I love music and I have an ear for sound. I annoy people when I hear a song and I pick on the differences in sound that make what I thought I knew a little more incredible. I go nuts because they don't know what I'm talking about. I listen to music to feel it. I needed an Alexa replacement because my generation 1 Echo was having issues with its hardware. After purchasing Apple's HomePod thinking it would fulfill the AI assistant duties, it went back to the store. I discovered the Echo Studio not knowing it was similar, or even existed. It had all the AI features I was looking to replace, but just in a bigger and better sounding system. I was convinced the spatial/3D-audio wasn't going to match Apple's sounds. Let me just say that I use Whitney Houston ballads as my barometer to do my sound testing for Spatial Audio and I was blown away. I heard these rich background vocals, chorals that so low in the original versions that they were entirely missed, and instruments I never knew existed until now. The rich and expansive sound is incredible. If it makes any sense to anyone reading this, let me say that I see music when I listen to it. This experience made me listen in 3D. I know that sounds impossible, but I can see what I'm hearing as if I were watching Disney's Fantasia. Listen to the original recording of "The Greatest Love of All" and then listen to it again in Spatial Audio. There are incredible background vocals never heard before from the artist and from the chorus. It was like listening to a new song. Then listen to "Run To You." There's a vocal where the background singer is prominently in front singing over Whitney and this orchestral piece envelopes your ears like nothing I've experienced. Absolutely breathtaking. My eyes filled up because the acoustics transported me elsewhere for a moment and I simply felt this massive connection with her voice that I haven't experienced in a while and in this way. That's what music should do. It should move you - and the Spatial Audio in this little speaker amazes me. Just a wonderful experience to not only have to listen with AirPods in, but I can get a similar sound in my home. It's definitely an AI/Alexa assistant, but will re-create those favorite songs that have moved to Spatial Audio for you to re-experience in a brand new way. Definitely worth the purchase.

My wife and I have been looking for something that we can set up around the home to play music in the background throughout the house during social gatherings, and that isn't too in the way.
Compared to a fancy multi-zone custom in-wall or in-ceiling surround sound or Hi-Fi sound system installation which could easily reach upwards of 10K for more than 2 rooms, this option is much more affordable, and easily expandable, not to mention portable! Don't like where the speaker is, move it!
This requires AC power, so you'll need a wall outlet. There is a bit of geekery you'll need to learn how to configure using the Alexa app on your phone to do things like set up speakers in each room, and create multi-zone "groups" to address playing music across all of them simultaneously, but Amazon's ecosystem and app have gotten a lot better since the early days. I'm still learning how to override the alexa app and use Apple home kit (we're an iPhone family), but it appears to be possible to do most things.
The built-in microphones are MUCH more sensitive than the cheap mics that are built into the Samsung TV remotes for using Alexa on our Samsung TV's, so it's much easier to set up the TVs with Alexa and use the speaker to control our TVs than to have to press the Microphone button on the remote to tell our TV to do something.

I got this as a Christmas gift from my boyfriend and at first it worked great for my music and 1 light. Around April/May time frame we had to take it back because the music of some songs sounded like it was being sang through a tunnel and it was having a hard time turning on/off my light. Took it back and exchanged it for another one. And again at first it worked great even got a second light. Now about 3 months ago when I was listening to my music it play one song just fine then when the second one come on it sounded like it was being played and sang through a tunnel and the next few songs were fine then the next one same thing, I ended up shutting it off because of how annoying it was. Also started not recognizing my lights. So I unplugged it for about 20 minutes and then it started working again then a few weeks later wouldn't recogniz my bedroom light. So I gave it break and the next morning tried getting it to turn on the light all day and it wouldn't so at 3 I unplugged it again and at 9 plugged it back in let it load and tried my light again and still wouldn't work so I deleted my light and went to reinstall the light and that was a nightmare! Took over an hr to get it reinstalled but now the stupid thing says I have 2 lights for the bedroom. Then yesterday again had to unplug the stupid thing because again it wouldn't recognize my light. I told my boyfriend that this was a waste of money! My eco dot worked a whole lot better than this and lasted longer. Only reason it got replaced was because it sounded like the speaker was blown and I lived in a 1000 sq ft home. So we got this since it is supposed to be for a bigger place. Now I'm looking for something else, might have to give Google home a try. If your going to use this for every day use or for your smart home I wouldn't recommend this but if your going to hardly use it then this might work for you otherwise don't waste your money.

I bought one of these and hooked it up to an old TV via an Amazon Fire TV Stick and was really impressed with the sound. At the same time I was investigating upgrading the sound on my main TV - I went out and listened to all the options for that like the HT-A7000 and the HT-A9 but then was thinking that $3k+ is a decent wedge just to be able to hear Drive to survive in Dolby Atmos! What about if I get another Echo Studio and see how we go. When you pair two of these together as a Home theatre using an Amazon Firestick they sound superb!

The other bonus I didn't realise and something I was unsure about it when you plug a Firestick into a HDMI eARC port you can run these speakers using your current TV remote and interface.

All the other benefits of Alexa are great too, so obviously just talk to it and it can power on and power off your TV, connect to Spotify, and you can 'Drop in' to other Amazon devices.

I've since added the Amazon Echo Sub, which is a bit of a pain as they're not available in NZ, so I ordered it from Amazon - Drive to Survive now sounds Epic!