The majority of Amazon smart speakers, except for the Echo Studio, lean more toward “smart” than “speaker.” That device, which arrived in November 2019, was the first speaker of impressive, sound quality to deliver Alexa functionality with impressive sound for a $200 device. But that was nearly six years ago — an eternity in tech product years — and the studio has been due for a redesign.
The 2025 model of the Echo Studio, priced at $219.99, is one of four new Echo devices, along with the Echo Dot Max, Echo Show 8, and Echo Show 11. Instead of the cylindrical design of its predecessor, it’s an orb, a larger version of the new Dot Max with a flat, angled front. may be Bear resemblance to a giant space station in a galaxy far, far away.
The flat circle is colored with a blue Alexa light and houses the volume and mic buttons at the bottom flanking the mute button. When muted, the button glows red, but Alexa’s full LED ring no longer lights up like the old Studio’s ring did, so it’s less visually intrusive.
The 3.5mm jack is gone from this version of the Studio, so the only way to listen to anything is to play from Amazon Music (requires an unlimited subscription atmo), Spotify, Apple Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, or SiriusXM. The Echo Studio features a new acoustically transparent 3D woven fabric available only in Stealth Gray and Glacier White. If you have your heart set on the stunning Amethyst colorway, your only choice is Dot Max.
$220
good
- Room-filling, well-balanced sound
- Attractive, smaller design than the original studio
- Built for Alexa integration
- Five can be used simultaneously in a home theater
bad
- The bass doesn’t go as deep as the rival
- No 3.5mm input jack
Internally, the new Echo devices use new custom processors. The new chips, and especially the Pro version, are designed to work better with Amazon Plus than earlier devices. Alexa was quicker to answer my questions, heard me better from across the room, and everything from upcoming summer tips to cracking jokes to questions about movies flowed more smoothly than ever before. .
Although a larger version of Studio.Max, it’s still 40 percent smaller than the original Studio, which is a welcome change. It’s only 6 inches across, making it easy to fit on a shelf, bedroom dresser, or kitchen counter without feeling overwhelming. But smaller size also means fewer and smaller speakers. The original studio had five drivers: a ported 5.25-inch downward-firing woofer, three 2-inch midrange drivers, and a 1-inch tweeter. The 2025 version uses a higher-end 3.75-inch woofer (the higher excursion means the driver can travel farther for potentially more bass) and uses 1.5-inch full-range drivers for a total of four speakers. Not only is the new Studio smaller with fewer speakers, but it has a 50-watt amplifier, down from the 330-watt amp in the first incarnation.
Don’t assume that a small undertone means a compromised sound. While the new studio doesn’t get as loud as the original, it still delivers a big sound for its size, and is an improvement in some ways. For a comparative listen, I lined up the original Studio, the 2025 Studio, and a second-generation HomePod on the dresser. To make sure that one didn’t get a placement advantage over the other (especially for bass response, which is affected by proximity to walls), I rotated the lineup, keeping them half a foot apart at all times. I used the same mix of music tracks from both Amazon Music Unlimited (for the studios) and Apple Music (for the HomePod), and all the tracks were matched as level as possible in the speakers. The original Studio has a nice louder volume than the new one, so I had the volume slider down to match the other two speakers. It also only moves in 10 percent increments, while the 2025 Studio (and HomePod) has a more granular volume control.
Don’t assume that a small undertone means a compromised sound.
The 2025 Echo Studio is the best sounding speaker of the three. Where the original Studio’s bass response is a bit wider and, honestly, a bit floppy and unsteady, the New Studio’s bass sounds tighter and more precise. Billie Eilish’s “Bor a Friend” has a better bass note release that gives the sound a little more punch. The HomePod can produce deeper frequencies better, but they’re not as strong and balanced in the mix as the Studio. The HomePod is also tuned much more towards the high end, so the sound is more piercing. The studio’s high-end frequencies have a bit of a hard edge to them at higher volumes, but I didn’t find the sound unpleasant, even when the highs were brighter.
What sold me most on the 2025 Studio’s sound is how it handles the midrange. Elton John is fully present and front-and-center during the verses on “Rocket Man” and moves around the room as the song hits the chorus, supported by the background. ohs. And in “Spoonman” by Soundgarden, where the midrange gets busy, Chris Cornell’s voice still cuts through the distorted guitars.
One of the advantages of 2025 Echo Studio over dotmax is its support for native audio. And when listening to a Dolby Atmos mix, the soundstage is comparable to its predecessor. You can hear mix elements, like the dentists’ drill punctures in “Bury a Friend,” moving across the room. But it has the same problem as any speaker that tries to reproduce native audio. To get the full effect, you need to sit directly in front of it, and even then that’s a shadow of what a multi-speaker local audio system can achieve. A smart speaker like the Studio means you want to move around the room while you sit down for a critical listening session.
When paired with a compatible Fire TV device — Fire TV Stick 4K (2nd gen), Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd gen), and Fire TV Cube (3rd gen) — you’ll be able to use up to five Echo Studio smart speakers in a surround sound setup. That’s about $1,100 for a full five-speaker system, unless Amazon releases a bundle. It’s comparable to the new TCL Z100 FlexConnect speaker or the Hisense Saturn HT, but they don’t have the same smart home integration. Alexa home theater support isn’t available yet, though, so I wasn’t able to test that capability, but single-speaker Atomos performance may well improve. We will update when it is available.
The 2025 Echo Studio is a more attractive, fully capable smart speaker that sounds a little better than the original Studio. With a more powerful processor for Alexa Plus, the ability to pair with your Fire TV system, and a lower price than the HomePod, the Echo Studio is a great successor to the Amazon Home.
Photography by John Higgins/The Verge
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