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

Skeeter

Skeeter

Skeeter

Caporegime
Joined
8 Mar 2007
Posts
37,146
Location
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.
 
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 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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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
Click to expand...

I dont have plug sockets in my bathroom, garden or garage :p

If money were no object I would have a few Sonos devices dotted about. But as I'm skint and there's only 2 of us in the house a single speaker that we can move makes more sense.

I was really unimpressed with the UE Boom I tried, but as others seem to like it I might give it another go.

Edit: Crikey! The Boom is £109 at Amazon at the moment!

Edit edit: ahhhhhh I bought a Boom! Work gave me a £100 Amazon voucher and I'm going away on Monday. Amazon said I could get it delivered tomorrow if I bought it within 3 minutes... so I did. :p
 
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Yep. The reviews online and peoples view in here suggest its pretty good, which makes me think the one I tried in Curry's was being fed by a low quality source.
 
The UE Boom seems pretty good, especially for 9 quid! :D

Laying it on it's side or blocking it in any way (like holding it in your hand) has a pretty major effect on the sound quality. But standing it upright means it sounds pretty good. The base feels a little forced and unnatural, but thats expected from something the size of a beer can.

My only gripe is the volume and other tones don't adjust with the device volume, which means they can be startling loud if you've had quiet background music on.
 
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