The Best Smart Speakers for Music and Voice Control

The latest technology in home audio has led to some of the best smart speakers for music and voice control available on the market. Whether you’re looking to buy your first smart speaker, or you’re looking to upgrade from your current one, you’ll want to make sure you’re choosing the right one.

Amazon Echo Show 10

The Amazon Echo Show is the next step up from the original Alexa speaker. Its 10.1-inch touchscreen display provides extra information. In addition to standard features, the Echo Show offers hands-free shopping and music control. This device can also act as a Zigbee hub to connect to other smart devices.

For $250, the Echo Show offers a slew of features. Its built-in microphone allows it to locate users in the room. There are also shortcuts for playing music, setting routines and making calls. Unlike the first-gen model, the Show has an upgraded camera that can keep media in view while on a video call.

Another great feature is the ability to adjust the screen’s tilt. While the base and screen are both curved, you can move them up and down for optimum viewing. As for audio, you can set a default volume for the device and use physical buttons for volume adjustment.

Although the Amazon Echo Show is not the best sounding smart speaker, it has plenty of features to offer. Besides the built-in microphone, you can use the Echo Show’s screen to view live streaming footage from your security camera.

You can also use the screen to display videos or photos. You can also set an alarm, play music and play the weather forecast. If you want to get really adventurous, you can even connect it to a Zigbee network to control smart lights.

On the downside, the Echo Show’s ten-inch touchscreen has a bezel that obstructs the view of most people. Using the built-in camera, the Show can follow you around the room and make video chats.

Other features include adaptive brightness, a motorized base and speakers. Additionally, the Echo Show uses the AZ1 Neural Edge processor to triangulate the presence of the user in the room.

Sonos One

If you’re a music fanatic, Sonos One is the smart speaker for you. It delivers a rich, room-filling sound from a compact speaker. You can control it with your voice or a mobile app. Plus, you can stream music to other Sonos speakers, too.

The Sonos One features a built-in Alexa speaker voice assistant. As such, you can ask it to play music, check the news, and more. However, you can also use the Hey Google function to control the speaker. This is a privacy-friendly way to use the Sonos app to shuffle your playlists, turn up the volume, or even tell it to do something interesting.

While the Sonos One can’t handle the full-scale aural effects of a traditional surround sound system, it does have enough processing power to deliver a high-quality listening experience. In addition, it supports Bluetooth Low Energy, which lets you wirelessly connect other Sonos speakers to your home’s network.

While the Sonos One has a long list of features, it’s not the only smart speaker in the market. If you’re looking for a full-featured smart speaker, you’d be better off with the Amazon Echo. That said, the Sonos One is a great choice for people who simply want a smart speaker that can do the basics.

Similarly, the Sonos One features a number of smart voice controls, including a microphone mute and a far-field microphone array. Additionally, you can choose from a number of personal assistants, such as Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri. With the Sonos app, you can set alarms, adjust the volume, and more.

Although the Sonos One is a powerful smart speaker, it’s a good idea to consider whether or not you’ll really be using it. There are a number of other options out there, like the Google Home speaker, but the One is a good choice if you’re on a budget.

Bose Portable Home Speaker

The Bose Portable Home Speaker is a small speaker with built-in microphones and voice controls. It can be used indoors or outdoors, and it features a unique design.

The Bose Portable Home Speaker uses an aluminum grille to cover its cylindric body. The grille is also water resistant. It includes a Bluetooth switcher and a mute button for the microphone. This makes it easy to move the speaker around.

Its light ring on top indicates the volume of the music. It also shows the battery level.

It is lightweight, so you can carry it easily. It has a carrying handle that can be adjusted from the front or back of the unit. A rubber ring on the bottom keeps the unit upright.

This speaker supports AirPlay 2, so you can play your tunes from an iPhone or iPad. You can also use the Bose Connect app to set up the speaker.

The Bose Portable Home Speaker has a good sound profile and bass. You can adjust the treble and bass sliders to customize your audio experience. However, there are some compression artifacts at maximum volume.

The Bose Portable Smart Speaker supports both Alexa and Google Assistant. It can make calls to other Bose smart products, too. Unlike other speakers, it has built-in Wi-Fi.

The Bose Music app allows you to play music between rooms and amplify audio in large spaces. You can also use it to access SiriusXM, Deezer, Pandora, TuneIn, and more. Depending on the model, you can also skip tracks.

Lastly, the voice assistants can understand commands when they are far away. That means you can bark commands at the speaker without having to be close.

Google Nest Hub

Google Home and Nest speakers are great for playing music and controlling your smart home devices. But, they don’t all offer the same capabilities. For example, some devices lack a screen and some don’t play well with others. So, which is the best smart speaker for you?

There are a few contenders, including the Google Home Hub and Amazon Echo Show. The latter features a 10-inch touchscreen, while the former is only four inches.

It also comes with a hefty price tag. The $229 Nest Hub Max adds a front-facing video camera for video calls. Plus, it can enhance your Google Assistant experience with voice commands.

Aside from the high-quality video camera, the Hub Max also features a slick touchscreen display. In addition to being able to show personalized content, it can also recognize the different faces in your household.

You can also ask it to play music from your favorite music service. Then you can control the volume or skip a song using voice commands.

Google Home and Nest devices work with a variety of services, from Pandora to YouTube Music. If you want to learn more about them, check out our smart home guide.

Unlike most of its competitors, the Nest Hub offers a lot of functionality for a small price tag. For example, you can read the news, display a calendar, and queue up videos. Additionally, you can control your smart home gadgets through its 7-inch touchscreen. And, it has a Google Soli sleep sensor, which tracks your breathing and temperature changes while you sleep.

As a bonus, the Nest Hub comes with six months of free YouTube Premium. This is a great way to try out Google’s voice-activated video streaming feature.

Apple HomePod mini

The Apple HomePod mini is a smart speaker that uses voice control. It can play music from your iPhone or other iOS devices, or send audio messages to other devices.

The speaker is also equipped with Siri, Apple’s intelligent assistant. This feature allows you to ask Siri questions about a song that is playing, or to tell her to take a note. You can also use Siri to read news headlines, play podcasts, and send audio messages to other devices.

You can set up the HomePod mini like you would an AirPod, by pairing it with an iOS device and an Apple Music account. To do so, you must open the Home app on your iOS device. Once you have done so, you will see a long-press icon in the Accessory Details section. Select it, and you will be taken to the Home app’s settings.

After you have finished the setup, you can use the speaker to play music. It supports a variety of formats, including WAV, FLAC, AAC, HE-AAC (V1), and iTunes Match songs.

Although the speaker can be used to play music, it can’t compete with Apple’s original HomePod. For instance, the speaker isn’t very loud. That said, it does provide clean, rich sound, and can do things like adjust volume and skip tracks.

In addition, the HomePod Mini has some computational audio features, such as full-duplex audio, triple-tap backward track, and acoustic waveguide for 360-degree audio playback. These features are backed by an onboard Apple S5 chip. The chip provides complex tuning models that allow the speaker to work with content in real-time.

The device comes with TuneIn Radio, a free service that can be downloaded to your iPhone or other iOS device. However, you may need a subscription to a service such as Spotify or Deezer for the speaker to play music from these services.