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After testing 20 new models, we’re keeping the UE Wonderboom 2, JBL Xtreme 2, and Tribit XSoundGo as top picks, but we’ve added two new also-great picks and five other speakers we like.
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Brent Butterworth
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Portable Bluetooth speakers are the easiest, most affordable way to spread the sound from your phone or tablet across a room, backyard, or beach blanket. Because Bluetooth speakers come in a variety of designs and sizes, it’s impossible to proclaim any one model perfect for every situation. But we think the UE Wonderboom 2 will appeal to almost everyone. Its full, clear sound and ultra-rugged, compact design make it a perfect travel companion.
The Wonderboom 2 has a natural sound and a cool design, and it’s built to survive almost any outdoor adventure.
May be out of stock
*At the time of publishing, the price was $95.
The UE Wonderboom 2 is as euphonious as Ariana Grande but as tough as Lara Croft. In our blind tests, our panelists picked this Bluetooth speaker as the all-around most versatile choice. With clear vocal reproduction and a decent amount of bass for its size, it offers satisfying sound for small areas. It has an IP67 rating and is one of the most rugged Bluetooth speakers we’ve tested, able to survive a 5-foot drop and a dunking in 1 meter of water—but because it floats, it’ll probably never dive that deep. The Wonderboom 2’s only downside is its battery life, which at 8 hours is adequate but not impressive. We like the Wonderboom 2’s compact design, even if the almost-spherical shape makes this model a little tougher to pack away in a suitcase pocket or laptop bag.
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The Xtreme 2 easily fills a large room (or a small parking lot) with satisfying sound, and its rugged, waterproof design makes it trunk-friendly.
If you want a portable Bluetooth speaker that approaches the sound of a good small stereo system yet is rugged enough to take almost anywhere, the JBL Xtreme 2 is a terrific choice. For its size, the Xtreme 2 is one of the best-sounding portable Bluetooth speakers we’ve tested. Our listeners praised its ample bass, high maximum volume, and overall clear, clean sound. It has an IPX7 rating, which means it can survive submersion in 1 meter of water, and it includes a handy, strong carrying strap. The Xtreme 2 also delivered 19 hours of battery life. But it’s much larger and pricier than the UE Wonderboom 2.
The Tribit XSound Go is the best speaker we’ve heard in its price range, and it’s compact and waterproof to boot.
If you want to spend the bare minimum on an all-around good portable Bluetooth speaker, the Tribit XSound Go is a great choice. Its sound is obviously clearer and louder than that of almost all other budget Bluetooth speakers. The XSound Go is small enough to slip into a laptop bag or an already stuffed suitcase, and it will run 10½ hours on a charge. Plus, it has an IPX7 rating, which means it’s sufficiently waterproof to survive a half-hour dunking in 1 meter of water, and it has a speakerphone function. Tribit recently upgraded the XSound Go with USB-C charging and stereo pairing.
The SRS-XB33 has a detailed, clear sound, with a rugged design and lots of features.
You save $32 (21%)
If you need something that sounds a little louder and fuller than the UE Wonderboom 2, but that’s more portable and affordable than the JBL Xtreme 2, the Sony SRS-XB33 finds a nice middle ground. The successor to our previous pick, the SRS-XB32, the new XB33 is a little bulkier and a little better, with deeper bass and a somewhat more detailed and natural sound. It’s powerful enough to fill a 15-by-20-foot room, and we got about 16 hours of battery life. It’s also built to take punishment, with an IP67 waterproof and dustproof rating. Like its predecessor, it has multicolor lights and strobes. However, it’s about 2½ times bigger and heavier than the Wonderboom 2, so it’s nowhere near as portable.
The Hyperboom plays loud enough to fill a backyard, yet offers sound quality comparable in many ways to that of a good small stereo system.
The UE Hyperboom might be the closest thing we’ve found to a portable Bluetooth speaker that does everything well. It plays almost twice as loudly as the JBL Xtreme 2, so it’s ideal for pool parties and tailgating. It also sounds beautiful, with smooth and natural vocals, ample deep bass, and surprising ambience for a one-piece speaker—so you’ll want to use it indoors too. At 14.3 inches high and 16.6 pounds, it’s impractical for airline travel, but it’s compact and light enough that most people can carry it easily. It also has an IPX4 rating, so it’ll survive all the splashing that goes on around a pool. In our tests, it played at a fairly loud volume for 27.5 hours on a single charge.
The Wonderboom 2 has a natural sound and a cool design, and it’s built to survive almost any outdoor adventure.
May be out of stock
*At the time of publishing, the price was $95.
The Xtreme 2 easily fills a large room (or a small parking lot) with satisfying sound, and its rugged, waterproof design makes it trunk-friendly.
The Tribit XSound Go is the best speaker we’ve heard in its price range, and it’s compact and waterproof to boot.
The SRS-XB33 has a detailed, clear sound, with a rugged design and lots of features.
