to
control Zigbee-
compatible smart
home devices.