The Best Portable Bluetooth Speakers of 2024 | GearJunkie Tested

You might not sing as well as you think in the car or shower. That’s because a lot of things sound good until you put them next to something that sounds objectively better. Such is the case with portable Bluetooth speakers, which often sound good for their size. But how good is a completely relative matter.

Our experts have been writing about speakers, headphones, earbuds, and other audio products for over a quarter century. During that time, both the audio quality and battery life of personal audio products have improved by leaps and bounds. In fact, today, we’re blessed with high-resolution audio on the go that — dare we say — may even rival vinyl.

Specifically for this buyer’s guide, we conducted online research and identified 25-plus portable Bluetooth speakers ranging in price from $40 to $600 (we might’ve gone just a bit overboard in the initial research, all in the name of being thorough.) After careful consideration, we narrowed down the candidates to a more manageable group that we then tested, compared, and contrasted under real-world conditions.

Below are the best portable Bluetooth speakers resulting from that testing. To help you more easily find the best portable Bluetooth speaker for your particular needs, we’ve included a comparison chart, a Buyer’s Guide, and a Price & Value section.

Editor’s Note: For our November 5, 2024 update, we added a Price & Value section to show what buyers can expect at different price ranges.

We had heard good things about the Turtlebox Audio Gen 2 ($399), which looks like a futuristic lunch box on steroids. We assumed it would be capable of getting very loud (which it does). But we weren’t prepared for how good it actually sounds.

The powerful amp on this thing can drive the speaker up to 120 decibels. By way of comparison, other familiar sounds at that same level include thunderclaps, chainsaws, and emergency vehicle sirens. Listening indoors, ¼-volume was plenty to fill a small bedroom (roughly 12 x 12 feet). Then again, this speaker wasn’t meant to collect dust indoors.

The Turtlebox was designed for the outdoors in a couple of ways. First and most obviously, it’s built like a tank. We’d have no qualms about lashing it to a boat or ATV — thanks in part to its stainless steel tie-downs. And second, the sound signature is designed to carry your music better outdoors. Rather than sending out your tunes to the four winds, it focuses on blasting in one direction, with elevated bass and treble.

The most revealing thing about this speaker’s sound quality came in comparing it side-by-side to the highly capable Lodge Solar Speaker 4 Series 2. On its own, the Lodge sounded stellar enough that we were considering it our best overall portable speaker for a while. But the Turtlebox sounds not only bigger and fuller, but even clearer and crisper.

If you’re willing to drop four bills on an outdoorsy speaker, the Turtlebox Audio Gen 2 offers as solid a sound and build as you’ll find — with surprisingly good battery life, 25 hours (at lower volumes). It’s also available in a number of customizable colorways for a few extra shekels.

Weighing just 274 g, the Skullcandy Kilo ($40) may not be aptly named, but it sure knows how to pound out the tunes. Despite being far and away the smallest, lightest, and cheapest of our nine featured speakers, it’s among the top few for battery life.

Its closest competition includes JBL’s acclaimed Go 3 Eco and Clip 4 Eco. Of these, the Clip matches up better against the Kilo — and not just because they both feature handy clips. Compared to the Kilo, the Clip 4 Eco’s sound feels fuller and warmer. That is to say, the Kilo’s sound is clear, crisp, and gets plenty loud, but it just doesn’t have the same rich body as that of the JBL Clip 4 Eco.

So, if we were listening at close range indoors, we’d want the JBL. But the Skullcandy is great for outdoor use due to its mix of clarity across a range of volumes. Also, the Skullcandy Kilo can do true wireless stereo pairing, which neither the Go 3 Eco nor Clip 4 Eco can.

About the perceived lack of low-end, we may have had our expectations set unreasonably high. For a headphones buyer’s guide we’re concurrently working on, we’ve been testing Skullcandy’s Crusher Evo, which brandishes skull-rattling bass. But these are very different products with different use cases. Be that as it may, we’d reach for the Kilo in a second to blast hard rock and metal, but not as much for EDM, reggae, or hip hop.

To be sure, the Skullcandy Kilo sits in a crowded, highly evolved category of portable speakers that weigh under a pound and cost less than $100. Other entries include Sony’s cylindrical SRS-XB100 and Klipsch’s more rectangular Austin.

