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Head here to find all of our expert cozy coverage and enter to win a bundle of our favorite picks for a comfy, snug fall. (Giveaway terms and conditions.) Bluetooth Alarm Clock
Klipsch has announced a new version of our top pick, and Marshall now sells a new version of our upgrade pick—both of which we plan to test soon.
Using a Bluetooth tabletop speaker is the simplest way to get satisfying sound in the home, since it will work with almost any mobile device and doesn’t require a network connection or the use of a special app.
Klipsch’s The One II is the best all-around choice. This speaker has a full, clear, robust sound (which made it our panelists’ favorite in a brand-concealed listening test), and its operation couldn’t be simpler. Plus, the Klipsch speaker’s handsome, retro design should make it a welcome addition to practically any room.
Unlike Wi-Fi speakers, the speakers in this guide require no complicated setup—just pair them with your mobile device and enjoy.
We conceal the identities of the speakers to eliminate bias, then play them at matched levels for a panel of experts.
We’ve tested every speaker we can find in this category, from big-bass powerhouses to softball-sized minis.
We put our top picks (and many other models) through hundreds of hours of testing to make sure they hold up under normal use.
The One II is small and simple, it sounds better than its competitors, and its tasteful styling should please everyone.
With Klipsch’s The One II, you get good sound in a small, stylish package. It produced clearer, more natural-sounding vocals than the other Bluetooth speakers we tested, and it delivered plenty of bass, too.
The One II’s retro look is handsome and tasteful, so it suits practically any decor. Bluetooth pairing is simple, and the One II, with nothing but an on/off switch, a volume control, and an input selector, is one of the simplest audio systems you can buy. The One II is great for getting good sound in your home without the complexities that Wi-Fi speakers bring.
The Högtalare has a big, full sound and a minimalist but stylish design.
The Morel Högtalare looks like a collaboration between a skilled acoustical engineer and a modern furniture designer—and perhaps it was.
The simple fabric grille, available in four colors, conceals a big (for a Bluetooth speaker) 6-inch woofer that puts out room-filling bass, plus two fabric dome tweeters of the same type found in many high-end speakers. It produces an even, natural sound that works with everything from R&B to country to classical, and it doesn’t require (or even offer) an app for adjustments.
It can sit on a shelf, hang on a wall, or fit perfectly into IKEA’s Kallax and Expedit shelving systems. But it’s roughly twice the size of Klipsch’s The One II and costs more.
The Woburn II plays much louder and produces more bass than the smaller tabletop speakers we tested, but it costs a lot more.
The Marshall Woburn II is the muscle car of Bluetooth speakers, with dual woofers that produce powerful bass and a sound that’s robust enough to get a dozen people dancing. It also has convenient, top-mounted volume, bass, and treble controls that make it easy to adjust the sound to your liking.
The Woburn II is much pricier and about three times the size of Klipsch’s The One II, but if you want sound that’s powerful enough to fill an entire loft space, this is the Bluetooth speaker to get.
The One II is small and simple, it sounds better than its competitors, and its tasteful styling should please everyone.
The Högtalare has a big, full sound and a minimalist but stylish design.
The Woburn II plays much louder and produces more bass than the smaller tabletop speakers we tested, but it costs a lot more.
I’ve been reviewing audio gear professionally since 1990, having worked as an editor or writer for SoundStage, Sound & Vision, Home Theater Review, Home Theater Magazine, and numerous other publications. In that time, I’ve conducted and published more brand-concealed tests of audio products than any other journalist in the world. I’ve tested somewhere around 400 wireless speakers.
I’m also an active musician, playing double bass with several jazz groups, so I have a pretty good idea of what musical instruments are supposed to sound like.
Three additional listeners helped me with this guide. One was Lauren Dragan, Wirecutter senior staff writer and headphones editor, who has served as a panelist on most of the wireless-speaker tests we’ve done. The others were LeRena Major, a saxophonist who’s held several jobs in the music industry and is a voting member of the Recording Academy (formerly the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, or NARAS), and Dan Gonda, who plays saxophone, clarinet, and flute in my group Tonic Trio and many other Los Angeles–based jazz and R&B ensembles.
A Bluetooth tabletop speaker is perfect for someone who wants to enjoy higher-quality audio in their home in the simplest way possible, and for someone who doesn’t intend to move the speaker around often or use it outdoors.
