There's no better way to unwind than with a great audiobook or your favorite album while you chill on the couch. When you have a wireless speaker connected over Wi-Fi, you can bring your content up on your phone and cast it to your nearest device. Compared with Bluetooth speakers, the best Wi-Fi speakers offer a greater range, and many also include extras like compatibility with popular streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora. Some speakers also have a virtual assistant onboard -- usually Amazon Alexa -- and this makes it even easier to ask for the thing you want to play.
The Sonos Era 100 is the smart speaker to please any music fan. The compact device makes several improvements on the award-winning One, including stereo sound playback and even better sound quality. With Bluetooth, onboard Amazon Alexa and Apple AirPlay 2 compatibility, the Era 100 is a more flexible streaming speaker than ever before.
Pros
- Excellent sound quality
- Bluetooth adds flexibility
- Robust ecosystem
Cons
- A little more expensive
- Competition offers better features
- Some compression on bass heavy music
- No Google Assistant
The WiiM Sound is a Wi-Fi speaker with an onboard display, and it's controllable with Amazon Alexa and Google when you use the bundled smart remote. It can go toe-to-toe with the Apple HomePod for sound quality -- which still doesn't have a screen -- and the WiiM also offers an EQ for further tweaking. The 3.5mm input is also handy if you have a separate device you want to connect, like a turntable. The WiiM Sound is a great option for people who use WiiM streamers on their home stereo and want to branch out.
Pros
- Excellent sound and audio customization options for a speaker its size
- Great streaming compatibility with multiple services
- Fun and handy touchscreen
- Useful preset shortcuts
- Remote control with voice assistant
- Extra aux connection
Cons
- As expensive as a HomePod, too
- App settings take a little time to master
- Voice assistants aren't the best at understanding music commands
The HomePod Mini may be outgunned by the new HomePod in terms of output power, but it is also a third of the price. For its size, the HomePod Mini has a laundry list of useful features -- Siri voice assistant, temperature and humidity controls -- and it sounds really good, too. If you're deep in the Apple ecosystem, especially if you use Siri a lot, the Apple HomePod Mini should make a seamless addition to your home.
Pros
- It sounds great
- It's small
- It's under $100
Cons
- Siri still isn't the best assistant
- HomeKit needs more compatible accessories
- Other small smart speakers are $50 or less
The WiiM Pro is not so much a speaker, but it's a great device for people who don't want to buy a whole new one. Say you've got a stereo system -- or even an old Bluetooth speaker like the Fluance F170 -- and you wanted to be able to add Wi-Fi streaming to it. The WiiM Pro offers the best sound and streaming support of any other dongle I can think of. The app makes it easy to set up and use, and it will integrate with many multiroom systems too.
Pros
- Affordable
- Plenty of connectivity
- Easy to set up and use
- Flexible
Cons
- Way too many features
- Analog input isn't great
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There are a lot of Wi-Fi speakers on offer, and choosing between them might seem overwhelming. Yet, our experts have researched and tested and the best models, so you don’t have to. No matter your budget or the features you're looking for, there’s a wireless speaker for you.
Also read: Best Bluetooth Speakers of 2026
Pros
- Excellent sound quality
- Bluetooth adds flexibility
- Robust ecosystem
Cons
- A little more expensive
- Competition offers better features
- Some compression on bass heavy music
- No Google Assistant
The Sonos Era 100 is the smart speaker to please any music fan. The compact device makes several improvements on the award-winning One, including stereo sound playback and even better sound quality. With Bluetooth, onboard Amazon Alexa and Apple AirPlay 2 compatibility, the Era 100 is a more flexible streaming speaker than ever before.
Pros
- Excellent sound and audio customization options for a speaker its size
- Great streaming compatibility with multiple services
- Fun and handy touchscreen
- Useful preset shortcuts
- Remote control with voice assistant
- Extra aux connection
Cons
- As expensive as a HomePod, too
- App settings take a little time to master
- Voice assistants aren't the best at understanding music commands
The WiiM Sound is a Wi-Fi speaker with an onboard display, and it's controllable with Amazon Alexa and Google when you use the bundled smart remote. It can go toe-to-toe with the Apple HomePod for sound quality -- which still doesn't have a screen -- and the WiiM also offers an EQ for further tweaking. The 3.5mm input is also handy if you have a separate device you want to connect, like a turntable. The WiiM Sound is a great option for people who use WiiM streamers on their home stereo and want to branch out.
