When it comes to anything Bluetooth and speakers I tend to look at Oluv's Gadgets on YouTube first, since that guy actually posts frequency response measurements of a wide variety of speakers. Seems like there is a wide variety of products featured but it is biased towards lower cost options.

This comes to mind: https://www.bang-olufsen.com/en/speakers/filter/bluetooth

I have the A1 (1.gen.), which have mostly received good reviews.

Also this: https://www.dynaudio.com/home-audio/music/music-3

+1 on the A1. I also own a 1st Gen, and the sound that it produces still surprises me.

I've had good experience with the JBL lineup... I'm on the largest (boombox), and I find the quality acceptable (I don't find the quality of most audio products acceptable). The convenience OTOH is phenomenal -- it comes with me biking, kayaking, (it's submergible) and camping to charge devices and play music, and the charge can last >week. I can only remember it dying on me 2 times in the months I've owned it, and I rarely charge it. One consideration is that it's much too large for backpacking or hiking.

I wouldn't necessarily classify myself as an audiophile, though I do care more about accuracy of reproduction than most I meet.

I have an xtreme 2 and it's a very convenient and enjoyable device.

My pet-peeve is that when I bought it, its sound-signature was very close to my JBL studio monitors. I was astounded by the quality. It could give you goose-bumps.

Unfortunately people started complaining that it does not have enough bass and with every firmware update since then, JBL increases the bass response and destroys everything else.

There is no way to downgrade the firmware. It's still a good speaker but nowhere near what it can do when tuned for fidelity instead of bass. :(

Interesting. Since Sony, whose Bluetooth speakers I'd been using for most of a decade, discontinued most of their higher-end stuff, I tried out the JBL Charge 4 earlier this year and was astounded at how bad the sound quality was. There was a very ugly rumble in the low mids that was grating. I'd wondered if I'd gotten a defective unit since the sound quality was so bad, but was disenchanted enough to look elsewhere. From what you're saying, it sounds like they may have been another victim of the bass wars. I ended up going for the Anker SoundCore Boost, which I genuinely thought sounded better and is a third the cost.

I own an JBL charge 2. These are probably aimed for people who prefer high bass over a balanced sound (balanced they are not). Worst- the bluetooth connection is unstable even in direct sight, within 5-20 cm, with android/mac/raspberry. I realize everyone has different tastes but I would not recommend JBL.

Interesting you had issues with bluetooth -- I use it as my car stereo (car is too old to have bluetooth), and often leave it running with the car shut and I can walk all the way from my garage to the house and still hear the music chugging along just fine.

As for the bass, I agree its a bit boomy, I use EQ at the source to compensate.

Minirig

It's the best. End of story. A little expensive. Absurd low end for such a small device. Two different gain level wired inputs plus BT. Can be paired, and even extended to the sub.

Just a customer, along with everyone in my family.

minirigs are surprisingly good for their size.

they are modular speakers and speakers subwoofers that you can use individually or link together.

a 2.1 setup will bring way more bass that you would expect from looking at it.

plenty of reviews on youtube comparing the sound profile to competitors.

https://minirigs.co.uk/

I bought an Ikea Eneby 20 about three years ago (there's a dual speaker version available). It's my travel companion. Still in use. Almost daily. Indoor. Outdoor. Techno, Rock, Spotify...it just sounds good (bass a little prominent but can be fixed trough EQing or a piece of cloth)

It looks good (not like a plastic toy) and sounds absolutely great. Paid $40 back then. (last time I checked it was 50€+ in EU right now).

You absolutely can pay >400 and it might be accurate hifi, but what you really want from a speaker is joy :)

I've really enjoyed my UE Boom. It's totally waterproof and shockproof, great sound, battery life is good - it's been just about perfect for me.

Bluetooth isn't really compatible with accurate sound reproduction. The bandwidth is limited so the audio spec mandates lossy compression. An update to the original allows different options for the compression, so if you're starting with a compressed source you might be able to avoid double losses, but I doubt that any software does it that way because you'd lose the ability to do e.g. volume control.

I've never used them, but a friend used to run engineering at Braven. He's no longer there, so I don't know what that company's current status is, but he was a serious audio guy who made sure that every product he designed or sourced was high quality once all of the marketing-mandated boost features were turned off.

Do let us know if you give them a listen, and whether they are as good as I expect.

My old Braven, the one that looks like an OG cheesegrater Mac Pro, was the best sound per cubic centimeter I've owned.

Not really in the market for a portable speaker anymore, but if that changes, I'd most likely just get another of the same unit.

So yeah. Next time you see your buddy, tell him some rando on the Internet thinks he did a good job.

What about KEF LSX or LS50? Or Devialet Reactors?

I wouldn't call that semi-portable.

The LS50's are a little large, but the others I would consider semi-portable. Look at the below image, the Reactor is the size of a small toaster and you just need to plug in a power cord. You could easily move that to different rooms, plug it in on the terrace, bring it to a friend's house, etc. If that's not at least semi-portable, I don't know what is.

https://i.imgur.com/V1fEu7h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/7dSAtEY.jpg

Maybe something from Bang & Olufsen's Beoplay line, possibly a Beolit 17?