Speakers

The Yamaha NS-AW150W outdoor speakers produce a bright sound with full vocals, at an excellent price.

The Sonos One is the best-sounding smart speaker, and its integration with smart assistants is excellent.

Thanks to above-average sound in a small package, the JBL Flip 5 remains one of the best portable Bluetooth speakers.

The V-Moda Remix offers booming bass, warm highs and mids, plus a built-in headphone amplifier and a slew of customization options.

The JBL Link 20 delivers almost all the features of Google Home in great-sounding portable speaker.

While the lights on the LG XBoom Go PL7 may attract your eyes, it’s the detailed sound that will hook your ears.

Vizio’s M-Series 5.1 M51a-H6 gives you a lot for the money, but you need to work to get it to sound at its best.

Booming sound, and plenty of style.

Ultimate Ears Hyperboom portable Bluetooth speaker is a big speaker that produces a big sound — at a big price.

The UE Megaboom 3 has what you want in a portable Bluetooth speaker: good sound quality, long battery life, ruggedness and more.

The Bose Soundbar 500 is a slim speaker with serious smarts.

Yamaha's YAS-108 soundbar delivers plenty of features and overall very good overall sound, all for $220.

The Polk MagniFi Mini is a solid small soundbar that delivers big sound.

The Fugoo Sport 2.0 is a versatile and affordable wireless speaker, though it doesn’t improve much on the original.

The bass-rich JBL Bar 5.1 Surround soundbar creates an encompassing sound, if you can figure out how to take advantage of its talents.

The LG SN8YG delivers the precision of Dolby Atmos sound at an affordable price — and gets very loud.

Now this is what you call a sequel

Google Home plays nice with Google software and hardware, but it lacks some key features of its competitors.

With HDMI, Bluetooth and a wireless subwoofer, Sony's HT-CT370 delivers plenty of features and very good sound.

If you can afford it, the Sonos Playbase offers almost everything you want in a soundbase, especially big sound and ease of use.

The Anker Nebula Soundbar – Fire TV Edition is a tough sell, due to a clunky interface, a high price and a disappointing soundscape.

Amazon's second-gen Echo is more attractive and more affordable than the original, and it sounds just as good, too.

The Roku Wireless Subwoofer works exactly as it's supposed to, providing pretty good bass for a fair amount of money.

If your TV lacks quality speakers and could use a few (thousand) more apps, the Roku Smart Soundbar is worth a look.

The Google Home Mini looks and sounds better than Amazon's smallest Alexa speaker, but it’s not quite as versatile.

Bose's $349 Portable Home Speaker lets you carry Alexa and Google Assistant around with you.

The Anker Soundcore Infini Pro produces good overall sound without a separate subwoofer, but its Dolby Atmos abilities won't wow you.

Music lovers with deep wallets looking for a powerful outdoor speaker that doubles as a cooler should check out the Thomas & Darden Kube.

With excellent sound and a rugged build, the Fugoo Style-S hits a sweet spot of price and performance for portable Bluetooth speakers.

For less than $100, you can get an excellent-sounding Sonos speaker, sold by Ikea.