Not solely does the Edifier ES300 sport deliciously retro-styled attractiveness, but it surely additionally provides nice connectivity. You can play tunes by way of Bluetooth, hook up exterior sources by way of USB or a 3.5mm jack, and even stream hi-res audio at as much as 24bit/96kHz. And with discreet lighting and a built-in battery, it is a fantastic companion for night entertaining, even within the backyard.
Pros
- Gorgeous, retro-styled design
- Capable of 24bit/96kHz hi-res audio
- More inexpensive value
Cons
- Less convincing sound, particularly within the bass frequencies
- Shorter (though first rate) battery life
- Missing some good options
The Sonos Move 2 could also be expensive, but it surely makes up for that by way of superior audio and razor-sharp options. It’s able to punchy, dynamic sound with hefty bass, whereas retaining enough poise for lighter mixes. Meanwhile, wonderful options like Automatic Trueplay room compensation and an epic battery life give it compelling utility.
Pros
- Fulsome and detailed sound with loud volumes
- Great battery life in real-world use
- Premium-feeling construct high quality
Cons
- A bodily deal with can be preferable
- High value for the audio high quality
- Stereo sound is not very efficient
The Edifier ES300 is an interesting retro-themed wi-fi speaker that positively made a sizeable impression on me once I first obtained it. There’s one thing undeniably charming about its premium, old-school radio vibes, with its monochrome colour palette and gold accents, and built-in lighting. While many audio merchandise swing for this type of aesthetic, far fewer efficiently hit their goal bang on.
However, there’s one thing else that struck me about it, one thing that gave me just a little little bit of gadget deja vu. The Edifier is a cumbersome Wi-Fi speaker – sometimes one thing you’d set and neglect in an acoustic candy spot in your lounge, kitchen or bed room – however, unusually, it additionally has a battery for listening on the go. This instantly jogged my memory of one other entry within the annals of the best wireless speakers: the Sonos Move 2.
The original Move was considered a bit of an oddity on its release. It was a chonky boi, more at home on a shelf or counter than slung in a backpack and taken camping, and could be used as part of a multi-room speaker system. Yet, it had a built-in battery and IP56 ingress protection, meaning it could easily cope with the great outdoors if you had the means to transport it.
But the Move definitely identified an ecological niche for itself and the Move 2 that followed it, a seriously smart speaker offering high-end audio and modern connectivity that could easily do double duty spinning tunes at a picnic or a pool party. And that’s a niche that Edifier has seized on with the ES300. So which of these portable Wi-Fi speakers thrives best in this space?
Edifier ES300 vs Sonos Move 2: price and availability
The Edifier ES300 was first released on June 20, 2025, while the Sonos Move 2 was released back on September 20, 2023. The ES300 has a list price of $349.99 / £299.99 / AU$399, and the Sonos Move 2 has a list price of $449 / £449 / $799. However, deals exist on both: for example, at the time of writing, you can find the ES300 on Amazon UK for £247.76, whereas the Sonos Move 2 is accessible from $432.49 at Amazon US.
There are a number of variations of every speaker out there. The Edifier ES300 is accessible in white and gold or black and gold colorways. Meanwhile, the Sonos Move 2 is available in three hues: black, white and ‘olive’ (which, on the threat of sounding pretentious, I’d describe extra as artichoke).
Edifier ES300 vs Sonos Move 2: specs
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
Edifier ES300 |
Sonos Move 2 |
|---|---|---|
|
Weight |
8.2 lbs / 3.7kg |
6.61 lbs / 3kg |
|
Dimensions |
10.9 x 6.5 x 6.5 inches / 277 x 165 x 165 mm |
6.3 x 9.5 x 5 inches / 160 x 241 x 127mm |
|
Battery life (quoted) |
12 hours |
24 hours |
|
Connectivity |
Bluetooth 5.4, Wi-Fi, USB, 3.5mm jack |
Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi, USB-C |
|
Drivers |
4-inch (116mm) mid-bass, 2x 1.25-inch (33mm) tweeter |
2x angled tweeters, 1x midwoofer |
|
Aux-in |
Yes |
Yes (via USB-C adapter) |
|
Charger port |
AC power cable |
Sonos charging base or USB-C |
|
Microphone |
No |
Yes |
|
Waterproof rating |
None |
IP56 |
Edifier ES300 vs Sonos Move 2: features
Wireless speakers tend to sit at the bleeding edge when it comes to features, often rocking more innovative functionality than their wired or Bluetooth contemporaries. Neither the Edifier ES300 nor the Sonos Move 2 is an exception to this, although I found that one was appreciably smarter than the other.
