6 signs it's time to upgrade your speaker

Key Takeaways

Speaker sound quality degrades over time and volume decreases — it might be time for an upgrade.
External visible damage may indicate the speakers have been worn out, and you may want to consider a replacement.
Battery life diminishes with charging cycles — if Bluetooth speakers won’t hold a charge, it’s time for new ones.

Like most audio tech, speakers don’t last forever, and eventually need replacing. If you use your Bluetooth, portable, or bookshelf speakers a lot or have had them for a long time, you’ve probably wondered when you should eventually replace them.

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Whether you have new needs that require a new speaker, or your usual speakers are clearly degrading with use and time, getting a new speaker can be costly and difficult to personally justify. I’m here to tell you some signs that you might need to upgrade your speaker setup or replace your old one, so you know when to take that leap.

1 Your sound quality or volume is degrading

Internal damage happens over time

One of the most obvious signs that you need to upgrade or replace your speakers is when you notice the sound quality degrading over time, or the volume isn’t where it used to be. This is a sign your speakers are being worn out from use.

Rips and tears in speaker cones from long-term continuous use will eventually make the speaker sound much worse. The foam around the edge of a speaker cone will degrade over time, becoming stiff and brittle, eventually leading to cracking and breaking. This limits how much the speaker can move, which is how it emits sound, and that will affect the sound quality and volume of the audio.

Rips and tears in speaker cones from long-term continuous use will eventually make the speaker sound much worse.

Additionally, internal electrical components will degrade with time and use, leading to worse audio quality. While these components are technically repairable, it’s too big a job for the average person, and at that point it’s more worth it to just replace your speakers.

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2 They have visible external damage

Maybe you dropped it too many times or your cat chews on the cables

a frayed power cable on a Peavey amplifier

Maybe your kitchen smart speaker is all dinged up from eight years of consistent use, or your designated beach speaker has taken a beating from hitting the concrete a few too many times. If you have very bad visible damage on your speakers, that’s a sign you might need to replace it. Visible damage is not necessarily indicative of internal damage (though it can correlate), but it definitely means that your speakers have been used and worn out enough to consider replacing them.

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Another visible damage problem that indicates you should get new speakers is broken or frayed cables on any stationary speakers that don’t have replaceable ones. A cable with exposed internal parts could pose a fire hazard, and it’s better to pay the money up front for a new speaker than to have your home catch fire.

3 Battery life diminishes

It can only hold a charge for so long

Battery capacity degrades over time with every charge cycle, an unfortunate reality of all battery-powered devices. So, if you notice that your Bluetooth speaker won’t hold a charge anymore, it’s definitely time to get a new one.

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The best way to prevent this from happening is not using Bluetooth speakers, but it’s understandable that you’d need portable speakers for many situations, especially if you’re outdoorsy. Going for speakers that allow for easy battery replacement will ensure a longer life for your speaker, but since the right to repair isn’t very popular among manufacturers, that might be hard to find. The next best thing is getting a speaker with a larger battery capacity, so you’ll have to go through fewer charge cycles while owning it, which will make the speaker battery last you longer.

4 You want different connectivity options

Until we have a universal standard, your connectivity needs may vary

Your speakers might have met your needs before, but getting a new gaming console, media player, TV, or music subscription means you’re looking for new connectivity options. This could mean looking for a speaker system or soundbar that has HDMI ARC support to simplify your audio cable setup in your living room.

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Or maybe you need a speaker with support for a specific ecosystem or service, like Apple Music support, or you want a speaker that will be compatible with other specific speakers in your house, like adding to the Sonos ecosystem in your home. You can’t easily retrofit a non-smart speaker to do smart things, so it’s fair to just upgrade your speaker if you have new connectivity needs in that way.

5 You want updated features

The options are endless when it comes to unique features

Apart from connectivity, there are a lot of other features you might need in a speaker that you might find you lack. If you have a home theater setup and realize you want Dolby Atmos support or 7.1 channel surround sound, you might want to upgrade your speaker setup to reflect that need. You might also want a louder setup or a greater variety of drivers, like getting a soundbar with tweeters, more drivers, or an external subwoofer.

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You might also need a speaker that better supports your audio quality needs. If you’re getting into listening to lossless audio, you can’t do that over Bluetooth, and you want to make sure you can hear the full breadth of the track too. In that case, you’d need a wired speaker or one that supports wireless connectivity over Wi-Fi, and one that sounds good enough to actually hear the nuances present in lossless audio.

6 You have new speaker needs in your physical environment

Different use cases require different speakers

The Urbanista Malibu on the ledge of a pool.

If your current daily speaker is a portable but not a dust-and-water-resistant one, and you have just started getting really into hiking, have a pool, or a splashy toddler, you’re probably going to want a different speaker to satisfy your needs better.

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