The Best Chromecast Speaker

After a blind listening test and over 40 hours of casual use with a number of speakers, we think the JBL Playlist is the best Chromecast speaker for the majority of people. It sounds good, looks great, and is priced low enough which you are able to purchase a few for the price of one high-end Chromecast or competing Wi-Fi speaker.

Our pick

JBL Playlist

The Chromecast speaker

The JBL Playlist is a beautifully speaker for an inexpensive price.

Buy on Amazon

Our listening panel picked the JBL Playlist among the two best-sounding Chromecast speakers we discovered, though it’s one of the most affordable models we tested. It’s an easy, elegant design that provides clear, room-filling noise, and its own top-mounted volume and play/pause touch buttons allow you to control playback if you can not find your phone. Additionally, it has Bluetooth in case you want to flow something from a device or service that doesn’t encourage Chromecast, like Apple or even Amazon Prime Music.

In the event the JBL Playlist is unavailable, or you will need something a little more streamlined, try the Grace Digital CastDock X2. To use the CastDock X2, you want to put in a Google Chromecast Audio dongle, but if the dongle is set up in the cavity on the top of the CastDock X2, it looks like part of the speaker system. The CastDock X2 has a nice, natural, full audio, although its lack of external controls means you’ve got to control it completely from your cell phone.

Should you need much-higher-quality sound or need to fill out a bigger room with songs, the Riva Festival plays louder, provides much more bass and sounds great. In addition, it includes AirPlay and Bluetooth, so it can connect easily to Apple apparatus along with Android devices. However, it costs over three times the price our top pick.