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Technology has come a long way. We no longer need excessive cable management to connect speakers and create the perfect entertainment setup. These days, there are wireless speakers that can quickly turn up the volume in your space with very little effort. The best Wi-Fi speakers offer a bunch of features that make your life easier. Wi-Fi streaming lets you control music in a multi-room environment and most Wi-Fi speakers also offer voice control, such as Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa or Apple’s Siri. This means you can ask your speaker for a specific song and it will play it for you. (For more information, don’t miss CNET’s guide to the best smart speakers.)
For streaming speakers that offer voice control, if you don’t like it, you can just turn it off. Either way, you don’t have to spend a lot – for example, a fantastic “dumb” multi-room speaker like the Ikea Symfonisk Bookshelf starts at $140. To help you figure out which will be the perfect fit for your home audio setup, we’ve compiled a list of the best Wi-Fi speakers we’ve tested in the CNET labs. Read on.
Read more: The best Bluetooth speakers of 2024
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The Sonos Era 100 costs $249 on a smart speaker to please every music fan. The compact device makes a number of improvements over the award-winning One, including stereo playback and even better sound quality. With Bluetooth, Amazon Alexa and Apple AirPlay 2 compatibility Era 100 is a more flexible streaming speaker than ever before.
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For $120, there are a number of excellent smart speakers to choose from, including Amazon EchoNest Audio and HomePod Mini, but Symfonisk is bigger than all of them. Bigger cabinets usually mean louder sound. While this speaker is best as part of a Sonos surround sound system, it’s also a great speaker for a nursery or garage.
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Watch this: The Sonos Era 100 and Era 300 are here: Check out the next generation of wireless streaming speakers
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Google has many speakers to offer, including Nest Audiobut the one who was really great with music — this one Start Max — has been discontinued. It’s surprising, then, that the list of affordable, yet still good-sounding Chromecast built-in speakers can be counted on the fingers of one hand. And of these, the JBL Playlist is the best I’ve tested, with an oversized speaker and enough volume to fill a typical room. It also has Bluetooth and an auxiliary input to expand its versatility. It may not be “smart,” but if you want a system that can be controlled via an existing Google Assistant speaker, this is the one to get.
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Echo Studio comes from the house of Amazon – the creator of Alexa. Easy to set up and loud enough to fill a room with sound. With powerful bass, clear sound and good high frequencies, this is the best Amazon Echo. You can use Alexa to stream songs from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, and more.
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The HomePod Mini may be ahead of the new HomePod in terms of power output, but it’s also a third of the price. For its size, the HomePod Mini has a whole list of useful features – the Siri voice assistant, temperature and humidity control – and it sounds very good, too. If you’re deep into the Apple ecosystem, especially if you use Siri a lot, then the Apple HomePod Mini should be a seamless addition to your home.
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The Sonos Roam is a portable Bluetooth speaker on steroids – it can be used outside, or it can be used as part of a Sonos multi-room system. It’s affordable (for Sonos, that is) and sounds better than other products of its type. It also comes with voice assistant selection to make song selection even simpler.
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Not a speaker as such, but a great option for people who don’t want to buy a whole new one. Let’s say you have a stereo system – or even an old Bluetooth speaker like this one Fluence F170 — and you wanted to be able to add Wi-Fi streaming to it. The WiiM Pro offers the best audio and streaming support of any dongle I can think of — and it’s only $145. The app makes it easy to set up and use and will integrate with many multi-room systems as well.
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- JBL Link Portable ($180): The Link Portable is a bigger Sonos competitor, being compatible with both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and it can play louder and with more bass. In his Sonos Roam reviewreviewer David Carnoy says he preferred the Sonos’ sound and build quality and would buy it over the JBL, though the Link Portable is currently $100 off, making it a much more competitive choice.
- Bose 300 home speaker ($223): If you’re looking for a fast smart speaker, the Bose Home Speaker 300 is both fast and nice to look at. In terms of sound quality, however, it doesn’t measure up to its competitor, the cheaper Sonos One. In addition, the on-board Bose Music multiroom system is not compatible with the existing one SoundTouch products. The 300 appears to be no longer in production, but can still be found in new condition at select retailers. There are also many refurbished models available for even less. Read CNET’s review of the Bose 300 home speaker.
