Best Cyber Monday Smart Speaker Deals

The best Cyber Monday smart speaker deal for most households is the Bose Home Speaker 500, and it is the right pick for anyone whose main listening space is a living room or open-plan area where sound quality outranks a rock-bottom price. If the goal is one discounted box that does two jobs, the Belkin SOUNDFORM Elite is the smarter buy — it puts Alexa voice control and a Qi charging pad on the same nightstand. Shoppers working inside a tight budget should look at the E I F E R portable, which pairs Bluetooth 5.4 and an IPX5 rating with an LED touchscreen, while the KAJIE MILAN mini is the one to choose when desk space, not volume, is the constraint.

The rest of this guide sorts every deal below by four things that actually determine whether you will still like the speaker in three years: the ecosystem it lives in, its sound-quality class, the room size it can fill, and the smart-home features it supports. Cyber Monday pricing is only useful once you know which of those four you are buying.

Top 3 Picks

Best overall: Bose Home Speaker 500

Bose’s largest Home Speaker is the only product on this page that pairs a genuinely room-filling driver array with built-in Alexa, Wi-Fi streaming and Bluetooth fallback. It is also the tier where a Cyber Monday markdown moves the most money, because premium audio hardware carries the largest percentage gaps between list and promotional pricing. Buy it if the speaker will live in one main room and you want to stop thinking about upgrades for several years.

Best budget: E I F E R Portable Bluetooth Speaker

The E I F E R is the budget pick because it covers the two failure points of cheap speakers — connectivity and water resistance — with Bluetooth 5.4 and an IPX5 rating, then adds an LED touchscreen that means you can skip reaching for your phone. It suits a kitchen counter, a bathroom shelf, a covered patio or a second speaker for the garden, and at the budget tier the risk of an early failure costs you very little.

Best for a smart nightstand: Belkin SOUNDFORM Elite

This is the deal to take if you want voice control and phone charging in the same footprint. Belkin built a Qi charging surface into the top of the speaker, so the nightstand holds one device instead of two, and Alexa handles timers, alarms, weather and music requests hands-free. It is the most practical mid-range pick here for a bedroom or a home office desk.

Quick Comparison

Every product covered in this guide, in the order it appears below. Price tiers are bands, not quotes — promotional pricing shifts daily, and the tier tells you which end of the market you are shopping in.

How We Chose

This roundup is built from published specifications, manufacturer documentation and category knowledge rather than hands-on use. Nothing here was tested, measured in a lab or owned by the writer, and no claim below should be read as a benchmark result.

The selection criteria were deliberately narrow. First, category fit: every product had to be a speaker that a shopper could reasonably buy on a Cyber Monday discount, which means it had to be a current listing with a clear position in the market rather than a discontinued curiosity. Second, specification honesty: where a listing names a number — Bluetooth 5.4, a 40 mm driver, 50 W, IPX5 — that number is reported as the listing’s own claim and translated into what it means in practice, including where it is likely to disappoint. Third, ecosystem clarity: a speaker that only speaks Bluetooth is a different purchase from one with a voice assistant and Wi-Fi multiroom, and the guide keeps those groups separate instead of ranking them against each other. Fourth, upgrade path: for Wi-Fi and multiroom products, we asked whether adding a second speaker later would work smoothly, and whether the brand’s app and firmware record suggests long-term support. Fifth, ownership cost: mains-powered speakers draw standby power for years, and that is part of the price. Where a specification was not published, the guide describes the spec class instead of inventing a figure.

Sorting the Deals by Ecosystem First

The single most common Cyber Monday mistake is buying a cheap speaker and then discovering it cannot join the system you already own. Ecosystem comes before sound quality, because a great-sounding speaker that cannot talk to your other devices becomes an island. There are three practical groups in this roundup.

Group 1: Bluetooth-only speakers

The E I F E R, the Aesackir and the KAJIE MILAN mini all live and die by a paired phone or tablet. There is no account, no hub, no app ecosystem to maintain and no firmware policy to worry about. One device connects, plays, and disconnects. The trade-offs are real: one listener at a time in practice, no whole-home synchronisation, and no voice assistant. The upside is equally real — nothing to set up, nothing to break, and no dependency on a company continuing to support an app in 2031. For a kitchen, a bathroom, a workshop, a dorm room or a garden, Bluetooth is the correct answer and the extra complexity of Wi-Fi buys you nothing.

