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Bluetooth speakers have been a major fixture in my life ever since I picked up the original Ultimate Ears Boom in college. I use them to listen to podcasts or my favorite playlists while I’m cooking and cleaning my house, and if I’m going on a trip, I’ll take a travel-size speaker to make sure I’ve got my shower tunes.
To find the best Bluetooth speakers for listening at home, traveling, or multi-room audio, I tested nearly a dozen models from the biggest names in the space, including Ultimate Ears, JBL, Sonos, and Bose, and combed through our archives to find recommendations from stylish people as well as fellow Strategist writers and editors.
Update on December 16, 2024: Updated prices and checked stock for all products.
What we’re looking for
Weight
The speaker’s weight will help determine how easy it is to carry around and varies widely: Many models come in under one pound, but some can weigh over ten pounds. Rugged speakers tend to weigh more, and smaller home-office speakers weigh less, though the smaller size may also result in a slight drop in sound quality. I’ve found that the ideal weight is about one pound: That’s big enough to project a good sound in a variety of spaces but small enough to throw into a bag for a trip. If you’re not planning on moving the speaker around, or don’t mind hauling around the extra weight, bigger speakers may be worth the trade-off for better sound. For larger speakers, I focused on those with some sort of handle to ensure they’re not cumbersome to move.
Dust and water resistance
Most Bluetooth speakers have an IP rating, which tells you how protected the device is against water and dust. The first number indicates dust resistance and the second tells you how waterproof the speaker is — in both cases, the higher the number, the better the protection.
Battery life
Every speaker on this list can clock at least seven hours with decent recharge times. Naturally, larger speakers will have larger batteries, but even small speakers should offer over six hours of battery life.
Best Bluetooth speaker overall
Weight: 0.93 pounds | Dust and water resistance: IP67 | Battery life: 14 hours
Among all the speakers I’ve tested, none have impressed me quite as much as the Wonderboom 4, mainly owing to the quality of sound it’s able to produce in such a small package. It’s about the size of a small candle and can easily fit into a backpack, carry-on, or even a tote, yet it’s loud enough to hear from across my living room, all the way into my kitchen.
Pairing is simple: All you have to do is hold the pairing button and it shows up in your phone or tablet’s Bluetooth menu right away. It will connect immediately when powered back on. You can easily pair two Wonderbooms together for a stereo experience with a couple button pushes.
At louder levels, usually around 80 percent or higher, sounds can start to get muddled, especially with genres like hip-hop or metal (I tested with Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter II and Lamb of God’s Sacrament), and the vocals can drown out instrumentals. It’s not enough to detract from how good the Wonderboom sounds, though. When kept below that threshold, songs sound as clear and vibrant as on other UE speakers such as the Boom. As for podcasts and audiobooks, I was able to play those at louder volumes without audio quality suffering, and could hear them over the water running as I washed my dishes.
The Wonderboom 4 is larger than the JBL Clip 5, so it’s slightly less portable, and its elastic loop is less effective than the Clip 5’s metal clasp for attaching it to things, but the speaker also produces clearer sound, likely owing to its larger size.
To test its IP67 rating, I dropped the Wonderboom into a pool of water in my sink three times while playing music. The music sounded muffled and quite terrible at first, but once the water dripped out, the speaker was back to sounding good as new. You absolutely should not try this, but know that if you’re using this as your pool-party speaker, it’s safe. It has a plastic door that covers the charging port when not in use to prevent water from sneaking in and mucking things up. It’s rugged enough to withstand being carried with you on your next vacation, or just getting moved from room to room.
The Wonderboom 4 is the most portable speaker I’ve tested that gets closest to the sound quality of bigger speakers, like the Pulse 5. It’s quite similar to our previous best Bluetooth speaker overall, the Wonderboom 3: Its sound is nearly identical, and the design hasn’t changed. The biggest improvement is the switch from micro-USB to USB-C, which will make the Wonderboom 4 easier to travel with if you have a phone or laptop that charges over USB-C (as most do these days). For this model, Ultimate Ears also added a podcast mode to the equalizer, and while it did make voices sound more crisp, I didn’t find the difference noticeable enough to change modes when listening to audiobooks or podcasts.
