You don’t need to be a hardcore audiophile or gearhead to appreciate top-quality sound and notice that not all speakers are the same—you just need ears. Even so, it’s still difficult to source a superlative wireless stereo setup these days without a bit of Bluetooth insight backing your purchase.
How do you determine sound quality for Bluetooth and other speakers? Will that quality hold up when you crank it to 11? Does your lifestyle or use case require that your speaker meets certain specs for size, portability, or battery life?
Ultimately, we’ll cover all the considerations to answer the central question: What is a good Bluetooth speaker?
What Makes a Good Bluetooth Speaker?
Evaluating Bluetooth speakers involves a mix of “purist” and practical criteria. On the one hand, because Bluetooth speakers often bring the party along, your choice will need to suit space constraints and withstand some bumps and jostling while in transit. On the other hand, the most compact and robustly engineered speaker won’t see much play if every track sounds tinny or the audio channel consistently comes out crumpled and crunched.
To that end, make sure to assess your options along the following five criteria.
#1 Sound Quality
If a speaker doesn’t deliver solid sound output, the rest of the criteria don’t matter much.
Myriad factors—from cabinet material and construction to the number and range of drivers—affect sound quality. However, the audio professional lingo used to describe sound quality isn’t always the most accessible—often featuring subjective descriptions like “punchy,” “warm,” or “hollow.”
These terms generally help people understand how a speaker sounds, conveying a basic impression. For instance, the examples above respectively refer to a wide range between quiet and loud percussion, detailed but not overpowering bass, and a clearly defined mid range. But a given speaker description might also end up packed with these and other buzzwords, only causing confusion over what the actual listening experience is like.
To simplify your search, prioritize the following:
- Clarity – Best tested when listening to a song you’re intimately familiar with, speakers delivering clear sound will let you easily distinguish every instrument and note.
- Bass – Referring to the lower end of the frequency spectrum, bass comprises deep, booming, and rumbling sounds.
- Treble – The counterpart to bass, treble covers the higher ranges reached by soprano vocals, horn sections, most woodwinds, and the like.
- Mid range – Referring to the sound frequencies that fall somewhere between bass and treble, the mid range (and how it gets divided between the drivers) makes up a crucial element for delivering full-bodied sound.
The easiest method to tell whether a speaker will deliver quality sound is to check the number of drivers and their ranges. These components are responsible for the audio output—and represent what most people think of when they envision speakers.
Many speakers only feature two drivers—one dedicated to bass and one to treble ranges. However, this forces all the mid-range frequencies to shift to the driver that’s closest despite them being purpose-designed for more extreme highs and lows. Therefore, the most dynamic sound often requires three drivers to best reproduce the full range—as is the case for Electrotec’s StageOne.
#2 Battery Life
Regardless of how good a given Bluetooth speaker’s output is, you’ll be left enjoying the “Sound of Silence” before long if the battery doesn’t hold up.
Bluetooth speakers come packaged with a cable for recharging the battery or powering the speaker from a wall outlet. In many cases, you might expect to have power access wherever you’re headed with your speaker, making this a non-issue.
But if you expect to be providing the soundtrack to a picnic or remote job site, an extended battery life lasting 10+ hours may be necessary.
#3 Durability
Keeping your Bluetooth speaker damage-free during transit and use won’t always be as smooth as a Stax/Volt single.
The speaker might fall over as you’re taking a turn or get dropped on your foot as you unpack it. Someone may knock it over or spill liquid on your electronic device. Resistance against liquid or dust ingress, impacts, electrical surges while charging, and other risks will help determine how long a Bluetooth speaker will last with standard use.
#4 Connectivity
Just as the quality of speaker wires affects the sound quality produced by a home stereo, Bluetooth speakers require strong, stable wireless connections to devices. Otherwise, the music being transmitted to the speaker sounds riddled with distortions, choppiness, skips, and other playback issues. And these issues increase the further the distance or the more obstacles (e.g., walls, closed doors) between devices.
Some smaller Bluetooth speakers can be kept in your pocket, clipped onto a belt, or carried similarly, which diminishes the need for connection range. However, if you’ll be placing your speaker somewhere central while you continue moving around, extended range will be necessary to keep your music playing and sounding right.
