Best Bluetooth speakers 2024: top models for great sound

Our expert lab and professional listening panel prove it no longer costs the earth to get superior sound. We’ve found remarkable Best Buy portable speakers for well under £50, and even exquisite-sounding multi-room speakers for less than £100. So whatever your budget, our experts give you the insider knowledge so you don’t have to compromise.

And for those looking to invest long-term in a multi-room audio setup, when even a single speaker can stretch into the hundreds of pounds, it’s even more important to make sure you’re spending your money the most wisely. Below we reveal the best speakers from our tests – whatever type or price you’re looking for.

See our top recommendations below, or head straight to our best wireless and Bluetooth speaker reviews.

Best Bluetooth speakers

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Pricing and recommendations correct as of July 2024.

Bluetooth speakers by type

• Portable Bluetooth speaker reviews
• Multi-room Bluetooth speaker reviews
• Water resistant Bluetooth speaker reviews
• Smart display Bluetooth speaker reviews

Bluetooth speakers by price: 

• Bluetooth speakers under £250
• Bluetooth speakers under £200
• Bluetooth speakers under £150
• Bluetooth speakers under £100
• Bluetooth speakers under £50

Great Value Bluetooth speakers

Our Best Buy speakers set a high bar, and so if you’re not quite as demanding, we recommend Great Value models as well. These are cheaper options and still score well in our tests, making for excellent bargains.

We’ve listed speakers that are Great Value or other more affordable models below. For even more, head to our speaker reviews and select the Great Value filter (in the left-hand menu alongside our Best Buys).

How much should I spend on a wireless speaker?

Wireless speakers can vary greatly in price. Entry-level small Bluetooth speakers that are light on features can be picked up for less than £50, whereas larger, premium models can cost 10 times as much.

Wi-fi-enabled wireless speakers tend to cost a little more. There are few sub-£100 models on the market, so creating a multi-room speaker system can soon become an expensive venture.

Considering a smart speaker?

Smart speakers have voice assistants you can talk to to perform functions, rather than controlling them through your smartphone or the physical buttons on the speaker.

If you're considering a smart speaker, see our separate guide to how to buy the best smart speaker.

How we test wireless, smart and Bluetooth speakers

Unlike other tech publications, Which? uses a professional lab and expert listening panel with decades of experience between them to really find out which wireless speakers are the best on the market – and those that offer superb value for money.

Which? uses a unique benchmarking system that means you can directly compare our results, including sound quality, to find out which speaker really is best for you.

We're also entirely independent – we don't take advertising and buy every product ourselves just like a consumer would. For more, read our guide on how we test wireless, smart and Bluetooth speakers .

What makes the best wireless or Bluetooth speaker?

Modern wireless speakers aren’t simply passive speakers you plug into a hi-fi. Everything is built-in, and they come in all shapes and sizes from large, powerful wi-fi speakers that can be audio systems in their own right, to compact battery-powered small Bluetooth speakers.

Here are the key things to consider to buy the best wireless speaker for you:

