Want to be able to listen to music in the bedroom. Don't want speakers taking up nightstand or dresser space.
Want either wife or I to easily be able to play and control music from our phones. We have Android phones, not apple.
Want decent quality audio, but not looking for a high-end listening experience. Just not cheap, hollow, and tinny.
Want relatively inexpensive. Ideally the $100-$300 range, but could go higher for significant quality gains.
Don't know that I care about "smart speaker" technology. I don't need it to answer calls, tell me the weather, place online orders, or anything like that. Would see value in phone app that makes it easier to connect/disconnect multiple phones without messing with settings. I don't want to start watching a video on my phone and have the sound play in the bedroom while my wife is sleeping in.
Not bothered by slightly larger size if I can easily mount it to a wall or put up a bookshelf.
I would start looking at a sound bar and see how you feel. You can get a decent one for that price range, has to be turned on for Bluetooth to work so you wouldn't accidentally blast into another room.
Ours was a cheapo and still sounds great and came with little knobs to wall mount.
In reply to Nick Comstock :
Yeah, that's way pricier than I'm thinking.
Stretching budget, I was thinking like maybe $400-$500 if it's really worth it.
A pair of Sonos speakers would do it for you. Sound pretty reasonable, easy to use and well supported, pretty unobtrusive.
I bought Sonos for a certain person in my household that is yet to touch the component system after nearly 3 years. (might be a blessing) She picked it up right away and uses it. I think they're also airplay2 compatible so you can setup multiroom streaming.
In reply to jwagner (Forum Supporter) :
They are on my radar. Weighing benefits of a pair of Sonos One SL's, vs a single Sonos Move.
The Audio Pro C10 also looks like a strong contender. Reviews indicate much better sound quality than the Sonos.
I think that if I want a WiFi speaker, I'm looking at up to $400. I could probably get nice Bluetooth speakers for $250. But then I run into the potential pitfalls of suddenly blasting YouTube vids.
I've got a whole house full of sonos and I've been really happy with it.
I'd say for your needs, finding used sonos play 1 (the predecesor to the One) on facebook or wherever for $90-100 per are a great deal. Or getting two refurbished One SL at $120 each from sonos would do it as well.
Buy off-brand wall-mount kits or mini-shelves from Amazon.
I have a Move, and it's lovely and sounds better than a One, but not as good as two Ones in stereo. Don't bother with a Move unless you're planning to actually use the battery to take it outside.
How do you deal with charging/powering the speaker that you end up getting? My dad is all wound up about getting some Bluetooth speakers "so there's no wires to deal with" but when I ask about electrical power he just repeats that "they're wireless!" because it's an inconvient aspect. So I'm curious how that will be dealt with.
C'mon, this is GRM. Let's roll something fun. This is a 1930's tube radio that I modified to be an Apple AirPlay streaming device - I could have done something more androidy if I had Androids. Light turns on when it's playing something, then it shuts down when you're done. If you want wall mount, make a shelf :)
i built one of these for my kitchen. The amp board has a USB connection on the board that you can soldier on a USB connector so I did that along with one of the amazon Dot without a speaker which I connected via bluetooth...
It works great, was fun to build and with batteries easily transports out to my deck/yard for BBQ's.
https://www.parts-express.com/Executive-Portable-Bluetooth-Speaker-Kit-300-7164?quantity=1