Compared to the Kilo, the XB100 is warmer and darker (see the buyer’s guide section below for explanations about these terms), but it’s also weaker, slightly more expensive, and offers less battery life than the Kilo. The Klipsch blows away this Skullcandy for sound quality, but it’s more than twice as expensive and offers half the battery life.

Ultimately, we chose the Skullcandy Kilo as the best bargain for literally how much bang you get for your buck: decent power and superb battery life for its size, with a consistently clear, open sound. And not for nothing, but it comes in some funkified colors.

IP rating, which says that it’s dustproof and waterproof enough to be submerged in shallow water. Beyond that hidden toughness, this speaker is oozing in power and style.

The Marshall Middleton ($250) is in a virtual tie with the Outdoor Tech Bolt and Tribit StormBox Pro for being among the most powerful on this list, relative to its size. To put that spec into perspective, the Marshall Middleton speaker system can output up to 60 W, whereas the Lodge Solar Speaker 4 Series 2 — which is roughly three times bigger — outputs a respectable but lesser 50 W.

And by the way, this speaker is, in fact, a system. It incorporates two 3/5-inch tweeters, two 3-inch woofers, and two passive radiators. We agree with Marshall that this configuration (along with some fancy signal processing) gives the Middleton a “heavy” sound. And its sound emanates very well in every direction. Definitely a great speaker to place right in the middle of the action.

To complement/foreshadow our praise in the Ease of Use section of the buyer’s guide, we really like their attention to detail with the physical controls. It’s cool being able to control the bass and treble with buttons right on the speaker, and the golden multifunction knob definitely steals the show (as you’ll read below). But we also like how if you adjust the volume, treble, or bass — or check the battery status — the same red, 10-LED meter displays the current status for that particular level.

The mighty Middleton honors its 60-plus-year Marshall heritage. It’s pure rock ‘n’ roll style blended with thoughtful design, backed by plenty of power and a rugged body, available in black or cream.

Right out of the gate, the Soundcore Boom 2 ($130) is a hair lighter, less than half the price, and yet somehow a third more powerful than the Marshall Middleton we just lauded above. And in fact, the Boom 2 sports the best power relative to the price and weight of any speaker on this list. But it’s also a solid sonic performer.

Its overall sound signature is clear and open with punchy impact. With the bass boosted, it definitely brings the thump, although the Middleton still sounds thicker and richer in the sub- and mid-bass regions. But that’s not a bad thing, since the Boom 2’s openness and clarity make it great for outdoor listening at the beach and pool.

Speaking of which, the Boom 2 is not only waterproof, but floats as well. Not that you’d want to do that while actually listening to music. But you don’t have to worry if it just happens to take a dip in the drink.

Where the Boom 2 falters is around some of its extras. In cycling through the seven light show modes — either in the app or by counterintuitively pressing the physical Bass button on it — we couldn’t tell the difference. We could select a custom color just fine, but the lights appeared to flash in the exact same pattern in every mode. Also, the app crashed several times while toggling various selections or attempting to install the firmware update it said fixed bugs.

If you’re looking for an affordable Bluetooth boombox with a pleasant open sound, nice detail, and plenty of oomph, the Soundcore Boom 2 — available in three color schemes — fits the bill. It can be paired with another Boom 2 for wireless stereo, or connected to up to 100 other compatible Soundcore speakers. Just don’t get it for the light show. And set your expectations low with the app.

With all due respect to the more diminutive speakers we tested, the new JBL PartyBox Stage 320 ($600) is definitely the $#!T. Clearly, it’s the biggest, heaviest, loudest, and most expensive of the bunch. But it’s also got some clever tricks up its sleeve.

First, it features the latest iteration of Bluetooth (5.4), which means that it can not only pair in stereo to its twin (another Stage 320), but an unlimited number of other compatible JBL PartyBoxes (each sold separately). Honestly though, given the magnitude of sound it delivers on its own, most common scenarios wouldn’t call for that.