Pros
- It sounds great
- It's small
- It's under $100
Cons
- Siri still isn't the best assistant
- HomeKit needs more compatible accessories
- Other small smart speakers are $50 or less
The HomePod Mini may be outgunned by the new HomePod in terms of output power, but it is also a third of the price. For its size, the HomePod Mini has a laundry list of useful features -- Siri voice assistant, temperature and humidity controls -- and it sounds really good, too. If you're deep in the Apple ecosystem, especially if you use Siri a lot, the Apple HomePod Mini should make a seamless addition to your home.
The Sonos Roam 2 is a portable Bluetooth speaker on steroids -- it can be used out and about, or it can be used as part of a Sonos multiroom system. It's affordable enough for a Sonos and, like the almost-identical Roam, it sounds better than other products of its type. The Roam 2 also comes with a voice assistant to make choosing a song even simpler.
Pros
- Affordable
- Plenty of connectivity
- Easy to set up and use
- Flexible
Cons
- Way too many features
- Analog input isn't great
The WiiM Pro is not so much a speaker, but it's a great device for people who don't want to buy a whole new one. Say you've got a stereo system -- or even an old Bluetooth speaker like the Fluance F170 -- and you wanted to be able to add Wi-Fi streaming to it. The WiiM Pro offers the best sound and streaming support of any other dongle I can think of. The app makes it easy to set up and use, and it will integrate with many multiroom systems too.
The HomePod features an edge-to-edge Siri display on top.
Ty Pendlebury/CNET- Apple HomePod (2023) ($300): The most recent HomePod is a refined take on Apple's first smart speaker with better sound and more features. Despite newfound support for Dolby Atmos, it's the temperature and humidity sensors that are the most palpable changes. Yet, at $300, most people are better off buying the HomePod mini, which has an almost identical set of features.
The Sonos Move 2
David Carnoy/CNET- Sonos Move 2($499): If you want a wireless speaker model that's (kinda) portable and water resistant, the Sonos Move offers great sound in a very large box. If you need to power a tailgate or large party, this would be great, but for most people, the Sonos Roam is both cheaper and more pocketable.
- McIntosh RS150 ($1,200): The massive McIntosh RS150 has some great things going for it -- namely, Google Cast, Roon Ready and Spotify Connect. Nonetheless, the sound wasn't as clear as I'd expected, and the unit offers no EQ controls to compensate. In addition, while the previous RS100 had the fabled McIntosh blue meter, this update misses a trick by replacing it with LEDs. The competitive Naim Mu-so Qb is more compact and offers excellent performance for the same price.
CNET follows a rigorous, unbiased evaluation process for all of our audio testing. We test Wi-Fi speakers ranging from simple bedside and PC speakers all the way up to high-end systems. Our audio lab includes a Roon server running on a Synology NAS, Google Nest and Amazon Echo speakers, plus both iOS and Android devices. Similar speakers are compared side by side in a living room environment with different styles of music and utilizing multiple streaming platforms when required. We grade the sound quality of each by evaluating clarity, dynamics, bass response and stereo imaging (if applicable). If the speaker comes with a proprietary app, we will compare that to other competitive controllers.
Are Bluetooth speakers better than Wi-Fi speakers?
Both can be termed as wireless speaker systems. Wi-Fi delivers the same basic convenience as Bluetooth: using your phone's Wi-Fi connection to play music over an external speaker or sound system. Just like speakers that use Bluetooth connectivity, it can work with a subscription music service app such as Spotify (via Spotify Connect) or Apple Music, a radio service like Pandora or TuneIn, or your own music collection. Here are the best reasons to get a streaming Wi-Fi speaker:
- A Wi-Fi speaker sounds better than a Bluetooth speaker due to its higher bandwidth.
- Wi-Fi has better range.
- Wi-Fi doesn't take over your phone's audio channel -- so you can take a call without interrupting the song, for example.
- It also works great for multiroom audio, allowing playback from multiple speakers all over the house via your Wi-Fi network, all controlled by a single phone app.
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How do multiroom speakers work?
Multiroom enables users to play from one or multiple speakers anywhere in the house at once, with most systems able to support up to a dozen or more different zones. If you want to play a song in "house party mode," for example, where it blasts from multiple speakers throughout the house simultaneously, all of those speakers have to share the same ecosystem. For Sonos and other proprietary systems, all of those speakers will have to be Sonos (or connected to a Sonos device). For Google Cast, all of the speakers, regardless of brand, will need to be Cast compatible. And so on.
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How do I connect my Wi-Fi to my music?
Most speakers have a dedicated companion app for iOS and Android, which is used for both setting up and controlling your system. It goes without saying that you'll need an internet connection to use a Wi-Fi speaker, and most speakers support at least 2.4GHz connections or even 5GHz. Check your documentation for the name of the app you need and make sure you also have your Wi-Fi password handy. Most apps use a simple step-by-step process, so you should be listening to music in a matter of minutes.
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