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Wireless speakers to avoid
Ranging from $100 to $1850, these poor-performing Bluetooth and Wi-Fi speakers are anything but music to your ears.
Last updated: 9 Dec 2025
Whether you’re at home, having a backyard barbecue or travelling away from home, a wireless speaker is a great way to enjoy your music exactly where you want it. But while good tunes are essential for a great party, a tinny-sounding speaker can really kill your buzz.
If you love your music, these are the wireless speakers to avoid buying. We’ve picked the worst performing models in various price categories so you can avoid the cheap and nasties as well as the high-priced duds.
How much do wireless speakers cost?
Depending on what you’re after, you can opt for:
- a battery-powered portable speaker with a Bluetooth connection linked directly to your smart device so it’s 100% portable.
- a home speaker that has a wireless Wi-Fi connection to your home network so you can stream music over your home network. These are usually quite bulky and require a power socket, so they aren’t really portable.
- a smart screen with voice assistance and a display, which is perfect in your kitchen for viewing recipes or cooking videos, or in the bedroom for the morning news or a podcast (note these are no longer part of our test).
The cheapest models in our test cost around $20, while the high-end models can run as high as $3000.
Sound quality tends to match the asking price when it comes to speakers and though there are plenty of exceptions (especially poor performers at the very expensive end), you can expect to pay around $500–1000 for a good quality wireless speaker.
Of course, sound quality is subjective and cheaper models that didn’t earn the tick of approval from our experts aren’t necessarily terrible. It’s always best to have a listen to the speakers before you buy if you can, as you may find some that suit your needs, and your ears, at a much more affordable price point.
Wireless speakers are also the kind of products that are steeply discounted during sales periods, particularly at major retailers like JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman. If you find a model you like but it’s outside your price range, hold out for a sale as it could drop by a very decent margin.
How we test wireless speakers
To make sure you get the best bass for your buck, our panel of experts listens to a range of music and audio. This includes classical, jazz, pop and speech with male and female vocals (i.e. a podcast). Technical measurements of frequency response and harmonic distortion are taken as well.
We also conduct a general ease of use assessment which covers setup, day-to-day use, the effectiveness of digital assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant (where available) and more. Lastly, battery life and power consumption are measured and scored.
We record battery life for portable speakers and annual energy consumption for home models, in kilowatt-hours (kWh).
Note: We updated and overhauled our wireless speakers test in June 2025, following changes to our test method and scoring system. Some previously tested models may have new scores and recommendations as a result. For a complete explanation, read more about how we test wireless speakers below.
Lowest scoring speakers in our test
Here’s the worst performing speakers from the following price brackets, arranged in order from cheapest to most expensive:
- Under $100: House of Marley Jammin
- $101–200: JBL Grip
- $201–300: Audio Pro P5
- $301–400: Bose SoundLink Home
- $401–500: Bang & Olufsen Explore
- $500 and above: Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 3rd Gen
- Worst high-end speaker: Bang & Olufsen Beosound Emerge
Worst under $100: House of Marley Roots
- Cost (RRP): $59
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 24%
- Sound quality score: 14%
- Ease of use score: 47%
- Power score: 63%
- Battery life (hh:mm): 9:32
In a testament to the enduring power of Bob Marley’s name and music, this speaker will make you want to get up, stand up – for a refund. Not only is it the lowest scoring model in our test overall, it has the worst sound quality out of any currently available model we’ve tested. A moment for our expert’s ears, please.
Now granted, this cheap, rectangular cube isn’t designed to compete with a mid- to high-range model. But even so, there are other speakers in this price category that sound so much better than the very poor sounds that soured our audio lab from this speaker.
This speaker will make you want to get up, stand up – for a refund
Other test results are borderline at best and it’s not all that easy to use. Battery life and water resistance (light rain, splashes and mist) are decent, but your friends will send you home if you dare to bring a Jammin wireless speaker to the next outdoor event.
Read the full House of Marley Jammin review.
Worst between $101–200: JBL Grip
- Cost (RRP): $130
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 37%
- Sound quality score: 32%
- Ease of use score: 72%
- Power score: 39%
- Battery life (hh:mm): 6:38
The JBL Grip isn’t much bigger than a soft drink can. It doesn’t sound much better either.
Most of the marketing for this product seems to be geared towards outdoor entertaining – pool parties, picnics and twilight patio hangs. So, does it bring the summertime vibes? No, if anything the Grip will make your friends want to move inside, away from the noise.
The JBL Grip isn’t much bigger than a soft drink can. It doesn’t sound much better either.
Small speakers aren’t going to have the best sound quality in the world but even so, 32% is pretty poor. Where average audio can just fade into the background during a get-together, the JBL Grip sounds so bad, it’s distracting.
