dtrotter61

23 de diciembre de 2025

A Great Solution for Multi-Room Audio Needs

The Echo Studio speakers have been the perfect solution for our church's multi-room A/V needs. Recently, the church moved our three ViewSonic projectors from rolling carts to ceiling mounts and needed something other than a wired connection (which was either too expensive to do well due to wiring installation costs, or too feeble to be useful when done with more affordable speakers) or Bluetooth speakers, which were too complicated, inconsistent, "buggy," and not able to be integrated as a single functional unit.The solution? Installing an Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K to make each of the ViewSonic projectors "Smart," naming each Fire TV Stick by location, connecting the Fire TV Stick 4K to the WiFi network, and connecting the Echo Studio speakers to the Fire TV Stick in each room. Setup is dead simple: use the Alexa App to set up the speakers (you may need to run a software update... Do It as there are significant software improvements) and connect the Echo Studio speakers to the WiFi network (the App walks you through the steps). Then, use the Fire TV Stick remote to set up Home Theater mode in the Fire TV Stick options. Ensure all components are connected to the same Wi-Fi network, or this won't work.The Echo Studio speakers connect to the Fire TV Stick via the Home Theater Mode setup. The software to set up Home Theater was slow to roll out, coming after the speakers had been on the market for several weeks, but as of mid-December, the software has been updated and improved, and the speakers pair seamlessly and sound fantastic, with rich, immersive, spatial audio and Dolby Atmos.An added benefit is that the Fire TV Stick and Echo Speakers connect as a single group and can be controlled by the Fire TV Stick remote. The only downside, which is entirely manageable and a more-than-fair tradeoff, is that the Home Theater Mode takes a moment to connect when the system is turned on each time. A message will appear on the screen, "Home Theater Being Optimized." It takes some time, but it is worth it.The projectors can now be used to show streaming video via Apps (YouTube TV, Disney+, Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount+, Netflix, Spotify, and any other available App) and to mirror laptop computers for applications like PowerPoint presentations. Amazon Fire TV Stick does not support Apple AirPlay (thanks, Amazon), but there are applications you can download to enable Apple mirroring. Mirroring from a PC is enabled through the Fire TV Stick settings.These speakers are expensive, but they were the best solution we found for our A/V needs and work perfectly, delivering room-filling sound and an actual theater-quality audio experience.Ver más

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Goofy Jessie

30 de octubre de 2025

It has limitations if you stream through Spotify. Kinda Pricey.—impressive sound, though.

