The Best Outdoor Speakers for Your Backyard Parties

The best outdoor speakers are loud, weather-resistant, and have prime features for hosting outdoor get-togethers.

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There are still plenty of warmer days to come, and that means spending as much time outside as possible — even when at home. We’re throwing pool parties and hosting backyard barbecues, playing lawn sports and just hanging out on the back deck — all the situations where you want to bring the music and the energy outside. And thus, you need a speaker that fits those needs.

There is a wide variety of speakers that are fit for the outdoors. The most common are ultra-portable Bluetooth speakers, which are small and water-resistant, the type of speakers you take to the beach or strap to your backpack. However, such speakers aren’t the best option for a backyard party because they don’t get very loud. So you end up playing music that only one party of the party can hear.

The two best types of speakers for outdoor parties, in our opinion, are either permanent outdoor speakers or larger portable speakers. Both deliver the best sound with the widest soundstage so that it reaches more area. Also, many of these speakers are able to sync with other speakers in a multi-room-like system so you can really play sound throughout your backyard.

Products in the Guide

The Argument Against Permanent Outdoor Speakers

Permanent outdoor speakers, or speakers that are installed in your house and can’t be moved, have been around for years and years — and they’re great. However, in this new wireless age, they might not be the best option for you. They’re often unsightly unless you get in-wall or in-ceiling speakers that hide in plain sight (but that adds a high installation cost), and most require an analog connection to an amp or receiver. So they can be pricey, complicated to install, and they’re not versatile.

There’s a new breed of portable outdoor speakers that are powerful enough to fill a backyard with sound and rugged enough to survive a mild rainstorm. They also are super versatile thanks to Wi-Fi and advanced Bluetooth connectivity that supports multi-room audio, so you can get several speakers, pair them together and spread them throughout your backyard. Then, when you’re done, you can hide them out of sight so they don’t look odd chilling in your backyard.

Pros

  • Very portable
  • Can be integrated into a Sonos multi-room system when connected to Wi-Fi
  • Sounds great for its size

Cons

  • Doesn't get nearly as loud as other outdoor speakers
  • Best features require a Wi-Fi (not Bluetooth) connection
  • Battery life is average at best
  • Drivers: 2 total (downward-firing tweeter, mid-woofer)
  • Connectivity(wireless): Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
  • Connectivity (wired): No
  • Multi-room: Yes (via Wi-Fi)
  • Water-resistance: IP56
  • Battery Life: 10 hours per charge
  • Size: 6.6 pounds

The Move is the largest portable speaker that Sonos makes, but it’s also the smallest and least powerful speaker on this list. While it’s not the loudest speaker, it supports advanced technologies like Automatic TruePlay, so it is able to adjust it’s sound for the space it is in and it’s actually one of the best sounding outdoor speakers you can buy. It delivers crisp highs, clear midrange and the bass cause you shake just a little.

What separates the Move over basically every other outdoor speaker is its versatility. It’s small enough to carry around your house or take outside. And it supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, which means it easily works as a traditional portable speaker or as another Sonos speaker in a multi-room system. It is hands down the best option for anyone with other Sonos speakers in their home.

Pros

  • Plays expansive 270-degree sound
  • Excellent battery life
  • Can charge other devices

Cons

  • Several years old
  • Lacks versatility of other large portable speakers
  • Drivers: 6 total (two tweeters, two woofers and two passive radiators)
  • Connectivity (wireless): Bluetooth
  • Connectivity (wired): AUX and optical
  • Multi-room: Yes (via Boom app)
  • Water-resistance: IPX4
  • Battery Life: 24 hours
  • Size: 13 pounds

Ultimate Ears is best known for its ultra-portable speakers, the Boom and Megaboom lines, and the Hyperboom is basically those speakers on steroids. It’s quite large, standing 14 inches tall and weighing roughly 13 pounds, and its rectangle-shape can play 270-degrees of bass-heavy sound — it’s ideal for placing in the corner of an outdoor party. It also has a concealed rubber handle, making it a little more portable than you’d think.