Best (less expensive) Bluetooth speaker
Weight: 0.56 pounds | Dust and water resistance: IP67 | Battery life: 16 hours
If you want to get a speaker that’s affordable and doesn’t cut corners on audio quality, Sony’s SRS XB100 sounds surprisingly good for costing well under $100. The sound isn’t quite as clear at loud volumes as with the Wonderboom, but the Sony has louder bass, which some people may prefer, and it’s overall clearer and louder than the JBL Go 4. While listening to Elton John’s Madman Across the Water, I found the vocals easy to hear without the instrumentals being drowned out. For hip-hop tracks like Run the Jewels’ Blockbuster Night Pt. 1, the bass felt punchy without overpowering Killer Mike or El-P’s vocals, even with the volume turned up while I was running a robot vacuum in another room.
While JBL and Logitech use a fabric covering over their speakers, Sony uses a matte plastic finish that’s more durable, easy to grip, and pleasant to look at (the speaker comes in four colors, including vibrant shades of orange and blue). The speaker has a fabric loop that you can easily attach to a backpack (though the Clip 5’s mechanism is more effective). It also has the longest battery life of any travel-size speaker I’ve tested, lasting about 13 hours.
Best portable Bluetooth speaker
Weight: 0.62 pounds | Dust and water resistance: IP67 | Battery life: 12 hours
Most of these Bluetooth speakers are portable, but the Clip 5 is the most travel-friendly I’ve tested thanks to the built-in eponymous clip that lets you attach it to nearly anything, including a bike basket or shower head. The speaker has rubber ribs on the back that allow you to place it on smooth surfaces without having to worry about it sliding all over the place — helpful since it can’t stand upright like the other speakers I’ve tested. The speaker is waterproof and dustproof, and it can withstand a few knocks against a hard surface.
It’s easy to underestimate the sound quality of a speaker as small as the Clip 5. In my testing, it managed to sound clear and vibrant even with outdoor sounds like waves and wind in the background. In the shower, podcasts were easy to hear over the water, and I never had to blast it to full volume just to catch what someone said. Over a couple weeks of testing, I was able to get about 12 hours of battery life out of the Clip 5.
My only gripe with the Clip 5 is that, unlike the Clip 4, the buttons for turning the device on and off and pairing to other devices aren’t raised buttons. That makes them harder to operate if you can’t see them, like when the speaker is clipped behind a showerhead. The buttons for play/pause and volume are all raised and are on the front of the speaker so they’re easy to see and access, but I wish that were true of all the buttons.
Best (less-expensive) portable Bluetooth speaker
Weight: 0.69 pounds | Dust and water resistance: IP67 | Battery: 7 hours
Although the Clip 5 is a solid portable speaker, JBL’s Go 4 is even smaller, and I’ve found it to be more fun for carrying between rooms when I’m working at home. Its tiny rectangular shape is easy to hold, and it sort of feels like an old-timey radio. One corner has a fabric loop that you can use to attach the speaker to a bag or to dangle it from your finger.
The Go 4 is about the size of a deck of cards and as thick as a mass-market paperback, but it packs enough sound to be heard across a room. While music doesn’t sound quite as clear on it as on the Clip 5 or Wonderboom 4, podcasts and audiobooks sound as crisp. Given its small size, its battery doesn’t last quite as long as those of other small speakers like the Wonderboom, but I’ve been able to consistently squeeze seven hours out of this speaker.
Like the Clip 5, the power and pairing buttons on the Go 4 aren’t raised, so they’re hard to press without looking at them.
Best Bluetooth speaker for sound quality
Weight: 6.61 pounds | Dust and water resistance: IP56 | Battery life: 24 hours
The Sonos Move 2 is the best-sounding Bluetooth speaker I use on a regular basis. It’s significantly larger than even the UE Megaboom (though much smaller than the JBL Boombox), so you probably won’t want to take it with you on your weekend getaway, but it’s still small enough to carry from room to room, and the built-in handle lets you do so easily. I’m also impressed that, unlike nearly every other speaker I’ve tested, the Move 2 has a removable battery, which should make it straightforward to replace.
