Speakers are foundational to the way we enjoy music from Spotify, Apple Music, and other services — and our own music collections. And increasingly, they’re also a convenient way of controlling smart home devices compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or Siri. Companies like Sonos offer multiroom audio platforms capable of synchronizing music across speakers of all different sizes. Whether you’re looking for a smart speaker or a simple Bluetooth speaker to take everywhere, The Verge covers the best of what’s out there in 2025.
After expanding from smartphone cases to wireless earbuds, Speck has introduced its Gemtones Infinity Speaker featuring Bluetooth 5.3, RGB LED lighting enhanced with an infinite mirror effect, and the ability to sync and pair up to 50 of them.
It’s available in three sizes with 10W, 20W, and 25W of power and ranges in price from $79.99 for the seven-inch Mini to $129.99 for the 11-inch Max.
The Echo ecosystem has seen its fair share of failures while trying to popularize Amazon’s Alexa smart assistant.
B&W’s iconic Zeppelin iPod speaker has evolved over the years, culminating in today’s new £699 / $799 Zeppelin Pro Edition. It now comes in gold and gray finishes, a more colorful downlight to set the mood, and new tweeters paired with midrange drivers and a subwoofer that are said to improve the overall sound. It can be used in a multi-room setup and supports AirPlay2, Bluetooth aptX Adaptive, and Spotify Connect.
The Sonos app debacle will go down as an all-time tech industry blunder, but now the company is taking steps to turn the page.
A new Bloomberg report includes details on some employee pushback to Sonos’ new app ahead of its disastrous launch:
Sonos employees, many of whom were fans before joining the company, started to directly and forcefully raise the alarm with Spence and other executives, according to three current and former employees. They described “yelling” and “screaming” in meetings.
As Sonos tries to win back trust following the rough rollout of its new app, you can now reach Sonos support on Saturday and Sunday.
Friend of The Verge Janko Roettgers reports that the partner is The Trade Desk, an advertising company. From today’s Lowpass newsletter:
Under the arrangement, The Trade Desk is supplying Sonos with the core smart TV OS, and facilitating deals with app publishers, while Sonos is designing its own hardware, and customizing the user interface.
“Incompetence has infected top management” at Sonos, according to a former engineer’s Reddit post.
This ex-employee — I’ve confirmed their credentials — also says the culture within Sonos took a sharp turn for the worse with the original Roam. That speaker became the first glaring example of a product rushed out the door despite internal warnings. It wouldn’t be the last.
Reminder: I’m reachable on Signal at chriswelch.01.
Sonos’ Patrick Spence said on Reddit this week that the company wouldn’t be able to bring back the old app, and today, he made a series of posts on Threads about the company’s efforts and what it has learned.
“In hindsight, one thing that is clear is that we shouldn’t have introduced such a big change so quickly,” he said.
Can’t think of the last time I opened an app to an apology for how buggy the app is!
