5 Cheap Bluetooth Speakers That Still Deliver Good Sound Quality (According To Users)

As the summer approaches, we all look forward to pool parties and barbeques. But no get together is complete without music, which is one reason why Bluetooth speakers are so popular. In addition to amping up the vibes, they're also great for carrying around the house, posting up on your desk, or for anytime you need something better than your phone's tinny speakers.

However, many of the best Bluetooth speakers worth buying can get prohibitively expensive. It's said that you get what you pay for, but do you really need to slim down your wallet just to get decent sound quality? The answer, thankfully, is no. While it's true that the top dollar price range is where you'll find the most premium sound, the entry level Bluetooth speaker market still has plenty of options that deliver good, if not great sound quality for a fraction of the cost.

I've rounded up five of the best sounding budget Bluetooth speakers you can buy right now based on what both professional reviewers and casual users have to say about them. As a music producer and audiophile on a budget myself, I've grown accustomed to eking the best sound possible out of affordable gear, so these speakers will all produce decent to great sound relative to their price. Given the price range of Bluetooth speakers, I've determined anything below $100 to be cheap. So, without further preamble, here are five cheap Bluetooth speakers that still deliver good sound quality according to users.

For budgets under a hundred bucks, one of the easiest Bluetooth speakers to recommend is the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4. This grenade-shaped little sound pod is not only kind of adorable with its mug-shaped, squat design, but it packs a serious sonic sucker punch. That's not surprising, as Ultimate Ears products have a habit of working their way onto lists of the best Bluetooth speakers. Last year, I named its bigger brothers, the Ultimate Ears Boom 3 and Megaboom 3, among the best portable Bluetooth speakers in 2024. While the Wonderboom 4 doesn't quite measure up to those models either figuratively or literally, it comes shockingly close. That's reflected in the user rating on Amazon, which, as of this writing, is a 4.6 with 686 ratings.

Users praise the sound quality of the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4 in their reviews, with one review estimating that it sounds about as good as the older, bigger Boom 2. Professional reviewers also tipped their caps to its sonic chops. Tom's Guide gave it a 3.5 out of five, noting that it sounds louder than it should for the size and has impressive performance in the mids, but cautioning that it can distort at higher volumes. Tech Radar, meanwhile, gave it a staggering 4.5 out of five and called it one of the best Bluetooth speakers you can buy for the price.

Ulitmate Ears pioneered the trend of speakers that can pair for simultaneous playback, and that feature, titled PartyUp, is available on the Wonderboom 4. It also has Google Fast Pair for easy connectivity to Android phones. And for those who like to take their speakers poolside, the Wonderboom 4 has an IP67 dust and water resistance rating.

I covered the Anker Soundcore 2 last year, asking whether the most popular Bluetooth speaker on Amazon is any good. My answer was a surprisingly robust, "Yes!" This thing might not impress audiophiles who obsess over sound quality and spend obscene money on audio gear, but I'm closer to them than to the average person, and I was blown away by what this little speaker delivers for less than $30 on sale (and it is constantly on sale). A few caveats here. You can force the Soundcore 2 to distort a tiny bit with heavy metal or dubstep at top volumes, but you have to deliberately subject it to poor conditions for that to happen. There's some compression going on at those high volumes, as well. The upper frequencies can also suffer a bit in detail. Lastly, it doesn't have fancy audio features like support for high resolution Bluetooth codecs. Regardless, it's in the weight class of speakers two to three times its price.

To be clear, this speaker doesn't have the kind of analytic clarity that might let you appreciate the subtle details in a mix, but for a backyard barbeque, or something to have on while you do chores, it's just about perfect. In addition to the sound quality, the Soundcore 2 has a ruggedly solid build quality, complete with an IPX7 water resistance rating (here's how IP ratings work). It also has a host of Bluetooth features such as the ability to take phone calls, and to pair together two Soundcore 2s for simultaneous playback. Other users love the Anker Soundcore 2, too. Out of a whopping 130,153 Amazon ratings as of this writing, it holds a stellar 4.6 out of five stars.

Another budget Bluetooth speaker worth considering is the JBL Go 4. It's pocketably petite, such that it will fit in the palm of all but the smallest hands. Its price tag is equally miniature, ringing up just shy of $50. Nevertheless, it manages to pack a punch in the sound quality department while also having many useful Bluetooth features.