While the Move 2 is pricier than similar-size speakers like the JBL Pulse 5, its sound is unmatched. The bass is loud and powerful, vocals sound crisp, and everything sounds clear even at full volume.
The Move 2 has all of Sonos’s smart features, like multi-speaker pairing and adaptive audio (altering the sound to fit your room), and can easily be controlled and adjusted from within the Sonos app. It also has direct Amazon Alexa integration, so you can use it as your main smart speaker, and AirPlay integration that lets you stream directly from your Apple Devices without having to pair over Bluetooth.
Given its name, it’s no surprise that the Move 2 is so easy to lug around, but its charging method isn’t quite as mobile. Instead of using a simple charging cable like most companies, Sonos gave the Move 2 a docking station, which is basically a ring that you plop the bottom of the speaker into when it needs to charge.
With an IP rating of IP56, it’s not as protected from the elements as the Pulse 5 or the Megaboom, but it’s still protected from heavy jets of water, so it should be safe from some raindrops (but not from a drop in the pool).
Best smart Bluetooth speaker
Weight: 10.8 pounds | Dust and water resistance: No IP rating | Battery: 8 hours
For those who talk to their speakers as much as they listen, JBL’s Authentics 300 speaker balances functionality, good looks, and quality sound in a relatively portable design. It’s bigger than every other speaker we recommend, aside from JBL’s Boombox, but that also gives it louder sound, and the included handle makes it easy to tote around the house (but note that it weighs nearly 11 pounds). That handle is easier to grip than the one on the Move 2, though given the Authentics’s larger size, the Move 2 is easier to take with you when you leave the house.
Of the speakers I’ve tested, this one’s classy ’70s style makes the Authentics 300 one of my favorites to display. The front of the speaker is covered in a patterned fabric that’s reminiscent of JBL’s classic L100 bookshelf speaker, and the top has three large knobs you can turn to control the volume, as well as the speaker’s treble and bass levels. Each knob has an LED that wraps around the dial and lights up to indicate the current levels for each toggle. The controls on the 300 are more fun to play with than the clicky buttons of the Wonderboom 4 and Clip 5, but I prefer the dials on the Teenage Engineering OB-4 of all the speaker controls I’ve tried.
The sound on the Authentics 300 is loud and impressive: While blasting music at 80 percent volume from my living room, I could hear it from across my three-bedroom home, and in some cases, podcasts were discernible as well. Given its size, it makes sense that the speaker is louder than the Move 2 or Pulse 5, but I’ve been impressed with how clear the sound remains, even at high volumes.
The speaker’s defining feature is its ability to connect to both Google Assistant and Alexa. I’ve found that Alexa is better for controlling smart home gear like light bulbs and robot vacuums, but I prefer Google Assistant for asking general questions and getting info about the weather. While alternating between the assistants in succession, responses were as quick as they are with a dedicated smart speaker like the Echo Dot or Nest Hub. The Authentics also has an ethernet port if you want to make sure it has a reliable internet connection. On the other hand, if you want to disable this speaker’s smart features altogether, there’s a switch to turn off the microphone on the back, which is not something many speakers with microphones offer.
Unfortunately, unlike most speakers we recommend, the Authentics 300 doesn’t have any official IP rating, so I wouldn’t recommend bringing this speaker anywhere it might get wet.
Best LED Bluetooth speaker
Weight: 3.2 pounds | Dust and water resistance: IP67 | Battery: 12 hours
No Bluetooth speaker has caught my eye as much as JBL’s Pulse 5, which looks like a modern take on a lava lamp and sounds as good as it looks. It’s bulkier than most of our other picks, standing at 8.5 inches tall, but that’s to its benefit: Its bright, cylindrical array of lights play a variety of animations, including spinning rings of different colors, lights that look like clouds moving through a blue sky, and pulsing dots. You can also change the tempo of the animations to better match the vibe of your room, though every tempo syncs to your current song automatically.
It goes beyond just being a nice bit of decoration: It’s a solid speaker, too. In my testing, it performed well across a variety of genres, including classical, synthpop, hip-hop, and rock, with minor discrepancies on higher frequency notes but nothing too noticeable.
It’s not as portable as the Wonderboom, Clip, or Go, but it’s notably louder and its sound is richer, plus that extra size makes for a better light show, which is the main attraction.
