Category - Gear
I'm a Proud Audiophile. These Are the Best Speakers I Tested in 2025
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The vinyl boom and high-end audio renaissance may reek of nostalgia for the lost all-analog world, but truly immersive high-fidelity sound is readily available with the best speakers to deliver it. Thankfully, once-anemic digital music has evolved far beyond the compressed lo-res early days, with services now streaming colorful, 3D lossless sonics.
“Real science is being applied to speakers like never before, from luxury to budget options,” says 25-year industry veteran Matthew Counts of Seattle’s Hawthorne Stereo. “Advances in speaker design, amp tech, and DACs [digital-to-analog converters] have made high-fidelity audio super-accessible, toppling the wall that once stood between ‘audiophile’ and consumer gear.”
The same can be said for earbuds and headphones.
Counts notes the rarefied air of designers like Memphis’ Egglestonworks—which has a physicist on staff “micro-tuning everything”—but he’s also been impressed by some of the midsize Bluetooth speakers that get thrown in a bag for a trip to the beach. “It’s really easy to get quality sound wherever you want,” he says, “and a lot of the affordable stuff is now surprisingly good.”
For our best speaker overall, we went with one of Counts’ favorites, the not-too-spendy but incredible Spendor A7. After spinning some deep cuts from Tank and the Bangas, I was fully enamored.
Take a look at Men's Journal's 2025 Tech Awards for even more expert advice and product picks. We scoured the newest releases and pitted them against each other to make superlative selects across sleep tech, smart home gadgets, power stations, cameras, computers, and TVs.
Best Speakers of 2025 at a Glance
- Best Speaker Overall: Spendor A7
- Best Surround-Sound Speaker: Polk Signature Elite ES15
- Best Portable Speaker: Fender x Teufel Rockster Cross
- Best Standing Speaker: Bowers & Wilkins 805-D4
- Best Bookshelf Speaker: Totem KIN Play
- Best Car Audio Speaker: Morel Supremo
- Best Value Speaker: Treblab HD-360 Pro
Best Speakers of 2025, Tested and Reviewed
Best Speaker Overall: Spendor A7
Why I Chose It
Turns out that classic sense of British understatement translates beautifully into sonic reproduction. “When people come by the shop, you don’t really have to talk about these,” says Counts. “You just play them.” And that jives perfectly with my first experience listening to Spendor A7. Not that I should’ve been surprised.
Founded by a BBC sound engineer in the 1960s, Spendor is renowned for its natural, “transparent” sound. “They also just have a distinctive fun factor,” says Counts, “by which I mean they present the music in a very live and engaging fashion.” Indeed, I was struck by their coherency—how all the instruments sounded like you were right there in the studio. Immersion is emphasized versus overly analytical details. “I prefer a more organic sound,” says Counts. “The kind of really high-resolution speakers that an audio engineer might want can be fatiguing, but I can just sit back and listen to these for hours.”
Designed for the patient connoisseur, A7 excels at conveying both subtle textures and emotional weight in balance. The midrange is smooth and articulate, while the bass is surprisingly deep and well-controlled for their size.
Best Surround-Sound Speaker: Polk Signature Elite ES15
Why I Chose It
Most of us don’t have a room dedicated to home theater, but Polk's Signature Elite ES15 duo elevates the average living room to popcorn palace. Plus, they’re a screaming deal. Add to the impressive performance, clarity, and control the fact they’re easy to set up and part of a system you can go all-in on. You’re set if you opt for the ES15s for cinematic stereo by themselves, but you can also truly surround yourself with a centerpiece ES30 and a pair of their little siblings, the ES10s—costing you well under a grand all told.
Best Portable Speaker: Fender x Teufel Rockster Cross
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Why I Chose It
I’ve been waiting for something that looks and acts like an ’80s boombox and a floor-monitor speaker made a baby—and lo and behold it appears with Fender’s name on it. Fender is obviously more famous for legendary electric guitars like the Tele and Strat, but the brand's amps and speakers are beloved as well. And this partnership with Teufel, known for its German audio engineering expertise, has paid off with this portable party machine. Haul it around on its guitar strap, then stream your favorite bangers via Bluetooth—or feed it tunes with the auxiliary input. It earns bonus points for its ability to pair two of these seamlessly and a battery that lasts all day and night.
