Mini music centre: TOP 5 compact wireless speakers

When it comes to replacing the music centre with a wireless speaker, one of the first options in the list usually pops up JBL Playlist. That's because it boasts a concise design, attractive price, ease of use and the signature sound of JBL, which does not need to make discounts with an eye to the compact size.

One of the main features of the speaker is the Wi-Fi module and compatibility with Chromecast. Potentially, this is a whole bundle of possibilities: several wireless speakers can be integrated into the system, do not worry about the distance to the signal source, connect your favorite streaming services like Spotify and Deezer, or vice versa, broadcast music to the speaker without compression. But Chromecast works ambiguously — some devices connect to the network immediately, others refuse to work even on the fifth attempt. Bluetooth, on the other hand, works seamlessly. The connection is fast, without additional dancing with a tambourine and installing applications. Spotify Connect is also supported.

Now about the sound. JBL Playlist surprises with its ability to perfectly cope with any genres, to give out juicy, soft basses. Often, JBL portable speakers have basses that come to the fore, covering everything else. Therefore, the company's speakers are loved by fans of dance music and hip-hop. Here, Adele, Daft Punk, and John Coltrane sound equally good. On the other hand, when the soul asks to dance, modest dimensions and a power reserve of 30 watts does not always allow you to rock the speaker. Here the opportunity to combine several speakers into a multiroom system will come to the rescue.

In terms of connections, the speaker is as simple as five kopecks: there are several buttons for wireless connection and basic controls (turn on, pause, volume). There is no remote control, there is no equalizer either, but all this is easily corrected when transferring music from a smartphone.

Compact wireless speakers of the Onyx series have become one of the most successful products in the modern Harman Kardon line of acoustics. Onyx 5 is equipped with two dynamic emitters (a woofer with a diameter of 120 mm and a tweeter of 25 mm) and a passive radiator that enhances the sound of the low-frequency range. Despite the fact that the Onyx series has always been popular, Harman decided to reinvent the bike and assembled the system from scratch. Compare head-on Harman Kardon Onyx Studio 4 and to understand how much the sound has changed, unfortunately, it did not work out.

Without this, we can say that due to its size, Onyx 5 sounds juicy, powerful and assertive. The sound quality is excellent even without regard to the modest size. The volume reserve with the head is enough for a room of 30 squares. There is even some semblance of a stereo scene and good detail. If you buy a set of two speakers and connect them using Multiroom, then everything will be fine with the stage and details.

What is most surprising about Onyx 5 is its bassiness. If you listen with your eyes closed, you might think that there is a fairly large and powerful acoustics in the room. And this is not the first time when such a kid destroys the stereotype that a large and powerful speaker is certainly needed for a powerful bass. But this does not mean that the sound is tuned to dance music or hip-hop, blues or some kind of fusion jazz sounds great as well. Although, for someone, the bass will still be too much. It already depends on personal preferences.

The company positions Onyx 5 as a purely home solution, but the speaker was equipped with a built-in battery and a carrying handle. The situation with battery life is not unambiguous, so it is better to consider it as a bonus. Harman claims about 8 hours, but the speaker can only live that long at a volume of 35-40%. If you unscrew it to the maximum, it will be a little more than 2 hours. And you will have to guess about this, since the speaker does not have any indicators. Plus, you will have to spend about 5 hours to fully charge.

Over the past 60 years, Marshall acoustics, amplifiers and combos have literally become related to rock music, becoming one of its synonyms. The company decided to play on the feeling of nostalgia and began to design all their home acoustics in the form of well-known guitar amplifiers.

Therefore, do not look for fashionable touch buttons on the Acton Multi-Room case. Instead, there is a massive metal toggle switch with old-school LEDs that light up when turned on. Instead of a remote control, there is a pack of the same massive "twirlers" for adjusting the volume and equalizer. The speaker literally boasts of its vintage.

At the same time, the model boasts a modern functional set: in addition to the standard 3.5 mini jack connector and Bluetooth, there is support for Chromecast and AirPlay, implemented thanks to the built-in Wi-Fi module. It is also possible to use Spotify Connect. At the same time, settings for streaming services can be saved in the device's memory or in a proprietary smartphone application. Well, as the name suggests, Marshall Acton Multi-Room allows you to combine several speakers from Marshall into a multiroom system.

In terms of sound, the Marshall model shows itself to be a versatile guy and is friends not only with rock. Here it is worth saying thanks to those massive regulators of upper and lower frequencies: for dance music, you can pile on the bass, for pop music or rock, on the contrary, add lightness and transparency. Thanks to a high-quality amplifier and a thoughtful internal design (each speaker has its own separation filter), the speaker sounds loud, powerful, bass and creates an excellent stereo effect. Plus, even at maximum volume (and the volume margin is decent here), Action Multi-Room sounds almost without distortion.