So, this is the newest version of Amazon’s Echo Studio speaker. Yes, it automatically includes Alexa Plus, but that’s a different review. I’m here to review the speaker, though Alexa Plus is a part of the allure.First, the sound quality. The music is ok. I tried classical, jazz, and Nathalie Merchant. I compared the sound to a portable rechargeable Bose Speaker that I’ve had for 5 years. The Echo Studio is not as good. It lacks depth. I played Marco Frisina’s Anima Christi and the Bose just sounds way better. The voices were just that much clearer.But a funny thing happened when I played We Get Requests by Oscar Peterson—the Echo Studio more than held its own. It’s a jazzy album—highly regarded. On the Echo Studio all the different instruments came through clearly. It was delightful. I was impressed. But on the aforementioned Anima Christi, which is mostly vocals, the Bose Speaker was clearly better.Now, on the negative—if your music provider is Spotify, Alexa struggles to play their music. Forget about asking Alexa to play any playlists you may have on Spotify, at least for now. Maybe an update can fix it. It was disappointing and frustrating. It might work better on Amazon Music service since it is part of the Amazon universe.Now, on the plus side, if you’re a lover of audio books through Amazon's audible, it works flawlessly. Alexa’s Plus will play any title and keeps track of where you are and where you left off. And it plays the audiobooks with amazing clarity, a smidge better than my Bose speaker. Which was odd because on Anima Christi vocals were much better on the Bose speaker.Set up was a breeze. And from past experience, I know this speaker will perform reliably. And it will get regular updates.One more thing—this speaker comes with an equalizer, but you rely on Alexa plus to adjust the bass, the treble, and the midrange. Ask Alexa, she’ll add base. So not a true equalizer, but still, it’s available.So, would I recommend it? Honestly, it is a bit pricey. Their most expensive speaker to date. And I was not really impressed with the sound, not at this price. But, considering all it does, it’s ok. I must admit, I was disappointed. I love Amazon products. Love their value. Their reliability. Love Alexa, both old and new. And I did splurge on this speaker. So, will I keep it? Well, I’ll play around with the equalizer some more. Adjust it. But even then, its limitations with Spotify is a dealbreaker for me. Please fix it, Amazon.Edit: December 12, 2025I’ve had this speaker with Alexa Plus since it was released. It is more than capable for simple commands. Tell me about the weather. News. Sports. Stuff like that.But ask Alexa to play a specific album, even if it is on a specific playlist, and it’s like asking for the impossible. Alexa seldom gets it right, even if you use Amazons own Unlimited service. The only way it works is you ask something general like play some Elton John music. So that if is good enough for you, the sound coming out of this speaker is fine, even good. But for me, it is so disappointing. This is supposed to be an upgrade from regular Alexa. It’s barely that.for now. I’m hoping Amazons engineers can address it. I will update in six three months.Edit-12-25-25–ok, I’m enjoying the sound coming out of this speaker. I’m playing Christmas music. The classics like Bing Crosby. A smooth, sweet baritone. White Christmas. I also asked Alexa to play Christmas music by Fr. Marco Frisina—just heavenly. Maybe it’s the Christmas spirit, or maybe the genius engineers making some adjustments, but this Echo Studio speaker sounds impressive. Or maybe my ears finally appreciate just how this smart speaker sounds. Anyway, I’m updating my score to three stars. Merry Christmas everyone!!April 2026–Update—ok, the speaker has grown on me. So much so I plan to get a second unit to pair wi with it. It’s a little powerhouse punching way above its weight. I love playing jazz music on it. The amazing engineers at Amazon even calibrated the temperature so that it is dead center accurate. Upgrading to FIVE STARS.

Donna J. Lambert

25 de noviembre de 2025

Not worth the hype

I have mixed feelings about the Amazon Echo Studio. However, this does not mean that I want to send it back. It's just that I think it was overhyped. And I don't think the sound quality is anything spectacular. Even my first-generation Echo, for what it was, sounded better than one would think coming out of a cylindrical machine. I read some reviews about this device from others, and some people have said that the first-generation Echo Studio sounded better, Although Amazon wants to say that bigger doesn't necessarily mean better sound. I listen to a lot of classical music, and sometimes it sounds pretty decent, and other times, depending on the recording in the first place, the sound is awfully disappointing. There are a lot of factors to consider, here. It's not always Amazon Music's fault. Also, these devices were made more for playing other types of music than classical. Sometimes I have to tell the machine to "turn it up." Then another selection plays, and I have to tell it to "turn it down." That's how it is with classical music. Amazon made a big deal about the Echo Studio 2025 being louder, and so what. I don't want to shatter windows or break my eardrums. I'm not into super bass and whatever else goes into such music. A lot of this problem has to do with where the device is placed. I'll have to do some experimenting with that.In short, I don't think the Amazon Echo Studio 2025 was worth the 220 bucks I paid for it. It's not a total waste, by any means. There's a lot to like about it. The Alexa Plus feature can be hilarious when having a conversation with her. I like the fact that her voice can be changed. I only wish that we could give the device the name of our choice, instead of the names we have to choose, with its limited number of four. If someone prefers to use a male voice for the A-Lady, it sounds very strange to call this man's voice a female name. He should be able to be called, Alex, instead of Amazon, Echo, Computer, or Ziggy. That's why we should be allowed to give our devices a name of our choosing.I have had many hilarious conversations with the A-Lady. Sometimes I think she is too smart for her own good. Hmm. It's AI working with her, I'm pretty sure.The spherical shape is kinda cute, and the device can sit well on a desk because of its flat bottom. Someone said that this Echo Studio was not much larger than the Echo Dot.I also had a big problem of connecting this device to the WiFi in my building. I have a cell phone, but it isn't a smart phone. I had to have someone use his phone to get my device connected. Apparently, my first-generation Echo isn't compatible anymore, because no one could get it connected, which was why I bought the Studio in the first place. However, I thought the newer device would set itself up and connect to my WiFi automatically. Wrong! I still had to use someone else's phone and give this person my information. Now, the machine is working as it should, and I am basically happy with it.

