The 4 Best Multiroom Wireless Speaker Systems of 2024
After careful consideration, we no longer recommend the Sonos multiroom audio platform as the best overall choice. Sonos recently rolled out a major update to its control app that had a ton of problems, leaving its customers with a much less intuitive experience than they had before. While the company is slowly addressing some of the major issues with the new app, this is not the first time Sonos has hurt customer trust through poorly executed changes.
That said, Sonos still makes great speakers that work well within other wireless control platforms like AirPlay, Spotify Connect, and (in some cases) Bluetooth. So we are not discounting Sonos products entirely. We just no longer hold up the company’s own ecosystem as the best way to interact with the system.
We are taking this opportunity to completely re-envision this guide to better reflect how people set up and use multiroom audio systems today. Stay tuned.
Our pick
This speaker produces a full, well-balanced sound and fits nicely in any room. It also supports Bluetooth, AirPlay, and Alexa voice control.
This speaker can play spatial audio from Apple and Amazon, and it delivers a more spacious sound even with regular stereo music. But audio purists may prefer one of Sonos’s more traditional speaker designs.
Sonos has made multiroom wireless systems for longer than anyone, and its experience shows at every level. The mobile and desktop apps rank among the most polished available and offer unified search across every music service you subscribe to. Plus, the platform supports more streaming services than the competition—in some cases, a lot more.
Sonos’s speaker offerings come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and prices. Currently you can choose from five tabletop speakers priced from $200 to $550. The company also sells four portable speakers and two subwoofers, as well as three smart soundbars—all of which can pair with two Sonos tabletop speakers to form a surround system. IKEA sells Sonos-compatible speakers, too.
All Sonos-branded speakers have built-in AirPlay 2 support, some newer models support Bluetooth, and many of them add voice control via Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or both.
The Sonos ecosystem has two main drawbacks. First, it is a closed ecosystem, so you must use Sonos-branded devices if you want all of the pieces of your multiroom system to work together seamlessly. Second, the system’s voice-control capabilities are not as advanced as what you can get from Amazon’s or Google’s own smart speakers.
Budget pick
This small, affordable speaker sounds good for the money and supports a number of streaming services. But the Nest Audio platform is less robust and intuitive than Sonos’s system.
If you’re looking to build a more affordable multiroom wireless music system that still sounds great, Google’s Nest Audio platform is a good alternative to Sonos. The lineup currently offers only one speaker that’s really focused on audio performance: the Google Nest Audio speaker. That speaker sounds quite good for $100, even if it’s not as detailed as Sonos’s entry-level speakers and doesn’t offer stereo sound from a single speaker the way pricier alternatives do. But you could pair two of them for stereo sound for the same price as you’d pay for Sonos’s cheapest speaker.
Google has made a number of improvements to its multiroom-audio platform over the years. It still has limitations compared with our top pick, but we now find it easier to use than our former also-great pick, Amazon’s Alexa platform—regardless of whether you use voice commands or the Google Home app to control the system. And it works seamlessly with the myriad devices that have Chromecast built in, including streaming media players, smart TVs and projectors, and some third-party wireless speakers.
Upgrade pick
This larger, room-filling speaker sounds fantastic, but the real appeal lies in its luxurious design and the excellent BluOS control app. However, the Bluesound ecosystem is more limited, and its devices are higher-priced.
If you enjoy interacting with your speakers directly, as opposed to using an app or your voice to control playback, you’ll love the more luxurious, high-end allure of Bluesound’s Pulse M speaker, the latest addition to the Bluesound family of wireless speakers and streaming audio players. Its proximity-activated, capacitive-touch controls up the swank factor significantly, and the speaker’s sound quality is competitive with the best of what Sonos has to offer.
The Bluesound streaming platform also gives Sonos a serious run for its money in easy setup and bests Sonos in intuitive navigation and day-to-day ease of use. Our one gripe is that it currently doesn’t allow you to search for songs across different music services the way Sonos does.
Overall, our biggest complaint is that we wish Bluesound offered more speakers that look and feel as upscale as the Pulse M.
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