Since Bluetooth is included in all smartphones and tablets and in most newer laptops, you don’t have to worry about compatibility issues between these sources and your chosen speaker, and you don’t have to load any additional apps onto your phone, as you do with Sonos, Alexa, and other Wi-Fi–based speakers.
Because you don’t need to connect the speaker to a Wi-Fi network, you’ll have no problem getting one of these speakers to work in places where network access is tightly controlled, such as in an office or a college dorm.
The choice between a smart speaker and a Bluetooth speaker depends on your lifestyle and your listening habits.
The big downsides of Bluetooth speakers, compared with Wi-Fi speakers, are that the range is limited, you can’t usually send audio to multiple rooms simultaneously , and in most cases Bluetooth slightly degrades sound quality. (The only exception is when your streaming service, your phone/tablet, and your speaker all support the same Bluetooth audio codec, in which case Bluetooth shouldn’t affect the sound quality.) However, to hear that degradation, you’d probably need a good set of stereo speakers or headphones, and even then you might not notice it.
Because the speakers featured here are all-in-one designs, they don’t deliver the big, enveloping sound of separate stereo bookshelf speakers or computer speakers (though two of our picks can be paired with a second speaker to work that way). But they also don’t require complicated, unsightly speaker cables or additional components.
The Triangle Borea BR03 passive speakers and the Edifier S1000MKII powered speakers are the best we’ve tested under $600.
We use the following criteria to help us decide which home Bluetooth speakers to call in for testing:
The UE Wonderboom 3 is the all-around best portable Bluetooth speaker because it sounds good and looks cool, and it’s the most rugged model we’ve tested.
In the course of testing for the original version of this article and multiple updates, we’ve tested over 40 different speakers.
I started by putting the speakers through a few days of casual use, just to make sure they had no annoying operational flaws that would prevent us from recommending them. I then spent several hours comparing them—first at matched levels, then by cranking them way up, turning them down, messing with their controls, and getting the full picture of what they could do.
Next, I conducted separate brand-concealed tests for each of our panelists. I concealed all the speakers behind thin black fabric, then matched the playback levels using the Dolby-mandated test noise signal recorded from a Denon receiver. This is a “shaped” noise tone that focuses mostly on midrange, and it does a great job of making speakers sound comparably loud even when some have more bass than others.
I streamed the music of each panelists’ choice from Qobuz, using my Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone. The music ranged from light pop, such as James Taylor’s “Shower the People,” to the woofer-punishing hip-hop of Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown.” At the end of the tests, I polled the panelists to get their preferences, then I revealed the speakers’ identities so that the panelists could opine on the models’ design and controls.
During these tests, we paid particular attention to:
Finally, I ran a few more tests to get an idea of each speaker’s Bluetooth range and maximum volume, although all of these speakers should deliver enough of both for most listeners.
This is the first in a two-part series in which we discuss how we evaluate good sound in our speaker and headphone reviews.
Here are the procedures Wirecutter uses to test audio devices, plus a few tips on how you can evaluate them yourself.
The One II is small and simple, it sounds better than its competitors, and its tasteful styling should please everyone.
In many ways, Klipsch’s The One II is the audio system most people want—one that sounds good and looks good, and that’s super-simple to use.
In our brand-concealed listening tests, the One II emerged as the panelists’ overall favorite. “This one made me sit up and take notice,” panelist LeRena Major said. “The voices sounded the clearest, and the bass sounded punchy and well-defined, not boomy.” Dan Gonda agreed, describing the sound as “crisp and balanced,” and my listening notes said much the same.
Lauren Dragan was less enthusiastic; she thought the sound was good overall, but she wanted more bass. The One II has no tone controls, and Klipsch provides no app for adjusting the sound, but you can use the equalizer in your phone or tablet to get a little extra bass if you want it.
The One II plays loud enough to fill a medium-size room, and it sounds clear and natural both with voices and with musical instruments.
It’s extremely simple to operate. Because the One II has so few controls—just an on/off switch, a volume knob, and a source selector knob—it should be easy for most people to use. Bluetooth pairing takes just seconds, and there’s a 3.5 mm analog input jack on the back so you can connect an outboard source device, such as a laptop, a TV, or an Amazon Echo Dot.
We measured Bluetooth range through one wall at 60 feet, using a Samsung Galaxy S9 phone. This falls short of our other picks’ range, but it’s still very good performance, enough to let you wander from room to room in a modestly sized house with your phone in your pocket. I found that the One II stayed on and paired to my phone after an hour of not playing audio.
