Newbie questions about speakers, wireless and what product to buy.

ElT · 18 Sep 2022 at 16:36

I need a new speaker for playing music from my phone and laptop. I want good quality. I know that's subjective and there might be people who's idea of "good quality" is some >£1000 speaker set up. I just want to be able to find something that doesn't boost the bass like an idiot and I can actually hear the high notes. I listened to what I think was a SONOS Five in Curry's (least ways it was definitely SONOS and looked very much like it). That sounded nice. Slightly above my intended price range, though.

Where I'm coming a cropper is I can't figure out if the SONOS range actually lets me connect my phone and laptop by BlueTooth. Looks like only the smaller portable ones do. I don't know much about this stuff. Can I connect my phone to a SONOS speaker via my Phone or Laptop's WiFi, i.e. NOT a home network. I'll often be not at home. Plugging the thing in is fine, I don't need a battery. But I need something that my phone and laptop can connect to directly. Do they support NFC? I also heard that streaming from the phone/laptop via BlueTooth was actually bad for sound quality because it gets compressed.

I think the answers to the above about connecting to Sonos are no so if so, can anyone recommend a speaker in the £200+ region (less is fine, but I can hit the £200 mark if the quality is better). I looked at Bose stuff but the two larger speakers are both showing as discontinued and all that they have is smaller drum shaped things which just seems weird to me. But hey - maybe they're better than they look.

Use case is music and sometimes radio. Preferably with no apps involved in connecting my phone and laptop to it. I'm sick of crappy little cylinders that sound fuzzy and especially anything that has "Super/Mega/Extra/Boosted/ Bass" as one of its headline features. I am so sick of everything sounding like a Michael Bay trailer.

Any help appreciated.

hornetstinger · 18 Sep 2022 at 20:31

Stick with wired, and get regular hifi components. Your budget is too low.
Something like Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 with a amplifier.

Sonos is expensive and very limited.

Kenai · 18 Sep 2022 at 20:37

hornetstinger said:
Stick with wired, and get regular hifi components. Your budget is too low.
Something like Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 with a amplifier.

Sonos is expensive and very limited.

For usage 'often not at home'?

Seems somewhat impractical carting a full separates system around.

Kenai · 18 Sep 2022 at 20:44

ElT said:
Where I'm coming a cropper is I can't figure out if the SONOS range actually lets me connect my phone and laptop by BlueTooth. Looks like only the smaller portable ones do.

I think this is correct, just the Roam or Move range allow direct Bluetooth playback.

ElT · 19 Sep 2022 at 09:00

hornetstinger said:
Stick with wired, and get regular hifi components. Your budget is too low.
Something like Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 with a amplifier.

Sonos is expensive and very limited.

Ah, maybe I posted in the wrong forum but I'm not looking for separate units for a permanent(ish) installation. I need something I can put in a bag and carry to a new location. It's fine to require a power outlet - not looking for something battery powered necessarily - but it needs to be good quality and something I can play directly from my phone or laptop. That's where I'm running into trouble The Sonos stuff doesn't seem to work like that but I could be wrong. So I need to find a good speaker that can receive BlueTooth or someone needs to tell me if you can do it with direct WiFi. NFC or some other method. I heard BlueTooth is actually bad for sound quality anyway, is that true?

Kenai said:
I think this is correct, just the Roam or Move range allow direct Bluetooth playback.

Thanks. That's how it was looking to me. So Sonos is off the menu, I guess. You can't use direct WiFi from a phone or laptop, can you? What I want is to, e.g. fire up Spotify or other music app and just have the speaker show up as a normal sound device on my laptop / phone.

Begbie · 19 Sep 2022 at 09:05

If your looking to put something in your bag and take with you, you aren't going to get amazing sound especially if connecting via Bluetooth etc. You will get good sound for sure, personally I've found hardly any difference between the cheaper sets and the higher value sets of similar speaker size.

I suppose it really depends on what you class as portable, for me it's something that I can pop in a backpack with everything else.

Kenai · 19 Sep 2022 at 09:23

ElT said:
Thanks. That's how it was looking to me. So Sonos is off the menu, I guess. You can't use direct WiFi from a phone or laptop, can you? What I want is to, e.g. fire up Spotify or other music app and just have the speaker show up as a normal sound device on my laptop / phone.

No, regular Sonos stuff doesn't work like that, it's an 'enclosed' streaming ecosystem that is typically expecting you to initiate a stream from the Sonos app.

I'd not ignore the Move/Roam though as they're probably the closest thing to what you're looking for that won't be quite so "everyone just loves bass" oriented.

The 7 Best Bluetooth Speakers - Fall 2024

The best Bluetooth speaker we've tested is the JBL Boombox 3. This large and powerful Bluetooth speaker really packs a punch when it comes to sound.

www.rtings.com

https://www.rtings.com/speaker/reviews/best/by-usage/home

These might give some inspiration for other units to consider.

