Because the CDs are in the loft. Because streaming services have replaced physical formats anyhow. Because no-one has room for floor-stander speakers. It’s time to think about buying a multiroom wireless speaker system.
We may still be waiting for our jetpacks, but at least the future is here in one respect: the availability of a whole planet’s-worth of music, on demand, wirelessly and throughout the home at the prod of a smartphone. What a time to be alive.
We’ve divided our picks of the best wireless speakers into two groups: single speakers and multiroom systems. It’s worth bearing in mind that any wireless speaker that’s Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or Apple Home-enabled can become part of a multiroom set-up with other similarly specified speakers. If you want consistency of sound and appearance, though, you should really be looking for a single-brand system.
What are the best wireless speakers in 2022?
Our top pick for both the individual best wireless speaker and the best wireless system is – and you won’t believe us – Sonos. And for individual units, it’s the Sonos One (£159). Not only are the controls user-friendly and the design ace, the sound is powerful and well-balanced, too.
Our alternative multiroom option is Audio Pro and its AudioPro Addon C10 (£279) is the best wireless speaker between £200 and £300. The anthropomorphised speaker has a great build and wide-open sound.
View the AudioPro Addon C10 for £279 on Amazon
If your budget stretches to around the £1,000 mark, it’s got to be the Bowers & Wilkins Formation Wedge (£900) or is it the Naim Mu-so 2? (£1,299). The B&W is the more, shall we say, unique looking whereas the Naim is loud and poised with an excellent control wheel.
View the B&W Formation Wedge for £900 on John Lewis
View the Naim Mu-so 2 for £1,300 on John Lewis
WIRED Recommends is your definitive guide to the best technology. Every product featured has been properly tested by WIRED reviewers. Read our list of the best headphones for our favourite picks in every category.
Sonos
WIRED Recommends: Future-proof and painless, Sonos is pound-for-pound the best wireless multiroom system
Voice control: Alexa, Google Assistant | Hi-res audio: No Spotify Connect: Yes | Apple AirPlay: 2 | Amazon Music: Yes | Internet radio: Yes | Wi-Fi: Yes
Sonos nailed its multiroom experience some time ago, and has been improving it ever since. From the wide range of products (which now includes single speakers, a soundbar, a subwoofer, a surprisingly capable amplifier and more besides), to the smooth user experience (thanks to both a bespoke Wi-Fi mesh and the clarity and useability of Sonos’ control app), it’s an object lesson in giving people exactly what they want. Sometimes before they even realise they want it.
Most important of all though, is the Sonos sound. There’s no hi-res support here (not even the ability to downscale hi-res music files), but the range’s forward, enthusiastic and energetic sound makes this the best pound-for-pound way to painlessly and reliably fill your home with music. And Sonos’s policy of constantly updating, finessing and improving its offering looks likely to make it so for the foreseeable.
Pros: Stability; wide product range; up-and-at-’em sound Cons: No hi-res audio support
Price: From £159 | Check prices on Sonos | Amazon | John Lewis
Audio Pro
The alternative multiroom system under £1,000
These are the best wireless speakers in 2022
The number of Audio Pro speakers able to form part of a multiroom system seems to be increasingly daily – and yet the company has managed to ensure every new model upholds its hard-won reputation as a manufacturer of some of the best pound-for-pound wireless speakers on the market. No matter if it’s from the Addon ‘C’ range (see below), the smaller ‘A’ range or the mighty Drumfire (again, below), it will offer prodigious sound quality for the money. It will be as well made as anything else at a similar price. It will look and feel good. And it will make setting up a multiroom system about as straightforward as it ever can be.
The Audio Pro control app is slightly disappointing, it’s true – it’s buggy sometimes, and leaving it to get at your Spotify playlists (for instance) gets quite tiresome quite quickly. But that’s the biggest negative it’s possible to level at the Audio Pro range – which goes some way to reinforcing just what spectacular value for money (and what an aural pleasure) an Audio Pro multiroom system is.
Taken individually, each speaker in Bluesound’s burgeoning wireless multiroom range has its merits – the Node 2i is a particularly impressive music streamer, and the Powernode 2i amplified version is better still. But considered as a whole system, one that’s capable of handling fat 24bit/192kHz hi-res audio files without alarm, it becomes little short of compelling.
The overall sound of a Bluesound multiroom system is big and bold, with impressive powers of organisation and timing. There’s punch when you need it, delicate tenderness when required, and a broad understanding of every type and genre in between. Features are numerous, set-up is simple. The control app may not have the wide-ranging cross-platform capability of the Sonos offering, but it’s a sight more extensive and useable than the Audio Pro alternative. And if you value the extra detail of an information-heavy hi-res audio file, Bluesound is the obvious multiroom choice.
So ubiquitous is Sonos in the world of wireless speakers, it’s surely only a matter of time before, like Tannoy or Kleenex before it, the brand name becomes a generic. There are two good reasons for this: Sonos was first to democratise this technology, and because it continues to set standards where performance and usability are concerned.
The Sonos One (£199) is currently the best pound-for-pound wireless speaker you can buy. It’s voice-controllable, it’s built to last, it can integrate seamlessly into a wider Sonos-based system, it’s decorative enough in its black or white finishes – and, most important of all, it sounds terrific for the money.
Solid, square-edged and with ample detail throughout the frequency range, it’s an object lesson in how to make a single enclosure sound full and expansive. Treble sounds are absolutely as crisp as they need to be (the One can be provoked if you’re streaming low-res, toppy files), but in virtually every circumstance the Sonos is impressive.