We really like how customizable the Stage 320’s cool lighting and sound effects are, both on the speaker itself and within the slick app. For instance, an easy-to-use knob on top of the speaker powers the lighting on and off and cycles through the various modes, which you can customize more highly (i.e., dialing in exact colors) within the app. Also, the Effect Lab in the app lets you not only trigger certain sound effects and DJ-style party phrases in real time, but also customize which ones the buttons on the speaker activate.

In terms of the sound itself, JBL’s signature sound is present, plus the app offers several cool equalizer presets. You can even select what kind of bass boost you want — essentially, more rumbly or more punchy. And the speaker has knobs for controlling the bass, treble, volume, and echo of the dual wireless mics that are super fun and easy to use. (It was our lead tester’s kids’ favorite function of this speaker.)

Mixing brawn with brains, the JBL PartyBox Stage 320 is not only big and bold, but also well-featured and highly customizable. When not plugged in at full power, it can run up to 18 hours on a single battery, but it conveniently has a hot-swappable battery port, so you can charge a spare battery externally and have it ready for those extended jam sessions. As far as towers go, it’s not the biggest, but it deftly walks the line between sizable and affordable.

Truth be told, when we were given a sneak preview presentation that featured the Sony Ult Field 7 ($500), we had no idea how big it was. With nothing next to it for reference in the images we saw, we assumed it was around a foot wide, like the size of JBL’s Extreme 3. Well, we were extremely wrong because, in fact, it’s about 20 inches wide.

Replacing Sony’s XG500, the new Ult Field 7 is even wider, thinner, and heavier than its predecessor. Instead of a boombox-y-looking handle on top, the Ult Field 7 has more subtle, grippable, circular handles built into its sides. Instead of the old Mega Bass branding, this speaker exemplifies the sleeker, bassier branding of Sony’s Ult line, which also includes the way smaller Field 1 speaker and the Wear headphones we’re testing for another buyer’s guide.

With all that backstory out of the way, let’s get into the Ult Field 7’s sound, because it really is fantastic. The sound signature is clear, crisp, and impactful. And pressing the shiny Ult button successively gives it two extra levels of bass, for a sound that rivals even that of the JBL PartyBox Stage 320.

In fact, while that PartyBox can out-rumble the Ult Field 7 due to its sheer muscular advantage, it’s not by much — and the Ult 7 sounds more clear and open, especially through the midrange. So vocals and acoustic guitars sound more recessed on the JBL and more pronounced on the Sony.

What, then, is the use case for a 14-pound, nearly 2-foot wide portable speaker with very well-balanced sound? Well, it’s totally weatherproof and claims the battery life title (up to 30 hours). But we sure wouldn’t want to lug it camping or to the beach. It seems like it’d be ideal for patios, pool decks, backyard barbecues, or huge indoor spaces.

Obviously, a lot of thought went into designing the Sony Ult Field 7. For instance, it has a Battery Care mode that limits the maximum charging capacity in order to preserve long-term battery health, or if the situation demands it, you can choose to quick charge. So yes, it brings the boom, but between its superior all-around sound, modest light show, mic/guitar inputs, and other cool features, it’s just a great (albeit slightly unwieldy) portable speaker.

The smallest member of its Music City series, Klipsch’s Austin ($99) pumps out tunes in a way that does its namesake city proud. In fact, it’s the best-sounding portable speaker on this list, relative to its price and size.

Of the 12 speakers we tested in the $100 or less price range, the Austin stands out. Only the similarly priced Cleer Scene comes close to producing a sound as full and rich. But this compact Klipsch edges it out based on its smaller size and better portability. (Although it’s on the thick side to be pocketed, the Austin sports a built-in strap for attaching it to bags, handlebars, and the backs of beach and camp chairs.)

As we noted above in the Skullcandy Kilo writeup, the Klipsch Austin puts every other small speaker we heard to shame. By comparison, they sound weak and/or anemic. The Austin just brings a certain richness and fullness you might not expect from a 1-pound speaker.

Our biggest ding against this proud little performer is with its buttons for power, Bluetooth, and volume up and down. They’re small and subtly marked. In a way that we have to stare at them — even in good light — to make sure we’re pressing the right ones. Also, its 12-hour battery life isn’t awful, but it is easily the weakest of our nine favorites — half that of the similarly sized Skullcandy Kilo.