It’s small and stylish. At 6.7 by 12.6 by 5.8 inches, the One II is small enough to fit on most bookshelves and nightstands. The retro look, which harks back to Klipsch speakers of the 1950s, gives it both a hipster vibe and a handsome, classic appeal. It’s available in black with a gold and black woven grille, as shown here, or in walnut with a gray woven grille.
The volume control works independently of the volume control on the source device. As a result, if the One II’s volume control is turned way down, there’s no way to get loud volume out of it, no matter how far the volume is turned up on your source device. If you leave the speaker’s volume set fairly loud, this will not be a concern.
We’ve gotten used to Bluetooth speakers with volume controls for which the maximum settings are conservative enough to prevent gross distortion. But if you crank the One II’s volume and your phone’s volume at full blast, the sound will distort, which makes the bass boomy and garbles the sound of voices. Fortunately, a moderate volume setting on the Klipsch will deliver clear sound with ample volume to fill a room and then some, although both the Morel Högtalare and the Marshall Woburn II will play a lot louder.
The One II uses a wall-wart power supply. We’d prefer having a built-in power supply with a direct power cord connection to a wall AC socket. If the Klipsch power supply gets lost, it wouldn’t be easy to replace because it’s an unusual voltage (20 volts). However, most people who buy this speaker will likely plug it in and leave it in one place for a long time.
The Högtalare has a big, full sound and a minimalist but stylish design.
The Morel Högtalare is one of those exceptionally rare products that both an audio enthusiast and an interior designer can love without reservation. It is built much like a high-quality bookshelf speaker, and it looks like minimalist Scandinavian furniture.
This speaker delivers a smoother, more natural sound than most Bluetooth speakers can muster. The Högtalare sounds pretty smooth in the high and middle frequencies—smoother than the One II, but not quite as vivid.
Lauren was a little bit bothered by a peak in the treble that made voices sound a bit sibilant at times, but that’s the only flaw she found worth pointing out. I heard the same thing and wasn’t bothered by it. But my high-frequency hearing is nowhere near as good as hers (no surprise, considering I’m almost two decades older, and males often suffer worse high-frequency hearing loss with age).
“I’m impressed with the bass—it sounds clear, and it wasn’t at all boomy, even when I played Kanye West’s ‘Love Lockdown,’” Lauren said, referring to one of our favorite deep-bass torture tracks for small speakers. The bass level was just about right to her, but I found it to be a bit much; of course, you can use the controls in your smartphone’s music app to tame (or boost) the bass to your liking.
The Högtalare also plays louder than the Klipsch by about 5 dB, which means it can easily fill, say, a three-car garage—which the Klipsch might strain to do. Like the Klipsch, it sounds substantially clearer when it’s turned down one or two notches below max volume.
It looks great but is notably larger than our top pick. At 13 by 13 by 6 inches, the Högtalare is a little more than twice the size of the Klipsch. So it may not fit on some bookshelves, and it’s probably too big to look okay sitting on a nightstand.
I did love the way it fit into my IKEA Kallax shelves with only about ⅛ inch of space on either side and 3/16 inch of space on top. Because the Högtalare’s woofer, tweeters, and bass port all face forward, the sound won’t echo around inside the shelving unit, as long as the speaker’s flush with the face of the shelving.
The grille is available in black, light gray, blue, or red to suit your taste and decor.
The Högtalare doesn’t offer much in the way of features. We did like its button panel, which lights up and shows through the grille, but (as with the Klipsch speaker) there are no tone controls. You can pair two Högtalares to get stereo sound, and the only input is a single 3.5 mm analog jack, which you could use to connect an Amazon Echo Dot to access more music sources.
There’s also a rear USB-charging output that you could use to power an Echo Dot or your phone. We saw a mention of an RCA subwoofer output on one merchant’s site, but that’s incorrect—the Högtalare does not include that feature.
One nice touch is that you can set it for manual or automatic power on/off, so if you want your Bluetooth speaker always at the ready (even after an hour or so of idle time), it can do that.
The Bluetooth range is about 60 feet, tested through one wall with a Samsung Galaxy S10 phone. It incorporates the standard version of the aptX Bluetooth codec.
The Woburn II plays much louder and produces more bass than the smaller tabletop speakers we tested, but it costs a lot more.
The Marshall Woburn II is bigger and louder than our other picks, yet it still sounds as refined, and it’s easy and fun to use. But it’s more than three times larger by volume than Klipsch’s The One II, and it’s a lot pricier.