Group 2: Voice-assistant speakers with Wi-Fi

The Belkin SOUNDFORM Elite, the Bose Home Speaker 500 and the RIVA Concert all add Alexa voice control, which changes how you use the device. Instead of picking up a phone, you speak: timers while cooking, music by name, weather, alarms, smart plugs and lights. These speakers also generally support Wi-Fi streaming, which removes the phone from the audio path entirely — you can leave the room with your phone and the music keeps playing. The cost is setup complexity: an account, a Wi-Fi network, a companion app and periodic firmware updates.

Group 3: Wi-Fi multiroom systems

The RIVA Arena and RIVA Concert are designed to be added to one another, so a second purchase creates a synchronised pair rather than two unrelated speakers. The Bose Home Speaker 500 sits in a comparable position inside Bose’s own multiroom framework. The rule that matters: multiroom grouping works within a brand, not across brands. Mixing a RIVA speaker with a Bose speaker gives you two independent speakers, not one system. If whole-home audio is the plan, decide the brand on the first purchase, because switching later means replacing everything.

One practical note on Wi-Fi: multiroom audio gear almost always runs on the 2.4 GHz band, which is also where Bluetooth, cordless phones and microwave ovens live. If your 2.4 GHz band is congested, synchronised playback can stutter. Splitting your router’s bands so the speakers have a dedicated 2.4 GHz network is the cheapest fix, and it costs nothing.

Matching a Speaker to Room Size

Sound pressure falls off predictably with distance. In open air, moving from 1 m to 2 m from a speaker costs about 6 dB; moving to 4 m costs another 6 dB. Indoors, walls and floors return some of that energy, so the practical loss is closer to 3-4 dB per doubling. The consequence is simple arithmetic: a speaker that produces a comfortable 85 dB at one metre is producing roughly 73-76 dB at four metres in a furnished room, which is background-music level, not party level. That is why the same speaker can sound impressive in a bedroom and thin in an open-plan kitchen.

Cyber Monday discounts tend to push shoppers toward whichever speaker is cheapest on the day. A better filter is floor area and listening distance.

Two physical realities are worth internalising before you spend. First, bass is a function of cabinet volume and driver excursion, not of marketing copy. A palm-sized speaker can produce a satisfying punch in the 100-200 Hz region, which is what most people actually notice on pop and rock, but it cannot reproduce a 45 Hz bass line with any authority — there is simply not enough air being moved. If deep bass matters, buy the largest cabinet you can live with. Second, placement is free performance. A speaker placed within 15-30 cm of a rear wall gains roughly 3 dB of bass from boundary reinforcement; moving it into a corner can add another 2-3 dB but often at the cost of boominess. Getting the tweeter or full-range driver at roughly ear height while seated, and angling the speaker toward the listener rather than parallel to the wall, will do more for perceived clarity than most specification differences.

Room size also dictates whether one speaker is enough. A single unit in a 600 sq ft open-plan space is a compromise: it will be loud enough near the speaker and quiet at the far end. Two mid-priced speakers in a synchronised pair usually beat one expensive speaker of the same total cost in that situation, which is the strongest argument for buying into a multiroom ecosystem on Cyber Monday rather than chasing the biggest single discount.

1. E I F E R Portable Bluetooth Speaker – Best for Waterproof Budget Portability

This is the pick for someone who wants a splash-resistant speaker with its own controls, at a price where losing it to a garden downpour would not be a disaster. The listing positions it as a portable with an LED touch screen, Bluetooth 5.4 and an IPX5 water-resistance rating, which together cover the two things that most often disappoint cheap speakers: an outdated wireless chip and no protection from moisture. It suits a kitchen counter, a bathroom shelf, a covered patio, a garage or a beach bag, and it is the kind of speaker that makes sense as a second or third unit rather than the centrepiece of a living room system.

Key specifications

• Wireless: Bluetooth 5.4, the newest mainstream version in wide use, with the improved advertising efficiency and encrypted advertising data that the version introduced
• Water resistance: IPX5 — protected against water projected by a 6.3 mm nozzle at around 12.5 litres per minute for at least three minutes, which covers rain, splashes and sink spray
• Controls: LED touch screen for track, volume and playback control without unlocking a phone
• Range claim: 40 m as stated by the listing — an open-air, line-of-sight figure
• Power: rechargeable with USB charging; the listing does not publish a battery-hour figure
• Price tier: budget

Strengths

Bluetooth 5.4 is the most defensible specification here. Version 5.4 does not automatically improve sound — codec support and driver quality matter far more — but it does improve how reliably the connection behaves in crowded 2.4 GHz environments, and it adds encrypted advertising data, a small but genuine privacy improvement. In a flat with a dozen neighbouring Wi-Fi networks, that reliability is the difference between a speaker that stays connected across the room and one that hiccups when you walk past the microwave.

