Amazon debuted new versions of the Echo Studio and Echo Dot smart speakers at its Devices and Services event today.
Echo Dot – apparently the world’s best-selling smart speaker – is now the Echo Dot Max in its latest compact guise with a 3x improvement in the bass performance compared with the older Echo Dot.
Amazon must be impressed with it, since it has seemingly decided to bin off the standard Echo in favour of the Echo Dot Max and new Echo Studio.
The Echo Studio upgrade is one that I’ve been waiting for – the older design was not only bulky, but it was also really rather ugly.
It’s now a lot smaller than the original design so the real question is whether it’s an audio upgrade or not. Amazon’s Daniel Rausch clearly thinks so, saying on stage: “It’s our most advanced and best-sounding Echo ever. Echo Studio has incredible high-fidelity sound with three full-range drivers, plus a custom high-excursion woofer that maximizes the bass.” The original had a full width bass port, so it’ll be very interesting to compare it to the new model.
As before the Echo Studio is designed for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos at its heart and particularly the ‘Ultra HD’ music available on Amazon Music Unlimited.
Rausch continued to talk about the design of the new Echos: “You’ll also see that on these new designs, we brought the light ring around to the front. It used to be on the top. And small cues indicate when Alexa’s listening, thinking, and talking.” The latter is a reference to the generative version of Alexa, known as Alexa+. “Music sounds amazing. But so do podcasts, so does the news, so do audiobooks.”
