Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

TL;DR for the Echo Studio is that the speaker, whether paired with the Echo Sub or not, running hi-fi music (I’m on Amazon HD) sounds fantastic, but there are so many glitches with it that I’m hard pressed to give it a full recommendation. I love music, but don’t consider myself an audiophile. I’m a family man and don’t have the luxury of a dedicated “listening room,” and I’m certainly not going to spend thousands on a home sound system. I like listening to music while having my morning tea, relaxing in my bedroom, and when in my car. I have so far been using a pair of Sony XB-43 bluetooth speakers at home and they have been adequate. I decided to look at upgrade options when I went over to Amazon HD for my streaming service (I also tried Tidal, but that’s for another review). I wanted something convenient, plug & play, and as a parent, relatively childproof. Bluetooth was not an option, as one loses most of the hi-fi benefits over bluetooth. Enter the Echo Studio. I already have a few Echo Dots, Fire TV, and as mentioned, Amazon HD Music, so it seemed like a natural fit. It should be noted however, that although Alexa Cast only works with Amazon Music, you can stream music with the other major services, Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and others. So I bought an Echo Studio for the breakfast area where I have my tea, and where I had previously been moving a bluetooth speaker every morning. Setup was quick and painless and I was immediately impressed with the sound. It’s not a high-end home stereo system, but it’s the best single-unit speaker system I have ever had and heard. And it’s $200. I used the Alexa app to set the EQ, but you can simply tell Alexa to “increase bass” or “reduce treble” or make any other adjustments on the fly, mid-song or whenever you like. I see some reviewers complaining about the sound profile and wonder if they made EQ adjustments for their personal preferences or to suit the type of music being played. Impressed, I ordered a second Studio and an Echo Sub for my bedroom. Setup and pairing the Sub was equally simple. At first I thought the Sub was defective, or not set up correctly, because I could barely hear anything coming from it. Turns out that for me anyway, it needs to be at a certain volume and playing certain music for it to really be felt. But feel it you will, as the Sub makes the music fill the room in a way that the Studio by itself doesn’t. Make sure you put the Sub on the floor. The glitches started here, with the bedroom Studio. The music would randomly stop playing, whether during a playlist or simply when I had asked it to play music from a certain artist or genre. When I say that, I mean every single time I used it. Two or three songs and then nothing. Extremely frustrating. My wifi setup is solid, so I looked at suggestions online, and several people recommended putting your Studio on your 5GHz and cordoning it off there (everything else in the house on your 2.4GHz). I tried this, but it did not solve the problem (I ended up leaving the Studios on 2.4GHz and it has been the best option). I unplugged and went through setup on the Studio again and the problem, for the most part, seemed resolved. I took the opportunity to bump my internet tier up to improve my overall household speeds. The music on both my Studios will still stop playing occasionally though, for no apparent reason, with a strong internet connection. And they will go into “red ring” mode too, which is extremely frustrating. Fast forward to now. Sound quality is noticeably better than my bluetooth speakers, and I mean noticeably. I am hearing guitar strings and cymbal crashes on music that I don’t remember ever hearing before. I used my bluetooth speaker last night for a bit and it was painful. There is no way I can ever go back to standard definition music streaming and bluetooth speakers. Think SD television versus HD television. Now for the drawbacks. These things are glitchy. Music will stop playing for no reason. Voice recognition of the music or the playlist you asked for is hit and miss. The Studio itself will go into “Sorry, I’m having trouble right now” mode (red ring mode) and won’t play any music for you. At all. For five minutes or for an hour. I have to remind myself that it is a somewhat data-intensive streaming service and think back to the earlier days of Netflix and the like. Also, while it is convenient to just tell Alexa what you want to listen to, at times I miss having the control of just playing music from my phone, and the Alexa casting is frustrating. Bring up the Amazon Music app, start playing your music (which you have to do before you get the casting button), wait for it to connect, then finally get the music going. Yes, it's probably only seven seconds, but trust me, it feels cumbersome. Again, even Netflix needs to load up. If you happen to use a voice command directly to the Studio while casting (because when casting, you lose the Alexa voice control function from your Amazon Music app) it reverts back to Alexa app control and you’re out of casting mode (and phone control). Even if you don’t, the casting drops after a bit and you have to go through the connection process again. I’m not going to pair the Studio over bluetooth to get phone control, if I wanted bluetooth quality sound I wouldn’t have bought the Studio. (I did pair it once to check it out, and the music was at a super low volume). It would be nice to be able to browse the music app and tap a song or playlist at any time and just have it play on the Studio as with a bluetooth connection. As it is, I have to tell Alexa to play it while I’m looking at music choices on the app and hope she gets it right. While on the Alexa app and controlling from there, sometimes it will show me the playlist I’m listening to, sometimes it doesn’t. I also have Apple Music, as other family members are on Apple Music, and other than one time at the outset, it will play the Apple Music when requested without any problems (Amazon Music is my default setting). As I sit writing this review, my Studio has played my music flawlessly the entire time and sounds fantastic, and this is what keeps me in the Echo Studio game and considering a third Studio to stereo pair in the bedroom with the Echo Sub (Prime Days?). If it performed this way consistently and the Alexa and Amazon Music apps integrated more smoothly, I would give the Echo Studio a 100% recommendation. I am holding out hope that future software updates will smooth out the rough edges. Until then, know what you’re getting. A sweet-sounding, self-contained hi-fi smart speaker system that will both delight and frustrate you.