rlh2311

3 de julio de 2026

Echo Studio – User Review

I picked up the Echo Studio on Prime Day, and I’m glad I did. The regular price is definitely on the high side for a smart speaker, but the discounted Prime Day deal made it an easy decision—and after using it, I can say the sound quality justifies the cost.The Studio is a major upgrade from my Echo Show 5 units. The difference in clarity, depth, and overall richness is immediately noticeable. Once I paired the Studio with my three Echo Show 5s, I was able to listen to music throughout the house with seamless coverage. The multi‑room audio setup works flawlessly.Setup was extremely simple. Amazon emailed me ahead of delivery so I could configure my preferences before the speaker even arrived. When it showed up, it was truly plug‑and‑play—no hassle, no troubleshooting.I also bought a wall mount and positioned the Studio where I felt it would deliver the best sound. That placement paid off. The Studio fills the room with rich, immersive audio, and pairing it with the rest of my Echo devices makes the whole house feel connected.Overall, the Echo Studio delivers powerful, high‑fidelity sound, easy setup, and excellent integration with other Echo devices. If you can catch it on sale, it’s absolutely worth it.Ver más

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Ralph Furlong

18 de junio de 2026

A step down from a Echo Dot Max

Ok, I have a dot max that I really like and I thought that this would be a improvement, so I ordered it., Here is what I found::1. The Dot max sounds great, the Echo Studio sounds flat., It is ok, but just no life to it.2. The equalizer function on the Echo Studio does not seem to really make any difference. Trying to adjust highs dust does not seem to do a thing.,3. It is avery large and obvious ball., The Echo Dot Max is smaller, but sounds fuller and richer.,Well, I do not know what they did, but they did not make this better than the Dot Max and it costs a lot more!!! To be fair, I do not use this for voice, TV, or games. I use it for music. Music with voice is fine for hte voice but the music lacks!!There is a new update which I am loading, but it take 30minutes to complete and I am on a high speed fiber optic network!! I will try it again after the update. If it does not improve, I will return it and get a second dot max.Ver más

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Dr-Phone

12 de febrero de 2026

Echo Studio (NOT) Echo 5th gen with premium sound (YES).