• Great sound – Sound quality is the top consideration when choosing the best wireless or Bluetooth speaker. But there are lots of other factors to consider as well. The very best sound may not be worth the compromise if the speaker is too large, but there’s no point getting a super-cheap wireless speaker that sounds little better than your phone’s tinny speakers. We use a discerning listening panel at our expert audio lab to rigorously test the sound quality of each wireless speaker. 
• Portability – If you want to be able to take your speaker away from the mains, choose a portable model with battery power. Truly portable speakers should be small and lightweight with good battery life. However, smaller speakers will have a lower maximum volume and it’s more challenging to find one with good sound quality – so be sure to check our reviews to find the exceptions to the trend. If you only want to move the speaker occasionally, you can afford to get a larger one.
• Easy to use – For portable, small Bluetooth speakers this will mean easy-to-use controls on the speaker housing and an easy-to-set-up Bluetooth connection to your smartphone or tablet. For home Bluetooth and wi-fi speakers, this’ll mean a simple-to-use app on your smartphone or tablet, and a straightforward setup process.
• Durable and reliable – We’ve found speakers with painful buzzing sounds at certain frequencies that’ll ruin your listening, and others with extremely dubious build quality – even with more expensive models. Make sure you check our reviews to ensure you don’t get caught out.
• Bluetooth and wi-fi – Bluetooth-only speakers are typically the simplest to use. They rely on a Bluetooth wireless connection to your smartphone, tablet or Bluetooth-enabled laptop. Bluetooth has a limited wireless range (typically 10-30 metres), which is fine for most. Some speakers also have wi-fi, and this makes them more self-sufficient. The wi-fi connection is more complex to set up initially but offers much more functionality, such as the ability to access music streaming services such as Spotify (may require subscriptions) and voice assistants including Alexa.
• Apps – Wi-fi speakers and multi-room systems can be trickier to set up, and usually it all hinges on their accompanying apps (for your smartphone or tablet), as many speakers have only minimal physical buttons on the device itself. Some apps are really easy to use, but we’ve found others can be really clunky and poorly designed, which can make using your speaker very frustrating. If you’re not a fan of using apps, you can buy a wi-fi speaker with a voice assistant instead, which (following one-off setup via the app) you can use to access much of the same functionality on a day-to-day basis. Very few speakers come with a remote control, although you could buy a cheap second-hand smartphone or tablet one and install the app if you wanted a dedicated remote for your wireless speaker.
• Voice assistants – Many of the latest wi-fi speakers offer the convenience of controlling them hands-free with only your voice. The voice assistants on offer for speakers are Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri. Many wi-fi speakers will only support one of these, but some give you a choice (such as models from Sonos and Bose). They also give you great additional ever-growing functionality, such as asking for the latest news update, or being able to access internet radio directly. Read our complete guide to Alexa for more ideas.
• Water resistance – Many portable speakers now have some level of water resistance. Choose one that has the level of protection you’re likely to need – if a speaker is water resistant, it will usually give its IP rating (ingress protection). To find out more about this, see the following section explaining these ratings.

Wired vs wi-fi vs Bluetooth: what are the best connections to go for to get audio perfection?

It used to be accepted knowledge that wired speaker connections offered better sound. This was because it was much easier to transmit large amounts of electrical audio data down a wire than it was to transmit it wirelessly.

However, wireless technology has now come on leaps and bounds – including Bluetooth. With an excellent product, any remaining gap has narrowed to the point where it has become extremely hard to notice the difference, even to trained ears. Unless you’re spending many hundreds of pounds on the most high-end audio systems money can buy (these speakers will be clearly marketed towards audiophiles or music industry professionals) and using very high-quality audio recordings, wireless technology effectively now matches wired connections in the vast majority of use scenarios.

In Which? tests, we still choose to test wireless speakers over wi-fi when there's the option versus Bluetooth, so we can score them on the best possible sound they can produce. This is since you can still transmit more data over wi-fi than Bluetooth for the potential for higher quality sound. But we also check the Bluetooth sound quality as well, and with the latest Bluetooth versions, rarely does it disappoint when the sound proves great over wi-fi.

We’re confident that, these days, even those looking for audiophile-friendly high-end speakers will find the sound produced over wireless connections from the best models acceptable.

What is far more important for sound quality is the quality of the speakers themselves, so make sure you check out our wireless speaker reviews to make sure you get the best-sounding wireless speaker possible.

Water ratings explained

Many wireless speakers, particularly portable models, are rated as being water resistant or waterproof.

The official system for this is known as IP ratings (ingress protection). This system is also used for dust protection – such as to prevent sand getting in if using the speaker on a beach.

The first digit of an IP rating tells you the level of protection against solids such as dust, and the second digit is the key one for protection from water.

Do take care though: don’t assume a waterproof model can survive any amount of submerging. The tests are done by the manufacturer under lab conditions to limited time and depth, and usually only done in fresh water and not salt water.

If your speaker has any flaps, such as for the charging port, these often need to be firmly secured, and if they degrade over time this can affect the waterproofing. The water resistance rating is usually only intended as protection from accidents.

Can I use music streaming services?

All wireless speakers can access music streaming services like Spotify by streaming it over Bluetooth from your smartphone (may require subscriptions). If you’d like music streaming built-in to the speaker itself, you’ll need a wireless speaker with wi-fi, so it can connect to the internet directly. 

Each wi-fi speaker will support a different range of music streaming services, so make sure it features the one you want to use. To discover the best music streaming services to go for, see our expert best music streaming services guide.

To browse all the wireless speakers we've tested, head to our wireless, smart and Bluetooth speaker reviews.