The new HomePod now features an edge-to-edge Siri display
- Apple HomePod (2023) ($250): The new HomePod is an upgraded version of Apple’s first smart speaker with better sound and more features. Despite the newfound support for Dolby Atmos, the temperature and humidity sensors are the most tangible changes. Still, at $300, most people are better off buying the HomePod mini, which has an almost identical feature set. Read CNET’s review of the Apple HomePod (2023)
- Bowers and Wilkins Formation Flex ($500): Little brother to the brilliant Formation Wedge, the Flex is still quite stylish and boasts an exposed sound signature. However, there’s plenty of competition at this level, including the Sonos Five, which is capable of much bigger, party-ready performance. Read CNET’s first look at the Formation lineup.
The Sonos move
- Sonos Move ($279): If you want a wireless speaker model that’s (somewhat) portable and waterproof, the Sonos Move offers great sound in a very large box. If you need to power a tailgate or a big party, this would be great, but for most people, the Sonos Roam is both cheaper and more pocket friendly. Read CNET Sonos Move review.
- Sony SRS-RA5000 ($798): Where should people place large speakers like the Sony SRS-RA5000 and McIntosh RS150? Dressing table — really big? The Sony is over a foot tall, but adding to its potential awkwardness is its 360-degree playback, making it the “best” place to place it in the center of the room. The sound is good, but if you want to hear 3D audio, the Amazon Echo Studio is a quarter of the price. Read CNET’s first review of the Sony SRS-RA5000.
- McIntosh RS150 ($1200): The massive McIntosh RS150 has some great things going for it – namely Chromecast built-in, Roon Ready and Spotify Connect. Regardless, the sound wasn’t as clear as I expected, and the unit doesn’t offer EQ controls to compensate. Moreover, while the former RS100 had the legendary blue McIntosh meter, this update misses a trick by replacing it with LEDs. The competition Naim Mu-so Kb is more compact and offers excellent performance for the same price.
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CNET follows a rigorous, unbiased evaluation process for all of our audio tests. We test Wi-Fi speakers ranging from simple bedside speakers to high-end systems. Our audio lab includes a Roon server works on Synology NAS, Google Nest, and Amazon Echo speakers, as well as iOS and Android devices. Similar speakers are compared side-by-side in a living room environment with different styles of music and use of multiple streaming platforms when needed. We evaluate the sound quality of each by evaluating clarity, dynamics, bass response and stereo imaging (if applicable). If the speaker comes with its own app, we’ll compare it to other competing controllers.
Frequently asked questions about Wi-Fi speakers
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Both can be called wireless speaker systems. Wi-Fi provides the same basic convenience as Bluetooth: using your phone’s Wi-Fi connection to play music through an external speaker or sound system. Just like speakers that use a Bluetooth connection, it can work with a subscription music service app such as Spotify (via Spotify Connect) or Apple Musicradio service as Pandora either TuneIn or your own music collection. Here are the best reasons to get a Wi-Fi speaker for streaming:
- A Wi-Fi speaker sounds better than a Bluetooth speaker because of its higher bandwidth.
- Wi-Fi has better range.
- Wi-Fi doesn’t take over your phone’s audio channel, so you can take a call without interrupting a song, for example.
- It also works great for multi-room audio, allowing playback from multiple speakers throughout the house via your Wi-Fi network, all controlled from a single phone app.
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Mutliroom allows users to play from one or more speakers anywhere in the house at once, with most systems able to support up to a dozen or more different zones. If you want to play a song in “house party mode”, for example, when it plays simultaneously from several speakers in the house, all those speakers must share the same ecosystem. For Sonos and other proprietary systems, all of these speakers will need to be Sonos (or connected to a Sonos device). For Chromecast, all speakers, regardless of brand, will need to be Chromecast compatible. And so on.
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Most speakers come with a dedicated companion app for iOS and Android that is used to both set up and control your system. It goes without saying that you’ll need an internet connection to use a Wi-Fi speaker, and most speakers support at least 2.4GHz connections or even 5Ghz. Check your documentation for the name of the app you need, and make sure you have your Wi-Fi password handy. Most apps use a simple step-by-step process, so you should be listening to music in a few minutes.
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