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Voice control: No | Hi-res audio: No | Bluetooth: 4.1 | Dimensions: 220 x 95 x 93mm | Weight: 420g
Somehow Ultimate Ears has taken the best little wireless speaker around and made it a whole lot better just by making it a tiny bit bigger. UE’s Wonderboom 2 (£70) is a touch taller than the original, and slightly wider in diameter too – but more significant is the improved battery life (now 13 hours), the bolder, bassier sound and the IP67 rating. If you want an affordable speaker to withstand the many rigours of a day at the beach, don’t look any further.
Don’t let the primary colours fool you: for the money, the Ultimate Ears is a remarkably accomplished-sounding little device. It does manful low-frequency work without getting carried away, and it’s as detailed and balanced through the rest of the frequency range as anyone dare hope. Want to keep costs down without completely compromising performance? This is where your money should go.
Pros: Robust; durable; good battery; accomplished sound
Cons: At this price? Not a chance
Price: £70 | Check price on Amazon | John Lewis | Argos
Audio Pro Addon C10
The best wireless speaker between £200 and £300
These are the best wireless speakers in 2022
Voice control: No | Hi-res audio: No | Spotify Connect: Yes | Apple AirPlay: Yes | Wi-Fi: Yes | Ethernet: Yes | Bluetooth: 4 | Aux in: Yes | Dimensions: 166 x 320 x 180mm
You won’t be amazed to learn there are several Twitter accounts devoted to the phenomenon of ‘faces in things’. You may be more surprised to find they feature more than just Audio Pro wireless speakers. But for all that most of Audio Pro’s range is easy to anthromorphosise, there’s nothing about the way they perform to suggest their looks are more than just a happy accident.
The pick of the bunch is the Addon C10 (£279). It has ample power, a wide-open sound that’s alive with detail and excitement, can form part of a multiroom system with no difficulty, and will keep you coming back for ‘just one more song’ time after time. Unless you don’t like being stared at by your wireless speaker, there’s no reason not to give the C10 shelf-space in any/every room in yo
It’s been around a couple of years now, but it’s testament to just how right Dali got the Katch (£299) in the first place that it remains one of the very best portable Bluetooth speakers you can buy.
And that’s “one of the very best” in every respect. It looks and feels great, it’s impeccably built, it’ll go for 24 hours on a single charge (unless you’re caning it), and it sounds utterly convincing. Bigger, uglier and less desirable speakers have greater low-frequency presence, but none have the Dali’s alacrity. It’s a brisk, perky listen, and its engaging, well dispersed audio character, along with its light weight and excellent portability, means it’s shaping up to be something of a classic. All you have to do is decide which of the colours you like best.
Pros: Clean, energetic sound; beautifully made; epic battery life Cons: Bluetooth and 3.5mm only; lacks ultimate bass extension
Don’t be put off by Denon’s inexplicably diffident efforts before now where wireless speakers are concerned. Its new ‘Home’ range is the real deal – and the Home 250 (£449) is the most impressive of the lot.
Beneath that mild-mannered exterior lurks 80 watts of power driving two 19mm tweeters and two 102mm mid/bass drivers. There’s also a big (133mm) passive radiator for extra bass oomph. And with a full suite of connectivity (both wireless and physical) plus a very usable control app to make building a multiroom system easy, the Denon’s got the on-paper specification to compete.
peakers stand or fall on their sound quality, though – and with the Home 250 Denon has finally hit the bull’s-eye. It’s not the most dynamically expressive wireless speaker around, but in every other respect it’s thoroughly enjoyable and completely convincing. As far as detail retrieval, tonal and textural fidelity, organisation and control are concerned it’s a match for anything at the price, and where outright scale is concerned it’s truly satisfying.
Ignore the fact that your choices of finish aren’t the ‘black’ or ‘white’ Denon suggests but rather ‘dark grey’ or ‘tired ivory’, and the Home 250 is a no-brainer.
Pros: Confident, large-scale, detailed sound; extensive spec; multiroom and true stereo
Cons: Could use more dynamic expression; humdrum looker\
Audio Pro Drumfire
The best wireless speaker between £600 and £800
These are the best wireless speakers in 2022
Voice control: No | Hi-res audio: No | Spotify Connect: Yes | Bluetooth: 4.0 | Apple AirPlay: Yes | Wi-Fi: Yes | Ethernet: Yes | Dimensions: 155 x 365 x 190mm (top), 500 x 365 x 190mm
And now, as the saying goes, for something completely different.
All the other speakers in this list are trying, in some way, to be a smaller and more convenient upgrade on the old wired system they want to replace. Something that takes up less space while offering more functionality and/or better sound. That’s certainly what Audio Pro’s C10 further up this list wants to do.
Not the Audio Pro Drumfire (£629), though. It’s the size of a big minibar, or a small guitar amp stack. It needs to be, of course, because its lower portion is home to a 20cm woofer that’s driven by 200 watts of power. The top cab has more modestly sized tweeters and midrange drivers.
The result is a sound that’s in the Audio Pro mould – rich, detailed and dynamic. What Drumfire brings is out-and-out scale – but only within the usual Audio Pro parameters. It’s big, and clever.
Pros: Visual presence; big, spacious and, above all, hefty sound Cons: Space-hungry; control app is nothing special
