Amazon’s Echo speakers have never been my smart speaker of choice, but for lots of people—like lots and lots of people—they are. Because of the sheer volume of Echo speakers in the world (no pun intended), when Amazon releases a new Echo product, it’s kind of a big deal—that’s regardless of whether the generation is iterative or not.
The same applies to Amazon’s just-released Echo Studio and Echo Dot Max, which debut at $220 and $100, respectively. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t exactly wowed with what I saw at Amazon’s event, but I did get to listen to them myself, and… they sound pretty good! That’s not an exciting impression of a product, but that’s the most I have to go off of with a gadget that I only got to watch someone else use in a limited capacity.
The crux of what I got to experience was based on showcasing audio improvements between generations. Specifically, I got to listen to a 5th-gen Echo Dot compared to Amazon’s new Echo Dot Max and Echo Studio, and the experience was predictably drastic. There’s a big difference between the 5th-gen Echo Dot and the Echo Dot Max, with the latter putting out a lot more bass and more volume. I can see the Echo Dot Max being a solid option for someone who wants the benefits of a smart speaker with Alexa+ but has limited space and still wants a smart speaker that’s serviceable for playing music.
The jump between the Echo Dot Max and the Echo Studio is equally as drastic. While the former smart speaker has two drivers and a woofer, the Echo Studio has three, as well as a woofer. The result is a bigger sound with a wider “soundstage,” which is to say, you can hear a lot more nuance in your music. The Echo Studio also has a secret weapon compared to the Echo Dot Max, which is spatial audio and Dolby Atmos. In a demo after Amazon’s keynote, I got to listen to the Echo Studio briefly, and it did a good job of filling a medium-ish room with sound that felt a cut above what you’d get on the Echo Dot Max. There’s definitely more dimensionality compared to Amazon’s smaller speaker, and that capability is highlighted even further when you use one of Amazon’s newest features, Alexa Home Theater.
Alexa Home Theater, which Amazon also announced today, allows you to pair together multiple Echo Dot Maxes or Echo Dot Studios (up to five of each) and one subwoofer if you choose to create a spatial home theater system. The result is wild. I got to experience a couple of things with Amazon’s Alexa Home Theater feature, which, in this case, was using five Echo Studios. The first was spatial music (Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”), which was fun.
I was told by Amazon that the track we listened to wasn’t a special one that was tuned by Dolby Atmos specifically for spatial audio, but it still sounded “3D,” bouncing sound from one corner of the room to another during the song’s intro. I’ve had some pretty wild spatial audio experiences in my day, including one inside a Maybach at CES, and while this wasn’t quite as immersive as that, it still sounded nuanced and fairly high fidelity.
The second experience with Alexa Home Theater was watching a movie (a scene from Ready Player One), which also sounded decent, though I didn’t get quite the same dimension from the demo as I did in the spatial music demo. Maybe it was the way people were situated in the room, potentially blocking some of the speakers, or maybe the movie just wasn’t as well-suited for the setup, but I didn’t get quite the same experience—the sound was still big, but just not as 3D as the music demo.
Either way, though, I’m not sure that many people are going to be using Alexa Home Theater. The idea of buying that many Echo Studio speakers for a home theater setup is… a little much. At $220 a pop, you’re talking about an $1,100 package (if you’re using the max five speakers) before tax. For that price, you could get a fairly nice home theater system from brands like Klipsch, which, yes, may involve a more complicated setup process, but also offers a more dedicated home theater experience compared to a bunch of Echo speakers.
A big part of your decision to buy a new Echo speaker or not may hinge on your interest in Alexa+ and on that front, I didn’t get a very full preview. An Amazon representative demoed Alexa+ by asking the voice assistant to find a specific scene in a movie (again, Ready Player One), but I didn’t get to test that feature for myself, so I can’t tell you if it works as intended. Without a good read on how Alexa+ works, I can at least tell you that the Echo hardware does feel upgraded, so if you’re looking for a boost to volume, bass, and 3D sound, it’s worth considering an upgrade. If you’re satisfied with your current Echo speakers, however, I don’t think you need to rush out and buy a new black orb to yell at just yet. We all know they’re going to be on sale for Prime Day soon anyway.
Both Echo devices are available for preorder today, and U.S. customers get Alexa+ in early access. The Echo Dot Max and Echo Studio will both be available for purchase on Oct. 29.