Minstadave · 19 Sep 2022 at 09:25

I'd be looking for something like the Anker Motion+ if I was out and about. Its well under budget but sounds decent, has some stereo separation, it's very sturdy and you won't worry if it takes a knock.

lucid · 19 Sep 2022 at 12:59

You might also want to have a look at the Amazon Echo Studio (£189). Forget about all the Alexa / smart app / Dolby Atmos stuff. The bottom line is that it's a mains powered speaker (no money wasted on batteries) with a decent speaker array and a room tuning feature which will help it sound good in new locations.

The Echo Studio has BT, but can also connect via the house Wi-Fi where you have the opportunity. There are also connections for line in (your phone headphone jack if it has it) and Optical which could be a connection from a TV via a cable like this. (It's optical all the way through. The jack end is for a combo Line/Optical socket.) Amazon are doing 5 months interest free payments at £38/month too. Have a look at some reviews https://uk.pcmag.com/speakers/123421/amazon-echo-studio https://www.rtings.com/speaker/reviews/amazon/echo-studio At the end of the rtings review there's a useful comparison against four other models at a similar price including the Bose Home Speaker 500 (£269)

Bluetooth is always a compromise compared to a wired connection. It was never envisaged for Hi-Fi audio, and although there are now more efficient compression algorithms and higher bandwidth versions of BT, it's all for nought unless both the speaker and the source both have the better BT version. If only one has it then both devices will drop down to a common compatible standard. Having said that, it's about convenience rather than sound quality. If you want the best audio then hook up a wired connection. The Echo Studio supports this.

NFC isn't the answer you're looking for regarding wireless audio. It allows easy pairing, but beyond that the limited range and even more limited data rate compared to basic BT means it's a non-starter for transmitting audio.

ElT · 19 Sep 2022 at 16:09

Begbie said:
If your looking to put something in your bag and take with you, you aren't going to get amazing sound especially if connecting via Bluetooth etc. You will get good sound for sure, personally I've found hardly any difference between the cheaper sets and the higher value sets of similar speaker size.

I suppose it really depends on what you class as portable, for me it's something that I can pop in a backpack with everything else.

I'm talking something around the size of the Sonos Five. I can put that in a sports bag. It's not the size so much as set-up. I want to plug something in and I want to stream output directly from my laptop or my phone.

Begbie · 19 Sep 2022 at 16:41

Sony srs xg300 got good reviews when I was buying recently. Denon do a home range too, probably larger, but quite expensive iirc.

I ended up with a cheap Chinese thing, and for portabality use, it's been great.

ElT · 19 Sep 2022 at 18:55

Begbie said:
Sony srs xg300 got good reviews when I was buying recently. Denon do a home range too, probably larger, but quite expensive iirc.

I ended up with a cheap Chinese thing, and for portabality use, it's been great.

Thanks. Looking at both now. The XG300 is one of those cylindrical ones with ugly neon lights on the side which is synonymous in my mind with crap audio. And advertises "Mega Bass". But at £200 it probably sounds fine. Plus it doesn't appear to have a built in mic which is a MAJOR plus and hard to find these days. Still hate those neon lights, though.

Checking out the Denon range they do have mics built in but the reviews are stellar and they don't look like I'm trying to be a 90's skateboarder. Checking out the Denon Home 150 and Denon Home 250 (£179 and £369 respectively). Latter is above my intended budget but looks good.

Cheers. About my other question - is BlueTooth bad for audio quality?

Begbie · 19 Sep 2022 at 19:01

ElT said:
Thanks. Looking at both now. The XG300 is one of those cylindrical ones with ugly neon lights on the side which is synonymous in my mind with crap audio. And advertises "Mega Bass". But at £200 it probably sounds fine. Plus it doesn't appear to have a built in mic which is a MAJOR plus and hard to find these days. Still hate those neon lights, though.

Checking out the Denon range they do have mics built in but the reviews are stellar and they don't look like I'm trying to be a 90's skateboarder. Checking out the Denon Home 150 and Denon Home 250 (£179 and £369 respectively). Latter is above my intended budget but looks good.

Cheers. About my other question - is BlueTooth bad for audio quality?

Anything wireless will be worse than wired. But APTX (BT standard) is good enough for most people (unless your spending a fortune on speakers, amps and making sure your audio is loseless).

Some places will offer demos btw, Richer sounds etc.

hornetstinger · 19 Sep 2022 at 21:57

I've heard one of those JBL tube speaker, not bad for the size, and OK for background non critical listening. Mono only

I've tried BT from my phone on spotify, it plays "high" and it sounds pretty good, tbh much better than I thought it would be. The other phone only has spotify standard, and I can tell the difference between the two phones. The BT module has HD and SD on the different phones also.

tom_nieto · 20 Sep 2022 at 06:16

I’ve always been impressed by the Bose Soundlink Mini 2.