Now about the fly in the ointment. Some models have intermittent connection failures. The indicator says that everything is OK, but the sound disappears somewhere, as if the signal source has turned off. It is barely necessary to turn the volume knob, as everything comes in order. Well, the price: like all the company's products, Action Multi-Room turned out to be noticeably expensive (about $ 400). For comparison, Harman Kardon Onyx Studio 5 costs almost 2 times cheaper. It also has excellent sound quality, but a smaller volume margin and a more modest stereo effect. But there is a built-in battery.

The Bose SoundTouch 20 is not an ordinary wireless audio system. It is more difficult to set up than other wireless speakers, but it is ready to reward the listener generously for this complexity.

The system has an unusual design for Bose devices, the front and back are covered with audio fabric, in the middle are white inserts with a pattern. A transparent insert on the front is needed not only for beauty, there is a display with information about the radio station, track name, connection indication, etc. In general, the speaker fits well into any interior, although there are no frills here.

The main feature of the system is a complicated connection process. The speaker works only via Wi-Fi, and to connect to a smartphone, you need not only a Bose branded application, but also a PC programme "SoundTouch Music Server". With the help of the latest Bose SoundTouch 20 connects to the home Wi-Fi network, updates the firmware and comes on alert. On the one hand, it is more difficult than connecting a smartphone via Bluetooth. Not everyone likes this. Plus, the list of supported services in the SoundTouch app is limited. For example, there is no Google Music.

The setup itself takes only 10 – 15 minutes and greatly expands the capabilities of the speaker. For example, you can broadcast music not only from a smartphone, but from a laptop, without any restrictions and bindings to services. There are 6 additional buttons on the remote control, and you can hang some quick functions on them: for example, launch a specific podcast, playlist or radio station. With SoundTouch, you can combine several Bose speakers into one system and calibrate them for the room.

Well, with firmware updates, some useful innovations often arrive.

The sound quality is traditionally remarkable for Bose. The speaker is based on four speakers, which are located at different angles to achieve a uniform distribution of sound throughout the room. The nature of the sound is rather neutral and omnivorous, there is no audiophile corruption on complex details, just everything and always sounds good. For a universal speaker, this is what you need.

Naim is not a company that appeared on Kickstarter yesterday, but a fairly old and well—known brand that, among other things, produced acoustics for Bentley cars. This fact immediately sets up the right perception of the new model: it is an elite, stylish, powerful, sophisticated and technically devilishly complex speaker.

The cubic design of the speaker looks strict and concise. If it gets boring, then the standard black grill can be replaced with another coloured one. The case made of glass filled with 20% polymer provides strength, rigidity and excellent damping. The speaker is controlled by a large aluminium "twister" on the top. It is done cunningly: the rotation of the ring is responsible for the volume, and on top of the ring there is a touch panel with the main controls. It's a pleasure to use it. If you are too lazy to constantly approach the speaker, then you can control it using a proprietary smartphone application. The application here matches the speakers, it helps to install and configure the system, connect to anything, set a timer, adjust the equalizer and do a dozen more things.

If most wireless speakers are made according to the scheme of 2 speakers plus a phase inverter or a passive radiator, then in Mu-so Qb we are dealing with something in the spirit of the Egyptian pyramid — cool, and the devil understand how it was done. If we remove the protective grill, we will see a system of five acoustic emitters (2 tweeters, 2 midrange speakers, one woofer), which are located at different angles to evenly distribute sound throughout the room. For each band, a hotel high-power amplifier is used, and the total power of the system is an impressive 300 watts. At the same time, the system weighs 5.6 kg, which is not much more than the conventional Harman Kardon Onyx Studio.

It's difficult to talk about the sound quality here — this is the level of cool Hi—Fi acoustics, and it's better to hear this yourself. The speaker plays aggressively, but softly, loudly, but does not put pressure on the ears. Such is the oxymoron. The sound is crystal clear at any volume, and the detail is fantastic. Thanks to the complex arrangement of the speakers in the Mu-so Qb, it was possible to achieve a wide omnidirectional sound and wide stereo panning. If you hide the Qb somewhere in the room and turn on the music louder, the guests are at a loss what it is playing so great and where it stands. By the way, the Mu-so Qb design used a 32-bit digital signal processor, similar to the one that Naim used to create Bentley acoustics.

In terms of connectivity, we have total versatility: Bluetooth with audio support without compression, Wi-Fi, LAN, USB, 3.5 mini jack and optics. You can broadcast almost any audio format known to man, from OGG and AIFF to FLAC, MP3 and WAV. As for the software part, there is AirPlay support and integration with most popular streaming services.

If you put it all together, the $900 price tag doesn't seem that big. She has no weaknesses, and the list of advantages is very large. This is really the level of Bentley, against which even the seemingly cool BMW and Mercedes fade. Plus, Naim is very zealous about the reliability of their equipment: even cables used inside the system are tested using a clever technology, so you will have to serve the "cube" for decades.