Want a fancy new wireless speaker? The 3 best models, no hi-fi separates needed – as picked by an A/V expert

Where do we even start with wireless speakers? Perhaps with a definition – because what we’re talking about here are not portable speakers.

A portable speaker is battery-powered, probably rubberised and almost certainly water- and dust-proof to a degree, because it’s designed to be taken anywhere you feel like going.

A wireless speaker is different. It’s not battery-powered, for a start – it’s designed for indoor use and must be plugged into the mains. And so there’s no need for it to be rubberised or waterproof either.

Often it’s designed to offer stereo sound from its single cabinet, and it also tends to differ from its portable counterpart by offering compatibility with better Bluetooth codecs and perhaps even some Wi-Fi connectivity too – which means potential for high-resolution streams.

These three wireless speakers fit the luxury bill in every respect. Stereo sound, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, price tags that range from ‘hefty’ to ‘very hefty indeed’ – and all have the notion that they could be your main audio system and look good while they do it.

T3's Top 3

B&W vs Sonus Faber vs B&O: Pricing

We’ve already established that a wireless speaker tends to be more expensive than its portable equivalent. But while that’s most definitely the case here, the wide spread of prices indicates that the market for worthwhile wireless speakers runs from ‘quite pricey’ to ‘is that a misprint?’.

At £699 / $899 / AU$1299 the Zeppelin Pro doesn’t exactly constitute ‘entry level’ – but at the same time, it’s hardly the sort of eye-popping asking price that made the original Zeppelin such an outlier. What you can be absolutely certain of is that this money buys iconic design, robust build quality, and an impeccable standard of fit and finish.

The Sonus Faber Omnia will set you back £1599 / $1999 / AU$2995 – but you don’t even have to listen to it to understand where a chunk of that money has gone. As with all Sonus Faber products, the Omnia makes liberal use of wood (walnut, in this instance) to create a handsome and alluring-looking device – and the rest of the materials that go into its construction aren’t too shabby either.

Bang & Olufsen will look you square in the eye and tell you the Beloab ‘starts’ at £2199 / $3299 / AU$6100, for the aluminium chassis with ‘melange’ grille. If you fancy slatted ‘natural’ oak and aluminium, you’re looking at even – and the ‘gold tone’ chassis with oak grille is similar money. Looks expensive when it’s written down, doesn’t it? That’s because it is. But let’s face it, Bang & Olufsen customers wouldn’t have it any other way.

B&W vs Sonus Faber vs B&O: Unique Features?

Bowers & Wilkins

Apart from the visual statement it makes, the most special aspect of the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Pro is just how single-minded it is in terms of specification.

Five drivers – a 150mm bass driver, a pair of 90mm midrange drivers and a couple of 25mm titanium tweeters – are carefully arranged to create as convincing an impression of stereo sound as possible, and are powered by an all-in total of 240 watts.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 (with aptX Adaptive codec compatibility) give access to a planet’s worth of streaming and radio services, and the splendid ‘Music’ control app allows you to take charge of almost all of them.

If you’re looking for physical inputs to create a wider system, look elsewhere – the Zeppelin Pro is a staunchly wireless speaker.

Sonus Faber

When you discover the Sons Faber Omnia has no fewer than seven speaker drivers on board, you might imagine it could be too much of a good thing – especially when you find out there’s a fearsome 490 watts of power available to drive them.

But the company’s ‘Crescendo’ technology is designed to ensure the Omnia's pair of 19mm silk dome tweeters, pair of 75mm paper midrange drivers, 165mm aluminium bass driver and a couple of side-firing 44mm cellulose drivers combine to sound immersive, rather than feral.

There’s no control app here, but between aptX HD Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and a few physical inputs (including HDMI), there’s more than enough scope to get what you want when you want it.

Bang & Olufsen

By comparison, and in the context of its asking price, the Beolab 8 might – on paper, at least – seem a little undercooked. ‘Just’ three drivers – a 15mm tweeter, 76mm midrange driver and 136mm bass unit – Bluetooth 5.3 with 'only' SBC and AAC codec compatibility. It’s not a strong look.

But dual-band Wi-Fi, DLNA compatibility, a gloriously graphic control app that gives access to Bang & Olufsen Radio (and, by extension, every worthwhile radio station on every continent), 24bit/192kHz hi-res digital-to-analogue conversion and 300 watts of Class D amplification all goes a long way towards regaining plenty of credibility.

And, of course, that’s before you even start to consider the almost tangible pride of ownership that is included with every Bang & Olufsen product.

B&W vs Sonus Faber vs B&O: Which has the best sound?

For once, the answer to this question doesn’t simply come down to ‘the one that’s most expensive’. Each of these products has lots to recommend it where sound quality is concerned, and it’s fair to say that each one is ‘different’ to the other rather than ‘better’ or ‘worse’.

The Zeppelin Pro, for instance, majors on detail retrieval, clarity and outright scale – its sound is far larger than the cabinet it’s coming from, and it summons an unlikely degree of bass presence too. It controls the low end properly, though, so as well as sounding quite big and bold, the Zeppelin Pro manages to express rhythms confidently. There’s plenty of dynamic heft available too, and a far greater sensation of separation and stereo focus than seems likely from a single enclosure.

The Omnia puts its side-firing drivers to good use – its presentation may not quite be the ‘3D’ Sonus faber is claiming, but it’s wide open nonetheless. It’s such a big and spacious-sounding speaker that it’s capable of filling even quite large rooms – and its talents certainly don’t end there. The vigour and momentum of its presentation is really engaging, and there’s plenty of punch available despite the lively nature of its sound. Add in a very deft way of putting even fine details in proper context and the Omnia is no kind of hardship to listen to.

Where the Beolab 8 scores most heavily is in the outright substance of its sound – the way the Bang & Olufsen delivers music is almost tactile. Low-frequency body is considerable, but this speaker is no mindless thumper – there’s loads of variation and detail where tone and texture are concerned, and nicely shaped bass response too. It’s no slouch elsewhere, either – it has a good eye for detail, projects the midrange really well, and has the sort of tonal neutrality that lets the flavour of every recording come through with minimal interference.

B&W vs Sonus Faber vs B&O: Which is best overall?

Really, it depends what you want your wireless speaker for – yes, obviously you want it first and foremost for listening to music, but is that the be-all and end-all? If it is, you’re looking at a toss-up between the Zeppelin Pro and the Omnia, as they’re both deeply accomplished loudspeakers that more than justify their respective asking prices in terms of their sonic abilities. It doesn’t do any harm that they’re both pretty distinctive and good-looking, too.

This is not to suggest the Beolab 8 doesn’t sound great, you understand – it does. Maybe not quite as good as the asking price might suggest, but let’s face it – ‘value for money’ is generally quite a long way down your average Bang & Olufsen customer’s list of priorities. As long as you accept that you’re paying a little over the odds, sound quality-wise, in order to take possession of some glorious industrial design, there’s no way you’ll be disappointed.

Honourable Mention

Somehow we’ve managed to make a big deal out of how distinctive all three of these excellent wireless speakers are – and yet have, until now, failed to mention Devialet.

The French brand is almost undersold by the word ‘distinctive’ – and when you see products like its Phantom, Phantom Reactor or, especially, Phantom Ultimate in action, you’ll be in no doubt you’re in the presence of some single-minded and unique engineering.

If only Devialet was prepared to admit that sometimes it’s possible to have too much bass and adjusted its products’ sonic signature accordingly, they’d be even more competitive than they already are.