Portable Bluetooth speakers have displaced full-size hi-fi as the default music-listening experience and although they cost just as much – or more, in some cases – they offer cordless freedom and the ability to have your tunes travel with you to wherever the party is jumping.
SOUND QUALITY
The obvious trade-offs are speaker size and portability against sound power and audio quality. The nature of electroacoustics is that it’s very difficult to make music sound truly great with small speakers. In general, we advise always choosing sound quality over volume. Clear music always sounds louder anyway. And bad quality is only amplified as you turn the volume up.
WEIGHT
Most Bluetooth speakers are designed for portability, but anything over 1 kg is harder to handle with one hand, and difficult to lug around for extended periods. Look for a good carry handle on bigger speakers.
CONTROLS
Well-placed control buttons with decent tactile feedback are surprisingly hard to find, in part because proper buttons are easily broken or damaged if you are moving your speaker around. In addition, such buttons also affects the waterproofing. As a result, most speaker buttons are a pain to use, but you should check their positioning, at least. INPUTS All Bluetooth speakers also allow you to connect using an aux cable with a 3.5-mm headphone jack at both ends. This will normally result in a volume boost and save a lot of battery power.
SMART FUNCTIONS
For a number of years, Bluetooth speakers more often that not came bundled with Google Assistant, which allowed you to control Google services such as search and music playback through voice instructions. But as it turns out, most people don’t really want to have a conversation with their speaker, especially when ‘Okay, Google’ simultaneously triggers the phone standing next to it. Need a Bluetooth speaker? Visit hi-online.
JBL PartyBox 110
So-called party speakers go far beyond what your dinky BT speaker can deliver in terms of sheer audio wattage. Speakers such as the JBL PartyBox 110 are complete hi-fireplacements, offering room-shaking sound with a smaller footprint than a hi-fi, and with no cables whatsoever.
On the PartyBox, a pair of oversized control knobs regulate the light show and the volume respectively, and a single Bass Boost button glows ominously on the top-facing control panel. The whole box is splashproof to IPX4 and weighs more than 10 kg, but built-in carry handles make lugging it around much easier.
The orange rubber accents add a touch of much-needed colour and double as extra-tough bumpers, whether the box is standing up or in a horizontal orientation There were moments when I thought the PartyBox 110 sounded every bit as good as a full-size hi-fi. It handled all the music genres we threw at it with aplomb, including Beethoven concertos, fifties jazz and even TV audio. Things sound great at low volume where the bass rounds out the sound, but it’s good to know we can also go full party mode and bother the neighbours at the touch of a button.
The colourful LED light show adds a novel dimension to the experience and, while it’s not going to be to everyone’s taste, it’s fully programmable through the companion app, and can be turned off entirely if they don’t quite match your doom-metal playlist. It adds up to a surprisingly satisfying music experience – sound profiles can be tweaked using the equaliser in the app, the battery runs for well over eight hours, and there’s plenty of punch at your fingertips. Sadly, it’s always going to be difficult to justify at this price. 160 W, IPX4, BT5.1, 295x568x300 mm, 11 kg.
JBL Flip 6
FEATURES
Tried and tested and always popular, the sixth version of the JBL Flip looks almost unchanged from its earlier iterations. It has had many small upgrades over time, but retains the key features that have made it such a successful product. Waterproofing and battery life have both improved: Rated IP67, it can now sink to the bottom of your pool and still come up smiling, and you can get nearly 12 hours of play time on moderate volume.
The cylindrical shape means it can stand both vertically and horizontally, with a small rubber foot preventing it from rolling off your countertop. Although it’s commonplace today, JBL was the first to introduce the mesh fabric covering that makes it easy to handle the speaker, even with wet or dirty hands.
SOUND
The Flip series gathered its well-deserved reputation not simply for rugged reliability, but for delivering excellent sound, too, courtesy of a separate tweeter and bass driver complemented with separate passive bass radiators for deep, rumbling bass. Tuned by audiophile brand Harman Kardon, it all adds up to an exciting, but well-balanced sound in a smaller form factor. It’s certainly not a budget option, but it will outplay and outlast every other speaker in its price range. 30 W, IP67, BT5.1, 178x68x72 mm, 550 g.
Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3
FEATURES
Rivalling JBL for delivering great sound in a rugged format for a reasonable price, the UE Wonderboom 3 is a solid buy. Aside from the tough fabric coating, it’s also IP67 waterproof and tested to survive drops of 1,5 m. Its oversized jam-jar/hand-grenade shape is user friendly and easy to drop into backpacks and picnic baskets.
Our single criticism is the response of the buttons. We found ourselves painfully flattening our fingertips on the heavily rubberised buttons with very little tactile feedback.