The ES300 features you’ll probably use most are its sound profiles and EQ settings. Edifier provides four preset profiles: Classic, Monitor, Game and Vocal. Some of these felt like odd choices to me. Neither Monitor nor Game really fit the vast majority of users; I’d have thought that including a Bass mode instead would’ve been a no-brainer. Fortunately, it has a six-band EQ that lets you tailor the sound a bit more to your liking, although many cheaper speakers offer a more granular nine-band EQ, such as the Tribit StormBox 2.
At first, the Sonos Move 2 could appear much more restricted than this, its principal adjustable EQ settings within the app solely permitting you to regulate bass, treble and loudness. But its smartest characteristic is that, for essentially the most half, you shouldn’t ever must get your palms soiled massaging frequency bands to get higher sound. That’s as a result of its Automatic Trueplay algorithm usually assesses the speaker’s environment, calibrating its audio output for the form of the area it’s in. And it really works astoundingly effectively; I by no means actually felt the necessity to tinker with its output to rebalance the sound.
One characteristic that the ES300 has over the Move 2 is its built-in lighting modes. There are three patterns on provide: Static, Breathing and Water-flow (a slightly grandiose time period for lights that simply cycle counter-clockwise). And you can even choose between two colours: a cool white and a hotter yellow. While I’d argue this isn’t a radical departure by way of options, I do discover the general impact pleasing, and I loved it sufficient that I saved it on even once I wasn’t listening to music.
Each system offers you number of choices for controlling it. The ES300 options some aesthetically pleasing touch-sensitive controls on its high floor, together with two dials for setting its quantity and the brightness of its built-in mild, commonplace playback controls, and supply choice. Meanwhile, the Edifier app offers additional choices, together with configuring the Wi-Fi community, switching sources, organising the stereo channel, EQ customization and lightweight impact settings.
The Move 2 options controls on its high floor to deal with play/pause, skip, replay, modify the quantity, and group or ungroup merchandise. Its app provides you the flexibility to manage a number of options, together with community settings, its Automatic Trueplay characteristic and toggling on loudness correction. You’ll additionally discover one setting right here that you just received’t see within the Edifier app: voice management. The Sonos provides you the choice to manage your speaker utilizing both Sonos Voice Control or Amazon Alexa, one thing sorely lacking from its rival.
When it involves connectivity, neither speaker precisely reinvents the wheel, however they each include vary of choices. As you’d count on from a wi-fi speaker, they each provide Wi-Fi, whereas the ES300 offers Bluetooth 5.4 and the Move 2 has Bluetooth 5.3. Both gadgets let you play straight from streaming apps like Spotify and Tidal, or you’ll be able to push out audio direct out of your gadgets by way of AirPlay 2. In phrases of bodily ports, the Edifier has a USB port and 3.5mm enter, whereas the Sonos rocks a USB-C port.
There is a slight distinction within the audio decision every system can muster. While the Sonos Move 2 is able to lossless, CD-quality sound, the Edifier ES300 can stretch to 24-bit/96kHz hi-res sound from appropriate sources. Naturally, this implies you’ll must both stream from an LDAC-compatible system, stream ALAC over AirPlay 2, hook up a service able to hi-res audio like Tidal or plug straight into its 3.5mm jack.
As I remarked once I began this piece, maybe essentially the most notable characteristic of both of those Wi-Fi audio system is their built-in battery, one thing that’s nonetheless vanishingly uncommon out there.
Both models have first rate longevity. I performed music repeatedly on the ES300 over AirPlay 2 at 50% quantity with the sunshine off for six hours – throughout that point, its battery solely dropped right down to 60%, which means it may probably final 15 hours complete, considerably greater than the 12 hours Edifier predicted. But the Move 2 nonetheless blew previous this, lasting over 24 hours, which means it’ll nonetheless be swinging lengthy after its opponent is out for the rely.
Edifier ES300 vs Sonos Move 2: sound high quality
Given its pricing and styling, it is secure to say that I had sure expectations of the Edifier ES300 going into my testing. And but my preliminary impression of its sound was actually fairly lukewarm. It’s okay, however I really feel like as you enter the mid-range of the Wi-Fi speaker market, you’re entitled to count on higher than simply okay. In comparability, the Sonos Move 2 is dearer however sounds each bit the type of speaker I’d count on for its value.