And we didn’t have much luck with the companion app, which is supposed to be able to change the equalizer preset, among a few other functions. But the speaker performed perfectly fine without messing with those settings.

Using buttons right on the speakers, we were eventually able to put the Klipsch Austin into broadcast mode and pair it to its bigger brother, the Nashville. But that’s not why we’d get this speaker. On its own, it’s just a superb-sounding, rugged little speaker that can go just about anywhere.

To be honest, the Tribit StormBox Pro ($120) surprised us. We weren’t expecting much from it. But once we heard it and took a look back at its specifications, we were impressed.

Between its two 40mm speakers and 3-inch subwoofer, this small 2.1 set-up boasts 40 W of power. In fact, it’s among the most powerful speakers on this list, relative to both its size and weight.

Compared to other similarly sized and priced speakers, it sounds warmer and fuller. Or, to put it another way, though the Skullcandy Terrain XL gets plenty loud and exudes a clear, open sound, it feels a little flat — like something’s missing — when played next to the StormBox Pro.

Honestly, there’s not much to knock about the StormBox Pro. It’s rugged and offers plenty of battery life. In fact, it can charge your phone or other small USB device on the go. Perhaps it looks a little generic? But that may be splitting hairs.

At the end of the day, the Tribit StormBox Pro delivers great sound — in all directions, by the way, which is nice. Its built-in handle makes it easy to bring along and hang places. And it may not be the most stylish speaker on this list, but it performs well where it counts.

Although we’d heard about the Urbanista Malibu ($149) last year, we only just recently got to try it out. But it was totally worth the wait.

One of the reasons that we were so eager to try it out is because we’ve enjoyed Urbanista’s other solar products. Their Phoenix earbuds and Los Angeles headphones are both fun to travel with, since they integrate Powerfoyle solar technology that extends their battery life. (Yes, all their products are named after cities, though no they aren’t all solar.)

As with its other solar products, the app helps track how much power you’ve gained, either for the day or throughout the month. You can then see how that affected the speaker’s play time. The app also lets you put the speaker into power saving, and toggle whether you want it to automatically enter that mode on its own. And of course it lets you adjust the equalizer with a few presets. So it’s a very helpful, insightful app.

All that solar power and insight would be for naught if the speaker sounded lousy. But on the contrary, it sounds great. We’d reach for this speaker even if it didn’t have solar capabilities. It’s clear, open, warm, and rich. Definitely great for the beach or pool, camping or even hiking.

Our one little niggle is with the button layout. There’s a multifunction button between the volume down (on the left) and the play/pause button, and a separate power button is hidden on the back. It’s not the most intuitive layout we’ve seen. But other than that, Urbanista Malibu looks cool, sounds great, and delivers on its promise of extended tunes in the golden sunshine.

It’s no secret that we at GearJunkie like to take along our audio while running or working out. But we’re social types too, so when we’re ready to kick back and crank out some tunes at the beach or around the campsite, we reach for a trusty Bluetooth speaker. Because of how we roll, any speaker we choose has to not only sound good, but also be willing to take a beating.

Our lead tester, Scott Tharler has been writing about audio products and other consumer electronics for over 25 years. Throughout that time, Tharler’s attended CES more than two dozen times, where first-hand he’s gotten to experience everything from $25 MagSafe phone speakers to 3,000W soundbars to six-figure floor-standing behemoths.

In other words, we’ve heard literally hundreds of speakers since before 2010, when the original Jambox dropped our jaws and forever changed the portable speaker market. All that to say, we know a thing or two about the history, evolution, and capabilities of portable Bluetooth speakers.

The GearJunkie staff likes to rock out wherever and whenever the mood strikes us. So we always have a Bluetooth speaker at the ready, whether stashed in a pocket, lashed to a backpack, tossed into a duffel bag, or cached in our vehicle.

During several weeks of real-world testing, we piped our top playlists through each of the 25 curated speakers. For starters, we did dedicated solo listening sessions, which inevitably evolved into side-by-side comparisons. We listened both indoors and outdoors, at varying distances.

