Sometimes you want tunes in the shower. It’s as simple as that.
You could set up a sound system in an adjacent room, turn up the volume, and blast your music through the house. Or you could do the sensible thing, and get one of the best waterproof speakers so you can take your music with you into the bathroom, pool, rain, or anywhere else there’s likely to be water. You can even tip a drink over them at a picnic should you wish to show off to your fellow picnickers or an accident occurs.
Dropping electronics into the water is the sort of thing that makes your heart freeze, the thought that you might have ruined your new toy enough to make you wake up in a sweat at night. Getting one of the best waterproof Bluetooth speakers, however, will put those fears to rest and allow you to play music without worrying when you’re by the pool or the sea - or even those times that rain interrupts an otherwise dry evening in the garden.
The speakers on this list all display enough waterproofing to be dunked underwater for as long as it takes to fish them out again, and those near the top, such as the Bose SoundLink Flex and Anker Soundcore 3, are capable of producing enough sound to be heard whatever the weather.
These Bluetooth speakers are sealed against the elements, but otherwise they’re exactly the same as their less well-protected brethren. You’ll get great sound, battery life that goes on for hours, and even smart features so you can talk to Alexa in the bath.
Gadgets that can stand up to a bit of wetness have an IP rating, which consists of two numbers. The first number goes up to 6, and tells you how well protected the device is against dust and particulates. The second number is the one we’re interested in here, however: the scale goes up to 8, and while ratings of 5 or 6 mean it’s protected against jets of water, look for 7 or 8 if you’re going to be dropping it in a swimming pool. A rating of IP68 is the ideal one to look for, though IP67 is more common.
Best waterproof speakers at a glance:
- Best for great sound: Bose SoundLink Flex - £149.95, Amazon
- Best for shower tunes on a budget: JBL Go 3 - £39.99, Amazon
- Best for stereo sound: Anker Soundcore 3 - £55.99, Amazon
- Best for portable parties: Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3 - £169.99, Amazon
- Best for loud noises in small places: Tribit Stormbox Micro 2 - £59.99, Amazon
- Best for times when money’s no object: JBL Boombox 2 - £479.99, Amazon
- Best for a different look: Cleer Audio Scene - £99, Gear4Music
- Best for expensive tastes: Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 v2 - £239, Amazon
Here are some of the best waterproof speakers.
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Bose SoundLink Flex
Best for: great sound
A top-quality speaker with an IP67 rating, the Bose Soundlink Flex can last up to 12 hours on a full charge and team up with other Bose speakers to provide a stereo pair or simply more volume. It also floats on water, making it perfect for pool parties.
There’s some fancy positional technology inside that allows the Flex to adapt its sound to whether it detects it’s laying flat, hanging from the fabric loop that protrudes from one end, or standing up. While it only uses a Bluetooth 4.2 connection (so none of the audio enhancements which arrived with Bluetooth 5), you can still get a very good noise out of the Flex if you feed it a good quality signal. Surprisingly good, in fact, considering its small size. It also supports two connections at once, so you can switch between sources without needing to re-pair.
Buy now £149.95, Amazon
JBL Go 3
Best for: shower tunes on a budget
With its IP67 rating, you’ll have no problem getting the JBL Go 3 wet or covered in sand. It’s small and light, and though it only offers five hours of playback from a full charge, it’s cheap enough for that not to matter too much.
It looks good too, available in six colours and with a woven texture that makes it stand out from the largely plastic and silicone competition.
Being so small, its sound quality can’t keep up with larger, more expensive rivals, and it doesn’t have features like pairing up with another speaker, or support for multiple Bluetooth connections, but the trade-off is in price and convenience, and the Go 3 has a lot to offer there.
Buy now £39.99, Amazon
Anker Soundcore 3
Best for: stereo sound
The Soundcore 3 boasts dual titanium drivers and extra bass radiators for a big sound, and an IPX7 rating. This diverts from the usual two-number format, and means we don’t have any information about its dust protection, but that it hits level 7 waterproofing, and can therefore be immersed up to a metre deep for 30 minutes without coming to any harm.
