A good BBQ, gardening session or just plain long days lying in the sun can be vastly improved with some summer tunes. But if you want to have a speaker that both sounds good and is ready to fight the trials of the outside world, your options quickly become more limited.
Water- and dust-resistance are important, as is good sound quality, but these factors also need to be considered next to value for money, portability and a host of other key factors. That's obviously a lot to think through. Luckily, we've done the hard part, picking out and testing some of the best outdoor speakers on the market.
Below we've listed the top choices from a range of big-name brands.
Klipsch
If you’ve been wanting to try a Klipsch product but have been put off by the prices, the Heritage Groove is a good place to start. It has all of the class of their larger kit without breaking the bank – and does its best to match the sound quality, too.
But while the Heritage Groove sits in line with many portable speakers of this size and status, it lacks some of the features that generally follow other products in this price range. Most notably, this is not – we repeat, not– a dust- or water-resistant speaker. So don’t try.
If you’re just looking for something that not only sits in your house without drawing too much attention but actually makes your house look nicer – and sounds great while doing so – then features-smeatures.
Marshall Middleton
The Marshall Middleton has a lot going for it. It’s sleek and stylish, built in a robust casing, and pumps out a rich sound in all directions. And thanks to its IP rating and strong frame, it can also take some falls, bumps and spills.
However, there are two crucial factors that hold this speaker back from being the perfect portable device. Firstly, it ispricey. Costing you £269, it costs more than most of its equivalent competitors.
Secondly, for its size, the Middleton weighs far more than it realistically should. It’s going to weigh down any bag it’s put in, and with its bulky size, isn’t exactly the most portable speaker out there.
If you can deal with these two factors, then the Middleton is a fantastic buy thanks to its combination of style and high-performance sound.
Sonos Move
The Sonos Move is one of those speakers that just gets on with the job. The subtle, no-fuss design and sleek-looking profile allow it to blend quietly into the background of your room, integrating itself with everyday life and enhancing your audio experience – you almost forget it’s there.
But when it’s time to crank up the volume, this speaker delivers in spades. Thanks to the two digital amplifiers, tweeter and mid-woofer, it delivers a rich audio experience with crystal clear highs and hearty basses.
An ergonomic handle groove built into the back of the speaker ensures it’s well-balanced while physically moving the speaker, while the nifty Trueplay feature ensures it’s acoustically balanced. A rather nifty feature, it does this by measuring how sound is reflected off walls, furnishings, and other surfaces, then optimises the audio based on these acoustics.
And you don’t need to calibrate the speaker yourself; it does it automatically when you move locations.
Sony SRS-XV800
At a sale point of £599, Sony’s high-tech SRS-XV800 wireless party speaker is relentlessly more expensive than most portable Bluetooth speakers on the market. However, for that price, you get an unquestionably premium and multipurpose device that audiophiles will likely fail to find fault in.
Built for large house parties rather than quaint picnics, it’s a speaker capable of playing crisp and clear music in a plethora of genres at staggeringly high volumes. Plus, with 25 hours of battery life, it can keep the party going literally all day long (don’t blame us for your official noise complaint).
The one drawback? Unless you’ve been hitting the gym, it has limited portability. Weighing 20kg, it’s a real chore to carry, with the device’s small wheels at the base of the speaker only useful when you’re travelling over flat terrain.
Worryingly powerful, ruthlessly high-performing, but awkward with stairs, consider Sony’s SRS-XV800 the Dalek of Bluetooth speaker world.
Minirigs
The Minirig-3 is scarily good. We mean that literally: after taking it out of the box and wondering how loud it could go, we started backing off the volume button at 40 per cent.
It’s almost silly, but then it makes sense when you understand the story behind the product. The Bristol-based masterminds started life setting up sound stages for gigs and parties and that’s essentially what you’re getting here: a party sound system that sits in the palm of your hand.
It’s not just brute power though. There’s clarity and subtlety here too. It handles hip-hop like Little Simz's Gorilla with grace, balancing heavy bass without distorting the vocals in the mid-range. Meanwhile, Turnstiles’ thrashing guitars on a track like Holiday never drown out the cymbals or the subtle basslines beneath.
The app offers up an equaliser (so you can toy with the levels), a share button that lets others pipe in their music, and the ability to pair your Minirig with another speaker to create a mega sound system. All in all, this is a phenomenal audio experience with nearly 100 hours of battery life.