The Hyperboom is a Bluetooth-only speaker, however, it can play in a multi-room system with other Boom, Megaboom and Hyperboom speakers —just pair them together via UE’s Boom app. The other thing that sets the Hyperboom apart is its incredible 24-hour battery and its ability to act as a portable battery for your other devices; it packs two USB-A ports on its spine.

Pros

  • More affordable than most other larger portable speakers
  • You can customize the RGB lighting
  • Wired inputs for analog sources

Cons

  • Battery life isn't as great as other options
  • The speaker is a bit flashy and might not be your speed
  • Drivers: 4 total (two tweeters, two woofers)
  • Connectivity (wireless): Bluetooth
  • Connectivity (wired): AUX, USB-A, mic and guitar jacks
  • Multi-room: No
  • Water-resistance: IPX4
  • Battery Life: up to 12 hours
  • Size: 23 pounds

JBL makes quite a few portable speakers in its PartyBox line that are fit for outdoor parties, with the PartyBox 110 being one its most popular. It’s about twice the size of the UE Hyperboom (above), yet comes in at slightly less expensive and it’s actually a little more fit for outdoor parties. It gets slightly louder in our opinion, boasts RGB lighting (which you can customize in the PartyBox app) and have jacks for a microphone and guitar. It also can act as a portable battery for your other devices via a USB-A jack.

The JBL PartyBox 110 is admittedly a little more limited than the other outdoor speakers on this list in that it’s a Bluetooth-only speaker that can’t do multi-room. It works with an app, which allows you to do things like adjust its EQ settings and the RGB lighting. You can, however, use an AUX cable or the TWS (True Wireless Stereo) button on the back of the speaker to configure it with another PartyBox 110 speaker in a stereo pair. Overall, the PartyBox 110 feels like a great budget option for people who want big sound and a color speaker.

Pros

  • Loud sound with big bass
  • Wired inputs for analog sources
  • RGB lights are fun and customizable

Cons

  • Absolutely huge
  • Quite expensive
  • Drivers: 6 total (two woofers and three front-facing tweeters, one tweeter)
  • Connectivity (wireless): Bluetooth
  • Connectivity (wired): AUX, USB-A, mic and guitar jacks
  • Multi-room: Yes (via Sony app)
  • Water-resistance: IPX4
  • Battery Life: 25 hours
  • Size: 37 pounds

The Sony SRS-XP700 is the largest and most powerful outdoor speaker we’ve tested — it’s a monster. It weighs 37 pounds, stands over two feet tall and flirts with the very edge of what it means to be a “portable” Bluetooth speaker. What it really is, in all honesty, is a full-blown party speaker. It packs RGB lights that you can adjust via Sony’s Fiestable app. It packs a number of analog connections, meaning it doesn’t completely rely on Bluetooth. And it has jacks for a guitar and microphone, so you can use it as a karaoke machine.

As for its sound quality, it’s really loud and really bass-heavy — exactly what you want for a party. You can place it horizontally or vertically, but we found the sound to be a little more crisp and carry further when the speaker is vertical. A cool thing is that even though it’s a Bluetooth speaker, it can sync with many other Sony SRS speakers (even ones that are significantly smaller than the SRS-XP700). You can even get their LED lights to all match up. The only semi-frustration is that you need to switch between Sony’s Music Center app and Sony’s Fiestable app to get the range of what this speaker can do.

  • Drivers: 4 total (three tweeters and one subwoofer)
  • Connectivity (wireless): Bluetooth
  • Connectivity (wired): XX
  • Multi-room: Yes (via Bose Connect app)
  • Water-resistance: IPX4
  • Battery Life: up to 18 hours
  • Size: 15.4 pounds

The Bose S1 Pro has was first released back in 2018, but it remains the company’s premium portable party speaker. It has a number of analog inputs for connecting a mic, guitar or keyboard. It supports Bluetooth streaming and if you have a second S1 Pro, you can designate each as left and right channels. It’s integrated with special audio technologies (such as Auto EQ) so that sounds good no matter where you set up the speaker, but the big downside is that it lacks stereo sound on its own; its a standalone mono speaker and thus can’t deliver quite as expansive of a soundstage as other party speakers.

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