The battery life from the Soundcore 3 is particularly impressive, offering up to 24 hours of playback from a charge. It also sounds very good, despite only being just over six inches long, with thick bass underpinning detailed mid-range. There’s Bluetooth 5, and while you can only connect one music source at a time, you can link multiple speakers together.
Buy now £55.99, Amazon
Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3
Best for: portable parties
Bigger, heavier, and slightly pricier than others on this list, the Megaboom 3 makes up for it with top-notch sound quality, especially down low. There’s an IP67 rating, and 20 hours of battery life from a charge. You’ll also find a wireless charging accessory too, which can keep it topped up while you’re at home ready to grab and go on a whim.
And while there are controls on the body of the device - with a ‘magic button’ that offers extra playlist functionality if you’re using Deezer or Apple Music, there’s also an app that allows you to choose your playlists and pair the speaker with another UE one for stereo sound. What you don’t get is a wired aux input, or any speakerphone functionality - it’s a pure wireless music speaker, and a pretty good one at that.
Buy now £169.99, Amazon
Tribit Stormbox Micro 2
Best for: loud noises in small places
Small but beautifully formed, this mini Bluetooth speaker offers IP67 ingress protection and some pretty good sound for something only 10cm in length.
There’s a 10W speaker buried in the Stormbox Micro 2’s body, along with enough battery for 12 hours of playback, and a two-way USB port that can use the speaker’s battery to charge your phone if you need it. Five LEDs show you how the volume level has been set, and you can pair up multiple units too - but only Micro 2s, there’s no backwards compatibility with earlier models.
Buy now £59.99, Amazon
JBL Boombox 2
Best for: times when money’s no object
We’d like to apologise to the Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3 above for calling it big and expensive. This is big and expensive, and also very loud. It’s ideal for larger spaces, and outdoor ones too if you’re holding a barbecue or pool party.
Alongside the Bluetooth connectivity there’s a handy USB port so you can attach a phone to charge from its large battery, which is capable of playing for 24 hours straight. There’s a 3.5mm aux input too, if you’ve got something with a headphone socket to attach.
The Boombox 2 doesn’t support aptX or AAC - the two Bluetooth codecs that produce the best sound - so while it’s still capable of playing your tunes, and making a mighty racket while doing so, there will be a niggling feeling in some minds that it could sound better. For most people this won’t matter, however, and the JBL’s output power and ability to shrug off rain showers and dunks in the pool will far outweigh any minor gripes.
Buy now £479.99, Amazon
Cleer Audio Scene
Best for: a different look
Bluetooth speakers usually take on the form of a cuboid or cylinder, so to see one that looks so much like a handbag, complete with a closing flap at the front, is something that will get our attention.
The Cleer Audio Scene also distinguishes itself with a built-in mic that makes it possible to use as a hands-free speaker for phone calls, but it’s the clear, crisp audio it outputs that will keep you listening.
There’s a 3.5mm aux input, and a USB-C port that charges a battery capable of playing for 12 hours without a break, plus the all-important IPX7 water resistance rating.
Buy now £99.00, Gear4Music
Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 v2
Best for: expensive tastes
Perhaps a little expensive, but you’d expect that with a product from Danish audio pioneers Bang & Olufsen. You certainly get decent sound quality for your money.
There’s IP67 ingress protection, but the big news here is how good it sounds. It may look like a slightly bigger Amazon Echo Dot, but it doesn’t sound like one. The audio can be tuned from the B&O app, and you can turn it into an Alexa device too by connecting it up to your existing Amazon devices and apps.
Play time comes out at around 18 hours, which is exceptional from something that can’t have too much room for batteries inside it. The only reason it’s so far down this list is the price, and for something blasting party tunes by the pool, you’re probably going to want something cheaper.
Buy now £239.00, Amazon