You save $32 (21%)
The Hyperboom plays loud enough to fill a backyard, yet offers sound quality comparable in many ways to that of a good small stereo system.
I’ve reviewed audio gear professionally since 1990. I have written reviews for numerous magazines and websites, including Sound & Vision, Home Theater Review, Mashable, Lifewire, and Home Theater. I’ve probably conducted more blind tests of audio products than any other journalist, and I’ve tested somewhere around 380 wireless speakers to date. Since 2008 I have taken portable Bluetooth speakers on more than 100 trips, from bike tours to transoceanic junkets to weeklong trade-show slogs.
For recent updates to this guide, our testing panel has included Wirecutter senior staff writer and headphone editor Lauren Dragan, woodwind player Dan Gonda, and drummer Sammy Velick. Dan and Sammy have considerable experience in music performance and production. Both of them own a few Bluetooth speakers and have heard many more of them in my home, where I use them to demo jazz tunes for musicians in my jam sessions.
Anyone who owns a smartphone or tablet would probably enjoy owning a portable Bluetooth speaker, which can improve the listening experience anywhere. Bluetooth is available in every current smartphone and tablet, as well as in most laptop computers, so you don’t need additional equipment. Unlike smart speakers and Wi-Fi speakers, Bluetooth speakers don’t require a network connection and the use of special apps—whatever you play on the phone will play through the speaker.
Portable Bluetooth speakers have a rechargeable battery and are frequently waterproof or splash-proof, so you can easily move them around the house or take them to a park or the beach. We’ve found that they make hotel rooms feel more like home.
The best of these speakers deliver sound quality that’s good enough for casual music listening, podcasts, and internet radio. Although Bluetooth does degrade sound quality slightly, you’re unlikely to hear the effects through relatively low-quality speakers such as these. If you’re worried about it, take the online blind test on my website and see what you think.
If sound quality and volume are your top priorities, and you don’t plan to take the speaker out of your house, you may want to check out the larger, more powerful speakers featured in our other tabletop speaker guides:
Klipsch’s The One II Bluetooth speaker is a great way to get full, satisfying sound in the home with no need for complicated setup or special apps.
The Sonos One is an Amazon Echo in a great Sonos speaker, but still a work in progress for Alexa, Google Assistant, AirPlay, and everything else.
For true high-fidelity sound, we recommend a pair of decent bookshelf speakers and a stereo receiver or one of the top picks from our best computer speakers guide. You’ll get clearer sound, much better stereo imaging, and usually much deeper bass response. You can add a Bluetooth adapter if the system doesn’t already have Bluetooth built in.
Voice control of the sort popularized by the Amazon Echo and Google Home is uncommon in portable Bluetooth speakers, because almost all voice-command technologies require a Wi-Fi connection to function. Some Bluetooth speakers provide a button that activates your smartphone’s voice-command technology (such as Google Assistant), but because you can access those features straight from your phone, this isn’t a big advantage.
I’d estimate that there are a couple thousand models of Bluetooth speakers now available, many sold under obscure brands and sometimes only through Amazon. Considering that new ones seem to appear every week, it would be impossible to find and hear them all. But we’ve listened to most of the major models and are always on the lookout for promising new models to test.
We use the following criteria to help us decide which speakers to call in for testing:
We didn’t award “extra points” for inclusion of additional Bluetooth codecs beyond the standard SBC codec included in all Bluetooth products. The sonic differences among these codecs are insignificant next to the huge, easily heard differences among the speakers themselves. And because most people use portable Bluetooth speakers for music, podcasts, and internet radio—and not for movies, TV, or gaming—the reduced latency of codecs such as aptX Low Latency offers few benefits in this case.
What are the different Bluetooth audio codecs and how much do they affect a device’s sound quality? (Hint: Not as much as you might think.)
After considering all of the criteria, we ended up evaluating 20 new models for our summer 2020 update, including recent releases from Altec Lansing, Braven, EcoXGear, JBL, Marshall, Morpheus, Sony, Anker, Tribit, UE, and Wharfedale. This brings us to a total of about 290 Bluetooth speakers that we’ve tested since this guide first posted in 2013.
As has become my standard practice for updates to this guide, I started by giving all of the new models a long listen, connecting them via Bluetooth through my Samsung Galaxy S10 phone and playing the same four test tracks—in this case, two pop/folk, one heavy rock, and one jazz. I compared the speakers not only with each other but also with some of our previous picks.
During these tests, I measured the maximum output of each speaker indoors at a distance of 1 meter using an NTi Minilyzer audio analyzer and a calibrated NTi MiniSPL test microphone. For this test, I used the analyzer’s Leq mode, measuring the average maximum level when playing ZZ Top’s very loudly recorded tune “Chartreuse.” Note that I’ve refined this technique since the previous update, so the numbers are slightly different from before, but this doesn’t change how the products stacked up against each other.
