Speakers

The Cavalier Maverick portable smart speaker sports premium touches such as leather and aluminum, and sounds good overall—though you can get better-sounding portable smart speakers for less.

The JBL Link 500 is a good large speaker with Google Assistant inside, but you'll be better served with two Sonos Ones or the Google Home Max.

The JBL Link 300 delivers most of the features you want in a smart speaker along with above-average sound — especially if you love bass.

The Sony LF-S50G brings Google Assistant to your home with an elegant style and includes some useful features.

The Sony LSPX-S1 is a stylish Bluetooth speaker/LED light combo, but you're better off with a smart speaker (or several) for this kind of money.

The Onkyo Smart Speaker G3 sounds great and can do almost everything a Google Home speaker can.

The Sound Dimension Soundots XCEL Ai-1 offers easy modularity, light customization and good audio quality in a sturdy aluminum-and-steel chassis.

The Razer Nommo Chroma is an impressive set of gaming speakers with rich, loud sound and customizable RGB lighting.

This small Bluetooth dongle lets you use Alexa while you're driving, but the voice assistant could respond faster.

Yamaha's YAS-706 delivers full sound and a robust feature set, though it's better for video than it is for music.

Yamaha's slim YAS-207 soundbar creates an immersive experience for watching movies and TV, though it isn't as good for music.

The UE Megablast sounds great, but it can't do everything an Amazon smart speaker can.

The Sony HT-ST5000 soundbar delivers detailed audio, booming bass and encompassing Atmos surround sound, but the quality comes at a steep price.

Alexa is built into this clever but pricey alarm clock, which also has physical buttons to let you control smart home devices and get some more shut-eye.