The 5 Best Alexa Speakers - Summer 2022 Reviews

The best Alexa speaker we've tested is the Denon Home 350. Alexa is built into this smart speaker, and you can activate the assistant with your voice. It does an excellent job of understanding you from far away and in noisy rooms. You can also mute its mic when you no longer want it listening to you and can even connect it to compatible Denon soundbars to create a home setup. This loud, wired speaker has a slightly boomy sound profile suitable for listening to different music genres and can produce the deep thump and rumble in bass-heavy music like EDM and hip-hop, making it a great choice for music lovers. Its balanced mid-range ensures vocals and lead instruments reproduce clearly and accurately in the mix. If you like having control over your speaker's sound, you can customize its sound to your liking, thanks to the bass and treble adjustments in its Heos companion app.

That said, its soundstage sounds narrow and directional, so your audio doesn't sound as clear when you listen from different angles, like from behind the speaker. It also has high Bluetooth latency with iOS and Android devices, which isn't ideal for watching movies and videos. If you don't care for Bluetooth latency or a wide-sounding soundstage, this loud speaker's slightly boomy and customizable sound profile makes it the best Alexa speaker for music we've tested.

If you're looking for something more versatile and affordable, check out the Sonos Move. Unlike the Denon Home 350, this smart home speaker comes with both Alexa and Google Assistant built-in. It has no trouble understanding your commands from far away and in noisier rooms. If you're a more private person, you can also mute its mic when you no longer want the speaker to listen to you. While it doesn't produce as deep a bass as the Denon, its sound profile is still balanced overall, and its mid-range ensures voices and lead instruments are clearly and accurately reproduced in the mix. The bass and treble adjustments in its Sonos S2 app offer you some control over its sound profile.

The Sonos is smaller than the Denon, is better-built, and is battery-powered, so you can use it as a home speaker or bring it along outdoors when you're on the go. It's even rated IP56 for dust and water resistance, so you don't have to worry about it getting a bit wet or dirty when you take it outside. Its battery life can also last over 10 hours from a single charge, making it great for long listening sessions, though this varies depending on your usage habits and chosen volume levels. However, while it's portable, it isn't all that small and can be bulky. If you prefer something smaller and more portable, the Bose Portable Smart Speaker also comes with Alexa and Google Assistant built-in and has a lantern-like carrying handle to help you transport it. That said, its battery life is fairly short, lasting only around five hours from a single charge.

If you aren't looking for anything overly fancy and are mainly looking for a smart speaker to spruce up your home, check out the Amazon Echo Studio. Unlike the Sonos Move, it's mainly designed for use at home, so it isn't as portable since it needs to remain plugged into an outlet to work. That said, it comes with a built-in Zigbee hub you can use to control other smart devices around your home, like thermostats and light bulbs. It even supports Sony's 360 Reality Audio content, and if you're a movie-lover, it supports Dolby Atmos!

Its sound profile is balanced overall, making it great for listening to anything from your favorite music to podcasts and audiobooks, though it doesn't produce a bass quite as deep as that of the Sonos. It's also compatible with the Amazon Alexa app, which features bass and treble adjustments to tweak its sound to your liking. However, if you like the Sonos Move but prefer something more affordable and portable, the Sonos Roam is a smaller, better-built speaker that supports both Alexa and Google Assistant. Since it's smaller than the Move and the Echo Studio, it doesn't get as loud and doesn't produce as deep a bass.

The Amazon Echo Gen 4 is the best Bluetooth speaker with Alexa built-in that we've tested for those on a budget. Alexa has no trouble understanding your commands from far away and in noisy rooms, and like the other speakers on this list, you can mute its mic for a bit more privacy when you no longer want your assistant to hear you. Like the Amazon Echo Studio, it's advertised to have a built-in Zigbee hub, so you can use Alexa to control smart home devices like lightbulbs and thermostats. Since it's designed for use at home, it needs to remain plugged into a power outlet for it to work.

Its default sound profile is slightly boomy, with a balanced mid-range that reproduces vocals and lead instruments clearly and with detail, making it great for dialogue-centric audio content like audiobooks and podcasts. However, higher-pitched voices and instruments sound dull and dark at times. Fortunately, you can tweak its sound using the bass and treble adjustments featured in its Amazon Alexa app.

On an even tighter budget? The Amazon Echo Dot Gen 4 offers fantastic Alexa support at a much more budget-friendly price. It sports a similar spherical design to the Amazon Echo Gen 4 but is smaller overall and doesn't come with a built-in Zigbee hub to control smart home devices. Due to its smaller size, it doesn't produce as deep a low-bass as the larger Echo Gen 4 and doesn't get quite as loud. That said, it does have a touch less compression when you blast your favorite songs at max volume, so your audio sounds a bit cleaner and clearer when you max the volume out.

Overall, its sound profile is balanced, making it good for listening to different types of audio content, from pop music to audiobooks and podcasts. Like the Echo Gen 4 and the Amazon Echo Studio, you can tweak its sound to your liking, thanks to the bass and treble adjustments in the Amazon Alexa app. Thanks to its 360-degree design, its soundstage sounds wide and spacious, and your audio sounds mostly the same when you listen from different angles, like from behind the speaker.