I narrowed the contestants to the models that I thought had a real chance to impress our listening panel, and I included a couple of past picks. Then I divided the set of speakers into four groups: ultra-compact, small, medium, and large. I set the volume of the speakers within a particular group to the same level, using the shaped-noise channel-balancing test tone recorded from a Dolby Digital receiver. For the ultra-compact and small speakers, it was 74 dB at 1 meter, and it was 78 and 85 dB for the medium and large speakers, respectively. Because of the widely varying performance, the coarse volume-control steps, and the unpredictable actions of the volume limiters used in these speakers, it was impossible to match levels accurately, but in most cases I was able to get them within plus/minus 0.3 dB. At the end of each speaker’s run, I cranked it full blast and played Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown” to see how well the speaker tolerated high volume and strong, deep bass.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wasn’t able to conduct our usual blind panel tests for our summer 2020 update, but I was able to drop off the most promising models with Lauren Dragan so she could give me a second opinion. Lauren used a similar process as mine to test the limited selection of speakers I sent to her. Ultimately, our top, upgrade, and budget picks (which were previously panel-tested) did not change, but we discovered a bunch of new speakers that we liked.
During these tests, we paid particular attention to:
I checked the battery life of each of our top picks by repeating Steely Dan’s “Aja” at an average level of 75 dB (measured at 1 meter) over and over until the power ran out (for the UE Hyperboom, I increased the level to 81 dB). Note that our results may not agree with the manufacturers’ stated battery life, likely because their testing methodology—which they almost never publish—varies from ours. I also measured the maximum Bluetooth range of all our picks.
For models that offer speakerphone functionality, I tried placing a call with each model to Lauren, who has helped me evaluate speakerphone quality for years. I speak to her from the same place in my living room, starting with my mouth 2 feet from the speaker; then I note how she sounds to me, and she tells me how my voice sounds.
The Wonderboom 2 has a natural sound and a cool design, and it’s built to survive almost any outdoor adventure.
May be out of stock
*At the time of publishing, the price was $95.
A portable Bluetooth speaker should be compact, rugged, and affordable, and (most of all) sound good. The UE Wonderboom 2 ticks all of these boxes and then some. All but one of our listeners praised the Wonderboom 2 for its natural balance of bass to midrange to treble, as well as its clear reproduction of voices. The Wonderboom 2 is about the size and weight of a large apple, so it’s easy to carry around. It also has lots of useful features, including an Outdoor Boost mode that makes it louder (at the expense of bass), an ultra-rugged design, stereo/mono pairing, an extra-long Bluetooth range, and a top button that lets you pause and restart the music, as well as skip to the next track.
“The sound is surprisingly clear for such a small speaker,” Sammy said. Lauren added: “It sounds bright, but it’s got enough bass to balance that out—it’s boom and sizzle, where most of the small speakers are all sizzle.”
With an IP67 rating, the Wonderboom 2 is dustproof and waterproof, and it can be submerged in up to 1 meter of water for a half hour. It also floats, so you won’t lose it if you drop it off a boat or dock or into a swimming pool. UE says the Wonderboom 2 can withstand a 5-foot drop; we confirmed this by dropping it from 5 feet, first onto a hardwood floor and then onto concrete (see video above). Not only did it keep working, but it barely even showed a scuff mark. A small, elasticized strap on top lets you hang the Wonderboom 2 from a shower rod, tent pole, or other object, provided you have a carabiner, hook, or strand of string to attach it.
In our measurements, the Wonderboom 2 put out 85.1 dB at 1 meter, about the same level you’d hear from the traffic noise if you were standing at a busy city intersection—and enough to fill a small room with sound. The Outdoor Boost mode increased this by about 3 dB—that’s not a dramatic boost, but it is noticeably louder. However, this mode reduces bass, so the speaker doesn’t sound as full and as pleasing. Bluetooth range measured an impressive 95 feet through one window.
If you like lots of bass, this probably isn’t your speaker. I was bothered to hear its little speaker drivers choking on some of the deep bass notes in my favorite jazz and pop recordings. If you prefer more bass, the Walmart-exclusive Anker SoundCore Rave Neo or the Sony SRS-XB33 may be more to your liking.
The Wonderboom 2 lacks a speakerphone function. We wouldn’t use this feature often, but you might.
Battery life is rated at 13 hours, but we measured roughly 8 hours, and that’s with four trials of two different units, with the Outdoor Boost mode disengaged. That’s adequate to cover a full workday, but there won’t be any reserve to save you if you forget to keep it charged. Charging is through a Micro-USB port; Micro-USB cables are readily available, but many readers tell us they prefer USB-C.
Finally, though the Wonderboom 2 is light and compact, it’s not slim. Its cylindrical design, measuring about 3½ inches in diameter and 4 inches high, takes up more space in a suitcase than some slimmer designs and prevents it from fitting comfortably in a laptop bag.
The Xtreme 2 easily fills a large room (or a small parking lot) with satisfying sound, and its rugged, waterproof design makes it trunk-friendly.