The Woburn II plays louder than our other picks. It plays about 10 decibels louder than Klipsch’s The One II, roughly the difference between normal speech and talking with a raised voice, and it plays about 5 dB louder than the Morel Högtalare. Most people won’t need so much volume, but if you have a large space to fill, or you really like playing your music loud, the Woburn II easily gets the job done.
Our listening panel liked the sound of the Woburn II, and we appreciated the inclusion of tone controls to fine-tune the bass and treble. Lauren Dragan praised its strong bass and clear midrange and treble. I found that no matter how loud I played the Woburn II, the bass sounded punchy and precise, and voices and instruments sounded clear. However, for most listening, turning the bass control down to the 9 o’clock position makes the sound much more natural; Dan Gonda, LeRena Major, and I all thought the bass was excessive at its standard settings.
It has a few more features than our other picks. In addition to its tone controls and top-mounted 3.5 mm analog input, this speaker has an extra RCA analog input around back. That’ll come in handy if you want to connect an Amazon Echo Dot.
Marshall also offers an app that lets you pair two speakers for stereo, and provides a five-band equalizer and several tone presets.
It has excellent Bluetooth range. We tested the Woburn II’s Bluetooth range with a Samsung Galaxy S9 at 90 feet, which is outstanding and especially useful with a big speaker like this one that might be used in large spaces. The speaker goes into idle mode after 20 minutes of not receiving a signal; by using any of the controls on the top panel, you restore the power and the sound.
The Woburn II is equipped with the aptX Bluetooth audio codec.
It’s big. At 12.1 by 15.6 by 8 inches, the Woburn II is too big for most bookshelves, and its powerful bass might rattle anything else off the shelf. It’s best to use it atop a table or to just place it on the floor.
The speaker’s guitar-amp styling may turn off some people, but the fit and finish of the product are excellent, and it’s also available in black, brown, or white.
If you want a super-affordable, super-compact, super-simple home Bluetooth speaker: The softball-sized OC Acoustic Newport looks like an affordable portable Bluetooth speaker, but is designed solely for home use. It requires no charging and no power supply because it plugs straight into an AC outlet. The only buttons are for power and party mode. The latter lets you create a simple multiroom audio system; the speaker your phone is paired with broadcasts to other Newport speakers, so they all play in sync as long as they’re within Bluetooth range of the first speaker (in our tests, about 25 feet with no more than two walls in between). It sounds like a very good portable Bluetooth speaker, with clear voices and a surprising amount of bass for its size.
If you want something small for an office or bedroom: The Edifier MP230 is technically portable because it has a rechargeable battery, but it’s clearly designed for at-home use. The 6⅜-inch-wide speaker sounds full and clear, like a much larger and more expensive model, and its wood finish and paddle-style control switches give it a retro vibe that should look great on a credenza. It falls about 8 decibels short of Klipsch’s The One II in maximum volume, but it plays about 2 decibels louder than the OC Acoustic Newport—and unless you’re a record company exec, that’s plenty loud enough for an office. The battery runs for about 10 hours on a charge; if you don’t like having to recharge it, you could just leave the charger plugged in full-time.
If you want a speaker for the shower or bathroom: The Ampere Shower Power is a terrific choice for those who want to start (or end) their day with a song in the shower. It installs easily with an adjustable wrench and has a built-in water turbine that keeps its internal battery charged. The Shower Power sounds surprisingly good, and its big, top-mounted controls are easy to see and use. The biggest downside is that it adds 3¾ inches to the length of the shower arm, which might make the shower head too low for taller people. Also, the turbine does reduce water flow (Ampere claims by 8 to 24 percent), but we didn’t notice the difference even when using the Shower Power with a 1.5-gallon-per-minute shower head. There’s also a more expensive model, the Shower Power Pro, with built-in, app-controlled lighting, but we preferred the sound of the original model.
Klipsch has introduced The One Plus ($250) and The Three Plus ($400), both of which are designed to deliver 2.1-channel stereo sound by utilizing two full-range drivers, a woofer, and a passive radiator. Both have Bluetooth version 5.3 and USB-C charging, and the design includes real-wood veneers, cloth grilles, and the choice of a walnut or ebony finish. The tabletop speakers are compatible with Klipsch’s Connect App and support Broadcast Mode to link up to 10 speakers. The Three Plus is larger and adds a phono input.
Marshall has also introduced new versions of all of its home-oriented Bluetooth tabletop speakers: the Woburn III, Stanmore III, and Acton III.
