Quality bluetooth bookshelf speakers?

September 13, 2023 4:30 PM

Hello sound enthusiasts, I recently had to get rid of two older Sonos 5 speakers as they were no longer supported. I really liked the following attributes: I could play to them wirelessly, and they actually had pretty nice sound quality. But I didn't like that Sonos chooses WHAT I can play through them, e.g. not any mp3s or .flac files, or at least not unless I go through an irritating set of hoops. Looking for an alternative.

I am interested in replacing these speakers with a pair of powered (self-amplified) bookshelf speakers with Bluetooth. However, googling something like "bluetooth bookshelf speakers" brings up a ton of SEO spam. If I were interested in finding speakers that had excellent sound quality, where would I even look for credible information? Wirecutter has lost its luster for me.

Thank you for any guidance you can provide. And, if you have specific recommendations, I am trying to keep the price at or below what I would have to spend for 2 new Sonos 5 speakers, so my budget is say $700 or less. Thank you!

posted by rachelpapers to Shopping (8 answers total)

Some of the newer Sonos products can also use Bluetooth. I have a Roam (the smallest model, super portable) and I use it as my main speaker in my home office, it's very good for that. No hoops to jump through, it also supports AirPlay (for Apple devices) and works within the Sonos app.
posted by third word on a random page at 7:06 PM on September 13, 2023

Best answer: I have a pair of Audioengine HD3 on my desk and really like them. They were a little thin, but adding a subwoofer made for a great sounding setup.

If you don't want a subwoofer, try the larger Audioengine HD6 which are right at your budget.

I share your annoyance with Sonos! Their app is good at managing multiple speakers in multiple rooms, but terrible at actually accessing and playing music.
posted by hovey at 7:31 PM on September 13, 2023

Best answer: Over the last 10 years, I've had Amazon Echo Studios for Bluetooth streaming and Audioengine speakers (smaller and larger) directly connected to my PC.

I'm now using Edifier Stax Spirit S3 speakers via Bluetooth streaming. They sit on the floor as they are too big for my desk. I'm quite satisfied for my use case - Spotify and Amazon Fire TV stick.
posted by aworks at 9:42 PM on September 13, 2023

Best answer: The aforementioned Audioengine's are great, I ended up going with the oft-compared Vanatoo Transparent Zero's for my own use case and like them a lot several years in. I've also heard good things about Kanto Audio's selections.
posted by matrixclown at 10:42 PM on September 13, 2023

Best answer: After a move, I ended up with an extra, very high-quality sound bar... an expensive, one piece unit with no separate subwoofer. It had no Bluetooth capability and I used it hard wired. The thing is amazing, but in our new place we didn't really have a space for it. I ended up buying a $40 Bluetooth adapter for it and now I use it in a small living room just to play music, either through my laptop or my phone. It's a wonderful solution.

What I'm saying is you don't have to rely on built-in Bluetooth when shopping for speakers, as long as they are self-powered.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:41 AM on September 14, 2023

Best answer: I was going to suggest what SoberHigland did as an alternative to Bluetooth-enabled speakers.

If I were interested in finding speakers that had excellent sound quality, where would I even look for credible information?

Audio Science Review does a lot of detailed reviews with graphs and stats that I don't really understand, in case that's up your street. But there doesn't seem to be a way to filter their speaker reviews by features like Bluetooth.
posted by fabius at 8:18 AM on September 14, 2023

Response by poster: Thank you all very much. I had heard good things about Audioengine and Edifier; glad to know there is real world anecdata that they are good. And thank you fabius for sending a place to let my nerd freak flag fly!
posted by rachelpapers at 10:41 AM on September 14, 2023

Similar to SoberHighland, I've been using non-networked speakers in combination with a separate receiver. I'm a happy user of the WiiM Pro (Amazon link), but there are other choices. The nice thing about this approach is that the receivers support many protocols and streaming services (more so than Bluetooth-enabled speakers), and if in the future something else comes along, you can replace the receiver without having to replace the speakers.
posted by StrawberryPie at 2:21 PM on September 14, 2023