Admittedly, once I performed Otomo by Bonobo on the Edifier, the woody-sounding percussion was actually tightly expressed, whereas the tribal, choral vocals rose above the whole lot clearly. But it’s when that bassline drops that the specifics of the ES300’s sound profile are laid naked. There’s sufficient higher bass which you can hear the bass swell – it’s not fully AWOL, luckily – however in case you’re hoping for something extra tangible than this, you’re going to be left wanting.
Conversely, the Sonos Move 2 brings way more low-end guts to the identical drop, giving the observe a much more steady basis. On event, it truly may sound just a little overblown, with the sub sounding overly resonant and swamping the decrease finish of the combination. However, I quickly found that this was an artifact of the speaker’s loudness correction – issues sound rather a lot clearer with it off, though this does come at the price of some bass presence at decrease volumes.
I used to be just a little extra impressed with how the ES300 handles vocal-heavy mixes. Sticking on How Does It Feel by London Grammar, I used to be pleasantly shocked by the wealthy timbre of the vocals and the way they rose above the remainder of the combination. But when making an attempt the identical tune out on the Move 2, I may see how a lot I used to be lacking out on – Hannah Reid’s honeyed vocals one way or the other felt much more rounded and held extra gravitas, whereas the heat to the observe’s low-end and pump to its kick added some much-needed glue that held the combination collectively.
A private pet peeve of mine is when speaker producers pump up the treble to compensate for a scarcity of dynamism within the decrease frequencies. The Edifier, luckily, doesn’t fall into this entice. Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way is a good observe for exposing a very vivid and glassy combine, and but the ES300 manages to keep away from these jangling guitars sounding too sharp. It does pull its punches just a little too a lot in comparison with the Move 2, although, which gave the transients of the drums a lot crisper edges and enabled them to puncture by the combination with out ever sounding over-exposed.
The Edifier ES300 can sometimes rally, although: at louder volumes, a few of these truant frequencies begin to labor just a little more durable. While I used to be listening to Reflection by Ben Böhmer & Wood, its swelling sub truly put in a correct shift, serving to to help its thumping kick. The consequence wasn’t what I’d name balanced, although – naturally, the mids are boosted too, so could be fairly intense – and the Move 2 reveals it is attainable to nonetheless receive spectacular efficiency while not having to crank issues as much as 11.
Perhaps the one space the place I felt the ES300 took a palpable lead over the Move 2 is in instrument separation. Listening to Claire de Lune by Kamasi Washington, it gave every ingredient room to play, with the layered brass playfully dancing across the bass and piano.
Conversely, whereas Sonos’s speaker provided fuller, extra cohesive sound, this sometimes felt prefer it got here on the expense of extra discrete expression of various devices. This may effectively be the work of Move 2’s Automatic Trueplay algorithm, although, with it barely compressing the dynamic vary to stop subtler parts getting misplaced within the area.
All informed, I discovered the Move 2 provides much more constant, genuine sound in comparison with the Edifier ES300. It appears able to a wider frequency vary, outdoing its rival at each the excessive and low finish, giving much more depth and context to a variety of genres. Yes, the latter rallies just a little at larger volumes, however I’d count on a speaker at this type of value level to be extra constant at completely different loudness ranges.
Edifier ES300 vs Sonos Move 2: design
One space the place the Edifier ES300 shines is in its design. In some methods, I really feel that this can be a speaker designed extra to be seen than heard. Particularly in its white and gold colorway, it effortlessly nails that retro vibe so many speaker manufacturers have aimed for and but not often hit.
Wrapping the ES300’s handcrafted wood speaker case is a ‘leather-like’ coating in both cream or black. Despite being a crunchy veggie, I’m not all the time eager on this type of leatherette end – slightly than feeling classic, it usually comes throughout as low-cost and a bit cheesy – however right here it feels pleasingly tactile and premium. Woven from braided cloth, the speaker cowl is available in both beige or black, whereas the plastic grille beneath is picked out in gold throughout each fashions. Cumulatively, this all helps the ES300 stand out in a market crowded with uninteresting black packing containers.
