Hi all.
I’ve been looking for a pretty idiosyncratic Bluetooth speaker. Something that sounds good, isn’t in any way smart, and is just mains-powered.
Basically, I want something small for my small bedroom. No batteries to die, no unnecessary “smart” nonsense, just a fairly decent sound to listen to music/radio or podcasts from my laptop or phone.
Any suggestions?
Anker Soundcore 3 is a good choice (even if it’s battery powered you can just leave it plugged in).
If you don’t mind using Wi-Fi, a used Sonos One (or Play:1) might work well for you.
I don’t mind Wi-Fi etc, it’s the “oops, it turns out our employees have been listening to all your conversations, and having a good laugh while they do, and we’re using them to train our ai too” part of smart speakers I dislike. A used Sonos might be fairly good actually. How do you rate their sound, and do they run Spotify/apple play on them do you know? Playing music over Wi-Fi, and just controlling it via Bluetooth is definitely better for sound quality!
The Sonos sound quality is quite good. You can even use your phone to “tune” it with their app.
You can control most Sonos remotely with Spotify Connect or Apple AirPlay. If you use the Sonos app you can integrate all of your music streaming services and do it from there as well.
There’s a way to turn the mic off, but some models don’t have a mic (cheaper too) - the Sonos One SL doesn’t have a microphone.