We plan to test these new models and update the guide soon.
We do not test Wi-Fi or portable speakers for this guide. For this reason, you won’t see products here from Bang & Olufsen, Bose, Bowers & Wilkins, Sonos, and other companies that don’t offer a Bluetooth-only home wireless speaker. If you’re interested in Wi-Fi speakers, please see our guides to the best multiroom wireless speaker system, the Apple HomePod, the best Alexa speaker and the best Google Home speaker. For portable speakers, please see our guide to the best portable Bluetooth speaker.
The Aiwa Exos-9 plays loud and has an internal rechargeable battery, but our panel thought it sounded somewhat light in the bass and not very clear on vocals. Its equalizer is cumbersome to adjust.
Although the Audioengine B2 sounded nice, it didn’t play as loud as, or deliver as much bass as, our top picks.
Our former runner-up, the Harman Kardon Go + Play Mini, has officially been discontinued and is currently selling for a much higher price than when we reviewed it.
The Kanto SYD has a cool design, with a built-in phono preamp for use with turntables, but our listeners wanted more bass than it could deliver.
One panelist ranked Klipsch’s The Three II the best, but the rest of the panelists felt it sounded too tinny and bright compared with our top pick, the smaller One II.
The LG XBoom 360 XO3QBK has a spacious, natural, full sound we enjoyed. Technically, it’s a portable speaker because it has a rechargeable battery and a detachable carrying strap, but it’s clearly styled and designed for home use. We considered making it a pick, but its availability at retail was nearly non-existent as of our latest update.
We really liked the Marshall Acton II and strongly considered making it a top pick, but its availability has been inconsistent.
Our panelists weren’t impressed with the Marshall Stanmore II; we think the smaller Acton II sounds smoother and plays plenty loud.
The Monoprice Soundstage3 is a former pick, which we replaced only because its availability was inconsistent. It was one of the favorites in our brand-concealed listening tests, and it includes many nice extras, such as a remote, bass and treble controls, and an optical digital audio input. If its styling appeals to you, and it’s available, we still recommend it.
We were curious about the Tribit BTS50, which combines a Bluetooth speaker with alarm-clock functions. While the speaker sounded OK for its size and price, the controls were very confusing; even after reading the instructions and checking the website, we couldn’t figure out how to set the clock.
The Sonos multiroom music platform offers great-sounding speakers, supports the widest variety of streaming services, and is easy to set up and use.
The UE Wonderboom 3 is the all-around best portable Bluetooth speaker because it sounds good and looks cool, and it’s the most rugged model we’ve tested.
Stylish design and great sound make the Polk Signature Elite ES15 , ES10 , and ES30 combo our pick for the best surround-sound system.
The Triangle Borea BR03 passive speakers and the Edifier S1000MKII powered speakers are the best we’ve tested under $600.
For powerful, precise bass in stereo and home theater systems, the best subwoofer is the affordable and compact Rogersound Labs Speedwoofer 10S MKII .
The Monoprice SW-12 is the all-around best budget subwoofer because of its class-leading power and clear, tuneful sound.
The Polk MagniFi Mini AX is the all-around best soundbar because of its big, immersive sound, small footprint, affordable cost, and easy operation.
Roku’s new Wireless TV Speakers are impressively easy to set up, and they sound pretty good—but they’re not right for everyone.
Apple’s second-gen HomePod sounds good and works well, but its high price and Apple-exclusive constraints give it more-limited appeal than other smart speakers.
The Google Nest line of smart speakers makes it easy to access music, audio, trivia, and in some cases video, all by voice commands to Google Assistant.
Brent Butterworth, A Bluetooth Blind Test, brentbutterworth.com, August 29, 2018
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, and SoundStage. He regularly gigs on double bass with various jazz groups, and his self-produced album Take2 rose as high as number three on the Roots Music Report jazz album chart.
The UE Wonderboom 3 is the all-around best portable Bluetooth speaker because it sounds good and looks cool, and it’s the most rugged model we’ve tested.
The choice between a smart speaker and a Bluetooth speaker depends on your lifestyle and your listening habits.
by Nena Farrell and Brent Butterworth
Apple’s second-gen HomePod sounds good and works well, but its high price and Apple-exclusive constraints give it more-limited appeal than other smart speakers.
Great sound doesn’t have to come in a boring, boxy speaker design. We tested an array of lifestyle speakers that score high in both looks and performance.
Wireless Sound Bar Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).