Music moves rooms without rebuilding a group
JBL has introduced Cove, a family of Wi-Fi speakers launching in the UK on October 8 in black and white. The range starts at £199.99 with the Cove M1, rises to £399.99 for the portable P1 and reaches £429.99 with the X1. Every model works alone, as a stereo pair or inside a system that sends music across several rooms.
A home network separates this idea from linking several Bluetooth speakers. Each Cove receives audio over Wi-Fi, while the JBL One app decides whether the whole house plays one stream or individual rooms keep their own music. With Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and similar services, the phone acts as a remote: it tells Cove what to play, then the speaker fetches the music over the internet. An incoming call therefore need not stop the song.
The Moment button tries to remove the app from daily use once setup is complete. One press starts a station, playlist or Spotify Tap session, while a long press moves music or TV audio into the room you are standing in. JBL calls this Music Follows Me, and it avoids taking speakers apart and rebuilding groups whenever you move.
M1, P1 or X1: what each step buys you
The £199.99 Cove M1 is intended for small and medium rooms. It delivers 110W, needs mains power and lacks Dolby Atmos, but retains multi-room playback, automatic room tuning and stereo pairing. This is the entry model when the speaker will remain in one space.
The £399.99 Cove P1 adds up to 14 hours of battery life, a charging dock, a handle and IP56 protection against water and dust. Its 120W output and Dolby Atmos make it the version that can move from a living room to a patio, although a 3.26kg weight makes it transportable rather than something to carry in a bag all day.
The £429.99 Cove X1 climbs to 200W with four tweeters and two woofers for larger rooms. It also supports Dolby Atmos and costs only £30 more than the P1, but has no battery. Choosing between them comes down to whether you want to move the speaker around the house or leave a more powerful model permanently in the living room.
What works at launch and what does not
All three support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Roon Ready, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and Qobuz Connect. They also join JBL Bar 300, 500, 800, 1000 and 1300 MK2 soundbars, although only the Cove M1 and P1 can work as rear channels at launch. The X1 is initially excluded from that role.
JBL says Constant Sound Field keeps the balance more consistent as a listener moves around the room, while AI Sound Boost adjusts bass and dynamics to limit distortion. Those ideas are promising, but a press release and specification sheet cannot tell us how the speakers sound. They need to be tested before those claims become a recommendation.
Alexa+ will arrive through an update later in 2026, but JBL is limiting that initial rollout to the United States, so UK buyers should not count it as a launch feature. Cove speakers themselves arrive on October 8. Readers who need private, low-latency game audio are looking at a different purchase, covered in our guide to the best gaming headsets of 2026. Our report on Samsung's 2027 Odyssey monitors covers the display side of a gaming room, while more launches live in the INSERT FUTURE hardware section.
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