The 6 Best Alexa Speakers - Spring 2021 Reviews

The best speaker for Alexa that we've tested is the Sonos Move. This versatile Bluetooth model has Alexa and Google Assistant built-in, which require a Wi-Fi connection to be used. It has no trouble understanding you when you're far away, and it still understands you decently well if you're in a noisy environment.

Out-of-the-box, it has a balanced sound profile, especially in the mid-range, so vocals and lead instruments are reproduced accurately. Its companion app also has a room correction feature and bass and treble sliders, letting you tweak the sound profile to your liking. This speaker is very well-built and even comes with an IP56 rating for dust and water resistance, though we don't currently test for this. Its battery lasts over ten hours on a single charge, which should be enough for most long listening sessions.

However, its Bluetooth latency is high with iOS and Android devices, so it may not be suitable for watching videos. That said, some apps compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience may vary. Overall, its balanced sound profile and built-in Alexa support make it a solid choice.

The Bose Home Speaker 500 is the best home speaker for Alexa that we've tested. It has an outstanding voice assistant performance with Alexa and Google Assistant built-in, and has no trouble understanding you from far, or in noisier environments. You can also mute its microphone when you no longer want your assistants to listen to you.

Thanks to its 360-degree design, it has amazing directivity, so its soundstage is perceived as wide and spacious. This speaker can also get pretty loud and has a neutral sound profile suitable for listening to a wide variety of audio content. While it struggles to reproduce a thumpy and rumbling low-bass, its Bose Music companion app comes with bass and treble sliders you can use to tweak its sound to better suit your preferences. Also, You can use Alexa to directly command your other Bose smart products and Amazon Echo products, though we didn't test this.

Unfortunately, due to its wired design, it isn't very portable, and you can't easily take it outdoors with you since it needs to remain plugged into a power outlet for it to work. There are also some compression artifacts present at max volume that can affect the clarity of your audio when listening at louder volumes. However, if you're looking for a home speaker with Alexa built-in, it's still a solid choice.

The best portable speaker for Alexa that we've tested is the Ultimate Ears MEGABLAST. This small and lightweight model has Alexa built-in, and it can hear you clearly even if you're far away, though it doesn't understand you quite as easily in a noisy environment. There's also a mic mute feature if you want it to stop listening to you.

It has an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance, though we don't currently test for this. Out-of-the-box, it has a fairly neutral sound profile, making it suitable for listening to a variety of audio content. Like many small speakers, it struggles to produce a thumpy low-bass, but its companion app has a graphic EQ as well as preset EQ settings, which lets you customize the sound profile to your liking. Thanks to its 360-degree design, its soundstage is perceived as open and spacious, and it can even play stereo content without downmixing it into mono.

However, its battery only lasts around eight hours, which may not be enough for long listening sessions. Also, while its companion app has a Party Mode feature that lets you link multiple speakers to amplify your audio, there's no Multi-Room feature for linking multiple speakers across separate rooms. That said, if you're looking for a portable speaker with Alexa built-in, it's a solid choice.

The best budget Alexa speaker that we've tested is the Amazon Echo Gen 4. This small, spherical speaker has Alexa built-in. You can activate the assistant with your voice, and it has no trouble understanding you when you're far away or in noisier environments. You can also mute its mic when you no longer want it to hear you.

It has a boomy sound profile that can also sound a bit dark. It has a balanced mid-range, making it suitable for listening to dialogue-centric content like audiobooks and podcasts. That said, it struggles to reproduce the thump and rumble in low-bass that fans of bass-heavy music tend to enjoy and can make higher-pitched vocals sound a bit veiled. Fortunately, its Amazon Alexa app features bass and treble sliders you can use to adjust its sound to your liking. You can also use its app to pair the speaker to multiple other Amazon Echo speakers, which can come in handy when you want to play your audio content across a large area or in different rooms of your house.

Unfortunately, its wired design doesn't make it very portable since it needs to remain plugged into an outlet to work. It also doesn't get very loud and has some compression artifacts at max volume, so your audio may not sound as clean at louder volumes. However, it's still a great choice if you're looking for a speaker that offers fantastic Alexa support, and are on a budget.