The JBL Xtreme 2 is one of the best portable Bluetooth speakers we’ve heard, with a big, full sound that approaches the quality of what you might hear from a good compact stereo system. The Xtreme 2 is a good bit bigger and heavier than the UE Wonderboom 2 and the Sony SRS-XB33, but its detachable shoulder strap makes toting it to the beach or park easy. Because the Xtreme 2 carries an IPX7 rating, it can readily survive rogue waves or unexpected downpours.
“The JBL is one of the few speakers in its size range with enough bass to sound good on Kanye West’s ‘Love Lockdown,’” Lauren said. “It has a 3D, spacious quality to the sound. Male voices sounded good, although the sound is a little bright, so it makes female voices sound a little harsh.” Sammy and I had similar comments; only Dan demurred, saying the bass was too pumped up for his taste.
At 11½ inches long by 5 inches in diameter, with a weight of 5.4 pounds (more than four pounds heavier than the Wonderboom 2), the Xtreme 2 isn’t especially compact, and it definitely isn’t light—but thanks to its thick canvas shoulder strap, it’s easy to lug around. The strap even has a bottle opener built into its buckle.
The Xtreme 2 put out a relatively modest 90.8 dB at 1 meter in our tests, but it seems far louder because the sound is so full and the bass really kicks. Battery life is rated at 15 hours, and we measured 19 hours in our tests. Bluetooth range measured an impressive 110 feet through one window.
There’s a speakerphone function—when I called Lauren, she described my voice as sounding “clear, but a little compressed,” but her voice sounded great on my end. The Connect+ function lets you connect up to 100 Connect+ speakers together for mass playback (although that’s 98 speakers more than most people would probably want to connect). The play button on top lets you pause and restart playback and skip to the next track.
We originally considered the Xtreme 2 a little expensive, but the typical selling price has dropped by $100 since we first featured it in this guide, so now we consider it a much better value.
The only real downside to the Xtreme 2 is that it is limited to charging through a separate AC adapter, which of course you’ll have to remember to bring with you if you want to play this speaker for more than 19 hours. A speaker this big and powerful would charge much too slowly through a Micro-USB cable; we wish JVC would update it with USB-C, which would allow fast charging with suitable generic chargers.
The Tribit XSound Go is the best speaker we’ve heard in its price range, and it’s compact and waterproof to boot.
If you want a great all-around portable Bluetooth speaker for about the cost of a tank of gas, the Tribit XSound Go is a terrific choice. Even two years after its debut, it still sounds better than almost everything else in its price range, with clearer vocals and more bass than most competitors can muster. It’s small enough to slip into a laptop bag or any suitcase, and it’s IPX7-rated, which means it’s sufficiently waterproof to survive a half-hour swim in 1 meter of water. Tribit recently upgraded the XSound Go with USB-C charging and stereo pairing, so we tested a new sample and found it to be as good as the previous one.
When the XSound Go accompanied me through four weeks of travel, I continued to be surprised by how clear and full its sound was. Voices were natural and distinct, never bloated or hoarse, as they can be through most inexpensive Bluetooth speakers. The XSound Go doesn’t come across as full or play as loud as the UE Wonderboom 2, but all of the panelists thought it delivered amazing sound quality for its price. Measured maximum volume was 82.2 dB—not enough to get a party going, but enough for light listening in a typical living room.
There’s nothing flashy about the XSound Go, but it doesn’t have that cheap, plasticky look that many budget Bluetooth speakers have. Although it has a play/pause button on the top, it doesn’t have track-skip buttons, which would come in handy if you used the XSound Go in the shower. The battery is rated for 24 hours of life; we got only about 10½ hours, but for a cheap Bluetooth speaker, that’s fine.
For the price, the XSound Go’s speakerphone function is acceptable. Lauren’s voice sounded full but a little garbled to me, and she complained of a high-frequency hissing noise that accompanied my voice. Bluetooth range seems to have improved in the new version—I got about 50 feet through one window, versus 25 feet with the old version.
The SRS-XB33 has a detailed, clear sound, with a rugged design and lots of features.
You save $32 (21%)
The Sony SRS-XB33 is the speaker to get when you need a bit more speaker than the UE Wonderboom 2 but don’t need the party-level volume of the JBL Xtreme 2. It’s a completely redesigned and re-engineered update of our previous pick, the Sony SRS-XB32. It’s more than twice the size and weight of the Wonderboom 2, but it has a clearer, fuller, bassier sound that gets it fairly close to the performance of a small set of desktop speakers—making it an ideal choice for a dorm room, office, or bedroom. Like its predecessor, the SRS-XB33 is packed with features, although some are of questionable utility unless you’ve got someone you really want to annoy.
“Best sound I’ve heard all day,” Lauren said, although she wasn’t testing any larger models at the time. “The highs sound clear, the bass and the treble are well-balanced, and it didn’t misbehave when I played ‘Love Lockdown.’” I agreed; the SRS-XB33 was good enough for me to enjoy through hours-long jazz listening sessions. The app offers a three-band equalizer, as well as Extra Bass and Live Sound modes. Our advice? Turn Extra Bass on and Live Sound off, then never adjust the sound again.
