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It can also provide a weather report, offer an audible summary of the day's headlines, and answer your burning questions; whether that’s ‘what is the tallest mountain in the world’ or simply ‘who is the Queen of England’. Honestly, it's not the subtlest looking device we've tested. But that's where the criticism ends. The Stormbox Blast is the biggest and most powerful Bluetooth speaker in Tribit's ever-growing arsenal of portable speakers and it sounds every inch as detailed – even at higher volumes – as models from better-known audio specialists at three times the price.
You want sound-per-pound value: If you don't need the portability, you can buy plugged-in speakers that sound the same for around half the price. A 12-hour battery life and water and dust resistance makes this an ideal speaker to take to the pool or beach, and it's available in an array of eye-catching colors. It's a shame it doesn't have a port to charge your phone, like some of larger JBL speakers do, but that's not a big deal. Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity means that the speaker is easy to pair with your smartphone, while built-in Alexa voice assistance means it can double up as a smart speaker. The A1 is the first speaker to offer Alexa support without needing to be connected to your home Wi-Fi network – and while this is impressive in itself, we did find that the voice assistant was sometimes quite slow to respond to our commands, since it's routing over Bluetooth to your phone, and your phone is then making the request over whatever internet connection it has… which won't always be great.The Move 2 also delivers premium sound to match its premium price tag. It has a three-driver speaker system, made up of two angled tweeters and one central midwoofer. Although we found the audio quality to be excellently balanced with great detail, the stereo sound wasn't very convincing, but that's okay. Bigger speakers tend to sound better, delivering bigger sound with more bass. But going bigger means they weigh more, which can make them a little harder to carry around. So you have to balance size with performance if you're looking for something that's easily portable. If you're interested in a larger portable speaker, one feature worth looking out for is a built-in handle. Durability Almost identical to the original A1, the Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (2nd Gen) is an appealing and highly portable Bluetooth speaker that comes with (admittedly flawed) Alexa support without the need for Wi-Fi.
While the speaker drivers remain the same, the Qualcomm chipset that powers the speaker has been upgraded (the speaker uses Bluetooth 5.1), bumping the sound quality up a tad, particularly at higher volumes, with better digital signal processing. It remains one of the best-sounding mini Bluetooth speaker models, with richer more tonally balanced sound than other Bluetooth speakers its size -- and it should sound good, considering its elevated price point. The Sonos Roam has been sitting at the top of our best Bluetooth speakers list for some time now and we love that it seamlessly becomes part of your Sonos Wi-Fi multi-room setup indoors, too. How we test the best Bluetooth speakers We explain how much you are likely to spend on a new mini hi-fi system, what features to look out for, and how you can use your mini hi-fi to boost your TV's sound, as well as enjoy music, podcasts and the radio.
We've tested these speakers over a very long time and while we love their sound, we don't love everything. Siri isn't as good as other digital assistants and seems rather buggy too: we've slept late a few times because alarms we asked Siri to set, and which Siri confirmed setting, didn't go off. Siri also seems to struggle with accents. And if you don't have Apple Music, you're quite limited in what you can listen to. You can't ask the HomePod mini to play anything through Spotify – that can only be enabled through AirPlay, and requires using your phone rather than the simpler method of asking Siri to play tunes with your voice. There's also a much smaller number of compatible smart home devices that work with the smart speaker, compared to the range available for Alexa and Google Assistant-enabled smart speakers. Mini hi-fis that are capable of accessing your home wi-fi network can stream music, radio and podcasts from online sources, including streaming services such as Spotify, BBC iPlayer radio, TuneIn radio and Google Play Music. It can mean a bit of fiddly setting up to get your mini hi-fi connected to the internet, but you'll only need to do it once. Radio We particularly enjoyed the bass response here, which is where small speakers usually fall down: Tribit is keeping quiet about the exact specifications of the driver in this model but whatever it is, it delivers impressive bass for such a small footprint. And battery life is superb, up from the 8 hours of the original Micro to a travelling or beach day-friendly 12 hours. As with a USB input, a 3.5mm auxiliary (aux) input means you can physically connect your mini hi-fi to another device, so you can stream music out of your mini hi-fi speakers. Bluetooth / NFC (near-field communication)
We test countless portable speakers every year at TechRadar, and that means we know exactly which features and specs to look out for.It's important for us to compare the performance of these speakers against the specs claimed by their manufacturers, which is why we take the time to make sure the battery life and connectivity is as good as the brands say they are.It's a crowded market, with plenty of micro and mini hi-fi systems to choose from, all promising to be the best you've ever heard.
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