Spec me: A wireless portable streaming speaker that's good but cheap...

Skeeter

Skeeter

Skeeter

Caporegime
Joined
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Surrey
I currently have a Squeezebox Radio (UE Smart Radio now) and while it was fine for internet radio and streaming my locally stored music from my server, it struggles with streaming things like Spotify as the apps on it are awful.

We have a Sonos Play 3 at work and it's great, but its not battery powered. The major plus of the Squeezebox is its battery. We just move it to whichever room we are in. Sonos would clearly prefer you to buy a device per room, which is a shame as the Play 1 seems pretty good.

Were off on holiday in a few weeks and I fancied taking a Bluetooth speaker to stream music and Spotify off my phone, but having popped into Curry's there appears to be a bazillion to chose from!

So in summary what I'm after is something around £150 or less that will connect to my wireless at home and play my local media as well as stream services off the internet and internet radio, has a battery so it's portable around the house and can be taken with us on holiday, can stream directly from a device over Bluetooth or peer to peer wireless, and has decent sound quality (almost all the Bluetooth speakers in Curry's were awful).

Am I looking for something that doesn't exist? Basically a Sonos Play 1 with Bluetooth and a battery.
 
No suggestions?

I'm tempted to just get a half decent Bluetooth speaker. I can play and stream everything I like from my tablet or phone, so using a BT speaker seems simple. It's not a fully featured streamer like a Sonos, but you can get some decent ones for under £100.
 
I'd recommend the Gear4 Xorb Universal Wireless 2.1, this is an impressive sounding speaker for the money which can be had for just over £50.

Obviously not top of range, we have the cheaper Gear4 Xorb Wired version in our office at work and sound wise it can definitely hold it's own against our Bose Soundlink II.
 
My folkes in law have this great little Bose speaker that is around £100 - I'm on my phone so struggling to look but for the size and cost its a great Bluetooth speaker.
 
Ill have a look at the Bose, cheers.

I want a battery one so that I don't need to have multiple devices in each room, and there aren't any plug sockets in my garden, garage or bathroom :).
 
I'm looking at this myself. Currently stuck between the following in this order (top being most likely to buy):

- UE BOOM (£115 to £150) - 360 sound, better battery than the Bose, just as good sound. Design isn't as nice.
- Bose Soundlink Mini (£150) - best but really worth the extra money?
- Creative Sound Blaster (£130) - feature packed, gets great reviews.
- Cambridge Audio Go v2 (£120) - has aptX bluetooth, great battery
 
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Soundlink Mini. Unless you need massive volume, it's the best by far. There's a new cheaper Bose (around £100) that might be worth listening to
 
I tried loads (like 50 odd!) in Curry's and wasn't impressed with the UE Boom. It was tinny and hollow and sounded no better than the £30 budget speakers.

The Cambridge seems to get good reviews, as does the Bose, but the Bose is just too expensive. I haven't tried the Creative, ill have a look for one.

I like the Sony SRS X5, but reviews don't seem to favourable.

It really is a problem of simply too much choice!

Edit: which Creative speaker are you looking at Kemik? There's a few. And where are you finding the UE Boom for £115? I can only find it for £139, or most places at £169.
 
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Skeeter said:
Edit: which Creative speaker are you looking at Kemik? There's a few. And where are you finding the UE Boom for £115? I can only find it for £139, or most places at £169.
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Amazon.

I actually bought the UE Boom and the Denon Envaya from Argos. Both arrive tomorrow for testing before I send one back.

The Bose seems a great all round speaker, but difficult to justify that price point. One guy absolutely raves about the Denon too.

If the UE Boom sounds anything like the UE MINI BOOM it will be getting sent back. Doesn't go that loud and distortion is massive.
 
The Sonos 1 is leagues ahead of the Bose Mini, just plug it in as you move rooms.

It's like crack though, I've already got two Play 5s and a Play 1. The sub is next on my list :D
 
Minstadave said:
The Sonos 1 is leagues ahead of the Bose Mini, just plug it in as you move rooms.

It's like crack though, I've already got two Play 5s and a Play 1. The sub is next on my list :D
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I think the purpose of these devices is to not require power though.
 
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