Forget Sonos, WiiM and Bluesound both just launched new small wireless speakers to build your multi-room hi-fi dreams around

Bluesound's new Pulse Flex speaker on the left, in a neutral shade on a wooden shelf. WiiM Sound on the right, in a dark black finish with a screen on the front, on a wooden shelf.
(Image credit: Bluesound / WiiM)

  • Bluesound Pulse Flex: all-new version with significant redesign
  • WiiM Sound: WiiM's first smart speaker with multiroom capability
  • Aggressively priced at £279 / €299 and £299 / €349 respectively

It's a big day for the best wireless speakers with not one but two rather exciting product launches. WiiM is launching the WiiM Sound, its first ever smart speaker which had been previous unveiled but lacked a release date or price. And Bluesound has remade its popular all-in-one, the Pulse Flex.

These are both premium smart speakers with multi-room capabilities, and are priced at an interesting level, sitting between the Sonos Era 100 and the Sonos Era 300.

Bluesound Pulse Flex 2025: key features and pricing

The Bluesound Pulse Flex in black on a wooden shelf

(Image credit: Bluesound)

The Bluesound Pulse Flex has been around for a while now – it was launched in 2018 – and this new generation gets a significant redesign that makes it look much sleeker. There are three colors – White Tan, Black Charcoal and White Pebble Gray – and the new design is a vast improvement over the rather boxy original: from above, it's teardrop-shaped, while from the front it's become more vertical than before.

Of course, it's what it sounds like that matters most. It's powered by a SmartDSP amplifier and features a four-inch woofer and three-quarter-inch tweeter, putting out 50W of total power. It supports Hi-Res Audio at up to 24-bit/192kHz and features both MQA decoding and DSD256 playback. And as you'd expect from Bluesound, it runs the BluOS streaming platform with more than 20 included streamers including all the big names.

The new Pulse Flex has dual-band Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth with aptX HD, and it also has multiple wired inputs including USB-C and optical/analog inputs. It can be used standalone, in a stereo pair or as the rear surrounds for a system comprising other Bluesound products. It can also be used as part of a multi-room sound system.

The Pulse Flex will be available from December 16, 2025, with a recommended price of £279 / €299. That's roughly $372 / AU$572.

WiiM Sound: key features and pricing

WiiM Sound speaker in white next to a medium sized potted plant

(Image credit: WiiM)

The WiiM Sound was originally showcased in May 2025, and is launching as planned this month (October 2025). It delivers 100W of power through its 4-inch long-throw woofer and dual tweeters, which are angled slightly left and right (which is the same configuration as the Sonos Era 100, interestingly), and it supports Hi-Res Audio at 24-bit/192kHz.

The WiiM Sound comes in a familiar cylindrical design punctuated by its circular 1.8-inch touchscreen, which enables you to adjust playback, EQ and inputs when you're away from your phone or the included voice remote. And it runs on WiiM's streaming platform which, like BluOS, features all the key streamers.

The WiiM Sound also features automatic room correction, and like the Bluesound Pulse Flex it can be used standalone or in stereo. It can also be used as the center or surround speaker in a Dolby 5.1 setup and in a WiiM multi-room system, which could naturally include WiiM amps and streaming boxes.

Connectivity is impressive and includes Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 with LE Audio, Ethernet and a 3.5mm Aux input.

The WiiM Sound is available from this month, October 2025, with a price tag of £299 / €349 / $299 (about AU$459).

The Sonos Era 100, by comparison, costs $219 / £199 / AU$319 officially, though at the time of writing has some nice discounts – in the UK, it's just £159, which is fantastic value. The more powerful and detailed Sonos Era 300 costs $479 / £449 / AU$749.

Will these Hi-Res-friendly wireless speakers offer more fidelity to the sound to make them worth the higher price than the Sonos Era 100, but without the bulk and expensive of the Era 300? We have big plans to find out and compare them all soon…

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Carrie Marshall

Contributor

Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than twenty books. Her latest, a love letter to music titled Small Town Joy, is on sale now. She is the singer in spectacularly obscure Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.

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