The Edifier’s built-in lighting is the cherry on high. Admittedly, the 2 hues and three lighting modes it provides aren’t precisely a scintillating aurora, however there’s no finish of get together audio system on the market that may drench you in a cocktail of kaleidoscopic colour, so in some methods the extent of restraint proven here’s a breath of recent air. Wave a hand over the Edifier’s high floor and its buttons mild up as effectively, albeit in a chilly white tone – it certainly would not have been onerous to have this shift with the hue of its principal mild, however that’s a minor nitpick.
In comparability, the Sonos Move 2 defines itself extra by its brains than its magnificence. It’s an elliptical cylinder, with a delicate curve towards the bottom the place it nestles into its cradle. This can be a pleasant contact, as slightly than having to plug in an influence cable to juice up its battery, you’ll be able to merely plop it down in its little nest to recharge.
The backside quarter and management panel on high of the Move 2 are fabricated from matte plastic – this feels gorgeously clean to the contact, with the olive/artichoke inexperienced coloration on the mannequin I examined including extra visible curiosity than the plain black or white colorways. Meanwhile, the remainder of the system is roofed in a advantageous steel grille. Overall, it’s a pretty bundle, but it surely’s undeniably trendy and gadgety in comparison with the extra retro vibes the ES300 goals for.
For essentially the most half, which system takes the lead for you is probably going a matter of non-public style. However, one clear space through which Sonos unarguably leads is weatherproofing. While the Edifier has no safety towards both splashes or mud ingress, the Move 2 provides IP56 safety, which shouldn’t solely stop grit and dirt from interfering with its workings however also can stand up to highly effective water jets from any course. So if you’d like a poolside companion, the Sonos is the simple champ.
Given that each audio system are designed to be semi-portable, their comparative bulk will likely be an essential consideration. With the ES300 weighing in at 8.2 lbs (3.7kg) and the Move 2 at 6.61 lbs (3kg), neither of them is what I’d take into account mild, however they’re each movable sufficient that you just received’t battle carting them from room to room or out to the backyard. Ultimately, although, the Sonos takes the sting for me by way of maneuverability – it has a helpful carry deal with constructed into its again, which the Edifier lacks, making the previous extra handy for shifting as you drift from room to room.
Edifier ES300 vs Sonos Move 2: worth
There’s a reasonably main caveat to the whole lot I’ve mentioned thus far: value. While I’d argue the Edifier ES300 and Sonos Move 2 are each firmly mid-range audio system, there’s nonetheless a noticeable distinction of their price. The ES300 has an inventory value of $349.99 / £299.99 / AU$399, and the Sonos Move 2 has an inventory value of $449 / £449 / $799, which means the latter prices a good slice extra. And this hole is just widened when you think about gross sales costs on the ES300, which, on the time of writing, was discounted right down to £247.76 at Amazon UK.
However, value doesn’t essentially translate on to worth. And whenever you have a look at all the extras you get with the Sonos Move 2, that value out of the blue appears much more justified. Not solely is the Move 2 filled with good options like Automatic Trueplay and voice-assistant help, it additionally provides superior sound with better-sculpted bass. While I do marginally give the Edifier ES300 the sting in terms of seems, the Sonos is a little more transportable, and its IP56 ranking makes it way more usable outdoor.
Ultimately, in case you’re on the lookout for a wi-fi speaker with a built-in battery, you’re going to get much more mileage out of the Sonos Move 2. That additional $99.01 / £201.24 / AU$400 isn’t small change, however I do really feel it’s price saving for just a little longer and making the funding in smarter options and extra expressive, well-rounded sound.
Edifier ES300 vs Sonos Move 2: verdict
Maybe I ought to have sprinkled some spoiler warnings all through this versus piece, as a result of I’ve in all probability already given away the ending. Despite a pretty design, the odd novel characteristic, and its capability for hi-res audio, the Edifier ES300 simply can’t fairly KO the champ of transportable Wi-Fi audio system.
Fundamentally, the Sonos Move 2 is smarter, with each its computerized audio-tuning and voice management working mental rings across the Edifier. Additionally, its sound covers a broader vary of frequencies, providing crisper treble and whomping bass – it has a confidence that its rival can’t fairly muster. Add in that IP56 ingress safety and prolonged 24-hour battery life, and also you’ve obtained a set of specs that few mid-range wi-fi audio system can problem.
Unless you’re head-over-heels in love with the ES300’s seems otherwise you merely don’t have the additional dough to stump up for Sonos’s pricier speaker, the Move 2 is the one you’re gonna need to put your cash on right here.