The best multi-room wireless speaker system of 2023

A multi-room wireless speaker system is the easiest way to listen to music, podcasts, and other audio entertainment in more than one room at once, and Sonos is the best option. It supports the widest variety of streaming services, its speakers sound great, and its apps are practically foolproof. The competition is catching up, but Sonos is still the most complete and reliable package overall.

If sound quality, easy setup, and intuitive operation are your top priorities in a wireless multi-room speaker system, Sonos is our recommendation. Sonos has made these systems longer than anyone else, and their experience shows on every level. The mobile and desktop apps are among the most accurate available and offer a unified search across every service you subscribe to — including Apple Music.

Sonos’ tight control over its ecosystem means you’re limited in terms of the speaker brands you can add to your setup (unless you buy Sonos hardware designed specifically for you to add your own), but the company’s offerings come in a variety of prices and all sound excellent. The Sonos One is a great entry point. It costs less than most high-end Bluetooth speakers, yet audio performance accurately measures the performance of speakers that cost many times more. For better sound or larger rooms, the top-of-the-line Sonos Five create big sound on their own, and a pair can compete with similar mid-priced bookshelf speakers — without the need for a separate speaker. There’s also the wireless Sonos Sub, which you can pair with any existing Sonos speaker to add some oomph. And you can also add Sonos to your TV with the company’s Arc, Beam, or Ray smart speakers, all of which can be paired with two other Sonos speakers to form a surround system.

The main drawbacks to the Sonos ecosystem are that it’s a closed system (so you have to use Sonos products), and while many Sonos speakers have both Alexa and Google Assistant, the system’s voice control capabilities aren’t as advanced as those speakers. Smart platforms.

If you’re looking for an affordable wireless multi-room music system that still sounds great — or if advanced voice control is particularly important to you — Amazon’s Echo family of smart speakers is a good alternative to Sonos. While none of the Echo speakers sound as good as anything in the Sonos lineup, Amazon’s latest generation of speakers is a huge improvement over previous Echo devices. Using voice commands to operate a simultaneous multi-room music system takes a little more in the way of setup—and it’s not quite as intuitive as controlling the Sonos app—but getting the Echo system up and running doesn’t take an insane amount of effort. The standard Amazon Echo (4th Gen) and the larger Echo Studio are both great choices, and the latter in particular offers something no other compact wireless speaker does: support for Dolby Atmos (which adds a height element to make the sound more immersive).

You can also add the less expensive Echo Dot to the mix if you have Bluetooth speakers in and around the house that you want to add to your multi-room music system. The Dot’s sound quality on its own is pretty solid for a $50 speaker, but its small size and lack of bass mean you’ll probably only want to use it for casual music listening or for podcasts and audiobooks.