Best AirPlay speakers for iPhones and Apple Music

We’re putting the HomePod mini in the top spot on the basis of its low price tag, excellent sound quality and deep integration with Apple’s software ecosystem – as long as you don’t mind being tied to Siri.

The HomePod mini can’t match the bass punch of the full-size HomePod, but the output is still far better than we have any right to expect at this size and price. (Just to reiterate, it’s a third of the price and a seventh of the weight of its larger sibling.)

For jazz, rock and classical we were blown away by its clear, rich sound. And while it’s not quite got the welly to deafen your neighbors with house music at 3 am, and you won’t fill a village hall with sound, but it does fill a room beautifully – especially when teamed with a second model as a stereo pair.

If you’re deep in the Apple ecosystem and you appreciate quality audio, this is the smart speaker for you: it will play your music beautifully and make TV watching a delight.

As with the HomePod mini, ease of setup is one of its strongest features–plug in the HomePod and wave an iPhone vaguely in its direction and an onscreen popup (on the phone) will invite you to set it up. If there’s another HomePod of the same model in the selected room, you’ll be given the option to join them as a stereo pair.

It sounds great whether used as a single unit, or as a stereo pair, and it’s a great accompaniment to your Apple TV as it supports Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio (the HomePod mini doesn’t). To find out more, read more about how the HomePod compares to the HomePod mini.

The main disadvantages of the 2023 HomePod are the high price (three times that of the HomePod mini) and the frustrations associated with being reliant on Siri to control it. We really want a HomePod with a screen.

Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin range of speakers first appeared back in 2007. The  Zeppelin Pro Edition launched at the end of 2024 and looks almost identical to the Zeppelin introduced, so be careful to check which model you are considering buying. 

At $799/£699, it’s one of the more expensive AirPlay speakers currently available, but it really does deliver the goods in terms of sound quality.

The Zeppelin Pro Edition measures 210 x 650 x 194mm and weighs 6.6kg. It’s available in a dark ‘space grey’ or ‘solar gold’. 

Unlike many one-piece speaker systems – including Apple’s HomePod – the Zeppelin Pro Edition provides a full stereo system, with separate left and right audio channels, as well as a dedicated sub-woofer for handling lower frequencies. That’s a similar set-up to previous Zeppelin models, but Bowers & Wilkins says the woofers and tweeters have been redesigned for the Zeppelin Pro Edition for even better sound quality.

Like previous models, the Zeppelin Pro Edition supports Bluetooth with AAC for Apple devices, and aptX Adaptive for Android. There’s also Wi-Fi with support for AirPlay 2, which allows you to stream wireless audio (and Apple Music) over your home network from your Apple device. Using AirPlay with Apple devices provides more bandwidth for high-quality audio files. The Zeppelin Pro also supports Spotify Connect, and Tidal and Amazon Music via an app. 

Our only complaint is that the Zeppelin Pro doesn’t offer wired inputs, so you can’t connect it to a CD player or Hi-Fi.

The Zeppelin Pro Edition is one of the larger and more expensive AirPlay speakers. If you want a powerful, high-quality stereo speaker that supports AirPlay 2 this is a great option. 

Roku is well-known for its range of streaming media devices, which offer an affordable alternative to Apple’s own Apple TV box. However, the Roku Streambar goes a step further by combining streaming features with a compact soundbar speaker and support for Apple’s AirPlay 2 – and all for a highly competitive $129.99/£129.99.

The AirPlay support and built-in dual-band Wi-Fi mean that you can simply use the Streambar as a conventional AirPlay speaker, using AirPlay to stream music via Wi-Fi from any Apple device. It’s surprisingly powerful for such a compact speaker, and more than loud enough for playing music at home or watching a few Hollywood blockbusters. It even provides pretty good bass too, landing the bass guitar and crashing drums on Kate Bush’s The Big Sky with real impact (and Roku has recently announced a new range of wireless speakers that also support AirPlay 2, although we’ve not had the chance to test these yet).

Going beyond basic speaker mode, you can also use the HDMI port on the back of the Streambar to connect it to a TV or computer display, and this allows you to stream video at up to 4K resolution from your Apple devices as well. You can even get rid of your Apple devices altogether, and just use the Streambar’s built-in streaming features to connect your TV or computer monitor to a wide range of video services–including Apple TV+, Netflix, Disney+ and so on. It also supports a number of music streaming services too, such as Apple Music and Spotify.

Admittedly, the low cost of the Streambar means that it does lack a few advanced features, such as support for Dolby Atmos, which you can get from Apple’s HomePod and also the Apple TV 4K. But, of course, the Apple TV box doesn’t include a speaker, and the Streambar’s low-cost combination of AirPlay speaker and music and video streaming features makes it an absolute bargain at this price.

