Best Sonos speakers in 2024

When it comes to Wi-Fi-powered music, one of the best ways to indulge in your favorite tunes, albums, and playlists is with one or several Sonos speakers. Sonos products sound fantastic, extremely easy to use, and leverage the power of wire-free tech like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Alexa. You’ll also enjoy the many features and customizations that the Sonos app provides, even if its recent redesign hasn’t proved entirely popular.

The company has been around for a minute, with legacy devices going all the way back to 2009. From floor to ceiling, there are numerous Sonos speakers to choose from, not to mention its first headphones. To help you decide, this list includes the Sonos hardware that matters most.

Build your ideal Sonos system

There is more than meets the eye here, with four tweeters and two woofers packed inside. Each is powered via its own class-D digital amplifier. One tweeter and one woofer point to each side for stereo imaging, while another provides a center image, and the last aims upwards for Dolby Atmos content. This makes it easy to get good performance without putting too much thought into speaker placement. The Era 300 offers enveloping, balanced, yet detailed sound.

With Dolby Atmos support, you can use the Era 300 as a main for music and movies or as a surround sound speaker in a home theater array. The Era 300 allows audio playback over Bluetooth in addition to Wi-Fi, a convenient feature. While there’s not a lot to complain about here, the Era 300 isn’t cheap, especially if you plan to purchase a pair or more. While it supports Alexa, Google Assistant has been omitted.

The Arc doesn’t mess around. For starters, it has 11 drivers (eight elliptical woofers and three angled silk-dome tweeters) each powered by its own class-D amplifier. A large soundbar that’s adept for both home theater and music, the Arc thumps with solid, well-controlled bass. On top of that, you’ll find smooth treble, articulate midrange response, and an overall immersive experience. Dolby Atmos capability means the Arc can take full advantage of content optimized for the codec.

Probably the biggest knock against the Arc is its high price, but it does compare favorably to other premium soundbars, which are generally more reliant on the presence of a subwoofer to offer decent bass. While the Arc can’t stream audio over Bluetooth, it does offer seamless integration with the Sonos ecosystem via Wi-Fi. The presence of only a single HDMI port could be a limitation, depending on your TV’s capabilities, but shouldn’t adversely impact most users.

Featuring dual tweeters and one woofer, the Era 100’s overall sonic presentation is full and open. Bass is noticeably present and punchy, while the instruments have good separation and detail without harshness. If you happen to be an EDM fan or someone who really craves a ton of bass, you might want to add a Sonos subwoofer to the mix, but most people will be satisfied without one.

The Era 100 is easily capable of serving as a single-speaker solution or as the cornerstone of a multi-speaker Sonos setup sprinkled throughout your house. It offers Sonos and Alexa voice assistant support, but unfortunately, it again omits Google Assistant. Unlike its predecessor, the Era 100 offers audio playback over Bluetooth in addition to Wi-Fi.

Take a portable Bluetooth speaker, add Wi-Fi and Sonos integration to it, and you get the Sonos Roam. While it can’t rival the bass presence or control of Sonos’ larger and costlier speakers, the Roam sounds fairly big and is competitive-sounding among comparably-sized Bluetooth speakers. It’s an obvious choice if you’re already invested in the Sonos ecosystem and need a portable speaker for music.

Despite a rated 10-hour battery life, the Roam’s actual performance is significantly lower and may clock in at just over 5 hours, depending on your volume levels. That’s a bit of a bummer, as it diminishes the Roam’s appeal for extended outings off the grid, such as camping trips, counter to the laudable presence of IP67 dust and water resistance. The Roam can be controlled via the Sonos app and offers Sonos Voice Assistant, Google Voice and Alexa support, but the integrated mics cannot be used for phone calls, oddly enough.

Sonos has since unveiled the Roam 2, which comes with redesigned controls and an easier setup process, but otherwise almost exactly the same hardware. We’ll be reviewing the Roam 2 when we get the chance, but for now know that it’s not hugely different to the first-gen Roam.

The Beam (Gen 2) offers a solid combination of features and performance at a mid-level price point. Dedicated class-D amplifiers drive a center tweeter, four midwoofers, and accompanying passive radiators, providing noticeably better sound than the first-generation Beam. The Beam offers clear sound with an enveloping sound stage and includes Dolby Atmos to provide enhanced experiences with content mastered for the codec. That said, it lacks an up-firing tweeter to take full advantage of 3D audio. It does not provide as much bass as the Arc, and it may be a good idea to add a Sub or Sub Mini for more impactful home theater and music performance.

Of course, the Beam easily integrates with your Sonos whole-home audio system via Wi-Fi, and can be centrally controlled via the Sonos app. However, you will not get Bluetooth audio here. In addition to Sonos’s own voice assistant, the Beam (Gen 2) supports Amazon Alexa and Google’s assistant. Although imperfect, the Beam (Gen 2) surpasses its predecessor and strikes a good balance between performance and price for most applications.

