Amazon Echo Studio: Review, price and specification – Wireless speakers

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In terms of sound, the Echo Studio is by far the most ambitious speaker launched by Amazon – an ambition that turns out to be followed by results: far from the mediocre performance of its elders, it is the very first Echo speaker to offer correct audio performances … even if some annoying black dots continue to tarnish the picture.

Overall, the Studio manages to produce a very balanced sound. It is helped in this by its automatic acoustic calibration system, similar to that of Apple's HomePod or the recent Sonos Move: it uses its own microphones to adapt its sound rendering to the acoustics of the room in which it is located. A first calibration is carried out during the initial configuration of the enclosure, then the acoustic correction is subsequently continuously adjusted, so that the rendering remains optimal even when the enclosure is moved. Impossible to deactivate, this calibration is fortunately efficient, and adapts to most listening rooms without much trouble.

There is nothing remarkable about the behavior of the speakers themselves, but it is generally quite healthy. The restitution is clean, devoid of any genuinely audible distortion, with the exception of the extreme bass. The degradation of the purity of the signal remains however largely within the limits of the acceptable, and is a completely reasonable counterpart to the excellent extension of the bass: it is rare to see a speaker of this size manage to produce a true presence from 50 Hz. The midrange and treble, on the other hand, are reproduced with beautiful transparency, even if their precision and dynamics are satisfied with a fairly modest level – the speaker sometimes shows its limits on the densest signals, and works better with acoustic music than metal or electro.

What about this Atmos spatialization? In truth … we don't really know which way to take it. It must be admitted that the first contact is very positive: the 5 speakers of the Echo Studio, actually manage to create a very clearly perceptible stage width, and even a verticality far from being insignificant. The feeling of space is present, and very surprising on the part of a monobloc speaker – including on stereo sources, which can obviously benefit from a processing ofupmix three-dimensional. However, we are obviously very far from the precision and scale that we could have with a real multi-channel installation. So much so that it is actually sometimes difficult to differentiate a simple stereo signal upmixé from a real Atmos source.

This spatialization is therefore certainly nothing revolutionary, but one could at least have said that its contribution was real, if it had not been accompanied by very irritating problems of scene coherence. Although it was said above that automatic calibration is generally very effective in correcting the acoustic defects of the listening room, it does nothing, however, to homogenize the reflections on the walls and ceiling of the loudspeakers. side and top speakers. The consequence is that the sound components emitted by all these loudspeakers undergo propagation delays and timbre colorings, each different from each other, resulting in a rendering which may ultimately be very singularly unnatural depending on the positioning of the speaker. pregnant in the room. Was it better than a good old mono sound, certainly less ample, but also ultimately much more authentic? It is permissible to have a clear opinion on the question …

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