Wireless speakers aren’t just for barbecues and beach hangs anymore. The best Bluetooth speakers used to be relegated to small, portable music players with often subpar sound, but the market has exploded in recent years. Now, you’re as likely to select a wireless audio player for home listening as you are a traditional hi-fi system. Of course, that surfeit of choices also means that selecting the best Bluetooth speakers can be trickier than ever.
You might want one with a handle, like the Bose SoundLink Revolve+, that you can carry from the bedroom to the basement. Or maybe a multi-room array like the systems Sonos specializes in, so you can wake up, brush your teeth, eat breakfast, and head into your home office, all without missing a single measure of Pharaoh Sanders’ life-giving melodies. Or maybe a pair of Audioengine A1s with a permanent place on the mantelpiece, where they’ll replace the second-hand speakers you had in college.
These expanded product offerings have everything to do with the way people listen to music these days. Many of us are just as likely to stream music as we are to slap a 12" on the turntable. And even a serious music aficionado with a serious hi-fi rig to match may want to listen to the occasional podcast in the kitchen, after all.
Audiophiles will rightly remind you that there’s a tradeoff between quality and convenience, which is true. But wireless speakers don’t just use Bluetooth anymore. For listeners leery of Bluetooth’s audio quality—and it’s true that the technology uses lossy codecs, though many won’t notice the difference—a growing number of products connect directly over your wifi network to utilize Apple’s higher-resolution AirPlay system.
We spoke to a number of experts and music professionals about the best Bluetooth speakers and wireless systems that keep their homes filled with music.
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Sonos has established itself as a leader in multi-room sound over the past two decades, allowing you to stream the same song to every room in the house at once. A single speaker can deliver stereo sound on its own, or you can join two speakers in stereo pairs, and link even more in multi-room arrays. “I have a Sonos system and really enjoy it,” says Dan Deacon, whose setup includes a number of earlier-generation Sonos products: Play:5, Play:1, Play:3, Playbar, and Sub. “Having it connected to my home studio really helps me listen to works in progress in various rooms of the house easily. Also, with my record player routed through it, I can listen to LPs anywhere in the house, and that's really changed my listening habits.”
Emily Lazar, a Grammy-winning engineer who has mastered records for Haim, Vampire Weekend, Clairo, Beck, and more, likes the Sonos One for its sound and versatility. “Whether you are using one single speaker or incorporating pairs of them in a more complex system, they are big enough to fill even a large room with accurate sound. The Ones are all over my house and make it really easy to have my music everywhere.”
A smart speaker, Sonos One features voice control and supports Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. But for users who already have a One and want to pair two speakers—or those leery of allowing voice-recognition technology into their home—the company also offers the One SL, a microphone-free version of the same speaker that retails for $20 less.
Budget-conscious shoppers might also go the second-hand route. Sonos discontinued its Play:1 last year, though the company says that older models can work alongside their younger siblings on the same network. (One catch: Last year, Sonos phased out software updates for earlier generations of products.) “We have two Play:1s at our studio in South Williamsburg,” says Tonje Thilesen, a photographer who has shot subjects like Mandy Patinkin and Kool Herc for the New Yorker and the New York Times, as well as contributed to Pitchfork. “It's a pretty big space—1300 square feet—but they are surprisingly loud and clear for their size, and we can fill the room without issue. We played Ariana Grande's latest record on it the other day and it sounded so good—I was impressed.”
Anyone craving a wireless replacement for traditional hi-fi speakers might look to the Five, Sonos’ sleek, minimalist flagship home speaker. Like all the company’s speakers, it connects to your music via Wi-Fi and supports Apple AirPlay 2, both of which offer audio fidelity superior to Bluetooth. “The most important factor in sound reproduction is transparency,” says Tom Elmhirst, a Grammy-winning mix engineer with credits for James Blake, Frank Ocean, and Miley Cyrus. “The Five combines great sound and design to set the benchmark for the modern home system.” Beyond its three midwoofers (for midrange frequencies) and three tweeters (for high ones), there are other neat bells and whistles too. Set a single speaker horizontally to take advantage of its wide soundstage, or set a stereo pair upright, for even greater coverage. Sonos’ Trueplay technology lets you fine-tune the speaker’s playback to match the acoustics of the room. You can even run a line in from your turntable or CD player. And if you really want to turn your living room into a dance party—once everyone’s been vaccinated, of course—Elmhirst recommends adding the Sonos Sub, for even more oomph.
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Bluetooth connections are increasingly a feature of more traditionally-styled speaker systems. Michael Calore, a product editor at Wired, recommends the Texas company Audioengine for its bookshelf speakers, which combine Bluetooth connectivity with additional inputs and outputs. “These A1s are its most compact model, so I recommend them for tighter spaces like desktops and breakfast nooks—wherever the mood can be enhanced by a clear stereo image,” he says. “Just make sure there's a power outlet nearby; these don't run on batteries. Connect to them wirelessly with Bluetooth, or plug in a mini cable from your cassette Walkman to listen to your Dead bootlegs.”
Or, if your Record Store Day haul is gathering dust, opt for Audioengine’s A2+ or HD3 speakers, both of which incorporate RCA analog inputs as well. And if you really want to level up in sound, go for the A5+, which nearly doubles the size of the woofer—a bigger woofer means more bass— and ramps up the output from from 60W to 150W.
