Best Wireless Speakers for Your New Year's Eve Party
These well-rated models from Bose, Ikea, Ion-Audio, JBL, and Sony will help jump-start the festivities
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Today’s wireless speakers make adding pitch-perfect music to your party easier than ever before, leaving you with extra time to choose the perfect snacks and double-check the guest list.
The wonders of streaming music can transform your favorite playlist—or that of a friend—almost instantly into a mood-setting backdrop or a full-throttle dance floor groove.
A Splendid-Sounding Sony
In our tests, Sony’s SRS-XP500 has good overall sound quality, with a deep bass and volume that sounds decent in a spacious room—perfect for a party. (Though at 25 pounds, you’d better bend your knees when you lift the thing.)
If you want to impress friends or family members, the Sony lets you take the mic. You can even make it a duet because there are two jacks in the back of the unit. (Or just channel your inner Jimi Hendrix by singing and slinging your Strat.) The speaker is loaded with lighting effects, and if you download the free Sony Fiestable app, you can access other DJ and karaoke effects.
Sony says the model has an IPX4 water-resistance rating, which means it’s splashproof and spillproof but not designed to stand up to a full-fledged dunking.
JBL's Midsized Party Box
For a party speaker, the PartyBox Encore Essential is a pretty versatile device. With the controls in JBL’s smartphone app set for the most even tonal balance, the model offers solid sound quality, according to our testers. And while it’s rather modest in size by the standards of karaoke-compatible box speakers, it does deliver plenty of volume. An LED light show controlled by JBL’s smartphone app surrounds the single woofer. The app also lets you add DJ sound effects including a horn, a dog’s bark, and a variety of record-scratch clips.
While the Encore Essential sounds quite good for a speaker of its size, you can get equivalent sound quality, albeit at lower volumes, with the cheaper, smaller Charge 4. It’s also worth noting that JBL claims 6 hours of battery life for this model, so there’s a chance the PartyBox Encore Essential may run out of juice just about the time your party is taking off if you’re not careful to keep it plugged in.
An Ikea to Fill Your Home With Music
Ikea’s Symfonisk speaker is powered by Sonos, making it compatible with other Sonos wireless speakers in a whole-home system. It’s a top performer at a low price. Like other Sonos home speakers, it lacks Bluetooth and requires WiFi to function.
Our testers say pairing two Symfonisk speakers together provides much better sound than a single unit, especially for truly immersive listening. You can even mount the speaker on a wall and use it as a shelf, though the limited capacity makes it better suited to light volumes of poetry than Russian novels.
A Bargain Box by Anker
The Soundcore by Anker Rave Neo provides a decent volume level for a large room, according to our testers, and when you pair two units together, you can widen the sound stage. The model also has Party Cast, a Bluetooth feature that allows you to link to more than 100 compatible speakers.
We find the Bluetooth pairing mode easy to use as well. The Soundcore is water-submersible, with an IPX 7 rating, according to Anker, and it has customizable LED lights.
A Beefy Party Speaker From JBL
If you want a party speaker that delivers lots of volume and big bass, the Party Box 110 might be the model for you. It plays plenty loud with decent, if bass-heavy, sound and adds features like an LED light show and jacks for karaoke mic capability. The styling, at least when the light show is off, is more restrained than that of other speakers, which is a good thing if you want to store the thing in the family room rather than the garage. The model features IPX4 water-resistance, the manufacturer says, so it’s also splashproof.
At 23 pounds and 22 inches tall, JBL’s PartyBox 110 is a serious hunk of speaker, and while it has handles, you’re not going to want to carry it around a lot. It also lacks some of the sonic subtlety of smaller but higher-performance speakers. Our testers heard slight plasticky distortions in the midrange. More to the point, the PartyBox Encore Essential offers similar party-centric features in a smaller, better-sounding, and less-expensive package. But if you’ve got a strong back and plenty of room, the Party Box 110 should work for you.
A Bose for Your Next Dinner Party
If you’re looking for a speaker to play some Miles Davis, Sara Bareilles, or even a bit of Bach in the background of a dinner party, this big Bose fits the bill.
With its steely, cylindrical styling, the SoundLink Revolve+ is certainly sophisticated, although you may want to keep the festivities indoors because it’s splash-resistant rather than fully waterproof, according to the manufacturer. The Revolve+ provides large and intuitive controls right on top of the speaker, a feature that’s useful during a party and in everyday listening.
Sonically, the Revolve+ proves to be a congenial listening partner, although our testers found the midrange to be “a touch metallic-sounding” in critical listening situations. The speaker is sonically similar to its less expensive sibling, the SoundLink Revolve, but it delivers more volume and bass at a somewhat higher price, which makes it better suited to party duty.
JBL's Colorful Karaoke Machine
The JBL PartyBox On-the-Go is, well, a party in a box—at least if your idea of a party involves flashing lights and amateur karaoke. The speaker has an input that allows you to use the included wireless mic, your own microphone, or an electric guitar.
Although it’s quite big and heavy—19 inches long and more than 16 pounds—the speaker comes with a shoulder strap and has an adjustable LED light feature that can add visual interest to your get-together. Our testers found the bass to be a bit boomy, adding that the PartyBox does play quite loudly, providing enough volume to fill a large room.
A Budget Party Box From Ion-Audio
The Ion-Audio Sport XL comes with a couple of drawbacks at first glance: It’s large, boxy, and weighs around 25 pounds. But the speaker has wheels to move it around easily, and a roller-bag-style handle—plus grab handles on the sides. In CR’s tests, the speaker earns an admirable ease-of-use score and a good rating for overall sound quality; it’s able to fill a large room with sound.
That said, what’s not large about the Ion-Audio Sport XL is the price. That gives you the option of buying two units and using them as a stereo pair so the sound stage can be made wider, depending on placement. Ion says the model is IPX 5 water-resistant, which means it can withstand a light spill or a rain shower.
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