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Reviews (1)
16 Aug, 2019
JBL’s BoomBox is a superior beast
3 of 3 found this helpful Having researched more than a few higher performance Bluetooth speakers, I’m convinced JBL’s BoomBox offers the best boom for your bucks. It’s not cheap at $350-450 but, compared to others, sounds good and loud in a relatively small package, plus plenty of bass both indoors and out.
The BoomBox is surprisingly decent sounding outside (there’s a switch for indoor or outdoor on the unit). Most portables sound fine inside but are lost in open space. With dual mini subs at either end, plus bright tweeters, there’s definition in playback outdoors. Bazooka and cone style speakers are trendy now and for good reason: Computers and modeling combined with today’s sophisticated materials manufacturing has made great leaps in sound quality in smaller forms. Traditional box or cabinet speakers by comparison often sound dull and flat, especially as a single speaker source instead of stereo pair. The BoomBox doesn’t suffer as a single, indoors or out. It’s rated at 20w unplugged and 30w when plugged (requires a sizable external 18v transformer power cord and not a simple wire straight to the outlet). Honestly, whether plugged or not, the sound difference is indistinguishable. It sounds loud and bright regardless.
While the BoomBox sounds great alone, it can be paired with another for stereo. Also, via JBL’s proprietary Connect+ technology, over 100 speakers can be simultaneously connected to a single audio source (there are smaller JBL portable speakers that can connect too for flexibility such as their popular Flip, Charge, and Xtreme series). A proprietary solution is important because other speakers that rely on Bluetooth for pairing tend to be unreliable, cutting out often briefly even when beside each other. Moreover, Bluetooth dual pairing seems to be the limit on most speakers.
Other outstanding features include a full IPX7 rating for resisting dust and water, even when submerged. Also, the BoomBox can play for 24 hours per charge on a massive 20,000mAh battery. It supports 2 USB plugs for device charging and a mini jack for aux input. There’s an iOS and Android app as well that’s fortunately mostly unnecessary (it’s required for firmware updates, setting whether the Play button is used to play/pause or activates a voice assistant, and changing its Bluetooth name as it appears in your device’s Bluetooth list).
While the BoomBox sounds good in many environments, it’s definitely bass and treble heavy. Mid frequencies take a back seat and there’s no EQ on board. For many this is expected as EDM and hip hop favors extreme frequencies. No doubt a younger party crowd is what JBL is going for. The BoomBox still sounds fine for acoustic genres, but could be better or at least offer some dynamics control. On the other hand, JBL went for simplicity which most will prefer since they just want the speaker to connect quickly and play loud. And it does: turning it on causes my devices to quickly connect and 2 devices are allowed which is great when switching between a phone in some cases and a tablet at other times. Unfortunately, the controls are too simple with volume and play/pause (if voice assistant mode is not selected), plus Bluetooth pairing, multi-speaker activation, and indoor/outdoor toggle. At least it’s possible to advance to next track by double-pressing the play button. The least enjoyable part of this speaker is the somewhat small foot. It’s not tiny and the speaker doesn’t tend to fall over on a flat surface, but it seems too small for its size and weight (at 11 lbs, it’s beefy which isn’t super easy to carry but is rugged for outdoor use). If it does fall over, watch it do a floppy roll as it’s barrel-shaped. Bring a strap to tie it down if used on a boat! Luckily it has a sturdy, large handle to strap onto.
All told, the compromises required in the BoomBox are warranted and minimal. Sure it’s bigger and heavier than most but, if you want to push some air and rock a bigger space, you’ve got to power some hefty drivers. My reason for choosing the BoomBox is to blast some bangers for an outdoor roller skate group I host. We skate on basketball courts and school quads. I want to get a second JBL portable but, honestly, one BoomBox is loud enough to actually feel the beats outside even at the far end of the rink! I also brought it to the beach to entertain and it was easily heard above crashing waves and people’s chatter. That’s no small task either. Amazingly, the BoomBox competes with much larger broad frequency PA speakers that DJs use and it’s much smaller and portable than those giant box cabinet speakers. One thing though, bring a bike lock and shackle that thing if you’re going to leave it out at parties. People know about the BoomBox’s value and they tend to suddenly disappear.