I tried Amazon's best-sounding Echo speaker yet, and it seems like a promising Sonos rival

Even after taking just a quick look at the Echo Studio, you'll notice that it's much larger and heftier than your standard Echo. The Echo Studio weighs a mighty 7.7 pounds, compared to the roughly 1.7-pound third-generation standard Echo. That beefier design is intentional and unavoidable, however, considering the Echo Studio houses an array of components that give it a more premium sound than its lower-priced sibling. Such additions include significantly larger woofers and tweeters and additional speakers compared to the standard Echo. The Echo Studio has a one-inch tweeter, three two-inch mid-range speakers, and a 5.25-inch woofer, while the Echo and Echo Plus have a 0.8-inch tweeter and three-inch woofer. That being said, it's still more compact than the Google Home Max, the premium audio speaker Google launched in 2017, which is bulkier and heavier at 11.7 pounds. Although the Echo Studio isn't exactly portable — and it's not meant to be — it's still light enough to move around your home without much effort if you want to set it up in a different room. The Echo Studio also adapts to the acoustics of the specific room it's in, much like Apple's HomePod. Although the Echo Studio is wider and heavier than Amazon's regular Echo speaker, it still has all the hallmark physical characteristics of an Echo: the same mesh fabric coating, and the familiar glowing blue ring that lights up when Alexa is listening. The Echo Studio certainly lives up to its promise of delivering clear, boisterous audio that outperforms many of the smaller smart home speakers I've used in the past. I've been using it in my living room, and it filled the roughly 600-square-foot space with ease. 3D audio support is sure to be a differentiator for the Echo Studio, but the downside is that there simply aren't very many tracks that support it yet. There are an estimated 1,000 3D- compatible songs on Amazon's music service, but the company also claims this number will grow every month. The difference between 3D-enabled tracks and non-3D music was more noticeable than I expected. Songs that support the 3D format, like Lady Gaga's Look What I Found and Ariana Grande's 7 Rings just sounded bigger — that's to say the overall sound was more open, airy, and enveloping, making it easier to hear crisp high notes and lower accents. If you want to take advantage of the Echo Studio's 3D music support, you'll have to subscribe to Amazon Music's HD tier, which costs $13 per month for Prime members and $15 per month for non-Prime members. There's also a free 3D playlist available in Amazon's music app if you want to get a sense of whether it's worth the subscription. In addition to 3D audio, you also get access to Amazon's much larger library of lossless high-definition and ultra-high-definition music as part of Amazon Music HD. The company says there are 50 million songs available in HD and millions available in ultra HD, and as I browsed around Amazon's music app I found that most of, if not all, the songs I wanted to listen to were available in one or the other. During my time with the Echo Studio, I sampled songs across HD, Ultra HD, and stereo, and came away impressed. No matter the genre —rock, pop, electro pop, and hip-hop — music sounded deep, rich, and full of bass when necessary. That being said, the Google Home Max sounded just about as good at the Echo Studio on most occasions, and it was sometimes hard to tell the difference. But Amazon's speaker is $100 cheaper than the $300 Google Home Max, making it a more compelling option — particularly for those who already use Alexa and Amazon's services quite often. Case in point: the Echo Studio is also equipped to work well as a speaker for your home entertainment system if you operate on Amazon's Fire devices. Those who have a Fire TV Cube, Fire TV Stick 4K, or third-generation Fire TV can wirelessly pair their streaming device with the Studio. Amazon's Echo Studio offers crisp, high-quality audio at a reasonable price. And hopefully the company's push into 3D audio will make the format more accessible and prevalent than it is today. But even with Amazon's encouragement, it'll probably take some time for the company's vision of offering a studio-quality listening experience at a cheap price to become a reality. That said, the Echo Studio is probably one of your best options if you're looking for a high-quality home speaker that still offers all the same functionality of standard smart speaker at a reasonable price. Older alternatives from Apple and Google, like the HomePod and Home Max, are still $100 pricier than the new Echo Studio. Amazon's biggest competitor in this space will probably be the Sonos One, which is also priced at $200 and comes with Alexa built-in. All told, if you're already tied to Amazon's ecosystem and want an Alexa speaker that offers better sound quality than your average Echo, the Echo Studio is worth considering.

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I tried Amazon's best-sounding Echo speaker yet, and it seems like a promising Sonos rival

It's much thicker and heavier than your standard Echo, but that's to be expected.

The audio quality is excellent for the price, and 3D audio represents a noticeable upgrade. But the number of songs available in 3D is still pretty limited.

It's a great choice for anyone looking for a smart speaker that doesn't want to compromise on audio — or pay a high price.