Polk Audio is very hush hush about the features of their new smart speaker that will be available just in time for summer for $199. With an announcement of their new smart speaker only a month away from the shipping date everything better be ready to go! The new smart speaker will be called the Polk Assist and will feature the Google Assistant built in for hands-free help around the house, music streaming and control of your smart home devices. The Polk Assist will also have Chromecast built in so you can group multiple Chromecast-enabled speakers and sound bars for multiroom playback from compatible audio apps including Pandora, TuneI, Google Play Music, iHeartRadio, NPR and Spotify.

Although the prevalence of high-quality pairs of Bluetooth speakers is increasing in the online marketplace a simple search reveals that there still is a gap between budget “toy” speakers and real audiophile quality speakers. Enter Dayton Audio and their MK402BT speakers.  For $98/pair you get a high-quality set of Bluetooth speakers with emphasis placed on sound quality and an outstanding feature set.

The drivers used in this design play a large role in this small speaker. The 4″ woofer is rated to play down to 60 Hz and still retain vocal clarity.

In 2015 SVS Prime Bookshelf Speakers made our list of Best $500/pair passive bookshelf speakers so when SVS told us they were releasing an active wireless speaker system, of course, we stood up and took notice. SVS is known for their amazing subs and quality speakers at reasonable prices and this new system looks to follow suit. The new SVS Prime Wireless Speaker System can be set up in a variety of ways from a single active speaker, to a pair which includes an active and wired passive, to two active speakers for a multi-room home audio solution.

The remarkable growth of Google’s presence in the American home continues with the release of the Google Home Max, a $400 Bluetooth-and-WiFi-connected speaker, powered by the company’s Google Assistant technology.

Home Max expands upon Google’s 2016 release of Google Home, a smaller, more affordable speaker designed to compete with Amazon’s Echo, which uses that company’s Alexa personal assistant technology. On the other end of the spectrum from the Home Max is Google’s Home Mini, a much cheaper and smaller speaker that also uses the Google Assistant technology.

RBH Sound has just introduced their first portable Bluetooth speaker which aims to prove good things can come in a small package.  The RBH Sound Sidekick personal Bluetooth speaker connects to any Bluetooth device so you can stream your music to it, or you can insert a Micro SD card which supports both MP3 and  WMA audio formats. Making the Bluetooth connection is simple and the Sidekick remembers your device once connected.  Sidekick is controlled by easy to read top mounted buttons for adjusting volume, play/pause, on/off or taking a phone call via a single button control.