I'm totally blind. I got this Echo Studio to see how it was. I wasn't expecting anything special based on other review of people who owned the old Echo Studio. So being I went into it with low expectations, in that regards, I wasn't disappointed. It basically performed as I expected. First of all, this isn't an Echo Studio as far as replacing the previous model. This doesn't even come close. This basically is an Echo 5th gen with premium sound and not an Echo Studio. It more closely matches the Echo 4th gen with premium sound in all things accept for the price. Not with the full price nor the discounted price either. More like about an one hundred and twenty price only.Now to a little about this Echo. This is a large ball shape. The front of it is concaved and that is where the three buttons are. Left one is Volume down, middle is Mute Microphone and the Right button is volume up. At the time of writing this, This has the same issue as the Echo Dot Max. Another words, you cannot press the Volume Down and Volume Up at the same time to wake up the Echo like you can on the Echo Pop. So another words, you cannot manually tell the Echo to listen by pressing buttons. This is bad! The older models of Echo's you have a way to manually tell them to listen to what you are saying. The power cable plugs into the back of the Echo witch is normal. This has a 1/4 inch 20 thread jack on the bottom so you can mount it on a camera mount of something like that. Same as the Echo 4th gen with premium sound. This doesn't have any tweeters at all. This has a woofer and 3 midrange speakers in it.In my testing, I found if you are within 6 feet of it, the base sound like the old Echo studio. But if you are 8 or more feet away from the Echo, you cannot really hear the base that much at all. The voice using Alexa plus doesn't sound as clear, more about Alexa plus below. The tap function, doesn't seem to work well at least not for me. I turned it off to see if it improved sound! It didn't. The volume of the voice is a good 2 steps lower than the music volume. Amazon really should give people the option to set voice volume differently from media volume just like cell phone have. After all, this has a sound card in it and I bet it has more than 1 channel on it. I played this Echo along with the old Echo studio in a multi room music group so I could see how it did. The old Echo studio had better sound overall and filled the room much better than this Echo 5th gen with premium sound as I call it.I didn't even bother trying the Zigbee support in this Echo being Amazon today has such limited Zigbee support for sensors that use batteries it wasn't worth testing and then the Echo drops connection to Zigbee device when you have a lot of them connected and of course it would be the one you want to use! LOL. If you also notice, Amazon on all of the devices never say how many Zigbee devices they'll handle before they start having trouble. Humidity sensors don't work, can't get battery information, light sensing doesn't work and a lot more. Like I said, Amazon Zigbee support is laughable at best. If you are using it for Lights, outlets, power switches excluding power strips! Then it is halfway OK until it drops connections to them. The power strips, it doesn't see sub devices like each outlet on a power strip so you can't control them using there Zigbee hub. Like I said, laughable at best.The Alexa plus for me is very slow and doesn't remember things when you get it to correct something she said incorrectly. You have to argue with it and then she'll say it correctly and you ask/tell her to say it that away from now on, she says she will and then you ask her the same question and she does it incorrectly again.I use a fitness tracker and I ask the Alexa plus how many steps I've taken today and she'll come back and say you have taken 1 8 9 0 0 and you have 1 1 1 0 0 step to meet your goal. She doesn't say you have taken 18,900 steps and you have 11,100 step to meet your goal. This only happen if the number is 5 digits. So the Alexa plus doesn't put the comma in 5 digit number automatically even when you ask it to say them correctly. Another example I like to listen to a radio station called K M O X out of Saint Louis MO The Alexa plus calls it kmox all as one word, She doesn't spell it out.. The old Alexa does things correctly.In saying the above! You can turn off Follow-up mode to stop her from responding to other things when you just want to hear only what you ask her. Alexa turn off follow-up mode. I find it bothers me with it on. You can go back to the normal Alexa just by saying Alexa disable Alexa Plus. Then responding YES to turn it off.I wish Amazon would allow someone to only have just some Echo's in Alexa plus and other on the normal Alexa. I have about 20 Echo's in my house. It is a real pain when you want to go back and forth to see if they've fixed things with Alexa plus. The reason for this is if you have changed from the normal voices, not everything is retained. Then if you had follow-up mode turned off, when you go to Alexa plus, this is forced to On for all of your devices. Then you have to go into the App to turn each one off. Then when you are trying to do that, you have to keep on going back into the screen each and every time to say only show me the Echo's after you have changed one. Another word bad coding on Amazon part. If you have the App as far as type in the device set to show you only Echo devices! It should remain on that and not go back to showing you all devices after you have changed one device and back out of that device to get back to the list of devices. Then you have to change the device type again to say show me only the Echo devices. What a pain.At this time, I will be sending back the Echo 5th gen with premium sound (Not an Echo Studio) Not an update to the Echo Studio at all. More like a down grade all the way and Alexa plus isn't ready for prime time at all. Many things just don't work as I would expect at this point. Most skill have trouble, Sound theme don't even work like on the old Alexa.