Starting at a low-to-mid-level volume and then gradually working our way up to “11,” we listened for natural timbre, crisp highs, and beefy lows, among other audio qualities. Some of the results were predictable, but a few definitely surprised us.

In addition to sound quality, we rated all the entries based on such factors as power, ease of use, versatility, price, and special features. To keep this resource as current and comprehensive as possible, we’ll continue to cull and assess additional portable Bluetooth speakers for future iterations of this guide.

Over the years, we’ve seen and heard speakers that hover, look like disco balls, mimic space creatures and women’s clutches, and a variety of other creative form factors. But we’ve also researched and auditioned countless “normal-looking” speakers.

So we know that selecting a portable Bluetooth speaker is a daunting task. In fact, even just pinning down a style and size can be quite a challenge. To be sure, making an informed decision about finding the right portable speaker requires dedicated thought and research.

Fortunately, this guide packs all the essential info you’ll need to choose the best portable speaker solution for you. You’ll learn why you should and shouldn’t consider particular types of Bluetooth speakers and which features matter most. Practically speaking, it’s everything you need to know about purchasing a portable Bluetooth speaker that’ll go from pairing to blaring in no time.

Figuring out how powerful you’ll want your speaker to be is a great thing to consider either once you’ve defined your use case — or to help you do so. For instance, let’s say you want a small speaker for under $100 that fits in your pocket, clips to your bag, or takes up very little space inside it. You’re looking at something like a JBL Clip 4 Eco, Skullcandy Kilo, or Klipsch Austin, all of which operate in the 5W to 10W range, which is enough for anything within 5 or 10 feet.

Moving up to the 10W to 20W level — speakers such as the Cleer Scene, Outdoor Tech Bolt, and Urbanista Malibu — the sound will easily fill most rooms and be great for picnic areas, campsites, and medium-sized gatherings.

Anything 40 W and above is very powerful, with the formidable Sony Ult Field 7 and monstrous JBL PartyBox Stage 320 able to respectively rock a house and a whole city block. But beware: Just because a speaker lists more watts on a spec sheet doesn’t necessarily make it better.

Naturally, the size and weight of a speaker play a big part in where, when, and how often you take it along. But to help you determine whether it’s worth getting in the first place, we did some calculations to determine the value of each speaker relative to its size and weight.

We discovered that the Marshall Middleton (our choice for Most Stylish) cranks out the most watts per cubic inch — or, to put it plainly, that it’s the most powerful relative to its size. At under four pounds yet able to crank out 80 W, the Soundcore Boom 2 (our choice for Best Boombox) was the most powerful relative to its weight.

Interestingly, the Sony Ult Field 7 was at the bottom of the pack in terms of power relative to its size and weight (despite the fact that it’s plenty loud as a speaker).

Of course, knowing how long you’ll be able to listen to music is important. Of our nine featured speakers, the worst battery life was 8 hours, which is a testament to how far battery tech has evolved in the past few years. For perspective, the average battery life for those same nine speakers was over 21 hours. But that’s a little skewed, since we tended to feature speakers that boast great battery life.

For all 25 speakers we tested, the average battery life was a little under 17 hours. The Sony Ult Field 7 wins the title for best battery life (30 hours). At 24 hours, the Skullcandy Kilo far and away claims the best battery life relative to its size.

Lastly, another good reason to look for strong battery life is because some speakers — such as the Klipsch Nashville and JBL PartyBox Stage 320 — can reverse charge your phone, acting as a power bank when you need it.

The JBL PartyBox was the only one we saw with a battery you can swap in and out of the speaker to charge externally.

Before we jump into assessing what sound qualities to listen for, it’s important to consider how certain sound-related aspects of your use case affect what makes a speaker right for you.

Most importantly, you should consider whether you’ll be primarily indoors or outdoors — or want a speaker that does both well. For mostly indoors, consider the size and acoustics of the room(s) where it’ll be. For instance, the same speaker will perform differently in a small, thickly carpeted den with curtains versus a large, open, brick-walled loft. Similarly, outdoors is a totally different game.

