9 Best Smart Speakers That Make Streaming Music Easier Than Ever

• Easy to set up and connect to your Amazon profile
• Can be paired with other Echo speakers for a fuller sound

• Not for people who care about audio quality

If you want the most straightforward Alexa speaker out there, the Echo Dot is as simplified as smart gets. It's also a great, small, way to enter the world of smart home.

As far as smart tech goes, anyone with an Amazon account will be able to set this up fairly easily. The sound is admittedly not the strong suite, but it is the best of the Echo lineup currently on offer. It can also connect to pretty much every other Echo speaker ever made. So if you managed to snag an Echo subwoofer back when Amazon still sold it (or bought it recently on Best Buy), it will amplify the experience.

• Fully built-in Google Assistant
• Can be used as an intercom with other Nest speakers

• Voice responsiveness gets mixed reviews

If there's one thing to love about Google's Nest Audio speaker, it's how straightforward it is. On our end, though, that means there's not much to say. This is a small speaker with enough sound to fill one room. It's got good highs and decent lows, and the sound supposedly adapts to the contour of your room. Once you get outside the room, things start getting dicey, both in terms of volume and responsiveness.

You can use Google Assistant for playback, or just ask it the weather, or use it to relay messages to other Nests in the house. That's the kind of stuff that really does make your home seem smart.

• Great, well rounded sound
• Works with Alexa and Google Assistant

• Sonos app required for custom EQ

This is the most versatile smart speaker pick, since it's not beholden to any of the big three brands. It's also a better speaker than anything Google, Apple, or Amazon has ever manufactured. This makes sense because Sonos is an audio company, always has been, and leaning into the smart era of tech hasn't put that reputation in jeopardy.

Products like the recently discounted Sonos Era 100 prove that. The Era has been our go-to smart speaker for years for a few simple reasons. It works with Google Assistant and Alexa (and Siri by way of some workarounds) and the sound quality is absolutely stellar for the price. Sonos makes it easy to connect with other Sonos devices, so a multi-speaker setup is always just another click (and purchase) away.

• Waterproof and portable
• Affordable but still has the sound quality and features expected from a Sonos

• Not the best battery life for a portable speaker

If all that smart home gobbledygook doesn't do much for you and you just want a speaker you can talk to, the next purchase you should make is a Sonos Roam. It's a great speaker, it's portable, and it's perfect for beach trips and pool parties.

Mainly, this is a speaker you are going to use to stream music from your phone. It has no direct connection otherwise. The knowledge that any of your guests can tell the speaker to skip or just pull up a random song from your library is a risk worth taking. Let the Roam 2 be your portable jukebox this summer.

• Dolby Atmos sound worthy of your home theater
• Sonos Trueplay optimizes your speaker's EQ perfectly for your space

• Not portable

Sonos delivers yet again with its latest smart speaker to hit store shelves, digital or otherwise. The Sonos Era 300 is a powerhouse of a speaker. It's also large, and a bit bulky. Unlike the Roam, this Sonos Speaker isn't going anywhere. It's staying right at home to deliver you cinema-worthy experiences from the comfort of your couch.

With Dolby Atmos, this speaker mimics surround sound impeccably. Whether you are throwing a house party or a movie night, the vibes will almost certainly be enhance by the Era 300.

• Aesthetic is on point
• Alexa, Google, and Spotify Connect supported
• Awesome sound

• Smart connectivity isn't as seamless as Sonos

If you don't truck with how grossly tech-forward all these speakers look, we have some options that will suit you. These are more upscale, more Esquire. And this snazzy speaker from JBL is both potent and portable—the perfect place to start.

The Authentics 200 are a little outdated now, but still the some of the best bang for your buck. These baddies comes in black, with a gold accent, and looks like a guitar amp more than a smart device. It blares out sound like an amp, that's for sure—especially on club anthems with deep, thumping bass. It's an easy way to get your neighbor to call the cops on you. Alexa, play "Closing Time."

• Automatically self-tunes to fit the space each time you turn it on
• Pairs with other Authentics devices

• On the pricier side

If you're loving your Authentics 200, but want to kick it up a notch, the 500 is right there. Plus, you can link the two of them together for a really badass listening experience. Not only does this speaker have Google and Alexa assistant capability, it supports streaming via AirPlay and Spotify Connect. Truly a a beauty, a beast of a speaker, and a very smart one at that.

• Lightweight and comes with a handle
• Searing treble, booming bass

• Comparable to the Sonos Roam but twice the cost

Bose has been in the smart home speaker game for longer than you might think. This portable iteration has been out since 2019 and it's still trusted by tons of listeners. This means its not the most advanced, but it does support the major voice assistants as well as Apple AirPlay, so it does a lot of what you want from a smart speaker.

It's solid, easy to set up and use, but there isn't anything special about it for the current asking price of $350.

• Compatible with most streaming apps
• Stunning and blends into a bookshelf

• Luxury good prices for a bookshelf speaker
• Limited voice assistants

Our last pick is a bit of a luxury item—and definitely not for everyone. It is, inarguably, a gorgeous piece and a lifestyle statement. Like many of Bang & Olufsen's products, it's also the pinnacle of high-end audio.

The Beosound Emerge only comes with Google Assistant in terms of voice control, so it's more for the audiophiles in the house. It has a wide swath of compatibility with music streaming apps, from Spotify to TIDAL, and can connect to other B&O speakers for surround sound.

Finding the right smart speaker for you without being able to test them is a difficult task. That's why we've done the testing for you. Across the board, this is what we found was most important to look for.

Which devices you already have at home: This is maybe the number one factor in deciding between a Google Nest and an Amazon Echo. Building off an existing ecosystem will allow you to take advantage of the device's unique features. If you use both Google and Amazon devices, you can opt for Sonos or JBL.

Size: Pick where you want your smart speaker to live before you choose one. That's why we listed the dimensions and weight. Some of these are portable speakers and others are home speakers. Now pick one that fits your space, lifestyle, and decor.

Aesthetics: Don't put something ugly in your home, no matter how cool the tech might sound. It's just not worth it. We would know.

Sound: If you're doing enough research to get here, there's a good chance you care about sound quality. If you do, we've always found that brands that have a history in focusing on audio typically tend to make better speakers than those that don't. We hope that can help guide your decision.

Here at Esquire, we've been poking, prodding, and stress-testing products for a long time. For decades, the magazine has been informing men’s fashion and that same ethos allows us to recommend the best tech for your hard-earned money. When it comes down to electronics, we know what our readers are really looking for: products they will want to use for years and years to come. From cheap headphones to pricier essentials like portable air conditioners, the products we highlight on Esquire are the ones we genuinely like using the most.