Some listeners may also be interested in multi-device pairing—for example, to add additional speakers. If that lands on your list of criteria, be sure to confirm the speaker and other devices feature this dedicated functionality built-in.
#5 Portability
How protected a Bluetooth speaker is during transit doesn’t necessarily mean the device is easy to bring from point A to point B. Evaluate the dimensions and weight to ensure your chosen speaker fits the space where you’ll pack it.
Small Bluetooth Speakers: Compact and Portable
For meeting more aggressive on-the-go demands or just facilitating some localized listening, smaller will often be better when it comes to Bluetooth speaker portability. Common trade-offs to note will likely include fewer (and lower-quality) drivers and less durability.
Battery length concerns may be present with some devices, but likely less than people expect. Because the device doesn’t need to power more energy-consuming drivers during play, the smaller batteries should still reach a playtime of around 10-12 hours.
Additionally, if you intend to use the Bluetooth speaker like a mini JVC boombox, it’ll probably risk exposure to elements regularly. This increases the need for liquid, dust, and other ingress protections.
Be sure to look for independently certified Ingress Protection ratings. These will be displayed in an “ IPXX” format, with the first X describing how sealed a device is against solid particles and the second X describing how sealed a device is against liquids. For example, “IP67,” one of the best possible ratings, conveys a device is “dustproof” and resistant to “temporary immersion in water.”
Our top picks for small Bluetooth speakers include:
- JBL Clip 4 — The built-in carabiner offers maximum portability, especially for outdoor excursions.
- Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 – Powerful and durable, this compact speaker boasts waterproofing and 360-degree sound.
Medium-Sized Bluetooth Speakers: Balance of Portability and Power
Listeners needing an easily transported speaker that doesn’t move much once it arrives will likely see the most benefit from a mid-sized Bluetooth speaker. These devices can be brought wherever they’re needed but don’t require the same levels of portability that smaller models do.
Music junkies that need a steady, long-lasting (20-ish hour) supply of bass in their life should start by looking at medium-sized Bluetooth speakers.
The medium size enables a blend of higher-end components to deliver better, wider-range sound quality regardless of indoor or outdoor settings. They also commonly feature more functionality (e.g., power bank). Just remember that Bluetooth speakers primarily intended for outdoor use should feature a relatively high Ingress Protection rating regardless of size.
For medium-sized Bluetooth speakers, we suggest looking at:
- JBL Charge 5 – This speaker strikes a great balance between sound quality and battery life—even functioning as a power bank for other devices when needed.
- Sonos Roam – Perfect for indoor-outdoor home use, the Roam’s smart features and seamless connectivity facilitate integration with a decked-out home audio setup.
Large Bluetooth Speakers: Powerful and Room-Filling
For an immersive Bluetooth sound system, only the largest speakers with the highest volume capacity and deepest bass will suffice. Capable of delivering the best quality, loudest, and most dynamic range of sound, these models should rival any fully decked-out home or professional setup with their specs.
Accordingly, large Bluetooth speakers are most suited for entertaining at bigger events—especially hosted outdoors or at large venues. And because of their size, build specs tend to be quite robust and rugged.
Be sure to check out these models:
- Electrotec Stage One – A robust speaker designed for superior sound performance delivered by three drivers, the Stage One also meets the most demanding performance, durability, and portability criteria a large Bluetooth speaker can have.
- Ultimate Ears HYPERBOOM – With its adaptive EQ and extended battery life, the HYPERBOOM will keep a large party going all day and well into the night.
Choosing the Right Bluetooth Speaker for Your Needs—Electrotec’s StageOne
Choosing the best Bluetooth speaker for your needs will require balancing their various trade-offs across sound quality, connectivity, battery life, durability, and size. For instance, the best sound output or longest battery life is typically found in larger models, coming at the expense of portability. So, the right device will depend on your expected uses.
Put simply, travelers should emphasize portability, at-home use likely requires strong and stable connections for wandering around nearby, and event-use necessitates higher volumes. Whatever your use cases, consider the speaker’s location(s), frequency and length of use, and just how demanding you are over quality sound before making a purchase.
Of course, if you want to minimize all the trade-offs involved, there’s Electrotec’s StageOne. Incredibly durable with its weatherproof coating, silicone corners, and other protections, our super-portable, 40-lb model boasts three custom drivers for maximum dynamic range and 120 hours of battery life.
You can pre-order the Stage One today.