The IPX5 rating is the second real strength, and it is worth understanding precisely. IPX5 is not waterproof in the sense of surviving a swimming pool; submersion protection starts at IPX7, and even that is rated for 30 minutes at one metre. What IPX5 does cover is the realistic failure mode for a portable speaker: rain on a patio table, splashes at a sink, steam-adjacent humidity in a bathroom, a spilled drink nearby. That is a meaningful durability upgrade over an unrated unit, and it is the reason this speaker works in rooms where a fabric-wrapped mains speaker should not go.

The touch screen is a small convenience that turns out to matter more than it sounds. Reaching for a phone every time you want to skip a track or nudge the volume is the most common annoyance with budget speakers, and an on-board screen removes it. It also means the speaker stays useful when the paired phone is charging in another room or when a guest wants to change the music without installing anything.

Pros

• Bluetooth 5.4 gives the most current wireless stack in this price tier
• IPX5 rating makes it usable in bathrooms, kitchens and covered outdoor spaces
• On-board LED touch screen removes the constant phone-reaching
• Small and light enough to move between rooms one-handed
• Budget tier pricing means low risk if it is dropped, lost or rained on

Cons

• No published battery-hour figure, so runtime is a genuine unknown before purchase
• The 40 m range claim should be treated as line-of-sight only; expect a fraction of it through interior walls
• Small cabinet and driver mean limited low bass — punchy upper bass, not deep extension
• An always-on screen draws power and shortens playtime between charges
• No Wi-Fi, no voice assistant and no multiroom grouping

How it compares with the nearest alternative

The closest competitor in this list is the Aesackir portable, which is also a budget unit with an LED touchscreen and an IPX5 rating. The difference comes down to what each listing chooses to emphasise. Aesackir names a 40 mm sound unit, which gives you a concrete driver size to reason about; E I F E R emphasises the newer Bluetooth 5.4 stack and a longer claimed range. If you want the most current wireless version and the best odds of a stable connection in a crowded wireless environment, take the E I F E R. If you would rather buy from a listing that states its driver size, take the Aesackir. Neither will fill a large living room, and both are better understood as excellent second speakers than as a primary system.

2. Aesackir Portable Bluetooth Speaker – Best for a Budget Speaker With a Stated Driver Size

The Aesackir is the budget pick for shoppers who want to know what is inside the box before they buy. Its listing names a 40 mm sound unit, a multi-function LED display with touch control and an IPX5 water-resistance rating — a short, specific specification list rather than a wall of adjectives. That makes it a good fit for a bedside table, a kitchen shelf, a study desk or a small bathroom, where the goal is decent sound at low volume in a compact footprint and the budget matters more than the brand name on the grille.

Key specifications

• Driver: 40 mm sound unit, as stated by the listing — a full-range driver class typical of pocket and palm-sized speakers
• Display: multi-function LED display with touch control
• Water resistance: IPX5, the same splash-and-spray protection class as the E I F E R
• Wireless: Bluetooth; the listing does not publish a version number, so treat it as a current-generation Bluetooth 5.x implementation
• Power: rechargeable; battery-hour figures are not published
• Price tier: budget

Strengths

A stated 40 mm driver is more useful information than it first appears. Driver diameter is one of the few specifications that correlates reliably with output capability in small speakers: a 40 mm full-range unit has roughly 1,256 square millimetres of radiating area, while a 50 mm unit has about 1,963 — over 50% more air-moving surface. That does not make a 40 mm driver bad, but it does set expectations correctly. A 40 mm speaker will produce clear vocals, podcasts, acoustic music and mid-forward pop at moderate levels in a small room. It will not pressurise a large space, and it will not reproduce the bottom octave of a bass-heavy track. Knowing this before purchase is worth more than any marketing claim, because it prevents the most common budget-speaker disappointment.

The multi-function display is the second strength, and it serves a different purpose than the E I F E R’s touch screen. Where a touch screen mostly replaces the phone’s transport controls, a multi-function display can also show status information — which input is active, what is playing, and in many implementations the time. On a bedside table that combination turns the speaker into a small clock-and-controls unit, which is a genuinely useful role for a device in this price tier.

