A wireless speaker can be a quick and convenient way of getting your music fix whether you’re on the move, at the beach or just sitting at home. This is why you’ll find both home-suited and portable options in our wireless speakers What Hi-Fi? Awards category. All of our Best Buy winners are fantastic all-in-one solutions that sound amazing, are built to last and offer a wide range of useful features.
This year, JBL rules our portable category with two winners. The brand has produced some great battery-powered speakers over the years and the JBL Charge 5 wins its Award for the fourth year running. That shows just how much we admire this particular speaker and its ability to bat away the competition year after year. We love its rugged design and bomb-proof build quality. It’s also easy to use and produces a detailed and engaging sound you won’t be able to get enough of.
The Charge 5 has a new stablemate in 2024, too, with the JBL Xtreme 4 taking the spoils at the next price point up. This speaker has dispatched some serious five-star opposition in 2024, including last year’s winner, the much-loved Dali Katch G2, and the more recently reviewed Bose SoundLink Max. Once again, you’ve got brilliant build quality at your fingertips and a speaker that just adds even more dynamics, scale and detail to the mix. If it’s entertainment you want, the JBL delivers in spades.
In the world of mains-powered wireless speakers for the home, Apple returns in 2024 with the HomePod Mini and HomePod 2 pair winning Best Buy awards for the second year in a row. The Home Pod 2 remains a refined, smart and brilliantly well-made speaker – we’re fond of its natural, energetic sound and subtle way with voices.
The HomePod Mini, meanwhile, is the perfect, petite partner and continues to impress with its solid, subtle sound and excellent overall tonal balance. For such a small unit, it punches well above its weight.
Sonos surprisingly misses out on a What Hi-Fi? Award in this ever-competitive category this year. The Sonos Era 300, which picked up an award in , now finds itself usurped by the Audio Pro C20. Part of the Audio Pro’s appeal is the huge amount of flexibility it offers, from wi-fi connectivity to streaming service support to HDMI ARC for boosting your TV’s sound – it does a lot and does the vast majority of it extremely well. Add a detailed, expansive and large-scale sound into the equation and you have one seriously potent package.
At the very top end of the wireless speaker market, the Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation continues its domination, picking up a What Hi-Fi? Award for an unbelievable sixth year in a row. It’s packed with streaming features and offers a large-scale sound that’s both refined and full of drive and energy. It produces a level of insight and detail that redefines what we’ve come to expect from wireless speakers at this level and we think it will take something truly spectacular to dethrone it.
MORE:
The What Hi-Fi? Awards 2024 winners have been revealed!
What Hi-Fi? Awards 2024: Rotel’s “budget gem” amplifier dethrones a multi-winning legend
See our long list of the best wireless speakers you can buy
