It’s that time of the year again! Whether you’re upgrading your home audio system, finding a portable wireless speaker for your next adventure, or looking for the ideal gift, this year’s Black Friday sales offer some of the best prices we’ve seen. I have compiled a list of some of the best deals on wireless speakers this year, and you will surely find a good fit for your needs.
Sonos Era 100 – Was $292 now $230 at Sonos
The Sonos Era 100 is available in a sleek black or white matte finish, it introduces a significant milestone for Sonos by incorporating Bluetooth connectivity into its Wi-Fi-based home wireless speakers, a feature that enhances flexibility and usability. Utilizing Bluetooth 5.0, it supports the standard AAC and SBC codecs.
Inside the Era 100 are two angled tweeters equipped with custom waveguides, complemented by a woofer that boasts a 25% increase in size compared to previous models. Its own Class D amplifier powers each of the three drivers.
The Era 100 amplifies all the aspects we admired in previous Sonos speakers—crisp, detailed sound, spaciousness, and deep bass—but takes them to a whole new level. It offers a significantly larger, more expansive, detailed, and deeper sound profile while maintaining precise timing, dynamic range, and even tonal balance.
Sonos Era 300 – Was $525 now $420 at Sonos
The Sonos Era 300 has six class-D amplifiers, four tweeters, and two woofers. These help it produce a better stereo sound, give your audio more height, and fill spaces better. The wireless speaker has a USB-C port for power, line-in, and ethernet. If you want to connect the speaker to a device such as a CD player, you’ll need to get the Sonos combo adapter which costs about $50. The Era 300 does have a lot of wireless options, such as WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, Apple Airplay 2, Alexa, and voice control, and it can be controlled from the Sonos app as well.
You can also change the Era 300s from stereo speakers to surround speakers. Also, the Sonos app supports Apple Music natively, which is something we haven’t seen before.
In testing, the Sonos Era 300 sounded good for movies, music, and gaming. It can be used with Dolby Atmos, and dialogues in movies and vocals in music sound clear and fill the room. The bass was impressive for the size of the speaker, but it can still be improved.
Bose Soundlink Max – Was $399 now $299 at Bose
The Bose Soundlink Max has a premium look and feel with a powdered-coated silicon-wrapped body. It weighs 4.9lb, has fantastic build quality, and is built to withstand bumps and drops. Bose says that the finish won’t peel or flake and it is resistant to corrosion and UV light. The speaker is rated IP67, meaning it is dustproof and can withstand spills.
The SoundLink Max comes with a 15-watt power supply and a USB-C charging cable, and it takes 5 hours to fully charge it. It has a battery life of up to 20 hours at 65% volume and drops to only 3 hours if you use it at full volume. The USB-C port is both charge in and charge out, this means that you can charge another device with the speaker. If you want to connect a device like a mp3 player the speaker also has a 3.5mm auxiliary port.
The speaker has Bluetooth 5.4, and its supported codecs are SBC, AAC, and AptX Adaptive. It has three transducers on the front of the speakers which deliver a spacious stereo experience. There are two passive radiators to enhance bass performance. It has decent stereo separation with a wide soundstage. You can change equalizer settings in the Bose app, but the speaker sounds good on its default settings.
JBL Flip 6 – Was $129.95 now $79.95 at JBL
The JBL Flip 6 offers an impressive output power of 30W, delivering a robust and immersive sound experience. It has a dynamic frequency response range of 63 Hz – 20k Hz. I’ve tested the JBL Flip 6 in different environments, and its sound performance has consistently impressed me. The wide frequency range ensures that both bass-heavy tracks and high-pitched vocals come through clearly.
The JBL Flip 6 features Bluetooth 5.1 technology, with support for Bluetooth profiles A2DP 1.3 and AVRCP 1.6, and with support for SBC and AAC codecs, the speaker offers clear and detailed sound reproduction across different music genres. The speaker has an IP67 rating, making it resistant to water and dust.
It impresses with its long-lasting battery, offering up to 12 hours of continuous playtime on a single charge, and it fully charges in 2.5 hours. Through the JBL portable app, you can locate other JBL speakers and connect them in party(mono) mode or in stereo mode. This only works with the speakers that have Partyboost enabled. You can pair two devices with the Flip 6 this way.