The IPX5 rating repeats the durability story: spray and splash protection without a submersion claim. That is the right level of protection for a bathroom shelf where steam and condensation are the real risk, and for a kitchen where the speaker sits near a sink. It is not a rating that should be tested deliberately, and no speaker in this class should be left in standing water.

Pros

• Listing states a concrete 40 mm driver size, making performance easier to predict
• Multi-function LED display doubles as a bedside information panel
• IPX5 rating covers bathrooms, kitchens and covered outdoor use
• Compact and light, so it moves between rooms easily
• Budget pricing keeps the cost of an early failure low

Cons

• No published Bluetooth version, so the wireless stack is less certain than the E I F E R’s
• No published battery runtime
• 40 mm drivers produce limited bass depth — expect mid-bass punch, not low extension
• No Wi-Fi, no voice assistant and no multiroom
• Display brightness on budget units is often fixed, which can be distracting in a dark bedroom

How it compares with the nearest alternative

Against the E I F E R, the trade is specification transparency versus wireless recency. Aesackir tells you the driver size; E I F E R tells you the Bluetooth version and claims a longer range. In practice, both are palm-sized budget portables with the same IPX5 protection class and the same fundamental limitation: they are small speakers with small cabinets. If you want the speaker that is easiest to reason about before buying, take the Aesackir. If you want the newest wireless version and you are buying for a home with a crowded 2.4 GHz band, take the E I F E R. Neither is the right choice for a main living-room system — that job belongs to the Bose Home Speaker 500 further down this page.

3. Belkin SOUNDFORM Elite – Best for Alexa Plus Wireless Charging on One Nightstand

The SOUNDFORM Elite is the deal to take if your bedside table currently holds a speaker and a charging cable and you would rather it held one device. Belkin built a wireless charging surface into the top of the speaker, so a phone sits on the unit and charges while the speaker handles music, alarms, timers and questions through Alexa voice control. It suits a bedroom, a home office desk or a hallway table — anywhere a compact voice assistant and a phone charger would otherwise compete for the same outlet and the same patch of surface.

Key specifications

• Voice control: Alexa built in, hands-free, without a separate smart speaker
• Charging: a Qi wireless charging surface integrated into the top of the cabinet
• Wireless audio: Bluetooth; Belkin’s SOUNDFORM line is set up and managed through a companion app, and the family generally supports network streaming — confirm the current spec sheet if Wi-Fi streaming is a hard requirement
• Audio claim: the listing describes the sound as hi-fi; treat that as a positioning statement rather than a measured result
• Power: mains powered, so no battery runtime to manage
• Price tier: mid-range

Strengths

The charging pad is the whole argument for this product, and it is a stronger argument than it sounds. A Qi pad on a nightstand removes one cable, one wall adapter and one daily plugging ritual. Doing that arithmetic properly is instructive: a typical phone battery holds roughly 15 watt-hours. At 5 W of delivered charging power and about 60% end-to-end efficiency, a full charge takes around five hours; at 10 W it takes roughly two and a half. Both are fine for overnight charging, which is exactly when a nightstand device is idle anyway. The feature is not about speed — it is about removing a nightly chore and freeing a power outlet.

Alexa built in is the second reason to buy. In a bedroom, the useful voice commands are not music requests but the small ones: set an alarm, start a timer, check the weather, turn off a smart light, add something to a shopping list. Those are the interactions that justify a voice assistant in a room where you are often not holding a phone. Having them handled by the same device that charges the phone is a genuinely tidy solution.

Belkin’s background is worth noting in a positive sense. The company has spent decades making cables, power adapters, charging pads and docks, which is precisely the engineering discipline this hybrid product needs. The audio side is the newer territory for the brand; the power side is not.

