We’ve listened to these speakers outside, in the car, at work, and at home. We have consistently given the best overall award to Ultimate Ears’ Megaboom series of Bluetooth speakers. But this year we are giving it to the Marshall Emberton because of its powerful sound and stylish design.
The best Bluetooth speaker overall: Marshall Emberton
Why should you buy this? Marshall’s latest speaker offers great sound and strong battery life.
Who’s it for? People looking for the best sound in a small package.
Why we picked the Marshall Emberton:
Marshall’s Emberton speaker may lack some of the features of its biggest competitor, Ultimate Ears. However, the Emberton’s focus on being the best-sounding Bluetooth speaker without all the bells and whistles is where it excels. It doesn’t have an aux line-in or a mic, nor can it pair with additional speakers, but it offers a robust 360-degree sound pattern with plump bass and boasts a 20-hour battery life.
Thanks to its stereo drivers, each driven by a dedicated 10-watt amplifier for 20 total watts of power, the Emberton is capable of a truly surprising amount of sound.
But it’s not just loud — it’s large. Place the Emberton at the front of your listening space and it will belt out an admirable balance of lows, mids, and highs. This is something that other Bluetooth portable speakers struggle with, especially at louder volumes.
The Emberton does an excellent job of preserving sound quality, never distorting or becoming painfully sharp. At the same time, you get a genuine feeling of warmth from this little black box — another area in which portable speakers typically come up short.
Its stereo separation isn’t perfect — there is, after all, about four inches or less between the drivers — but it’s pretty decent. Much more remarkable is its ability to push sound evenly around a space.
The best way to appreciate this is to sit the Emberton in the middle of a room, or even better, in the middle of a patio. With its double-grille openings, it comes close to delivering a 360-degree sound field and virtually guarantees there isn’t a bad seat in the room (or backyard).
The best value Bluetooth speaker: Anker Soundcore Flare Mini
Why should you buy this? 360-degree sound and LED lights in a compact form factor.
Who’s it for? Anyone looking for a flashy and competent Bluetooth speaker without spending a lot of money.
Why we picked the Anker Soundcore Flare Mini:
Anker has been making budget-friendly Bluetooth devices for several years, and they consistently deliver decent sound for a reasonable price. The Soundcore Flare Mini is one of their latest iterations, and it offers 360-degree sound in a device less than six inches tall. The Flare Mini also has a ring of LED lights around the bottom rim that pulsate and glow along with your music. The lights are customizable and feature five different settings.
The Flare Mini’s dual 5-watt speakers deliver solid sound for the size, and it can be paired with a second speaker for stereo sound. Its IPX7 rating makes it great for pool parties as well, and its 12-hour battery will last through a full day with no problem.
It isn’t the cheapest Bluetooth speaker you can get, but the Anker Soundcore Flare Mini offers just enough features at a low price to make it worth it.
The best portable Bluetooth speaker:Ultimate Ears Wonderboom
Why should you buy this? Inch for inch, it’s the most capable micro-speaker you can find that still produces decent sound.
Who’s it for? Those who value portability, but aren’t willing to sacrifice sound quality or durability.
Why we picked the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom:
Mini Bluetooth speakers often suffer from terrible audio quality and volume levels that simply can’t keep up with their larger cousins. The Ultimate Ears Wonderboom defies this tendency and does it in a fully floating, waterproof package.
The Ultimate Ears Wonderboom is shockingly good considering its diminutive size. Ultimate Ears speakers are known for being minimalist in design, and the Wonderboom is no exception. With only two buttons — for volume up/down — there isn’t even a visible battery life indicator (instead you get an audio prompt with three different tones). Inside the 15-ounce Wonderboom are two 40mm drivers supported by two passive radiators, which is how the speaker achieves its so-called 360-degree sound output. The USB micro port is protected by a small tab on the bottom of the speaker, but Ultimate Ears assures that water won’t get gain access to internal electronics, even if this little door is left ajar.
So those 40mm drivers? They make for pretty decent sound output for the Wonderboom’s size — 86 dBA, to be exact. In simpler terms, this is about equal to the loudness of a vacuum cleaner or blender. So, pretty loud.
This is where the speaker’s 360-degree design comes in handy. From any angle, whatever you’re listening to will sound like you’re facing the speaker head-on.
This also means the speaker can be audible in situations with lots of background noise. For example, we used the Wonderboom while driving on the highway in a 1993 Subaru that isn’t exactly the quietest drive. Cheaper Bluetooth speakers in the past have failed to produce audible sound within its cab that can compete with the engine, but the Wonderboom was entirely
For outdoor use, the Wonderboom would compete well against the neighbor’s lawnmower or mechanical pool pumps. In quieter, more ideal listening environments, one can better appreciate the Wonderboom’s sound.
One of Ultimate Ears claims with the Wonderboom is that it has better bass than UE’s other outdoor-focused speaker, the Roll 2. From our time testing, we certainly would back up this claim. The Wonderboom’s low-end performance is notable given its size. However, push the volume too much and there’s some distortion in the lower register. This was especially apparent when listening to a podcast or spoken word track, as speakers with deeper voices tended to sound boomier than they naturally would. Heavier tracks were naturally touchier with the volume, too. But we never found any track unlistenable, even at max volume. Given how loud the Wonderboom is anyway, it’s not likely to cause much of an issue.