The app offers four DJ sound effects, such as Jet and Noise, but I found no use for them beyond eliciting adorable puzzled reactions from my shih tzu. And of course, the app accesses numerous lighting schemes using the integral strobe and multicolor LED lights, which you can enjoy or banish.
The SRS-XB33 measures 9.5 by 3.1 by 3.3 inches and weighs 2.4 pounds—too big to fit easily into a suitcase but small enough to toss into a car trunk or beach bag. Its IP67 rating, which indicates it is dustproof and waterproof, means there’s no need to worry if it encounters sand, splashes, or rain. It’s also said to be shock resistant, but Sony provides no additional details, and we didn’t conduct impact testing.
Battery life is rated at 24 hours; with Extra Bass on, we got 16 hours before the speaker started announcing “Please charge” every couple of minutes. This is a huge improvement over the SRS-XB32, which ran for only six hours before it automatically reduced its level to preserve battery life. Charging is through a USB-C port. At full blast, the SRS-XB33 puts out a very impressive 92.3 dB at 1 meter—even more than the JBL Xtreme 2, although it doesn’t sound as full and clear as the Xtreme 2 at high volume. That’s 7.2 dB more than the Wonderboom 2, or about the difference between speaking in a normal voice and raising your voice so it can be heard in a conversation with a half-dozen people.
Bluetooth range measured about 70 feet through one window. You can connect up to 100 compatible Sony wireless speakers for synchronized playback, and you can even sync the lights. The play and pause button on top lets you pause and restart playback and skip to the next track. When we tested the speakerphone function, Lauren’s voice sounded wonderfully full and natural, but she reported that my voice, while reasonably easy to understand, had a crackly, rough character.
The Hyperboom plays loud enough to fill a backyard, yet offers sound quality comparable in many ways to that of a good small stereo system.
The UE Hyperboom is a speaker anyone could use, from the parent who wants to fill their backyard with music for a pool party to the audio aficionado who wants a portable speaker whose sound quality comes close to that of a decent stereo system. It plays very loud, maxing out at 102.9 dB—about 11 dB louder than the JBL Xtreme 2. That’s plenty of volume for an outdoor party. And with an IPX4 rating, it’s water resistant enough to survive splashes. “For picnics or group workout sessions in the park, this is ideal,” Lauren said.
From a sonic standpoint, the Hyperboom is the most technically sophisticated Bluetooth speaker we’ve encountered. With two tweeters (to reproduce the higher-frequency sounds), two woofers (for the lower-frequency sounds), and two passive radiators (to further help with bass reproduction), it’s like two good stereo speakers in one box—in fact, I noted that it had the kind of clear, robust sound I hear in the ELAC Debut 2.0 B6.2, a top pick in our Best Bookshelf Speakers and Best Surround-Sound Speakers guides, but rarely in a Bluetooth speaker. The Hyperboom also incorporates an Adaptive EQ feature, which is said to adapt the speaker’s sound automatically to the acoustics of the surroundings. Indoors, Adaptive EQ does allow a little too much bass to sneak through, and the full bass tends to obscure some of the treble, so acoustic guitars have less twang and cymbals less ping. (Of course, many listeners prefer a bassier sound.) Outdoors, Adaptive EQ seems to work perfectly. If you don’t like the sound with Adaptive EQ, the app has a five-band equalizer plus Bass Jump, Game/Cinema, and Podcast modes.
The Hyperboom also offers a few unusual features. First is an optical input, which makes it easy to connect to TV sets for louder, fuller sound. (You’ll have to control the volume on the Hyperboom, though.) Next is a top-mounted ring switch that lets you choose between two Bluetooth sources and select the optical and analog inputs. Through the app, you can connect it to any number of additional Hyperbooms, as well as any speakers from the UE Boom and Megaboom lines.
At 16.6 pounds and 14.3 inches high, the Hyperboom is large, but a rear-mounted retractable rubber handle makes it pretty easy to lug around. It has a rated battery life of 24 hours; we got 27.5 hours with the Hyperboom running at 81 dB—6 dB louder than the other speakers. We measured Bluetooth range at 110 feet, which is outstanding—although getting this long range sometimes required that we turn the Hyperboom in a particular direction, probably because the sheer size of the unit can interfere with the Bluetooth antenna.
The only real downside to the Hyperboom is its rather high cost, but it’s less pricey than the new Sonos Five, which from an audio standpoint is similarly sophisticated—although of course the Sonos model offers Wi-Fi audio instead of Bluetooth. (If you need more volume, don’t mind something larger, and don’t need a water-resistant speaker, the JBL PartyBox 100, described below, is a better and more affordable choice.) Also, the Hyperboom has a dedicated charger, which you’ll have to remember to bring if you take the speaker to your vacation home for more than a day or two. It lacks a speakerphone function, but it’s unlikely most people would demand a speakerphone feature in a speaker this large.
