5 Useful Tips When Buying Your First Bluetooth Speaker

Buying your first Bluetooth speaker can be both exciting and slightly daunting. There are dozens of brands and hundreds of different models on the market, and knowing how to separate quality products from quick money grabs is essential to ending up with a speaker you actually enjoy. 

In this guide, we’ll look at some of the most important things to consider when buying a Bluetooth speaker, especially if you’re buying your first and don’t have experience with different manufacturers and models. Forget spending hours trying to understand the market, we’ve got everything you need to know right here.

1. Choose a Reliable Brand

Picking an established, well-trusted brand will immediately reduce the risks of buyer’s remorse. These companies spend millions of dollars in research and development, with access to premium components. That’s not to say you have to buy high-end brands that burn a hole in your pocket, as there are plenty of trustworthy, budget-friendly options available.

Here are my recommendations:

2. Consider How You Plan To Use It

Believe it or not, Bluetooth speakers are designed with specific demographics in mind, and the features they include and even how they sound will depend on the type of customer it’s marketed towards.

To figure out which speakers are best suited to your needs, you can use the tool below. Since we deal with so many different speakers, we’ve got a good grasp on what speakers are best for each type of user and have used that knowledge to create a simple, yet effective way to determine what kind of speaker you need.

3. Set Yourself a Budget

Setting yourself a budget before going into a purchase can help you narrow down your choices and reduce ‘noise’ from the selection process. Keep in mind that the features and performance are in most cases tied to the cost and low budgets may limit features.

Here’s what you can expect to pay for a Bluetooth speaker:

Budget: $30 – $80 

These Bluetooth speakers tend to be small and are suitable for casual listening or for use as a phone speaker replacement. They may also work for small gatherings with 1 or 2 friends. They are often limited in their volume output. Their features are slightly more limited, but can still include a companion app or even multispeaker pairing.

There are also some larger options available within this price range from lesser-known brands, but their performance is usually mediocre and lacks the same rich features as slightly more expensive options.

Midrange: $80 – $150

For between $80 and $150 you’ll get access to higher-quality speakers that are slightly larger and better suited to a wider range of uses. These speakers are great for group listening, taking on hikes, or using as an everyday speaker around the house. 

You can also expect more modern features, like the ability to take phone calls through the speaker or broader app support. They also may include a custom EQ option to adjust the way it sounds. 

Flagships: $150 – $250

With a budget of $150 to $250, you’ll have access to most of the portable flagship releases from companies like JBL, Sony, Marshall, and others. Speakers in this price range tend to be slightly bigger and are better suited to larger gatherings of up to 10 people.

The sound quality is often the biggest difference between cheaper alternatives and they can also usually get loud without much reduction in sound quality. These speakers will also often include the latest in features like Google Assistant or Alexa support.

Premium: $250+

For over $250, you’ll have access to not only portable, everyday speakers but also home smart speakers that use Bluetooth, as well as larger niche options like tailgating and party speakers.

At this price point, there is most likely app support, multispeaker pairing, high-quality sound, and loads of additional features, including things like microphone and guitar inputs, custom EQ options, and outstanding lighting effects.

4. Read Reviews!

We often buy speakers to test them, only to be disappointed by the performance. That’s because spec sheets only tell us so much about how a speaker sounds, it may reference things like frequency response and output, but that doesn’t really let you know if it’s any good.

Spend some time reading Bluetooth speaker reviews from trusted publications before you go into a purchase. By reading or watching someone go through the testing process, you’ll be able to see exactly how the speaker sounds, and may even get some useful advice about similar speakers that perform better.

I suggest not relying on Amazon reviews, as we’ve picked up a few speakers with great public reviews that were frankly disappointing. That’s cause some companies may manipulate ratings to better sell their products.

5. Familiarize Yourself With The Features & Technologies

You don’t need to become an audio engineer to get a basic understanding of the types of features and technology included in these Bluetooth speakers. Spending a bit of time reading up on the most common features can help you make educated choices. To make things easier, here’s what I think is essential knowledge for any first-time buyer of Bluetooth speakers.

Waterproof Ratings

Waterproof ratings are there to illustrate the level of protection a speaker has against water and in some cases dust as well. This rating is called an IP or IPX rating, where an IP rating refers to speakers that have both dust and waterproofing and an IPX rating is given to those only offering water protection.

You can reference this chart to see what type of protection is offered.

Multispeaker Pairing

Multispeaker pairing is a type of feature found on many new releases and refers to the ability for multiple speakers to be paired together wirelessly so that the same sound plays from both speakers.

There are two main types of wireless pairing:

TWS

TWS or True Wireless Stereo pairing connects no more than 2 speakers in a way where one speaker becomes the left channel and the other becomes the right channel. This helps to improve immersion.

General Multispeaker Pairing

The other type of multispeaker pairing is general pairing which can usually connect a lot more speakers together, but won’t separate the speakers into different channels, meaning they’ll all play the same sound. 

Different brands and models have their approaches to multispeaker pairing and may use universal technologies like Auracast, or their proprietary pairing protocol, such as JBL’s PartyBoost.

Smart Features

This is a newer technology and incorporates smart device support, such as Alexa or Google Assistant. These smart speakers are often better suited for home use and have Wi-Fi support, meaning you can connect it to your home Wi-Fi network and control it from any room in the house!

Auxiliary Input

An auxiliary input isn’t essential for most users, but this aging technology has its place. An aux input means you don’t need to rely on a Bluetooth connection to get audio playing on your speaker, it can use a standard 3.5mm auxiliary cable.

This feature is most beneficial to people who have their speaker in a stationary position at home and who perhaps want to play their laptop’s audio out of a higher-quality speaker.

USB Charging Type

This refers to the type of charging port the speaker has, and older or cheaper speakers may still include a micro-USB, however, over the last few years it has become predominantly USB-C, which is the same connection used for most mobile phones. In these cases, you can use your phone charger to charge your speaker, making it a convenient feature.

Battery Life

Be careful when reading estimated battery life from manufacturers, sometimes this is calculated at low volume levels with all features disabled and doesn’t accurately show how long it lasts during traditional use.

Rely instead on third-party product reviewers who have tested the battery performance at a realistic volume level. 

Bluetooth Version

Bluetooth is the technology that compresses data and sends it between your phone and the speaker. Bluetooth is constantly evolving though, and every year or two we get a new Bluetooth version released.

Newer versions of Bluetooth are more effective at compressing audio, giving you less latency and higher-quality sound. It can also improve the quality of the connection itself and the range.

There was a big shift in efficiency from Bluetooth 5.2 onwards, so I’d recommend prioritizing speakers with Bluetooth 5.2 or newer.

EQ

EQ or equalizing is a feature that is sometimes offered by companion apps, and less commonly on the speaker itself. It shouldn’t be overlooked, as it has a big influence on the speaker’s versatility. If a speaker doesn’t have EQ support, it means there isn’t much you can do about how it sounds, sure there are some third-party apps – but having EQ presets or custom EQ is a great way to tailor the speaker to your favorite type of sound.

Conclusion

Going into your first Bluetooth speaker purchase with these things in mind can help to ensure a practical and efficient purchase and reduce the odds of buyer’s remorse. Just remember, it’s often better to invest a little more and future-proof than to save money now only to need a new speaker in a year or two.