Read the full JBL Grip review.
Worst between $201–300: Audio Pro P5
- Cost (RRP): $249
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 38%
- Sound quality score: 37%
- Ease of use score: 59%
- Power score: 30%
- Battery life (hh:mm): 5:19
Audio Pro in name but barely Audio Pro in nature, maybe it would be best to rename this speaker the Audio Poor P5. Sound quality for classical, jazz and pop just isn’t very good at all, while battery life is among the worst in our test.
While you can’t expect amazing sound quality from a speaker of this size, it’s certainly big enough to deliver results better than what our experts heard. Plus, you’re probably going to have trouble setting up and using the Pro P5 as the ease of use results are firmly OK. Sorry Mr Pro, but it’s time to go.
Read the full Audio Pro P5 review.
Worst between $301–400: Bose SoundLink Home
- Cost (RRP): $350
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 49%
- Sound quality score: 45%
- Ease of use score: 70%
- Power score: 53%
- Battery life (hh:mm): 7:29
The SoundLink range from Bose has been around for some time, though it’s never really risen above mediocrity. Sound quality has always been pretty middling across the selection of entry-level and mid-range speakers.
In keeping with tradition, the new SoundLink Home speaker is an average performer – all style and no substance. It’s the only Bose model to earn poor results in our audio test (45%), with flat, muddy sound that lacks impact.
The new SoundLink Home speaker is an average performer – all style and no substance.
While it looks quite nice with an overall modern design with some light retro touches, there’s no dust and moisture protection whatsoever. This makes the SoundLink Home a strictly indoor affair, making its portability fairly limited.
Bose fans should consider the slightly older SoundLink Revolve+ II instead. It has better (but still average) sound quality, an extra three-and-a-half hours of battery life and dust and splash protection – all for the same asking price of $350.
Read the full Bose SoundLink Home review.
Worst between $401–500: Bang & Olufsen Explore
- Cost (RRP): $460
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 38%
- Sound quality score: 33%
- Ease of use score: 53%
- Power score: 52%
- Battery life (hh:mm): 10:48
Bang & Olufsen, the iconic electronics brand, celebrated its 100th anniversary in November this year. But the Explore portable speaker is nothing to celebrate.
These skillful Danes have built some legendary high-end audio products over the years and yet this wireless speaker is a classic example of paying extra for the branding alone. There’s nothing here to suggest that the Explore meets the same lofty standards as the name suggests. So don’t be fooled by that B&O stamp.
A classic example of paying extra for the branding alone.
The sound quality, ease of use and power results are similar to, or worse than, cheaper speakers in this article – not to mention many others in our test. Features are almost identical too, so really you can get the same performance for half the price of this model.
Read the full Bang & Olufsen Explore review.
Worst over $500: Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 3rd Gen
- Cost (RRP): $640
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 48%
- Sound quality score: 42%
- Ease of use score: 60%
- Power score: 69%
- Battery life (hh:mm): 11:44
The 2nd Gen version of this speaker was among the lowest performers for speakers at its price point – until now. Not content to rest on its laurels, B&O has worked hard to lower the bar even further with the 3rd Gen version, which sounds considerably worse.
This seems to be another case of B&O trading on its legacy alone, which is a shame. But it’s hard to excuse an updated speaker that drags audio quality down from sounding borderline (2nd Gen) to poor, while keeping the $640 price point.
This seems to be another case of B&O trading on its legacy alone.
How this happened is anyone’s guess, because the 3rd Gen is almost exactly the same size and weight as the previous iteration. In other words, there’s nothing to suggest that the core design has changed to the point that we can blame it for this significant drop in audio quality.
Battery life has improved though. Maybe B&O moved the speaker out of the way to shove a bigger battery in? Don’t waste your money, in any case.
Read the full Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 3rd Gen review.
Worst high-end speaker: Bang & Olufsen Beosound Emerge
- Cost (RRP): $1850
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 53%
- Sound quality score: 58%
- Ease of use score: 51%
- Power score: 29%
- Annual energy use (kWh): 50.55
We included this speaker to show you that price doesn’t always equal quality – and what a price to drive that point home! Bang & Olufsen has taken out a third spot in our list of duds and these results are particularly painful for a RRP of $1850.
Borderline audio quality doesn’t come close to justifying the price.
To be fair, the sleek, elegant, modern design does fit nicely into spaces like a study, reading nook and so on. This speaker could easily blend in to deliver the effect of music emanating from nowhere and that alone does warrant a higher RRP.
But you want at least some substance to match that style and the borderline audio quality doesn’t come close to justifying the price. Looks, unfortunately, can so often deceive.
Read the full Bang & Olufsen Beosound Emerge review.