Pros

• Combines a speaker and a Qi charging pad in one footprint
• Alexa voice control handles alarms, timers, lists and smart-home commands hands-free
• Mains powered, so there is no battery to degrade or recharge
• Mid-range tier pricing, well below the premium smart speakers in this list
• Removes a charging cable and a wall adapter from the nightstand permanently

Cons

• Charging wattage and pad placement are not always published — check that your phone model is supported
• Mains power means the speaker is tied to one spot; it cannot move to the patio
• Audio performance is best understood as good-for-the-size rather than genuinely hi-fi
• Wireless charging is slower than a cable, so it suits overnight rather than top-up charging
• Alexa setup requires an account and a stable network, adding complexity a Bluetooth speaker avoids

How it compares with the nearest alternative

The nearest alternative in this list is the Bose Home Speaker 500, which is a far more serious audio product but does nothing for your phone. If sound quality is the priority and the nightstand is really a listening position, the Bose wins outright. If the room is a bedroom where the speaker mostly handles alarms, podcasts and background music while the phone charges overnight, the Belkin is the more useful object — and it costs less. The KAJIE MILAN mini is the other comparison point at the opposite end of the market: it is smaller, cheaper and Bluetooth-only, with no charging surface and no voice assistant. Choose the Belkin if you want the nightstand to do two jobs; choose a budget mini if you only need quiet music at low volume.

4. Bose Home Speaker 500 – Best for Sound Quality in a Main Living Room

The Home Speaker 500 is the best overall pick in this guide because it is the only product here built primarily as a serious speaker, with smart features added rather than the other way round. Bose designed it with a pair of custom transducers arranged to fire in opposing directions, so sound is projected toward the walls and reflected back into the room — an approach that widens the perceived soundstage from a single box and makes placement far less fussy than with a conventional forward-firing speaker. It suits a living room, a dining room or an open-plan space where one unit has to cover a real listening area, and it is the right buy for anyone who intends to keep the speaker for five years or more.

Key specifications

• Wireless: Wi-Fi for streaming and multiroom, plus Bluetooth for direct pairing
• Voice control: Alexa built in, with support for additional voice assistants per Bose’s published materials
• Acoustics: opposed driver array that reflects sound off surrounding walls, in an aluminium-bodied cabinet
• Controls: six numbered preset buttons on the top panel, plus the Bose Music app
• Power: mains powered; there is no battery
• Price tier: premium

Strengths

The opposed driver arrangement is the technical heart of the product and the reason it sounds larger than its cabinet. Most compact speakers beam sound forward in a cone, which means the sweet spot is narrow and the tonal balance changes as you move around the room. Firing drivers in opposite directions and letting the walls do the work spreads the energy more evenly, so a listener standing at the kitchen island hears something reasonably close to what a listener on the sofa hears. In a real home, where nobody sits still in the sweet spot, that is a bigger practical advantage than a marginal difference in on-axis frequency response.

Wi-Fi streaming matters as much as the acoustics. With Wi-Fi, the audio path runs from the streaming service to the speaker directly, without the phone in the middle. That means no compression beyond what the service already applies, no dropouts when a call comes in, and no range limit — you can leave the phone in another room and the music continues. Bluetooth remains available for guests and for quick pairing, which is the right way to have both: Wi-Fi for daily use, Bluetooth as the fallback.

The aluminium body is the third strength, and it is an ownership argument rather than a sound argument. Metal enclosures resist the flexing that plastic cabinets exhibit under driver excursion, and they age better — no yellowing, no stress cracks around screw bosses, and a surface that wipes clean rather than absorbing dust. For a device intended to sit in a living room for years, that matters.

The six preset buttons are a small feature with outsized daily value. A preset can be bound to a specific playlist, station or album, and one press starts it without unlocking a phone or speaking. In a kitchen or a living room, that is often faster than any voice command.

Pros

• Opposed driver array produces a wide, room-filling soundstage from a single cabinet
• Wi-Fi streaming keeps the phone out of the audio path entirely
• Alexa built in for hands-free control, with additional assistant support
• Aluminium body ages better than plastic and resists cabinet resonance
• Six physical presets make favourite content a one-press operation
• Fits into Bose’s own multiroom framework, so a second unit can be added later

Cons

• Premium tier pricing, even discounted — this is the most expensive pick here
• Mains only, so it stays in one room
• Requires an account and a network for its best features
• No wireless charging surface, so it does not replace a nightstand charger
• Setup is more involved than pairing a Bluetooth speaker

How it compares with the nearest alternative

The nearest alternative is the RIVA Concert, the other premium smart speaker in this list. Both offer Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Alexa and multiroom. The difference is emphasis: Bose’s product is built around a distinctive acoustic architecture and a long-established app and multiroom platform, while RIVA’s approach centres on a high-power amplifier and a smaller, more specialised product family. If you want the broadest support ecosystem, the widest accessory and firmware history, and the most forgiving placement, the Bose Home Speaker 500 is the safer long-term purchase. If you already own RIVA speakers and want to extend that system, the Concert keeps everything in one app. Against the mid-range Belkin, the Bose is simply a different category of product — better sound, no charging pad, higher price.