If you’re wondering if Sonos’s least expensive soundbar is any good, the answer is yes. The Ray offers a respectably open sound stage for its size and has balanced midrange and treble performance that makes it an easy listen. Despite the absence of a center channel driver, it handles dialog well, and music vocals are notably clear. Unsurprisingly, the Ray can’t produce chest-thumping bass, and it’s Sonos’s only soundbar without Dolby Atmos.

The Ray offers Wi-Fi connectivity and control via the Sonos app but lacks Bluetooth. At 56cm wide, the Ray is Sonos’s most compact soundbar. Combined with its accessible price, that makes the Ray a good choice for small to midsize home theater setups.

The Sub Mini is Sonos’s most affordable subwoofer at just over half the cost of the company’s Sub (Gen 3). While it’s still not inexpensive compared to comparable subwoofers, the Sub Mini is a good option if you need to add a little extra oomph to a Sonos system. It generally provides clean, punchy bass, but can get a little loose on very low, sustained frequencies. The Mini is suitable for small and midsize spaces but can’t push enough air for large rooms.

The Sub Mini connects to the Sonos ecosystem via Wi-Fi or Ethernet. It does not have standard audio ports and thus cannot be used with non-Sonos home theater systems. While that’s a limitation, it’s not really a problem if you’re fully bought into Sonos and plan to stay that way.

Our reviewer praised the Sonos Move 2 for its “excellent sound quality with smooth mids, satisfying lows, and under-control treble,” qualities that help the speaker earn our recommendation. Although the Move 2 adds a second, angled tweeter compared to its predecessor, it still doesn’t manage to deliver a stereo image with noticeably discrete left and right channels. However, that’s not a huge knock on a portable speaker.

Battery life is notably long, at 24 hours per charge. Assuming you don’t mind its bulk, that makes the Move 2 a good option for events like cookouts and camping trips. With an IP56 dust and water-resistance rating, the Move 2 is ready for whatever rain and dust nature throws its way, though we wouldn’t recommend it for uncovered, permanent outdoor installation. Notably, the Move 2 supports simultaneous Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections, a really great user experience feature.

Unlike the other Sonos products on our list, the Sonos Outdoor Speakers are a wired solution that requires a direct connection to an amplifier, such as the Sonos Amp. Developed with Sonance for premium quality sound, the Sonos Outdoor Speakers feature treble and midrange performance that’s clear and pleasing to the ear, and albeit limited in its largeness, the bass is surprisingly punchy for a 2-way speaker with a 6.5-inch woofer.

The Sonos Outdoor Speakers can be installed outdoors and left there year-round. While they’re rated to withstand the elements including UV, it’s still advisable to install the speakers with some cover, such as under the eaves, if possible. Because of their compact size, a pair can only provide limited coverage. A large backyard, for example, may need more speakers or larger ones.

To put things in context, the Symfonisk falls within the price range of entry-level Sonos products. Its music performance is pretty good, but definitely lags a bit behind other Sonos speakers in terms of clarity, bass and openness. But at the end of the day, you should be buying the Symfonisk because it’s a cool hybrid design that meets your needs for light, sound, and style, not for top audio performance. While it easily integrates with whole-home Sonos systems or can be used as a single piece, the Symfonisk unfortunately omits voice assistant support.

Created in partnership with Swedish furniture giant Ikea, the Symfonisk is available at the retailer’s stores and online. The second-gen Symfonisk looks much sleeker and more premium than the first-gen model, an important improvement for a home decor product. It also uses common E26/E27 bulbs, unlike its predecessor. The Symfonisk is currently available in four color combinations with a glass shade: black base and black shade, black base and white shade, white base and black shade, and white base and white shade.

Create the perfect Sonos system for your home

There’s no shortage of Sonos speakers to choose from, and the exciting part about owning even just one of these devices is the limitless opportunities you’ll have to expand your system down the road. If you’re completely new to Sonos, one of the best devices you can buy is the Sonos Era 300.

Right now, this is Sonos’ signature music speaker, and it supports both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It sounds fantastic and will have no trouble filling small to medium-sized rooms with audio. You’ll also be able to control the Era 300 with Alexa and can even use it as part of a larger Dolby Atmos surround configuration.

For a complete home theater experience, we highly recommend the Sonos Arc. This premium soundbar is far more than a bunch of speakers lassoed together, it’s an 11-speaker Atmos virtualization guru that does a dang good job at making you think you have speakers in every square inch of your room.

But the Sonos Arc is fairly expensive. If you need your Sonos purchase to cost even less than the Era 300, we suggest going for the Sonos Era 100. For only $250, Sonos’ smallest bookshelf-style speaker is easy to place just about anywhere, and it certainly doesn’t leave you hanging in the sound quality department.