Best Standing Speaker: Bowers & Wilkins 805-D4
Why I Chose It
Like a math wunderkind, Bowers & Wilkins 805-D4s are bright, analytical, and on the smaller side—but that relatively diminutive size belies their power. And don’t expect the less imposing stature to mean these are easier on the wallet. The tech here—super-stiff, crystal-clear tweeters and space-maxing bass—is literally state of the art and lovingly puzzled together inside a cabinet that evokes nothing more than the head of a B-movie robot that wants to rock your world.
Best Bookshelf Speaker: Totem KIN Play
Why I Chose It
Super-simple, minimalist hi-fi setup, anyone? With KIN Play, Totem provides just that in a handy plug-and-play format. Whether you connect a turntable directly via the built-in phono stage or just stream music off your phone, these speakers’ integrated amps let you skip the middle man and go from music source straight to a balanced, engaging sound presentation, with no lack of bass filling your space of choice.
Best Car Audio Speaker: Morel Supremo
Why I Chose It
Talk about a soundtrack to your life. The first time I heard this system, it was a custom retrofit job in a 1975 Mercedes 300D, and it blew my mind. It didn’t hurt that the driver cued up the James Bond theme as we cruised through the Columbia Gorge. Which is to say this is a car audio system for the purist. Crazy clarity and dynamic sound transform your wheels into a mobile venue that makes folks gawk as you roll past. The Supremo’s meticulously engineered components will cost you, but they’ll pay off in endless hours of road-trip mix tape pleasure.
Related: Best Vinyl Hi-Fi Upgrades to Transform Your Stereo System
Best Waterproof Speaker: Sony ULT Field 1
Why I Chose It
I kid you not: After blasting all manner of tunes out of this tough-guy crooner throughout a ski cabin weekend, I accidentally washed and dried it along with my dirty laundry. Amazingly, it doesn’t seem to have noticed. Sony has clearly gone above and beyond that IP67 rating for water and dust “resistance.” Battery life is solid, sound quality is more than respectable for its class, and the ULT bass button is the perfect touch when you switch from, say, Howlin’ Wolf to The Who.
Best Soundbar Speaker: Sonos Arc Ultra
Why I Chose It
Soundbars are apparently big business these days, and the competition here was tight and nuanced. But Arc Ultra rose above the rest. While its submarine-esque design doesn't look like it can rival more expensive stereos, it does everything well. The Dolby Atmos array—tuned for engulfing sound—really does make for a hyper-realistic soundscape, and dialogue is as clear as both a single teardrop falling and multiple helicopters exploding. Plus, it’s extremely easy to set up, control, pair, integrate, and even bump when the TV's off.
Best Value Speaker: Treblab HD-360 Pro
Why I Chose It
Treblab HD-360 is hard to beat for the price, packing 90 watts, five drivers, eight passive bass radiators, and up to 22 hours of playback on a charge. The 360-degree design can fill most any space with decent audio, and it can get really loud without fuzzing out at all. This is a perfect poolside unit, in my opinion. It can get splashed all day and still churn out big beats in the background.
How I Chose the Best Speakers
I personally reviewed all of the speakers that landed on this list, judging them against half a dozen of the highest-rated options available. My focus for this roundup was not only the best new speakers, but the best available right now, so some choices are current updates of award-winning models. When it comes to “testing” speakers, I basically just play some of my favorite tunes from the big genres—rock, jazz, hip-hop, metal, blues, classical—because I know these songs well and can pick up on extremely subtle differences, then focus on the pros and cons of a given speaker.
Why You Should Trust Me
I’m one of those guys with a sometimes unhealthy level of curiosity. I spend way too much time and money seeking out ever-better audio gear in general, and when I travel I always end up in the hi-fi shops and record stores in whatever city or town I’m visiting. Music is one of my greatest passions, but I’m a writer and artist, not a musician, so I come to it as an outsider. I have a dozen or so friends who are also fanatical about audiophile-level music reproduction, and we have regular listening parties to nerd out and compare/contrast the sound systems we’ve dumped stupid amounts of money into.
