When Amazon first introduced Alexa and the Echo speaker six years ago, the idea of talking to a digital assistant wasn't totally novel. Both the iPhone and Android phones had semi-intelligent voice controls -- but with the Echo, Amazon took its first step toward making something like Alexa a constant presence in your home. Since then, Apple and Google have followed suit, and now there's a huge variety of smart speakers available at various price points. As the market exploded, the downsides of having a device that's always listening for a wake word have become increasingly apparent. They can get activated unintentionally, sending private recordings back to monolithic companies to analyze. And even at the best of times, giving more personal information to Amazon, Apple and Google can be a questionable decision. That said, all these companies have made it easier to manage how your data is used -- you can opt out of humans reviewing some of your voice queries, and it's also less complicated to manage and erase your history with various digital assistants, too. The good news is that there's never been a better time to get a smart speaker, particularly if you're a music fan.

November hasn't even started yet and Best Buy has already kicked off its early Black Friday deals. Sure, the retailer had a number of "Black Friday guaranteed" prices on its website already, but a slew of new deals are available today through November 1. Among them are some of our favorite headphones and earbuds as well as Amazon devices that were discounted last week for a limited time -- some of those deals are back. Feel free to shop the entire sale but we sifted through the batch and picked out the best deals we could find to make things a bit easier for you. Our favorite pair of wireless ANC headphones is down to a new all-time low. Sony's excellent WH-1000XM4 headphones are $278 right now, which is $72 off their normal price.

It's the aesthetic that grabbed me. Bluetooth speakers have become commonplace, but a desktop spheroid robo-speaker with glowing lights? Being from a crowd-funded startup does lend itself to a bit of skepticism, but after getting to test the GravaStar by Zoeao, I found that it's no cheap plastic toy. It has a solidly built metal exterior, bright green accent lights, a Qualcomm chipset and Harman Kardon audio components. If the design appeals to you as well, you can pick one up for $129 on Indiegogo as an early bird backer.

The $150 Boom 3 and the $200 Megaboom 3 are portable, battery-powered speakers that are waterproof and shaped in such a way that they throw sound in every direction. The Megaboom 3 is a physically larger speaker--imagine a fatter version of those tall Arizona iced tea cans you can buy at the gas station--that weighs in at almost exactly two pounds compared to the 1.34 pound Megaboom 3. Neither of these speakers can talk to Alexa like the Blast and Megablast speakers UE released last year, but there are some benefits to make up for the lack of digital assistant for those who don't want voice control in the first place. The top of the Megaboom 3 now plays host to what UE calls the "magic button," which allows you to control the music playing on the speaker without reaching for your phone. Pressing it once plays or pauses the music, while double-pressing it skips to the next track. If you use Apple Music or Android's Deezer platforms to stream your tunes, you can use the UE app to designate up to four playlists that you can play immediately by pressing and holding the magic button for three seconds. I found myself using this a lot.