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As you’ve no doubt noticed, many of our formerly wired devices have made (or are making) the shift to wireless these days, from keyboards and headphones, to even cordless vacuums. Using WiFi and Bluetooth makes it easy to connect two or more devices together, and removes the tangled mess of cables at the same time.
Home speaker systems are ditching the wires too, and the best Bluetooth speaker sets are a game changer when it comes to your entertainment setup. The aesthetic is clean and modern, connection can be instant, and it’s infinitely easier for friends to link up to it when they’re over.
Since you’ll most likely be using them for hours at a time — either for gaming, or watching movies, or listening to music — what’s inside the speakers are most important, and there are a few key points to know before you go all-in on a new wireless setup.
What Are the Best Wireless Speaker Systems?
The best wireless Bluetooth speaker systems work as well on a bookshelf as they do on a desk, amplifying the sound from your computer, phone, record player or TV through powerful, portable units. They’re better than using the built-in speakers on your existing device, and because they’re easily movable, they can be positioned around the room for a more enveloping audio experience you can’t create with just your laptop speakers or TV speakers alone.
What to Look For When Buying a Wireless Speaker System
Speakers with cheaply-made parts can sound tinny when listening for long periods of time, and begin to distort when cranked up to high volumes. After a while, this can really be grating and unpleasant on your ears, so it’s important to take a look at what’s driving it.
The tweeter is the driver inside that’s responsible for producing the higher-end frequencies of the sound scale, like treble. A good tweeter can bring out details that you never noticed in sound mixes and songs, letting you hear it the way the artist or director meant for it to be heard. They’re vitally important to delivering crisp audio, but can’t produce bass – and that’s where the woofer kicks in.
A woofer is what picks up where the treble leaves off, and offers mid-range to lower-end sounds, like booming bass. For that extra boost and deep vibration, many speaker sets come with an external woofer unit, as opposed to one that’s built-in to the actual speaker. This powerful standalone sub helps physically move the air, giving you that thumping bass you can really feel.
Size and appearance matter too though. You’ll want something that’s going to fit on your desk if using these with a computer, so they won’t take up too much valuable space. These are great for bookshelf setups too, or can be combined with your TV as part of your gaming or home theater setup.