5. RIVA Arena – Best for Mid-Range Wi-Fi Multiroom

The RIVA Arena is the pick for someone who wants to start a Wi-Fi multiroom system without paying premium prices for the first node. Its listing names a 50 W amplifier, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and multiroom audio, which together put it in the small group of speakers here that can be synchronised with another unit rather than merely paired to a phone. It suits a kitchen, a bedroom or a study as the first speaker in a two-room setup, and it is the sensible entry point if you already know you will want music in more than one room eventually.

Key specifications

• Amplifier: 50 W as stated by the listing — a substantial power class for a compact speaker
• Wireless: Wi-Fi for network streaming and multiroom, plus Bluetooth for direct pairing
• Multiroom: designed to group with other RIVA speakers for synchronised playback
• Voice control: app-controlled; Alexa voice control is the domain of the RIVA Concert rather than the Arena
• Power: mains powered
• Price tier: mid-range

Strengths

The 50 W amplifier figure is the most interesting number on the listing, and it is worth interpreting carefully. Amplifier power does not translate linearly into loudness — doubling power adds about 3 dB, which is a noticeable but modest step. What a larger amplifier does buy you is headroom: the ability to reproduce transient peaks, drum hits and orchestral swells without clipping. A speaker with headroom sounds relaxed and clean at moderate volumes, while an underpowered one starts to compress and harden. In a mid-range speaker, 50 W of rated power suggests the designer expected the unit to play at real listening levels rather than background level only.

Wi-Fi multiroom is the second strength and the reason to choose this over a Bluetooth-only alternative at a similar price. Multiroom lets two speakers play the same source in sync across two rooms, or different sources in different rooms, all controlled from one app. That capability is what turns a speaker purchase into a system purchase, and it is far cheaper to build it from the first unit than to replace everything later.

Bluetooth as a fallback keeps the product practical. Wi-Fi systems depend on a router, an app and a network that occasionally needs restarting. Having Bluetooth available means the speaker still works when the network does not, which is the difference between a device that is temporarily inconvenient and one that is completely dead.

Pros

• 50 W amplifier class gives useful headroom at moderate and higher volumes
• Wi-Fi multiroom support means a second speaker creates a system, not a duplicate
• Bluetooth fallback keeps the speaker usable if the network is down
• Mid-range pricing, well below the premium tier in this list
• Mains powered, so no battery degradation over the years

Cons

• No built-in voice assistant — that requires the RIVA Concert instead
• Multiroom grouping works only with same-brand speakers
• Mains power ties it to one location
• RIVA’s product family is smaller than the major audio brands, so buyers should check the current app and firmware support situation before committing to a multi-speaker system
• Setup requires an account, an app and a stable 2.4 GHz network

How it compares with the nearest alternative

The nearest alternative is the RIVA Concert, its sibling. The Concert adds Alexa voice control and sits in the premium tier; the Arena drops the voice assistant and stays mid-range. If you want to start a multiroom system at the lowest sensible cost and you are happy to control playback from an app, the Arena is the better value. If hands-free voice control in the kitchen is the feature you actually want, paying for the Concert once is cheaper than buying an Arena and then adding a separate voice assistant device. Against the Bose Home Speaker 500, the Arena trades a distinctive acoustic architecture and a broader support ecosystem for a lower price and a clear multiroom path within its own brand.

6. RIVA Concert – Best for Alexa Inside a Wi-Fi Multiroom System

The RIVA Concert is the premium pick for shoppers who have already decided that whole-home audio is the goal and want voice control at the centre of it. It combines Wi-Fi and Bluetooth with Alexa built in and multiroom support, which means it can serve as the primary speaker in a living space and as one zone in a larger system. It suits a kitchen or living room where hands-free control matters — timers, music by name, smart lights, weather — and where a second Concert or an Arena will eventually be added in another room.

Key specifications

• Voice control: Alexa built in, hands-free
• Wireless: Wi-Fi for streaming and multiroom, plus Bluetooth for direct pairing
• Multiroom: designed to group with other RIVA speakers for synchronised playback across rooms
• Power: mains powered
• Price tier: premium

Strengths

Alexa in a Wi-Fi speaker is a different proposition from Alexa in a small smart display or a puck-shaped device, because the speaker is already the thing you are listening to. Music requests, volume changes and playback control all happen on the device that produces the sound, with no second box