Without walls to bounce off, the sound needs to be bigger and more V-shaped (elevated bass and treble) to be heard. Some speakers even have an indoor/outdoor switch to attempt to compensate for this effect.

If you close your eyes and can quickly tell where the sound’s emitting from, you have a directional speaker. To tell how directional it is, place the speaker down on a table, rotate it, and notice how much it sounds quieter/different throughout the rotation. By contrast, a 360-degree speaker sounds consistent as you revolve around it.

For speakers like this, such as with the Tribit StormBox Pro, you can optimize the soundstage by placing them in the center of the room, rather than plunking them in the corner.

Related to both setting and directionality, distance encompasses two factors: both how far away you’ll be listening to the speaker and how far away the speaker will be from your phone (or other source device). That might be the same distance if you’re sitting in one place. But if you’re at a backyard barbecue or other party setting, you’re likely to be moving around.

Likewise, at any one time, your guests are likely to all be standing at different distances from the speaker. So in addition to considering whether you’ll be indoors or out and where the speaker should be placed given its directionality, you should give thought to the distances it’ll need to serve. So when you’re testing, don’t sit right up against a larger speaker or across the room from a tiny one. Listen at the distance that it’s meant for.

These aren’t the types of qualities that you can ferret out just by browsing spec sheets online. But if you have an opportunity to actually audition a speaker before purchasing it, here are some sound attributes to pay attention to, for whatever genre(s) of music you prefer.

Speakers — and, for that matter, earbuds and headphones — exhibit different sound signatures at different volumes. Aside from just being quieter at lower volumes, a speaker may sound more clear. Whereas, at higher volumes it may sound distorted, characterized by a fuzzy, frazzled, unpleasant quality.

Very rarely, you may find a speaker with extremely low distortion at any volume, such as the incredible Devialet Phantom. But back here on Earth, most of the portable speakers you’re likely to encounter will have a cracking point. So it’s good to test out speakers at a variety of volumes, listening for changes in sound signature and clarity.

Just as some actors are both muscular and funny, and some cars are both fast and nimble, some speakers are able to deliver both slam and finesse (as with our top choice, the Turtlebox). But oftentimes, you’ll have to choose one or the other.

Taken to the extreme, a speaker with tons of impact will blow you away; and one with plentiful detail will bring you right into the room, making you feel like you’re listening to a live performance. But in reality, all speakers have these qualities in varying degrees. So when you hear a speaker, listen for how much impact and detail it displays in the kinds of songs you enjoy.

Often associated with treble, brightness describes a sense of both clarity and detail in the upper frequencies. To say a speaker is bright means that it’s able to retrieve and produce clear, open high notes. “Sparkly” is right at the precipice of being too much detail.

And for most folks, “sizzle” means it goes too far, giving high-end detail that comes off as sibilant and harsh. Conversely, if a speaker is dark, it lacks openness and detail — similar to how you would sound if you cupped your hands over your mouth while talking.

These temperature-minded terms are just shortcuts. We might otherwise refer to a warm sound as “big,” “beefy,” or “fun;” and a cool sound as “flat,” “pale,” or “anemic.” But essentially, we’re attempting to describe whether a speaker’s sound is fuller or thinner. It’s a little tricky to put into words, but you can usually tell when your music sounds ample and satisfying … or not.

You might revel in a kick drum that knocks you off your chair, or one that resolves in a more satisfyingly subtle way. You might seek a bass groove with the kind of rumble that rearranges your internal organs, or prefer a tight, low-end tone.

Similarly, you might or might not listen to a lot of pianos, trumpets, acoustic guitars, and/or vocalists — all of which sit in the mid-level frequencies. And lastly, a crisply rattling high hat might put a smile on your face, or make you cringe.

Everyone has their own desires, tolerances, and abilities to hear various frequencies. So, simply saying that you like bass, mids, or treble is fairly meaningless. Applying the above terms to those categories is way more helpful and descriptive. For instance, you might say that you enjoy a warm, impactful bass, pronounced mids, or a clear, bright treble. That points more precisely to a sound signature that could potentially match your tastes to an actual speaker.