Each of these speakers is basically a runner-up for one of our picks. They’re listed in the same order as the picks—e.g., the SoundCore Flare 2 is a runner-up to the UE Wonderboom 2, and so on. For some people and applications, these may be better choices than our top picks.
The Anker SoundCore Flare 2 is an ideal choice for anyone who wants a good speaker in the mid-two-figures price range and doesn’t need the extreme portability and durability of the UE Wonderboom 2, which is a little more than half the Flare 2’s height. As of this writing, it’s less expensive than the Wonderboom 2, and Lauren and I both thought it sounded better—with more bass, 1.5 dB more volume, and a fuller, smoother sound that made voices sound more natural. App-controlled EQ controls let you fine-tune the sound. It also has a speakerphone function (which the Wonderboom 2 lacks) and app-controlled multicolored LED lighting (which can be turned off).
The Sony SRS-XB43 almost replaced the JBL Xtreme 2 as our upgrade pick because it sounds a little better, plays 3.6 dB louder, and costs about the same. (It also offers the same lighting and sound features as the SRS-XB33.) The only reason we didn’t make the SRS-XB43 a pick is that it’s only marginally portable, with a weight of 6.4 pounds and no carrying handle or provisions for attaching a strap. It’s like carrying a football filled with sand, and for many people that’ll mean a two-handed carry.
The Tribit StormBox Micro is the best speaker we’ve found for ultra-portable use, such as backpacking and cycling trips. It’s IP67-rated and only about 4 inches square and 1.4 inches thick. An integral rubber strap attaches it to bike handlebars, tent poles, or backpack straps. Lauren liked its sound better than that of the Tribit XSound Go; I liked it, but preferred the XSound Go’s sound. Two caveats: At the time of this update, the StormBox Micro was almost twice as expensive as the XSound Go, and we tested battery life at just five hours.
The Anker SoundCore Rave Neo is a cheaper but much larger alternative to the Sony SRS-XB33. It’s a two-way speaker design with a separate woofer and tweeter, so it has an especially big, full sound for its price. “It’s a lot of speaker for $100,” Lauren said, citing its list price at launch. It has a large, fabric carrying strap that makes it easy to lug its 11.5-inch-high, 6.4-pound bulk, and it’s small enough to fit in some beach bags. It plays at about the same volume as the SRS-XB33, but while the Rave Neo has plenty of bass for hip-hop, it doesn’t sound quite as clear on vocals as the Sony, and it doesn’t sound as clear as the Sony when they’re both cranked up. It offers app-controlled lights and EQ modes, and adds a few DJ sound effects.
Along with the UE Hyperboom, the JBL PartyBox 100 is one of our favorites among the growing class of portable Bluetooth speakers designed to power large parties. At 21.8 pounds and 21.5 inches high, it’s clearly designed to play loud, but to our surprise it sounds as smooth and refined as many of the best wireless speakers. Input jacks and level controls for a guitar and microphone make this a great choice for casual DJing and musical performances, too. While the PartyBox 100 includes the expected (and easily deactivated) LED light show, it lacks the EQ modes and tuning apps included in many party-prioritized speakers—but it doesn’t need them. It is less expensive than the Hyperboom, but it doesn’t sound quite as smooth and even through the whole audio range, and it’s not water-resistant, so using it near a pool or at the beach is ill-advised.
There were a couple of new speakers that the manufacturers were unable to supply in time for the most recent update of this guide. These include the Aiwa Exos-X8, LG’s XBoom PL7 and PL5, and the Marshall Emberton, all of which we’ve been promised as soon as they’re available. As of this writing, we know of no other major introductions we haven’t covered. If any new Bluetooth speakers debut at this year’s IFA Berlin in September, we’ll try to get samples in time for a pre-holiday update of this guide.
We’ve tested about 290 portable Bluetooth speakers specifically for this article. Some competitors came close to our top picks in performance and value, and they may be worth considering, depending on your priorities. Here’s a list of some of the more recent models we’ve considered, in alphabetical order.
The circular 1More Portable BT Speaker produced distorted bass, made voices sound unnatural, and seemed to vibrate a bit on the table we placed it on.
The Altec Lansing Rock Box XL generally sounds very good and plays pretty loud. We prefer the more compact form factors of the JBL Xtreme 2 and Sony SRS-XB43, but if you like the boombox format, the Rock Box XL is a good buy.
The Altec Lansing SoundBucket XL is what it says it is—a big, bucket-shaped speaker. It’s surprisingly inexpensive, it plays about as loud as the much costlier Sony SRS-XB43, and it’s IP67-rated. It has a dull sound that makes voices sound somewhat muffled and bloated, but if you just need a high-volume speaker for pool parties and understandably want to pay as little as possible, it’s a good buy.
Although we found that the Altec Lansing Super Life Jacket played loud and had impressive bass for its size, we thought the sound was rather rough and uneven.
The Anker SoundCore has a low price and an appealingly simple design, but it didn’t sound as full and smooth as the Tribit XSound Go.