Distortion at higher volumes aside, we were pleased with the Wonderboom’s sound and performance. It’s loud, the bass is sufficiently robust even outdoors, and its 360-degree output takes any guesswork out of where to place it for optimal directionality. It’s a definite step up from UE’s other highly portable speaker, the Roll 2. However, if the highest quality sound is your goal and you don’t need a smaller speaker, we would suggest dishing out a few more dollars for the more powerful and capable UE Boom 2 instead.
The best multiroom-capable Bluetooth speaker: Sonos Move
Why should you buy this? It’s a Sonos speaker that can also do double-duty as a rechargeable portable Bluetooth speaker. Need we say more?
Who’s it for? Sonos owners who want a portable Bluetooth speaker that will work with their whole-home sound system.
Why we picked the Sonos Move:
Multiroom audio is something several companies claim their wireless speakers can do, but we’ve never come across a multiroom system that is as easy to use or as powerful as Sonos. So when
Despite looking like the rest of the Sonos line of indoor-only speakers, the Move is just at home outside, with an IP56 rating for dust and water resistance. That means get-togethers, unexpected rainstorms, or even trips to the beach are no problem for the Move. Just don’t immerse it in water — it isn’t waterproof.
It has a big, bold sound that easily fills a room with warmth and depth. Cleverly, the Move integrates a new form of Sonos’ excellent TruePlay EQ technology — one which requires no user intervention. It simply measures the room acoustics via the built-in mics and adjusts accordingly, and will do so every time you move it.
Of course, those mics would be under-utilized if they were only for Auto-TruePlay. They also serve as your smart speaker interface. Like the Sonos One and
The Move’s battery is good for 10 hours of use between charges, which is frankly a little underwhelming for a portable speaker. But we have to give Sonos props for its decision to make the battery user-replaceable — a rarity in this category and a huge help in keeping the Move from an early trip to the landfill.
Filling out the Move’s benefits is AirPlay 2, which lets you stream directly to the speaker from any iOS device or MacOS computer. It’s a higher stream quality than Bluetooth and makes the Move an ideal source for better-than-iPad sound quality for YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, or any other video source you can think of.
If we have one criticism of the Sonos Move[/cc-placement] it’s that you don’t actually want to move it much. It’s very heavy compared to every other portable model on this list and its built-in carry handle isn’t comfortable for anything beyond a trip from the kitchen to the patio.
How we test
We test Bluetooth speakers the way normal people live.
We run every speaker through a rigorous process over the course of several days. That includes playing them in all sorts of scenarios, be it in the park or at the beach (for portables), in the listening room, or at the office, and playing back from our device library and streaming services like Spotify. We also test range, connection stability, and interference in areas with a lot of radio frequency interference (i.e. the Digital Trends offices).
Finally, we compare each speaker to some of our go-to models, both in their class and price point, as well as a level or two above to find out if they can punch above their weight.
How to decipher Bluetooth speaker terms
- NFC: Shorthand for Near Field Communication, this oft-touted feature is actually quite limited when it comes to Bluetooth speakers, allowing select phones to pair with a speaker with a quick touch. Since pairing is often as simple as pressing a button, and speakers will be remembered by your device once paired, it’s not seen as a must-have feature.
- AptX: Another feature limited to phones and devices outside of Apple’s periphery, AptX is a codec (or group of codecs) said to allow Bluetooth streaming at “near CD quality” resolution. Apple products do not use AptX, but Android users may find it improves performance when paired with high-quality tracks and high-performance speakers. AptX Adaptive is the latest and greatest version of this codec, but both source device and Bluetooth speaker must support it for you to get any benefit.
- Passive radiator: This term represents a kind of driver that helps magnify bass within your speaker. If you have a sealed speaker enclosure, which means there are no portholes, a passive radiator essentially reacts to slight changes in the air pressure within the enclosure. Each fluctuation results in sound. Passive radiators do not have to be powered by amps. Furthermore, the device is often lighter than other traditional drivers or speakers because it comes with no magnet or voice coil. That production design saves you a bit of cash, creates a more compact and portable device, and upgrades your speaker’s overall sound.
- Pairing (or Bluetooth pairing): When using Bluetooth speakers, pairing means the literal process of connecting wirelessly between your speaker and your specific device.
- IPXX: IP stands for “Ingress Protection,” and this number serves as a rating for electronic devices. This first number represents exactly how resistant your tech is to dust; the second number measures water-resistance. It’s a simple process to follow, and the higher the number, the most resistant it is to that environmental influence. For example, a device with an IP67 rating means that this device is dust-tight and can be submerged underwater for up to one meter, or about three feet, for 30 minutes. If you’re hoping to bring your Bluetooth speaker to the pool, lake, or anywhere near water, we recommend you consider only using devices with a rating of at least IPX7.