To some degree, a speaker’s style has to do with its form factor. In particular, how unique (and ideally, appealing) that form factor is. In this regard, the multifacetedness of Outdoor Tech’s Turtle 4.0 (not to be confused with Turtlebox, something totally different) comes to mind, along with the triangularity of the Sonos Roam. The Cleer Scene also stands out, as it’s not quite cylindrical but has its own interesting shape.

Style could also relate to how colorful the speaker is, such as the very orange Sony Ult Field 1 and Turtlebox Audio Gen 2 we tested — the latter of which displays quite a polarizing marine-minded, outdoorsy style. So it’s interesting that in the end, we declared a black rectangular cube as the most stylish.

But there’s just something so classy, classic, and oozing rock ‘n’ roll DNA about the Marshall Middleton. Rather than a mindless tone or disembodied British female voice, when you power on the Middleton it plays a cool electric guitar riff. Now, that’s style!

We need to be able to take our speakers anywhere, knowing that they might meet with heat, dust, rain, and the occasional tumble. For your speaker, factor in where you’ll be taking it and how well you’ll take care of it. (Though as we can attest, accidents do happen.)

The Ingress Protection (IP) rating consists of two numbers. The first has to do with protection from dust and other small particles. It’ll likely either be an X — meaning that it doesn’t protect against dust — or a 6, meaning that it does. The second number has to do with liquids (i.e. water).

If it’s a 7, it can be submersed in shallow water; a 6 indicates it’s fine in the rain, and less than that means a splash won’t kill it, but you’ll want to keep it from getting wet. All that said, IP67 — the most popular rating of all the speakers we tested — means it’s totally safe against dust and water.

Whether you’re clumsy, rough, or careless, it’s good to know how well-insulated your speaker will be from a drop. The protocol for this is Mil-Std-810, a standard developed by the U.S. Army to indicate that your speaker (or other product) can withstand extreme shocks and temperatures.

Raycon’s appropriately named The Impact Speaker has earned this designation. But even if we didn’t know that, we’d be able to tell from its rubberized corners and tough-looking plastic edging that it’d be just fine taking a nosedive off the tailgate (and probably higher).

When it comes to speakers, nothing’s more frustrating than struggling to change the track or volume when the mood hits you. So having controls that are easy to find and use is tantamount to your enjoyment of the speaker.

Most of the speakers have volume buttons that either display or are actually in the shape of plus and minus signs. That’s easy enough to figure out when you’re looking right at them. But which of these you can operate without looking is a different story.

We look for how isolated the volume controls are. In other words, when your fingers search for the buttons, how many do they find? If it’s two, that’s easy. Three is similar, just with a play/pause button in the middle. But more than that, we have to remember where the volume controls are, either on one side or flanking all of them.

As noted above, the JBL PartyBox Stage 320 has some cool features and effects that you can activate from its physical control panel.

But the Marshall Middleton easily sports the coolest controls of any of these speakers. The main button is round and gold, with highly tactile concentric circles where you put the tip of your finger. Pressing away or toward you controls the volume up or down; left or right either scans or skips the track back or forward; and pressing down pauses or plays your music.

It feels unlike any other speaker button we’ve tried. For bonus points, the Middleton also has separate rockers for controlling the bass and treble right on the device. We’ve certainly seen bass boost buttons, but nothing like this to make fine adjustments.

In addition to duplicating some of the basic physical controls right on the speaker, its companion app may offer a whole host of functionality. You can adjust the equalizer to hone in on whatever sound signature strikes your fancy. As with the JBL PartyBox Stage 320 — which has its own PartyBox app aside from other JBL products — and Soundcore Boom 2, you can adjust the available light show colors and patterns.

Speaking of light, the solar Urbanista Malibu uses its app to report how much extra playtime you’ve gained from the sunlight it’s absorbed. Apps also facilitate firmware updates, which can increase your speaker’s battery life and other functionality. And you can use them to add speakers to create a stereo or multi-room set-up, depending on your speaker’s connectability.

As of when this buyer’s guide is posted, 5.4 is the most current Bluetooth version. Each iteration of Bluetooth has evolved to include additional capabilities, often in the form of increased connection consistency and maximum distance from the source. But the last few versions — starting with 5.2 — have included a very cool feature called Auracast, which you may want to look for.

