Thinking of a Bluetooth or wifi speaker for your home? We tested four models, from discreet smart speakers to karaoke-compatible boom boxes.
1. *Recommended*: Harman Kardon Citation 200 Portable: yes Smart: yes Price: €329 Strengths: excellent sound, handy carrying strap Weaknesses: slightly fiddly to set up Conclusion: Harman Kardon’s recently-launched Citation 200 is the best all-round ‘portable’ speaker I’ve reviewed around the €300 mark.
Its sound is superb, it has full smart speaker functionality for things like music and radio and its portability includes a dock and a leather handle for carrying it about. It’s even water-resistant (to an IPX4 standard), meaning it can take the odd splash, a bit of drizzle or some steam (if listening in a bathroom).
Does it justify the extra €100 over, say, an Amazon Echo Studio? As an Echo Studio owner, I can say that it does: the audio quality is better on Harman Kardon’s machine, which also has the additional advantages of portability features. Its real competition is probably either Sonos’s Move or Bose’s Home 500. However, it’s between €50 and €100 cheaper than either of those speakers.
It supports connection over Apple’s AirPlay, Chromecast or normal Bluetooth if you want to play music away from a wifi source. Its smart system is Google’s Voice Assistant which, once set up over wifi, gives you the full panoply of features, including songs or podcasts from Spotify, any radio station you can think of, and an array of smart home controls, from alarms to lightbulbs.
Its audio engine comprises a 120mm woofer and a 25mm tweeter, both front-facing, that put out 50 watts of sound. This has just the right about of bass for classical, acoustic and voice tracks.
From an aesthetic perspective, Harmon Kardon has gotten it spot on, with a discreet mesh-fabric finish and flush indented control buttons on the top. The fact that the stiff carrying strap on top is made from leather is also a plus.
The Citation 200 comes with a small, circular puck that you plonk the speaker onto when connected to the mains or recharging. It takes a couple of hours to fully charge up, but you’ll get between six and eight hours of portable play between charges, which is a very decent return.
Smart and good-looking: The Harmon Kardon Citation 200
2. Google Nest Audio Portable: no Smart: yes Price: €100 Strengths: sleek design Weaknesses: audio quality not as good as standard Amazon Echo. Conclusion: Google’s answer to the Amazon Echo looks appealing, has powerful, sensitive microphones and connects to a top-notch online smart system. But it’s not as good as its arch rival when it comes to outright audio quality.
The Nest Audio’s design is clean and simple, almost to a fault. Resembling a fabric-covered rectangular pebble, it’s an unobtrusive presence that will disturb your room’s curated look a lot less than most other speakers. This is worth some brownie points, even if there are some usability consequences, such as the speaker controls (volume and pause) being invisible, located on the top-front of the device.
While Google has augmented most of the important audio tech under the hood (including a 75mm woofer and a 19mm tweeter), the overall sound effect isn’t as good as Amazon’s recently-released Echo (fourth Generation) model.
There’s a significant gap in bass tones, for example. This can be ameliorated by pairing it with a second Nest Audio device, which it’s designed to do. But now you’re at twice the price and require twice the space.
As has become customary on smart speakers, you can switch the microphones off on the back of the device. And it’s with mentioning that the Nest Audio’s microphones are particularly sensitive — it now has three, compared to its predecessor’s two.
3. *Recommended*: Amazon Echo Dot Portable: no Smart: yes Price: €60 Strengths: outsized sound quality, nice design Weaknesses: slightly bulkier than previous model Conclusion: If you’re looking for an ultra-budget speaker that packs an audio wallop, it’s very hard to beat Amazon’s new Echo Dot fourth generation model.
Designed as a mini-version of the standard fourth generation Echo, it delivers a surprisingly large sound for something so small. It’s a real shame that Amazon doesn’t make a portable, battery-laden version of this, even if added an extra €10 or €20 to the price.
The real market for the Echo Dot may be for people looking to replace radios in their kitchen or bedside table. The sound more than matches the best radio speakers out there, while its footprint is tiny. Choosing your station by simply asking for it seems like an easier way to change stations, too, although some commercial stations insist on putting 15-second ads in, lessening your desire to switch over.
Amazon is obviously aware of this market, making a version of the Dot available (for around €10 extra) with a digital clock visible on the front.
The controls on the Dot are nicely marked out on the top of the circular device, while you can also turn off the microphone if you wish.
Portable: yes Smart: no Price: €349 Strengths: good sound, great outdoors, can be used as amp for instrument or karaoke Weaknesses: big and heavy Conclusion: As its name suggests, the Partybox On-The-Go’s pitch is that it’s a powerful audio speaker that can be picked up and brought to another room or even outside, with ‘party’ functionality through microphones, instruments and colourful lights.
It’s a mid-size speaker, about three or four times the size of the largest Amazon Echo. Large handles are built flush into the unit on either upper corner, allowing you to grab it quickly. There are also two strap links built in on top.
And that splash-resistant IPX4 quality makes it ideal for the era we’re hopefully re-entering from May when Covid restrictions are expected to ease: al fresco meetups with friends or family in the back garden, front driveway or even the local park. (IPX4 means it’ll withstand some drizzle or bits of spray, but not a downpour.) If you don’t have access to a power source outside, the built-in rechargeable battery will see through five or six hours of use.
This is also a more-than-decent karaoke-on-the-go device. It comes with a wireless (battery-powered) JBL microphone, while another line-in mic can also be connected via a port on top of the device. And if you want to add some local strumming, there’s a separate port for a guitar lead.