In 2024 Roku introduced the Streambar SE, which is a cheaper version of the Streambar reviewed here. The larger Streambar Pro has been discontinued, but for now Roku seems to be continuing to sell the Streambar.

When Sonos first introduced the Era 100 it was positioned as a mid-range option that sat between the entry-level Sonos One and the imposing Era 300 with Dolby Atmos at the top of the range. However, the veteran Sonos One quietly faded away a few months ago and the Era 100 has taken over as the new entry point for the Sonos range of multi-room speakers, with a $249/£249 price tag that makes it a good alternative to the Apple HomePod at £299/$299.

At first glance, the Era 100 does look very similar to the original Sonos One, with an upright cylindrical design that is available in black or white. It’s slightly larger than the Sonos One, though, standing 182.5mm high, 120mm wide and 130mm deep. This allows the Era 100 to squeeze in an additional high-frequency tweeter, so that it now houses two tweeters that are angled out to the right and left to spread sound more widely than the Sonos One. It also includes a larger woofer than the Sonos One, to handle the mid-range and bass and add a little extra power as well.

This new design works a treat and the Era 100 provides very good sound quality for a relatively compact speaker. The atmospheric harmonies of Enya’s Orinoco Flow have a light, shimmering sound, but the compact speaker has got some muscle too, and is easily able to fill the room around me with Enya’s swirling cloud of sound. The twin tweeters provide a crisp, clear sound for the electronic loops that fly through the air, but that larger woofer can also reach down and embrace the slow bass pulse and rumbling drums that enter as Enya’s multi-tracked vocals chant – “turn it up, turn it up”.

The only minor disappointment is that the Era 100 doesn’t support Dolby Atmos or spatial audio. If you’re a home cinema fan who really wants Atmos then you’ll need to pay a little more for alternatives such as the Apple HomePod or the high-end Era 300. But, if you’re just looking for a compact, high-quality speaker with wi-fi and support for AirPlay, then the Era 100 delivers the goods at a lower price than most of its AirPlay rivals.

Sonos’ Roam has to be the smallest and most portable AirPlay 2 speaker we’ve seen so far.

Sonos’s original Roam smart speaker was released back in 2021, and it was one of the best portable speakers we’ve ever seen, providing very good sound quality in a highly compact design that also managed to squeeze in useful features such as wireless charging and even support for Wi-Fi and AirPlay for Apple devices. The Roam 2 fine-tunes a number of features such as its set-up and tuning process, and provides more straightforward controls.

Available in a variety of colors–including red, green, blue and plain old black and white–the Roam 2 looks identical to its predecessor. It is 168mm tall, 62mm wide and 60mm deep, and weighs 0.43kg. It’s not pocket-size, but it will fit into a backpack. It has a IP67 rating water and dust resistance, so it’s suited to the outdoors.

There’s no room for a large battery in the compact design, but it should last for up to 10 hours with music at 50% volume. It needs to stand upright for wireless charging and the volume, playback and microphone controls sit on the top, but you can turn the speaker onto its side and lay it flat. A USB-C port on the back can be used for charging too. 

Roam 2 supports Bluetooth 5.2 and now has separate buttons for Power and Bluetooth pairing, which are easier to use than the fiddly multi-function button on the original Roam. You can press the Bluetooth button to pair via Bluetooth, but you need to download the Sonos app for iOS in order to set the speaker up properly. We encountered problems getting the speaker connected to our Wi-Fi network and had to spend time changing the Wi-Fi settings. But, once that was done, the Roam 2 worked really well. Lucky its support for AirPlay made connecting it to additional Apple devices straightforward.

The Roam 2 offers great sound quality for such a compact speaker, especially over a Wi-Fi connection. It did a good job with Sturgill Simpson’s Sing Along, laying down the grinding, fuzzy guitars that form the bedrock of the sound. On Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy it achieved a pretty respectable bass beat for such a small speaker.

Switching to Bluetooth caused the sound to lose a little clarity–but that’s a limitation of Bluetooth rather than the speaker itself, and the Roam 2 can go head-to-head with any portable speaker of this size and weight. The Roam 2 really punches above its weight when it comes to sound quality and its sturdy and lightweight design is great for outdoor use. 

Apple has been banging the drum for spatial audio for a few years now, but Sonos really took a step forward with that technology when it launched the Era 300 in 2023. Appropriately enough, it also marked a new era for the Sonos range of multi-room speakers, with an entirely new design that was at least eye-catching even if it wasn’t perhaps as elegant as Sonos claimed.