Vancouver’s Kanto makes speakers that stand out for both their design and quality. Recommended by Peter Hahn at Turntable Lab, the Kanto YU4 is a powered speaker with integrated Bluetooth connectivity along with RCA analog inputs and a built-in phono preamp, which means that you can connect a turntable directly to the speakers. The remote control lets you tweak the three-band EQ (bass, mids, and highs) on the fly, while a subwoofer output promises extra low end—presuming your downstairs neighbors are chill.
Genevieve Dellinger, managing partner at Los Angeles creative agency Goldie Productions, and her partner, sculptor Dan John Anderson, work out of their home in the California desert, where they use Fluance Ai40 powered bookshelf speakers. “They were affordable, sound great, and reliably connect—and stay connected,” Dellinger says. (That’s a not insignificant feature—as anyone who has used Bluetooth knows, some devices can be notoriously finicky.) Like its now discontinued predecessor, the Ai41 is a 45-watt powered speaker with a 5" woofer, a subwoofer output, and RCA and optical ins along with Bluetooth 5.0. (The beefier Ai61 incorporates a 6.5" woofer and a combined 120 watts of power.)
The Bose brand is synonymous with noise-canceling headphones, but the Massachusetts company has been delivering innovations in room-filling sound since the 1960s. Ben Cardew, a Pitchfork contributor and host of Radio Primavera Sound, likes his five-year old Bose SoundTouch 10, which offers both Bluetooth and wifi connectivity and “has the added advantage that you can listen to digital radio stations on it—podcasts, too. When you don’t know what to listen to, having a speaker that you can just press a button on and a digital station comes out is great.”
A more up-to-date option is the sleek, no-frills Bose SoundLink Revolve+ II, a portable Bluetooth device that can sit in an optional charging cradle, making it a good best-of-both-worlds option: I keep mine plugged in and charging in the kitchen, then grab the handle to take it outside. The battery life is remarkable, and it has a decently full, punchy sound, though the low end gets a bit woody in certain corners of the room. Alex Knoblauch, of Berlin’s Vakant label, likes the SoundLink Mini, which he says “offers an excellent build and impressive sound quality for the compact size. It works nicely as a portable speaker for travelling but also doesn’t fail to fill smaller rooms without insulting your ears.” Twin Shadow is also a fan: “I tell everyone to spend the extra $100 and get a Bose SoundLink Mini. The battery lasts forever, it gets loud without blowing up, and the sound beats most of your cobbled-together thrift store stereos or your Prius' sound system.”
These days, Bose has put most of their chips on the Home Speaker system, a line of smart speakers compatible with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. The Bose Portable Smart Speaker, Bose Home 300, and Bose Home 500—as well as various surround speakers, soundbars, and subwoofers—can be connected in multi-room systems via Bose SimpleSync technology. Their round design is meant to bounce audio off nearby walls and surfaces, expanding the 360-degree soundstage—a return of sorts to the surround-sound philosophy that launched the company in the first place.
Perhaps best known for its OP-1 portable synthesizer, Teenage Engineering is a Swedish company that makes ultra-stylish products that look almost like toys, yet have found their way into the studios of musicians like Trent Reznor and Jean Michel Jarre (not to mention the permanent collection of SF MOMA). The OB-4 is billed as a “magic radio”—a combination FM radio and Bluetooth device. Like pretty much everything in Teenage Engineering’s product line, the OB-4 Portable Speaker is pricey, but its sound is both clear and hefty, while the bells and whistles are as quirky as the company’s fans might expect. Ambient mode processes snippets of FM radio to generate endless soundscaping; tape mode allows you to rewind, replay, slow, and speed up anything you’ve listened to in the previous two hours. There’s even a metronome.
For proof that wireless audio has definitively moved indoors, just see the growing trend of furniture pieces equipped with Bluetooth speakers. Amazon is overflowing with vaguely retro-looking end tables and minimalist-hygge bedside stands incorporating Bluetooth speakers, wireless phone chargers, and other high-tech gewgaws. (One side table with a vaguely hospital-chic design even features a “thermoelectric cooler drawer,” the smart-home equivalent of an old-school dorm fridge.) Naturally, IKEA has gotten into the act: The Swedish retailer’s SYMFONISK collection is a collaboration with Sonos meant to integrate minimalist design with killer sound. Mounted horizontally on the wall, the SYMFONISK bookshelf speaker cleverly doubles as an actual bookshelf; there’s also a table lamp whose base incorporates a wifi speaker. In either case, two units can be joined in stereo pairs and added to your Sonos multi-room system. Like most Sonos products, SYMFONISK speakers connect to your home wifi system and stream music over Apple AirPlay (but not Bluetooth). Neither delivers the sound quality of a Sonos One, but for the price, either makes an excellent entry point into the Sonos system.
IKEA offers other Bluetooth units, too. The ultra-minimalist Eneby features surprisingly good sound for its price, can be linked in stereo pairs, and comes in two sizes: 8"x8" or 12"x12". The latter, of course, is perfectly sized to sit inside of one of IKEA’s Kallax record shelves, right alongside your vinyl collection.
IKEA built its business on bringing tasteful design to the masses. French company Devialet, founded in 2007, caters to a significantly smaller market. But for hardcore audiophiles in search of wireless audio solutions, the company’s Phantom speaker is hard to beat. Meant to connect over non-lossy ethernet or wifi, though also supporting Bluetooth, the speaker boasts Devialet’s proprietary Active Cospherical Engine (ACE), meant to create an unusually immersive, multidirectional soundstage. “It’s exorbitantly priced,” admits Pitchfork’s Seth Dodson, “but if the house was on fire, after grabbing my husband and dog, I’d grab this.”