The Anker SoundCore Boost loses voice clarity with its bass boost mode activated, but without it, we thought the bass was usually lacking.
We thought the tiny Anker SoundCore Icon Mini didn’t play loud or clear or full enough to warrant the investment.
The Anker SoundCore Motion+ plays very loud for its size and cost, but voices have a boosted, unnatural quality, and the bass doesn’t cut it for hip-hop and pop.
Our panelists preferred the Tribit XSound Go to the Anker SoundCore Motion B, but all thought the Motion B sounded pretty good—and it is an excellent value.
Our panelists thought the Aomais Go had a nice, full sound and a reasonable price, but they thought it was rather bulky for the volume it delivered.
We liked the clarity of the Audioengine 512 on vocals and most instruments, but thought its bass and lower midrange weren’t strong enough to handle most hip-hop and heavy rock.
Our panelists loved the sound of the B&O Beoplay A1, but they lost their enthusiasm when they saw its high price.
We like the Bose SoundLink Color II a lot. We think the Sony SRS-XB33 and Soundcore Rave Neo sound more powerful, but if you want something more compact and colorful, the SoundLink Color II is a good choice.
The Bose SoundLink Micro sounds surprisingly full for its size, but for its price it doesn’t play all that loud.
The Bose SoundLink Revolve has a big, full sound, but in our tests we thought it distorted too much for something in its price range.
The Bose SoundLink Revolve+ has an even fuller sound than the Revolve, but our panelists complained about unnatural fluctuations in volume due to its internal limiter settings.
The Braven 105 doesn’t play very loud, but it sounds fairly clear and full for its size, and its integral elastic strap makes it a more affordable alternative if the Tribit StormBox Micro is too pricey.
The Braven BRV-360 has a harsh, overly trebly sound.
The Braven BRV-XXL/2 sounds very good until it’s tasked with playing strong, deep bass, which tends to make it distort. Also, the way the controls are colored and laid out, they’re very difficult to see; we had to lift the speaker close to our eyes to operate them.
The Cambridge SoundWorks OontZ Angle 3 plays extremely loud for its price and size, but our panelists found its sound rather shrill. The same goes for the OontZ Angle 3 Ultra.
The Crosley Charlotte CR3028A has an appealing retro style, but it has mediocre Amazon reviews, with complaints about weak sound quality and insufficient volume.
The Doss SoundBox Touch is our former pick for best budget Bluetooth speaker, but the Tribit XSound Go delivers comparable sound in a smaller chassis.
The Doss Traveler is a campsite-friendly speaker with integral LED flashlights. It plays clear and loud, but our panelists liked the Tribit XSound Go better.
The Doss SoundBox Pro doesn’t really sound better than the Tribit XSound Go, and it’s larger and costlier.
We found the sound of the Doss SoundBox Plus thin and unpleasant, especially on voices.
The EarFun Go is similar in size, design and quality to the Tribit XSound Go, but it typically sells for about 15 percent more.
Two of our panelists praised the EarFun UBoom for its clear and balanced sound, but two panelists thought its clarity was lacking.
The Edifier MP200 is a cute, cube-shaped speaker that sounds good but doesn’t play as loud as some competitors, and it scoots around a bit when playing music with a lot of bass.
The Edifier MP700 sounded impressively clear, but it didn’t play as loud as we’d hoped for its size, and its metal handle made it heavy to lug around.
Our panelists thought the Fender Newport sounded great, but it’s not convenient for portable use. If you like the Newport’s guitar-amp styling, we strongly recommend it.
The iHome iBT374 is nicely priced for the volume and bass it delivers, but our panelists thought the unit’s strong bass and treble overshadowed vocals.
The Jam Hang Around is a beautifully designed, affordable waterproof speaker with a cool integral charging cord, but its sound distorted too often for our taste.
The JBL Boombox 2 sounds good and plays very loud, but the JBL PartyBox 100 and UE Hyperboom both play louder and sound a little smoother and more natural with voices.
Our panelists thought the JBL Charge 4’s bass sounded too dull and boomy.
The JBL Flip 5 came very close to being a top pick—it falls between the UE Wonderboom 2 and the Sony SRS-XB33 in price and performance. Our panelists thought it sounded a tad bright but very good overall. However, we got only about six hours of battery life from it.
A cute design and built-in lights make the JBL Jr POP an appealing choice for kids; it sounds clear but has less bass than most other speakers in its price range.
The JLab Crasher Mini sounded surprisingly full for its size, but our test sample soon started distorting badly.
The JLab Crasher XL is a good choice if you want something larger and more powerful than the UE Wonderboom 2 for about the same price; our panelists generally liked the Crasher XL’s loud, full sound.
The Kicker Bullfrog BF400 has a great design for outdoor use, but even though it sounds good at lower volume, it distorted too much for us at high volume.
The Kicker Bullfrog BF200 is a smaller version of the original Bullfrog. If you’re looking for a backyard speaker that’s more compact and affordable (although nowhere near as powerful as) the UE Wonderboom, it’s a good choice.
