Smart audio that works with Home Assistant

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The best-sounding AirPlay 2 speaker for iPhone households and a Siri-based smart home hub. It is now £349 on Apple UK. The catch for Home Assistant is that I could not find a core integration that exposes the HomePod itself as a media player; the HA docs only mention a HomePod mini as an Apple Thread border router. If HA is central to your setup, a Sonos or HEOS speaker is the easier fit.

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The cheapest Sonos soundbar: optical input only, no HDMI, no microphone and no voice control, so it relies on the Sonos app and AirPlay 2. That is fine for a bedroom or small TV where you want clear dialogue and the option to add Sonos speakers later. Amazon UK was £159.97 against £199 direct at the time of checking.

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A £169 streamer that adds AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect and multiroom to any amp or powered speakers, and the Pro Plus (£249) adds better DAC hardware. It is the best-value Sonos alternative if you already own good speakers. Home Assistant has a core wiim integration (from 2026.4) with local push and grouping.

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The Sonos speaker most people should start with: stereo drivers in a small body, Bluetooth 5.3, AirPlay 2 and Alexa or Sonos Voice Control. There is no 3.5mm jack built in; line-in needs a separate USB-C adapter and cable, and Sonos says it is not intended for TV. It joins any Sonos system as a stereo pair or as rears for a Beam, Ray or Arc. Amazon UK undercuts Sonos direct by £20.

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A genuinely portable Sonos: IP67, about 10 hours of playback and Bluetooth 5.2 for when you leave Wi-Fi. At home it behaves like any Sonos speaker with AirPlay 2 and Alexa or Sonos Voice Control. HA exposes its battery level and power source, which is the one portable speaker where that works well. It does not replace a proper bookshelf speaker for the same money.

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The HEOS speaker that works properly with Home Assistant: the heos integration is core, local push and rated Platinum, with grouping through media_player.join. It is the cheapest sensible way into a non-Sonos multiroom system. A newer 'NV' version sells at £179, so check the listing before you buy.

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A BluOS speaker at £299 and the most hi-fi-minded Sonos alternative here: BluOS handles multiroom with other Bluesound players. It is not cheap for its size. HA has a core bluesound integration, but the docs page I checked only documents sleep-timer buttons, so check current coverage before relying on it.

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A small wireless subwoofer with two inward-facing 6-inch woofers, for adding bass to a Beam, Ray or Era 100 pair. It needs at least one amplified, non-portable Sonos product in the system and does nothing alone. At £429 it costs more than a Ray; add it only if the bar is already good and bass is the gap.

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The compact Sonos soundbar with Dolby Atmos (virtualised) and HDMI eARC, aimed at TVs up to roughly 55 inches. It is the sensible middle step between the Ray and the Arc Ultra, and it grows with Era 100 rears and a Sub Mini. Sonos now sells a newer Beam Ultra, so Gen 2 stock at Amazon UK is the one to watch for discounts.

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Sonos's spatial-audio speaker: six drivers firing forwards, sideways and up for Dolby Atmos Music over Wi-Fi. It is only worth £499 if you stream Atmos tracks from a supported service; for ordinary stereo music the Era 100 pair costs less and sounds more natural. Same app and HA behaviour as the rest of the range. Ethernet needs the Sonos Combo Adapter, sold separately.

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The Sonos for people who care about music first: three tweeters, three midwoofers and a built-in 3.5mm line-in plus ethernet, which makes it the right pick for a turntable. It has no microphone or built-in voice assistant, so voice is via Siri over AirPlay 2 or a separate Echo or Google speaker. Place it horizontally for stereo or vertically for mono. At £549 it is the dearest speaker here, but nothing else Sonos sells does line-in this well.

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Sonos's top soundbar: 9.1.4 Dolby Atmos from 14 drivers and the Sound Motion woofer, with HDMI eARC and AirPlay 2. It costs £949 to £999 before you add a Sub, so it only makes sense for a proper TV room. In HA it is the only Sonos device with a Dialog Level select, which is useful for a late-night preset.

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The original Arc is the previous-generation flagship Sonos soundbar and has been superseded by the Arc Ultra. It still has Dolby Atmos over HDMI eARC and AirPlay 2, and the full Sonos HA entity set including Night Sound and Speech Enhancement. Buy it only if you find one at a clear discount to the Ultra; at launch pricing the Ultra is the better buy.

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The cheapest Echo: a half-sphere speaker at about £62 that is fine for voice and background audio, and weak for music. It is the one to buy for a spare room or as a Home Assistant voice remote. Cloud-only, with the same unofficial Alexa Media Player route as the other Echos.

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The default cheap Alexa speaker: £79.99 now, with a decent spherical speaker for its size and Bluetooth. Fine as a kitchen or bedside voice remote. For Home Assistant it is cloud-only; control through Alexa Media Player is unofficial and can break. If music quality matters, spend the same on a Sonos Era 100 on offer instead.

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A bedside smart display and alarm clock at £99.99: small screen, decent sound for its size, and Alexa routines for sunrise alarms. Cloud-only, and Home Assistant control relies on the unofficial Alexa Media Player.

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A half-globe alarm clock with a small round display, £109.99, aimed squarely at the bedside. It is better as a clock than the Echo Dot with its LED ring. Everything is cloud-based, and HA integration is the unofficial Alexa Media Player route.

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Amazon's Dolby Atmos Echo in its current form, £219.99 at Amazon UK. Good value for room-filling sound, but it is an Alexa speaker first: with no official Home Assistant media player. Choose it if you live in Alexa and want Atmos music without paying Sonos prices.

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Google's first new smart speaker in years, built around Gemini for Home, at £99.99 from the Google Store UK. It comes with a 30-day Google Home Premium trial; Standard is £8 a month or £80 a year after that, and the better Gemini features sit behind it. I could not verify any Home Assistant integration path for it, so treat it as a Google Home speaker, not an HA media player.

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A 3.1 channel Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundbar at £174.99, with a dedicated centre channel for dialogue. It is the budget option for a TV that already runs Fire TV. Cloud-only for smart features and I found no Home Assistant integration for it, so treat HA as out of scope.

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A premium Dolby Atmos soundbar with AirPlay 2 and Alexa; Amazon UK showed no buy-box price and an up to 10 day delivery window, so it is not the easy pick. Bose's own app is the control surface, and I found no Home Assistant integration for it.