As with the JBL PartyBox Stage 320, it allows multiple phones at once to be connected and take turns sending music to the speaker. Additionally, all of the speakers on our shortlist can be paired with a second identical speaker to create a stereo set-up of left- and right-channel speakers.

And a few of them — the Sony Ult Field 7, Soundcore Boom 2, and JBL PartyBox Stage 320 — can connect up to 100 or more speakers to create a potentially massive speaker network, based on each brand’s own proprietary wireless networking protocol.

We’ve already alluded to light shows and solar charging, but we’ve seen a ton of additional features. These include a built-in microphone for taking calls, wireless microphone accessories for karaoke, guitar inputs, a handle, strap and/or wheels for easier transporting, and an SD card reader for playing your personal library of songs.

We’ve also seen a built-in carabiner, tripod mount, and/or strong magnets (as with the Outdoor Tech’s Bolt and Raycon’s The Impact Speaker) to attach it to stuff. And last but certainly not least, a bottle opener (as on Scosche’s BoomBottle MS). For sure, no speaker has everything on this list. But at least you can use it to figure out which of these features might be nice (although not necessary) for your speaker to have.

There are plenty of great speakers out there for under $100. These options tend to be on the smaller side, so while you may be sacrificing in some aspects like big, boomy bass, durability, and battery life, you often gain a good amount of portability. Options like the Skullcandy Kilo ($40) are at the bottom of the price range and still offer clear, crisp sound, IPX-7 waterproofing, and an excellent 24 hours of battery life.

Overall, the average price of the 25 speakers we examined for this guide was just over $180, and $100 to $250 is usually what you can expect to spend in this range. For the extra dough, you’ll find more powerful sound, better battery life, and perks like the ability to connect to other speakers to create surround sound.

The Soundcore Boom 2 ($130) sits in the middle of this price range, and it offers clear, open sound with a good boom and the ability to connect to as many speakers as you can afford. Plus, this waterproof speaker actually floats, which is a fun perk you won’t find in many other speakers.

If the sky’s the limit on the price range, you can expect to spend anywhere from $300 to $600 or more for a premium portable speaker. This range is generally larger to accommodate larger, clearer sound, but damn, is that sound sweet. At $600, the JBL PartyBox Stage 320 is the biggest and most feature-rich of the speakers we tested. Its customizable sound is top-tier and loud enough to have the neighbors telling you to turn the music down.

The Turtlebox Audio Gen 2 ($399) is on the more portable end of the premium spectrum, weighing ten pounds and blasting out up to 120 decibels of clear sound. Plus, it’s water- and dust-proof-rated IP67, so feel free to lash it to a boat or ATV and go to town.

A Bluetooth speaker is a wireless speaker. Bluetooth is a common wireless standard for directly connecting an end device, such as a speaker, to a source device, like a phone, tablet, or laptop.

By comparison, Wi-Fi is another type of wireless connection, where a speaker — such as the Sonos Move 2 — connects to a source device indirectly via an Internet-connected network. In other words, all Bluetooth speaker connections are wireless, but not all wireless speaker connections are Bluetooth.

One of the main disadvantages of Bluetooth speakers is that they’re still susceptible to losing their connection when separated from their source device by thick walls, floors, and ceilings, along with other wireless interference.

All portable Bluetooth speakers need to be recharged at some point. And some are trickier to pair than others. But having said that, Bluetooth speakers’ range, battery life, and pairing have all improved over the years.

How powerful a speaker you need depends mostly on where you intend to use it (indoors or outdoors) and how far away the furthest person actively listening will be. But in general, 5-10 W should be enough for small personal spaces indoors. And 10-20 W is adequate to fill an average-sized room and be good for small to medium gatherings outside.

Yes, a Bluetooth-enabled TV (or projector) can connect wirelessly to an external Bluetooth speaker — especially in the case of a projector, making for an excellent outdoor movie night set-up.

We tested and ranked the best running headphones of 2024, including pairs from Beats, SoundCore, and JBL.

A good portable power station will keep you off the plug for days or even weeks at a time. We’ve tested the latest, including Anker, Goal Zero, and more.