Best Bluetooth speaker for listening to records
Weight: 14.5 pounds | Dust and water resistance: N/A | Battery: N/A
As great as Bluetooth speakers are, I still turn to my trusty bookshelf speakers whenever I want to spin a record. Jake Sullivan, co-owner of Wooden Tooth Records in Tucson, Arizona, recommends Edifier’s R1700BT. He sells them in his shop and says customers love them. “It’s the perfect price point for somebody who’s getting a new turntable or speaker system but doesn’t wanna blow their budget,” he says, adding that despite their compact size, they’re loud enough to fill a room.
If you want to connect these speakers to a turntable that’s not Bluetooth-enabled (which is most of them), they have inputs for traditional stereo cables. The added Bluetooth functionality is handy for when you’re not playing a record, so you can blast a playlist or two straight from your phone without having to switch to a separate speaker.
The right speaker has a side panel for controlling the volume as well as bass and treble levels. There’s also a wireless remote you can use to adjust those same levels plus toggle the mute function and switch input devices. Unlike other speakers we recommend, these speakers don’t have a built-in battery, so you’ll need to connect the R1700BT to a power source.
Best Bluetooth speaker for large gatherings
Weight: 13 pounds | Dust and water resistance: IP67 | Battery: 24 hours
When I’m having a gathering at my house, I usually pull out JBL’s Boombox 3, the largest and loudest speaker I’ve tested so far. Even if you’re not blasting music (I rarely do), its extra volume lets the sound carry across the house so nobody’s left out. At 13 pounds, it’s significantly heavier than any other speaker we recommend, but it has an easy-to-grip handle that balances the weight so it doesn’t feel unwieldy.
And all that extra heft pays off: That boost in volume doesn’t come at the expense of sound quality. At 40 percent volume, it’s louder than smaller speakers at maximum volume, and it’s hard to imagine many scenarios that would necessitate cranking it to 100 percent. The bass is heavy without overpowering other frequencies, and vocals sound crisp from up to a few hundred feet away.
If you have another JBL speaker, like the Pulse 5 or Authentics 300, you can even pair them together for a richer sound, though they have to stay pretty close to each other so you shouldn’t use this as a way to carry tunes between rooms — Sonos is better for that. Its battery can last up to 24 hours on a single charge (and still lasted a couple hours after being inactive for a month), and it has a USB-A port you can use to charge your devices if you take this speaker with you on the road (or a visitor needs a quick charge before heading home).
Because of its size and my small home, I had a difficult time finding a place to put it, which isn’t a problem with smaller speakers. If you’re limited on space but want a loud speaker, the Ultimate Ears Megaboom is a better option.
Best Bluetooth speaker that’s more than just a speaker
Weight: 3.74 pounds | Dust and water resistance: Not listed | Battery: 72 hours
In addition to its top-notch sound, no speaker I’ve tested looks nearly as good as the OB-4 from Swedish electronics company Teenage Engineering, with its old-fashioned minimalist boombox styling. While playing film soundtracks, hip-hop, and classic rock, the sound quality remained consistently vibrant.
For anyone who likes to be more hands-on with their listening, the OB-4 also has more playback and recording functions than any other speaker that I’ve tried. You can pair it to your phone over Bluetooth, or use it as an FM radio. You can also use its line-in input for analogue playback with devices like an old iPod or an instrument, and it has a looping function that lets you remix tracks right on the device using a rotating disc. That disc can also be used to manually rewind and fast-forward tracks, which I found myself fiddling with constantly. Its other on-device controls for volume and pairing are reminiscent of old-school audio gear, and it’s fun to play around with both.
The handle, though thin, is strong and secure, so you don’t have to worry about dropping the speaker as you lug it around. You can also fold the handle toward the back of the speaker to turn it into a stand, though I haven’t found that to be particularly useful.
It’s as much a decorative statement as it is a music device, and it’s quite gorgeous. When I had it sitting on my shelf, I received multiple compliments on it. It loses some of its wow factor once you look at its price tag, but if you’re a design-loving music nerd, this speaker checks every box.
Our expert
- Jake Sullivan, co-owner of Wooden Tooth Records in Tucson, Arizona
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