Bose vs Sonos: which speakers are best?

Bose and Sonos have built up a reputation of quality with their speakers. But working out which is best isn’t easy, particularly when browsing online where you can’t hear how they sound. Our expert tests reveal the truth.

Both brands make multiroom speakers, as well as portable Bluetooth ones with batteries. Voice assistants are now a regular feature in there respective speakers, too, so the main point of difference comes down to sound quality.

Keep reading to see our favourite Bose and Sonos speakers, as well as some you should avoid.

If you need help choosing, read our guide to buying the best wireless or Bluetooth speakers.

Best Bose and Sonos speakers

Bose and Sonos make some of the best wireless and Bluetooth speakers these brands have to offer, combining top-spec sound tech, sleek designs and premium build quality.

However, that doesn’t guarantee they’ll be Best Buys. We’ve found plenty of larger speakers with very unbalanced sound, overly powerful bass, or ones that will tire your ears over time. Their big prices mean buying the wrong one would be an expensive mistake.

The music industry professionals who helped with our tests don’t care about price or brand power or a sleek speaker design. All they focus on is the sound quality and whether it’s up to scratch. All brands will claim their speakers sound great – our experts find the truth. Find out which are the top-performing high-end Bose and Sonos speakers below.

Best high-end Bose and Sonos speakers

Bose and Sonos speakers to avoid

Speakers with good specifications aren’t guaranteed to have the precise, balanced sound quality that’ll make the most of your music. And if you’re looking for a portable speaker, beware that many lack bass and superb sound quality – we’ve found the few that do.

Our expert lab tests prove that no speaker brand has a perfect record – not even Bose and Sonos. We’ve found speakers costing £400 or more that are Don’t Buys, and speakers costing more than £600 that aren’t even close to being a match for speakers a fraction of their price.

Save yourself from sub-par sound by steering clear of the disappointing big-brand speakers below.

Sonos feature updates

Sonos speakers are usually wi-fi only, and controlled through the Sonos Controller app on your smartphone. If you’re using an old smartphone, you’ll need to check if the Sonos Controller app is compatible, and be aware that eventually support will be discontinued for older devices and require you to upgrade to continue using your Sonos system.

Similarly, Sonos is one of the best wireless speaker manufacturers at upgrading the software and providing new features to its speakers even when they are several years old. 

However, Sonos announced it would stop adding new features to some of its oldest products in May 2020, including some models sold up to 2015, due to insufficient ‘memory and processing power’. It also committed to updating these older products with bug fixes and security patches ‘for as long as possible’.

Since there is no Bluetooth or wired option on most Sonos speakers, this means you need to be aware that unlike a traditional wired home audio setup, bear in mind that a Sonos system may only have a finite period of update support. That means you shouldn't expect it to last as long as a traditional, non-smart hi-fi system.

Sonos app issues

When Sonos released its first pair of headphones in 2024, it updated its speaker control app to make them all compatible with it.

The update introduced a slew of problems. People reported not being able to control playlists, queue songs or even connect speakers to the app.

Sonos is working to fix the problems introduced by the update, but not all of them have been. 

We still test Sonos speakers and note any problems we find with the app, but given the inconsistent nature of the issues, regular updates and fixes, it's possible that you might experience problems or have a completely smooth time with the app.

Other wireless and Bluetooth speaker brands worth considering

Bose and Sonos aren’t the only top wireless and Bluetooth speaker brands in our testing. Home multi-room speaker rivals include,

• Marshall
• LG
• JBL
• Sony