Certified Refurbished Echo Studio – High-fidelity smart speaker with 3D audio and Alexa

Great for what it is.
I’m stupid for music and have as hard a time deciding on my setup as I do choosing medicare plans. Yeah I’m old.There’s plenty of videos out there discussing the virtues of all devices and you would do well to watch first.11/16/2024 update. I’ve reached the end of my rope with these. I have 2 studios connected with a subwoofer and when it works, it’s awesome. Way too many times though they are off line and have to be rebooted or one decides to connect to a different network and I have to go in the app and change it up.Don’t even think about connecting to a firestick. The experience is abysmal. I’ve got a 5.1 Vizio sound bar too and can just stream via Bluetooth to it, no fuss no muss. While you can stream via Bluetooth to studios, it won’t do it in paired stereo, only one.Amazon is cutting staff and resources to the Alexa ecosystem and I have to wonder if it’s time to cut bait and learn how to manually turn on light switches.For the price of these things you’d be better off going with a 5.1.4 sound bar.So…I have a M series Vizio 5.1 sound bar, subwoofer and satellites in the house. It sounds great. If I was smart I’d just stick with it.Outside there’s a V series Vizio and it also sounds good but it a bit dated. Still the sound is adequate, but I’m looking for more and not ready to spend $700.00 for a new 5.1.2. Maybe someday.I have 2 echos 4th gen with a subwoofer and set them up outside in the perfect spots and was pretty impressed. If you’re not a weirdo like me this will be fine. If you want to be minimalist 1 would be fine. Not a lot of room, echo 4th would be fine. 2 together with subwoofer is far better.So now I have a refurbished studio that I’ve been staring at for a year in the Amazon app. One day it went on sale so I got it for a price that wouldn’t hurt my feelings if it didn’t turn out ok.Setup was generally without issue. There was a small problem pairing with subwoofer, but that was eventually resolved by making sure both were on 2.4 network and resetting the sub.First go I listened to smooth jazz, yacht rock, classical and there was something missing. Asked it to play spacial playlist and Ed Sheeran came out Chrystal clear. Very nice, but not really my genre.This morning I started out with BBC News and NPR and was not impressed. Same with smooth jazz. So I went into setting and tweaked the equalizer and turned off spacial, which is set to on default out of box. The difference is significant and there are YouTube experts that tell you to do this.Another thing. I set the studio up on a higher shelf and found when I spoke, it didn’t hear me but the echo 4th gen in the house did. I pulled the studio down to a table and the microphones pick up everything fine.Spacial is a limited catalogue in Amazon and you can tell Studio to play that genre, but for me, not to interested. You can listen to Dolby Atmos etc without spacial.So keep in mind this is not stereo system for audiophiles. It’s a Bluetooth/streaming device and it works great for that. In most circumstances this is all normal people would need. I see myself getting another when the price comes back down, maybe black Friday. I expect to change this to 5 stars when I have 2 paired with a sub.In the past I’ve tried pairing with Firestick and the results were nowhere as good as 5.1 and had issues. These are great devices for specific things and a good choice for most circumstances.My friend was just here and blown away, but he’s not a weirdo like me.December 3 2023 updateI took the punge and purchased another refurbed unit at black friday sales price I couldn’t pass up. Pairing the new one with the existing studio and sub was not seamless, but took about 15 minutes. JI like it a great deal. The volume is far more than I can do without annoying the neighborhood. The music is clear and there are no connectivity issues. As always certified by Amazon products are just fine and at $60.00 savings I can’t go wrong.As a test I streamed music from Amazon music app on firestick 4k on Vizio 5.1 V series on the patio that is about 400 square feet. Sounds good. Then I streamed from the studios and sounded great. I had my neighbor come over to get his opinion and he liked studio sound better than Vizio. No doubt there are differences in what the stick can do that the studio can do better. A comparable sound bar setup would cost between $500-$1000. I’m just not willing to do that yet.In the house I have a vizio 5.1 M series and I like it a lot. Echo show 10 for casual listening.The thing that would make the studio amazing is surround speakers, still as it is I’m pretty happy. Changing 5 stars.

Echo Studio Stereo pair – One is good, two are better, 2.1 sometime soon !
I had upgraded to an Echo Studio a few months back, and the sound was awesome. If you look at the specs you’ll understand why.. Cleverly designed and engineered, with 5 tweeters and a subwoofer on the base, each unit is a 5.1 system by itself. Along with software based acoustics like 3D sound, listening to anything on it is a dream.. the unit feels solid, looks great and set up is a breeze. After months I finally got my 2nd Echo Studio, and what an awesome thing it is.. As you see in the pics, I’ve set up mine on top shelves of my cabinet.Both can be set up as a Stereo pair. A few clicks and you can set up the left/right combination quicky through the Alexa app. The sound blows you away! Plus you can easily stream from Alexa directly, or from your laptop using any top streaming services like Amazon Music or Spotify, most of which recognize the stereo pair you set up. Stereo Speaker settings can be configured for tonal variation using the Alexa app, although Amazon assures us that the Echo Studio automatically configures itself to optimize sound based on the room acoustics .Look for sounds like “Speaker test” or “Stereo test” to begin with so you can get a range of quick stereo tests. Now on for the real music .. for some awesome stereo sound to begin with, try “Here comes the sun – Remastered 2009 version”, “Silent Lucidity – Remastered 2003” or “Riders on the Storm”.The Echo Subwoofer is on my wait list! Although each of my speakers has a fairly decent subwoofer in built, the addition of a separate subwoofer will be interesting. Happy listening!