The LG PK7 sounds very clear, clean, and balanced, but despite its large size, it doesn’t play loud enough to fill a bedroom.
We considered the Libratone One Click as a top pick because it plays pretty loud and has a beautiful design, but it sounds a little too trebly to us.
The Libratone Too sounds very clear and natural and has a beautiful design, but we don’t think it plays loud enough for the price.
We liked the full sound and compact design of the House of Marley No Bounds, but deep bass makes it rattle across whatever it’s sitting on.
Unlike almost all other portable Bluetooth speakers, the House of Marley No Bounds XL sounds pretty good cranked up, but at lower volumes the bass seems to obscure vocals and guitars.
The Marshall Kilburn II tends to clamp down the volume abruptly when it hits a deep bass note, and voices have a sort of canned quality.
I loved the clarity of voices and instruments with the Marshall Stockwell II, but our other panelists thought it should deliver more bass and more volume for the price.
The Marshall Tufton plays admirably loud, but its bass sounds excessively pumped up and punchy, even when the bass knob is turned down. Also, it’s only IPX2 rated, which means it’s rated to survive dripping water but not a splash.
The Monoprice Deep Blue Sub710 puts out a lot of volume for the price, but our panelists thought it needed a little more bass and a fuller sound.
The Monoprice Harmony Capsule has good sound quality for its size, but it’s bulkier than the Wonderboom 2, and we got only about 6½ hours of battery life from it.
The Monoprice Harmony XL delivers powerful sound for the price, and it would make a great office speaker, but its bulk and non-waterproof design make it less practical for portable use.
The Morpheus Sound Ring is inexpensive and has a handy ¼-20 tripod/bike mount socket, but it has very little bass and below-average maximum volume.
The Morpheus Sound Ring II is comparable in price and size to the SoundCore Flare 2, and it sounds similarly good, but it falls a few decibels short of the Flare 2’s maximum volume.
Our panelists thought the Nyne Boost sounded tinny and needed more bass.
The tiny Polk Boom Bit is one of the most flexible and useful Bluetooth speakers ever. We love it for hiking, but its three-hour battery life limits its utility.
Our panelists thought the Sbode M400 sounded pretty good, but that it didn’t play loud enough.
We like the cool, fold-out design of the Sony GTK-PG10, but we think the EcoXGear EcoBoulder+ sounds better, and it’s more waterproof.
The Sony GTK-XB90 is a huge, 26-inch-high, “pool blaster”-style speaker. It plays about 3 decibels louder than the JBL PartyBox 100 (that’s a noticeable, but not huge, difference), but it is more costly, is much bulkier, and sounded good only when we spent a few minutes adjusting the EQ in Sony’s app to get the speaker’s overhyped bass under control.
The Sony SRS-XB23 is pretty good, but for the same price we have found other speakers with more volume, deeper bass and a smoother sound.
The Tribit MaxSound Plus is a good-sounding, affordable speaker that falls between the UE Wonderboom 2 and the Tribit XSound Go in price and performance. If we had more picks, this might be one.
We didn’t like the Tribit StormBox as much as its predecessor, the 360° Sound Speaker (which was our former top pick), because we thought its sound seemed brighter and more sibilant than the previous model we tested.
The Tronsmart Force didn’t put out enough bass for our panelists.
The UE Boom 3 sounds good, plays loud, and has lots of great features, but our panelists prefer a little more bass for the price.
Our panelists really liked the UE Megaboom 3 for its features and rugged design, although we prefer the fuller sound of speakers such as the Sony SRS-XB33. The Megaboom 3 has recently been deeply discounted and seems like it’s not long for the world, but it’s a nice speaker if you can get it for a very-low-three-figures price.
The Urbanears Rålis sounded too bassy for our taste, and it didn’t play especially loud for its size.
The hockey-puck-sized VicTsing SoundHot C6 doesn’t play real loud, but it does sound good. And its detachable suction cup and IPX5 rating make it a good, cheap shower speaker.
The Vifa City is small and stylish, but it compressed the sound heavily when we played hip-hop and heavy rock tracks.
We can’t pick the Vifa Oslo because few people want to spend almost half a grand (its price at the time of writing) for a portable speaker. But it plays loud and has a wonderfully full, clear sound.
The V-Moda Remix is an elegantly designed speaker, but it’s very pricey for the sound quality offered.
The Wharfedale Exson S sounds a little light in the bass and a little boosted in the midrange.
I liked the sound of the Wharfedale Exson M and thought its built-in flashlight is pretty cool, but Lauren found voices to sound rather sibilant and didn’t like that the volume control works independently from the phone’s volume control.
Brent Butterworth
Brent Butterworth is a senior staff writer covering audio and musical instruments at Wirecutter. Since 1989, he has served as an editor or writer on audio-focused websites and magazines such as Home Theater, Sound & Vision, SoundStage, and JazzTimes. He regularly gigs on double bass (and occasionally ukulele) with Los Angeles–area jazz groups.
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