Available in black or white, the bulky, hourglass design of the Era 300 is very much designed for spatial audio, housing no less than six separate speaker drivers, with support for Dolby Atmos when watching films and video, or listening to spatial audio on Apple Music. There’s one woofer and one tweeter on each side of the unit, which provide a wide stereo soundstage, while another tweeter on the front highlights vocals and dialogue, or lead instruments. There’s one more tweeter on the top, which is designed to fire sound off the ceiling to help create a sense of height and space when listening to music or video that uses Atmos.

Like most Sonos speakers, the Era 300 uses dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz/5.0GHz) to connect to your home network, and also supports AirPlay 2 for use with Apple devices and other AirPlay-compatible speakers. But, unlike previous Sonos speakers, the Era now supports Bluetooth as well, so that it can provide a quick and easy wireless connection for mobile devices and computers when required. You can also buy an adaptor that provides a wired connection (although it’s annoying that this costs an extra $19/£19, given the speaker’s hefty $449/£449 price tag).

The Era 300 can earn its keep, though. The Dolby Atmos support works really well on the opening scene of Blade Runner, creating a real sense of movement as the hovercar flies over the Los Angeles skyline, and there’s a satisfying bass rumble to the bursts of steam and flame that erupts into the air.

It does a good job with spatial audio on Apple Music too, especially with Ringo’s deft percussion on the Atmos mix of Come Together by the Beatles. The bongos skip lightly through the air and the bass guitar glides forward with a swaying, sinuous rhythm. There’s real weight behind the guitar riff that leads into the chorus, but the Era 300 can still pick out gentler details such as the shimmering cymbals and rhythmic keyboards. Admittedly, it’s one of the more expensive AirPlay speakers currently available, but the powerful and atmospheric sound of the Era 300, and support for Dolby Atmos, make it a good alternative to more expensive soundbar systems for music and watching video.

It sounds better than most portable speakers this size, but still sounds clipped at high volumes and some controls are a little opaque.

The Beats Pill is much improved over previous versions, but it has a few faults that we’d love to see addressed in the next revision.

Beats’ iconic “pill” shape is handy to carry around, fits anywhere a water bottle would go, and sits well on a table or similarly flat surface. You can get one in classic Beats colors—black, red, or champagne.

When at rest the speakers are tilted 20 degrees upward, which is a great way to project the sound more directly at you. 

The Pill is IP67-rated, so is should be safe on the beach, beside a pool, or in the rain. A silicone outer wrap helps prevent bumps and dings, while adding weatherproofing.

Along the top, you’ll find volume buttons, a center multi-function button, and a power button. They’re far enough apart and labeled clearly enough that it’s easy to hit the right one without paying close attention.

In the back is a single USB-C port that can be used for charging or as an audio input, with support for lossless audio (not that the Pill has the sound quality to do it justice). It even reverse-charges with a triple-tap of the power button so it can be a sort of power bank for your phone.

Beats says the battery will last 24 hours. We can confirm it can easily run all day without recharging.

With a single woofer capable of 90 percent more air displacement than the woofer in the Beats Pill+ and a paired tweeter, the new Beats Pill sounds OK. Like all portable speakers with a cylindrical design it lacks low-end oomph. There’s more bass than you’d expect, but still less than you need. It does get pretty loud, but at high volumes, there’s a clipped or limited feel.

There’s a microphone to enable speakerphone or voice assistants, but it doesn’t have much in the way of noise reduction to protect from strong wind or nearby highway noise.

The weatherproofing, relatively loud volume, and fantastic battery life all make this a really great affordable speaker for hanging out by the pool. The $149.99/£149.99price is reasonable, too. You just need to manage your expectations for getting great sound quality out of a little portable speaker like this.

We mention the new for 2024 Zeppelin Pro above, but for now Bowers & Wilkins continues to sell the 2021 Zeppelin so you may find it at a good discount. Just be aware that while we celebrated this models terrific sound quality when it came out, the newer model boasts even better sound.

Available in either Midnight Grey or a silvery Pearl Grey, this Zeppelin looks very similar to the 2024 Zeppelin Pro and its predecessors, with the eye-catching oval design that gives the speaker its name.

On the inside, this Zeppelin has a pair of high-frequency tweeters and mid-range woofers located on each side of a central sub-woofer, while the entire unit is powered by a roof-rattling 240W amplifier.

The Zeppelin supports AirPlay 2, along with Bluetooth and Apple’s AAC codec and the AptX Adaptive codec that is used on many Android devices, and Spotify Connect too.

At $799/£699 this model has the same (high) price as it’s predecessor, but as it is phased out it’s likely to see price drops.