3 portable Bluetooth speakers so stylish you’ll never want them to leave the house

It’s party in the park season, and you're going to want some summer tunes to accompany those picnic blankets and tinnies. Time to dig out the portable Bluetooth speaker and fire up your Ibiza anthems playlist.

Despite an early sojourn into heatwave territory, it’s looking like the traditional British grey clouds and rain have made a triumphant, deflating return. Those on the market for a new Bluetooth speaker for the season may be inclined to go for some boring, ruggedised army-style speaker ready for all weather warzones, as well as festival tent towns.

But hold firm. Stand your ground. You don’t have to shake your style just to get your sing-along fix. We’ve cherry-picked three of the best-looking Bluetooth speakers on the market, design-led blasters that will complement your on-the-go look — as well as your home decor choices — without scrimping on superior sound quality. In fact, they look so good, you might never want to see them leave your house…

If you took a box of liquorice allsorts, gave them to Toy Town’s finest designer, and said “make me a speaker that’d make Buzz Lightyear proud”, you’d probably end up with something very close to the Audio Pro Addon T3+ Jepson portable speaker.

A collaboration between Audio Pro and Mikael Jepson, the guitarist-slash-designer from Swedish glam rockers The Ark, this speaker is a riot of colour, with pick’n’mix styling and a compact size that makes it easy to travel with.

It backs up those looks with audio punch, too. Based on the award-winning T3 series design, it’s got dual 20mm tweeters and a 90mm woofer, with a well-tuned DSP delivering great sound from its small frame. It’s got an admirable battery life of around 30 hours too, depending on volume level, with enough juice to power a smartphone over USB from a rear port, too.

This one’s our personal pick of the bunch, but you’ll need to act fast if you ever see one on sale — only 500 units were ever made, making this a very rare (and potentially collectable) speaker, despite its relatively low price point. The standard Addon T3+ is available widely in a load of lovely colours, though, too.

For those about to rock on the go, you’ll find nothing better than the Marshall Kilburn III. Taking the iconic aesthetic of the brand’s guitar amplifiers and shrinking it down into a portable package, the Kilburn III will sit nicely alongside your Gibson SG, The Replacements band t-shirt and weathered stacks of vinyl.

It’s instantly recognisable as a Marshall unit — not only do you have that leatherette textured finish, but the treble, bass, mid and volume dials are a nod to the full scale amps Marshall made its name with, and let you quickly tweak the E.Q to your liking without having to fiddle with the app.

It’s a sonically and technically impressive speaker, too. A 4-inch woofer and two 2-inch full-range speakers deliver what Marshall calls ‘True Stereophonic’ 360-degree sound — meaning it should sound just as good if you’re standing behind or to the side of it as it does when it’s directly in front of you. With a monster 50+ hour battery that can also charge other devices, it’s good to rock for a couple of days, too. Ozzy would be proud.

Modern connectivity options like Bluetooth 5.3 and Auracast round out the spec sheet, while an IP54 will keep it protected from sand, dust and a bit of light rain. There’s a cream colourway option available, but the true metal heads know that only the Black and Brass model is the way to go here.

Grab that gold chain pocket watch, don your laceless Adidas — the We Are Rewind GB-001 Boombox is ready to take B-Boys back to the block parties of their youth. Taking the form factor of an old-skool boombox but crafting it with a brushed aluminium industrial sheen, this is the sort of boombox Dieter Rams would use if ever he got the urge to throw down on a diss track.

Yes, there’s Bluetooth onboard here for modern streaming service playback, but those tape decks and VU meters aren’t just for show. This is a fully-working tape recorder of the highest class, with user-controlled motor speed, Type I/II compatibility (for both normal and chrome tapes), and optimised biasing. There’s even Dolby-style noise reduction, making your tapes sound better than they probably ever did when they were box fresh.

Best of all (or worst, depending on how good your pipes are)? There’s support for mic input — or other instruments — to let you jam or spit over whatever you’re playing.

A true blast from the past, all it’s missing is a biro pen to wind up your chewed tapes with. This one's currently awaiting its pre-order window to open, so head over to the We Are Rewind website to sign up for a notification when it's available.

• The coolest albums of all time, ranked!