Amazon announces high-end Echo Studio smart speaker

[Shawn Knight]

In brief: Amazon at its annual hardware event in Seattle on Wednesday announced its first high-end smart speaker. The Echo Studio is described as the most innovative speaker Amazon has ever built and will likely compete directly with the likes of Apple and Sonos in the high-end home speaker market.

Developed largely for Amazon’s new premium streaming music service, the Echo Studio boasts five drivers including a tweeter, a trio of mid-range speakers and a 5.25-inch woofer. It’s also equipped with an array of microphones that not only listen for Alexa commands, but help to tune the speaker automatically to its environment.

The Echo Studio also supports 3D audio (courtesy of Dolby Atmos and Sony’s 360 Reality Audio) and you’ll even be able to pair two together for “stereo” sound for home theater setups. Amazon said the speaker can also be paired to a 4K Fire TV for improved playback capabilities.

Dan Seifert with The Verge got an early demo ahead of the press event and “walked away suitably impressed.” Seifert said it sounds better than prior Echo devices with the ability to fill a room with music that is enjoyable to listen to. “It’s the kind of thing that should make Sonos worry, especially at the Studio’s price point,” he added.

The speaker affords 330W of peak power, Amazon said. It also has a 24-bit DAC and a power amplifier with 100 kHz of bandwidth for “high-res, lossless music playback.” There’s even a built-in Zigbee smart home hub that can be used to control compatible smart home devices.

Amazon’s new Echo Studio will be available to pre-order today in a variety of finishes priced at $199. It'll ship to Prime members by November 7, according to Amazon's product page.

Lead image courtesy SlashGear

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https://www.techspot.com/news/82067-amazon-announces-high-end-echo-studio-smart-speaker.html

 

[VitalyT]

Following just the previous article, this should come with Boris Johnson warning sticker on the box.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

I will NEVER put one of these things in my house or office.

I will not allow anyone else in my household to do so either.

 

[VitalyT]

I will NEVER put one of these things in my house or office.

I will not allow anyone else in my household to do so either.

The world is getting so mad and perverse, you put one of these in your toilet, live streaming ON, you will get a million subscribers in a week.

 

[neeyik]

I'm guessing that this is replacing the Echo Plus (I have one, and really like it). If so, then it'll be interesting to see how much better it is, to justify the price difference.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

The world is getting so mad and perverse, you put one of these in your toilet, live streaming ON, you will get a million subscribers in a week.

Not worth it.

 

[wiyosaya]

Money much better spent on this - https://www.paradigm.com/en/passive/monitor-se-atom - especially for home theater.

 

[wiyosaya]

Following just the previous article, this should come with Boris Johnson warning sticker on the box.

Do you mean warning Boris Johnson not to use it?

 

[Godel]

The speaker affords 330W of peak power, Amazon said.

Oh Gawd, they've gone back to "peak power" measurements to advertise their junk.

In the old days the ratio of peak-power watts to true RMS was typically about 20:1 with some real optimists stretching it to 200:1. I notice there's no listing of power output in the technical specs on Amazon's web site.