Regular users are impressed by the sound the JBL Go 4 can pump out, with sound quality mentioned frequently across its Amazon reviews, where it garnered a 4.8 based on 3,449 ratings as of this writing, the highest score on this list. And professional audio reviewers are equally impressed, with What Hi-Fi giving it five out of five stars and praising its balanced, robust sound profile. It's worth noting that all the hype for this speaker is in the context of its size. Reviewers aren't expecting something that fits in your pocket to sound like a portable symphony, and neither should you. Still, the fact that you can fit this speaker into the pocket of your jeans and have decent audio quality wherever you go is a very appealing prospect.

In addition to punching above its weight class for sound quality, the JBL Go 4 has other virtues. Its ruggedized and water resistant build is rated at IP67, meaning it can take a dive in the dirt or the pool. It's rated for five hours of play time, and has a battery extending setting that will net a couple more hours in a pinch. And, as is now quite common for Bluetooth speakers, you can pair it together with other JBL speakers for a more immersive sound.

If you want bigger, better sound than the diminutive JBL Go 4 can provide, you can pony up a bit more cash for its bigger brother, the JBL Flip 6. At just under $100 from certain retailers, it's the speaker to consider if you prefer a flatter EQ, meaning the speaker isn't doing much to change the frequency profile of a piece of audio . According to controlled testing from RTINGS, the JBL Flip 6 has a mostly flat sound profile with rolloff at about 78 Hz and 16,000 Hz, slight drops just above 100 Hz, and even slighter peaks just before 200 Hz. I'm including those measurements here because this is the speaker you should buy if you're enough of an audio nerd to understand frequency curves. Both to my own ears and to those of many other customers, the Flip 6 appears to have some of the most clinical audio reproduction you can find for under $100.

With an Amazon rating of 4.7 based on 4,834 total reviews, it's clear that this soda can-sized speaker appeals to both general audiences as well as those who care about sound quality. It doesn't have some of the features provided by much cheaper speakers on this list  — for example, you won't find a built-in microphone for calls and digital assistants  — but I'd trade those frills for better sound quality any day. What the Flip 6 does bring to the table along with its tight bass reproduction and soaring mids is the ruggedization JBL speakers are known for. It's got an IP67 dust and water resistance rating, making it perfect for beach days and poolside parties. Despite fitting in the water bottle holder of a backpack, it's rated for 12 hours of continuous playback time.

It's not too surprising that the latest version of the Amazon Echo sounds a lot better than its low price tag belies. Amazon is known for taking a loss on its hardware in order to lock users into an ecosystem, and the company was revealed last year to have lost a staggering $25 billion dollars on Alexa powered devices. That means the Echo should cost a fair bit more than its asking price of just under $100, but Amazon's loss will be music to your ears. The public seems to concur. With nearly 150,000 ratings on Amazon as of this writing, the Echo scores a respectable 4.6, with reviewers claiming sound quality as a major highlight.

In addition to being able to play audio from your devices over Bluetooth, the Amazon Echo can of course connect to your home Wi-Fi network to stream from your preferred music streaming service (Amazon Music, Spotify, and Apple Music are supported). Reviewers on Amazon praise the Echo's sound quality, and professional reviewers agree. SlashGear's Echo 4th Generation review gave it a 9/10 and noted that it has an impressive sound profile with ample bass, while PC Mag opines that its sound quality is head and shoulders above competitors like the Google Nest Audio. Like that competitor, you can even combine multiple Echos into a home group for more immersive sound.

Of course, depending on how much data you want to give up to the e-commerce giant, you can take advantage of Amazon Alexa, since the Echo is the primary delivery mechanism for the digital assistant. From quickly setting timers to finding recipes, making calls, or controlling smart home devices, there's a lot more to the Echo than just music playback.

In order to adhere to SlashGear's rigorous editorial standards, each of the speakers on this list were chosen based on carefully selected criteria. Those criteria were the positive experience users had with sound quality based on two types of user: professional product testers and regular consumers. In regard to the latter, consumer sentiment was judged according to aggregated review scores corroborated by verified reviews with user-submitted media. My own judgement as an audio engineer also factored into the decision making process.