SOUND
Using two full-range drivers and two passive radiators, the soundstage is not quite as detailed and ‘surround’ as the JBL Flip 6, but it still sounds fantastic for the size. And there is plenty of bass, including a bass-booster button, for using your speaker outdoors. 87 dBC, IP67, BT5.1, 104 x 95.3 mm, 420 g
Sony SRS-XB31 FEATURES
FEATURES
This model is nearly three years old, but we think it’s still worth a mention. Although it’s been replaced by the physically bigger XB33 model, we think the original XB31 still delivers fantastic sound. In fact, if we were choosing based on sound quality alone, this would likely be our winner.
It’s also a more slender design than its successor. On the downside, it uses the much older BT4.2 standard, which is not nearly as good as BT5.0 f maintaining connections and for battery saving And it uses the old-fashioned microUSB plug for charging. It comes adorned with bling lighting effects and even strobe lights, all of which can be controlled through the companion app.
SOUND
Using two full-range drivers, the sound quality is everything one expects from Sony: clarity, balance and excitement. It gets properly loud and easily fills a mid-sized room, especially when you activate the bass booster. But while it may be the best-sounding speaker impact does drop off quickly when you move it in sounds great, of course, but it lacks the party-rocking power of Sony’s bigger units. 2 x full-range drivers, IP67, BT4.2, 231x87x81 mm, 890 g.
Xiaomi L05G Smart Speaker
FEATURES
Most of the speakers on test here no longer support Google Assistant, which allowed you to query the search engine, or control the speaker itself, using voice commands. But that is precisely what this speaker offers, and it does it without connecting to your phone.
Instead, it connects directly to the internet, allowing you to ask Google questions, line up your favourite tunes from your streaming service and set alarms and timers, all without touching your phone. We especially like the dimmable clock display that makes it ideal as a next-gen clock radio for your bedside table.
SOUND
It uses a single down-firing speaker spread sound in all directions. This sounds surprisingly good and gets pretty loud too, although it degrades the audio quality somewhat.
Full-range driver, BTS, 95x95x14 mm, 628g.
Designed for domestic use, this speaker uses mains power instead of a battery, so it’s not portable
Astrum ST240
FEATURES
If you’re looking for something simple, cheap and cheerful to listen to audiobooks, podcasts and internet radio, then this is it. It’s no monster in the sound delivery department, but it is a well-made unit with a tough fabric exterior, some basic splashproofing, and a full set of controls on the front. It’s designed to stand upright and is remarkably stable in that position.
SOUND
The ST240 sounds good for the price and, while the 10W of sound won’t exactly rattle your windowpanes, it’s adequate for private listening while cooking, reading or for background music at dinner. Mounted on the top face of the device, the passive bass reflector is underwhelming, but the overall sound signature is on the warmer, more mellow side. 10 W, IPX5, BT5, 180×75 mm, 300 g.
LG XBoom PL7
FEATURES
The XBOOM series has been recognised for its weighty bass, and the PL7 is the top of this range. Its tubular design is splashproof to IPX5 and is covered in silicon rubber with passive bass radiators on either end. It weighs 1.5 kg, which means it’s less portable than smaller models and would likely benefit from a carry handle such as those found on other ‘ghetto blaster’-style speakers from other brands. There are subtle rings of light at either end that pulsate and change colour time to the music, and these can be partially programmed from the companion app.
SOUND
The XBOOM lives up to its name and its reputation for delivering hard-hittin The Sound Booster setting dynamically changes the output to a wider sound stage wi bass. Unfortunately, these low frequencies overshadow lighter acoustic folk and classical music, so this is on for the gangster rap and hip hop aficionados. 30 W, IPX5, BT5, 245x98x98 mm, 1.46 kg.
Hisense HP100 Party Rocker
FEATURES
The downfall of most party boxes is that they are designed to look impressive, and often racy designs masks shoddy build quality and overall poor performance. But not the HP100, which delivers with a solid build, a full house of features and punchy audio performance. Most will connect with a phone over Bluetooth, but there are also inputs available for a microphone, a flash drive, an Aux cable and even a guitar.
The top control panel is splashproof to IPX4 and includes a wireless charging pad for your phone. Then there’s the obligatory light show, which on the HP100 involves six pre-set lighting patterns, which can also be fully customised through the companion app.
SOUND
The HP100 includes two tweeters and two large 5-inch bass drivers. It all adds up to a massive 300 W of sound power and, even when playing at full volume (which is loud enough to properly scare the neighbours) the audio remains enjoyable, with the distortion kept to a minimum. 300 W, IPX4 controls, BT5, car charger, 300x260x550 mm.
