new york times wirecutter outdoor speakers

While my Wonderboom may be my best-overall speaker (to put it in Strategist speak), I have found my JBL Clip to be superior for a very specific scenario that I think is relatable to many, especially amid the pandemic.

I don’t bother to fasten it more securely because I know that if it falls there’ll be no damage nor stopping of my music. I like nothing better than to prop mine up under the windshield of whatever car I’m in, no aux required. The Wonderboom, which is about the size of a mug, sounds just as good pretty much anywhere else.

But being a portable speaker, its performance at home is only part of its appeal. My former colleague Nikita Richardson, meanwhile, told me that she starts her day by cueing up the “latest episode of Morning Edition or Small Town Murder” on hers, and that it plays those podcasts just as crisply. While my library is centered around guitar music and Motown-era R&B, my colleague and fellow Wonderboom owner Jordan Bowman says his rotation has “a lot of hip-hop, grime, and reggae” that sounds just as great pumped from the speaker. And it plays whatever music I tell it to with clarity and depth. It also doesn’t listen to what I’m saying and then serve me related ads on Instagram two minutes later. Unlike the “smart” speakers I mentioned, it doesn’t shout at me out of nowhere when it mishears its name, or when the Wi-Fi drops. First, it pairs faster than any of those. I’ve had my Wonderboom 2 (the latest generation) since the summer of 2019, and all of the other speakers that have since come into my life - from a Google Nest to a Google Home to an Amazon Alexa to a JBL Clip - have only made me love it more.

New york times wirecutter outdoor speakers