JBL PartyBoost Speaker Lineup Explained 2021 — GYMCADDY (2023)

So now that the JBL Charge 5 is here Partyboost is finally complete. So today we’re going to break down JBL’s Partyboost speaker line up to see which one is right for you. We’ve got the JBL Clip 4, the Flip 5, the Charge 5, the Pulse 4, the Xtreme 3 and the JBL Boombox 2. Even though these are all just speakers depending on your needs you’ll be better off with one over the others. Besides sound… there’s also battery life, ports, portability, and extra little features to take into consideration.

But first lets take pricing into consideration… the clip 4 has a retail price of $70, the flip 5 has a retail price of $120, the charge 5 has a retail price of $180, the pulse 4 has a retail price of $250, the Xtreme 3 has a retail price of $350 and the Boombox 2 has a retail price of $500. Now JBL likes to put all of these speakers on sale on a regular basis so I would definitely be on the lookout if I were you. But nonetheless if you want to pick any of these speakers up they’ll be linked down below and if you want to learn more about any of these speakers please watch their full reviews and versus videos cause we’re only going over the main differences here.

Now design wise all of these speakers share the same characteristics and principals. The Flip 5, charge 5, Xtreme 3, and Boombox 2 all have these exposed passive radiators on either side… they have a mostly fabric wrapped body thats going to have no problem standing up to constant abuse… and all of these speakers are rocking a water proof certification so you don’t have to worry about them getting wet. In general, all of JBL’s speakers are meant to be used at home but if you want to take them on the go with you either on a hike or camping then any of these speakers will be able to keep up.

However there are two outliers here… first there’s the clip 4 which is the smallest speaker here and it has a built in carabiner. So you can just clip this speaker on to your back pack and get going. So if you’re looking for something ultra portable then you’ll might want to go with the clip 4. But then there’s the Pulse 4 which I would argue is the least portable bluetooth speaker here for multiple reasons and its better off just used while at home. First there’s durability… unlike all of these other speakers that have a fabric wrapped body, the Pulse 4 has an acrylic body which personally I would be careful with cause you could scratch or crack this body if you’re too rough with it. But then there’s my personal experience with my FIRST pulse 4. Even tough JBL claims that the Pulse 4 is IPX7 rated making it water proof… my first pulse 4 died the first time it touched water. So personally I wouldn’t risk getting the Pulse 4 wet. But then there’s also battery life… the Pulse 4 has an awesome looking light feature and you’ve got multiple lighting modes to choose from, but it is a drain on its battery. So this is a speaker thats mostly going to live on the charger. But the main reason why the Pulse 4 is better of just used at home and not so much outdoors is cause it has an upward firing transducer… so this speaker is going to sound its best if its sound has a ceiling to bounce off of.

Now while we’re on the topic of portability I do want to address our two largest speakers here… the Xtreme 3 and the Boombox 2. Now the boombox 2 is easy enough to take on the go with you cause it has a built in carrying handle and it weighs in at 13 pounds. But after awhile the Boombox 2 does start to get heavy especially if you’ve got a long hike ahead of you. Where as the Xtreme 3 is a lot easier to take on the go with you cause first off its much lighter weighing in at 4.3 pounds and it also has a shoulder strap. So thanks to this shoulder strap long treks aren’t as big of an issue with the Xtreme 3. And there’s also the fact that this should strap have a built in bottle opener which I feel is a very nice touch. So if you are looking for a larger speaker to take on the go with you personally I would go with the Xtreme 3 cause it is easier to carry and it has that built in bottle opener… But if you’re willing to put up with the Boombox 2 you will be rewarded which much more dynamic sound. I don’t know, personally I just wish the Boombox 2 also had a shoulder strap.

But now lets talk about tech specs… regarding connectivity all of these speakers have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device… and all of these speakers except for the Clip 4 can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so you and a friend can both be DJ.

Now when it comes to battery life… if you’re looking for the speakers here with the longest stamina then you’ll either want to go with the Charge 5 or Xtreme 3. The Charge 5 has an advertised battery life of 20 hours but real world use with it playing at 80% volume its good for around 10 hours of playback time. Where as with the Xtreme 3 it has an advertised battery life of 15 hours but again real world use its good for about 8 to 9 hours of playback time.

Where as with the Clip 4, Flip 5, and Boombox 2 they’re all going to have no problem keeping up with you with a whole days worth of listening… but the charge 5 and Xtreme 3 do have slightly better stamina. But then there’s the Pulse 4 who’s battery life really depends on which lighting more you’re using and at what brightness. Cause even though the Pulse 4 has an advertised battery life of 12 hours… I usually only get like 6 hours out of it.

But this now leads us to the ports on these speakers… the Clip 4, Flip 5, Charge 5, Pulse 4, and Xtreme 3 all charge via a USB C port which is great. Where as the Boombox 2 charges via an AC port. And the Charge 5, Xtreme 3, and Boombox 2 all have a Usb A out port so that you can charge your own devices.

But unfortunately all of the smaller speakers here like the Clip 4, Flip 5, Charge 5, and Pulse 4 no longer have an audio jack. So you can only use these smaller speakers wirelessly cause even though they all have a USB C port, their USB C ports are strictly used for charging. So if you do need or want and audio jack on your speaker cause you want to be able to use a wired connection then you’ll have to go with either the Xtreme 3 or Boombox 2.

However one really cool feature about the Xtreme 3 is that you can actually use its USB C port to either charge the speaker its self or you can charge your own devices. And I think this is a very nice touch cause most phones these days now come included with a USB C cable. Even iPhones now come included with USB C cables. So I don’t think USB A is going to be as popular in the near future.

But now lets talk about actually listening to music with these speakers. Obviously the larger the speaker the louder its going to get. And that mostly applies here. Regarding speaker set ups the Clip 4 is rocking a single upward firing transducer and its rated at 5 watts. The Flip 5 has a single frontward firing transducer, dual passive radiators that shoots out its sides and its rated at 20 watts. But then there’s the Pulse 4 which is also rated at 20 watts and it has a single transducer that shoots out the top and it has a single passive radiator that shoots out the bottom. In all honesty with the Pulse 4 you’re mainly paying for looks and getting flip 5 sound. Cause then there’s the Charge 5 which has a frontward firing 30 watt woofer, a 10 watt tweeter and you’ve got the dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. And plainly said if you’re looking into getting one of these smaller speakers and you're mainly interested in sound then you do want to go with the Charge 5 cause thanks to its new speaker set up the Charge 5 has much better instrument separation than these smaller speakers cause the tweeter handles the highs and the woofer handles the mids. But let me just show you.

So like you may have just seen both the Flip 5 and Pulse 4 have a single transducer thats doing the majority of the work. And they do sound fairly narrow when compared to the Charge 5 which has a tweeter for the highs and a woofer for the mids so it does sound more open. But now lets move on to the big boys. Both the Xtreme 3 and Boombox 2 are rocking a dual woofer, dual tweeter and dual passive radiator set up. But the main difference here is going to be the out puts. The Boombox 2 has an out put of 80 watts when its plugged in and when its running off of its internal battery its ratted at 60 watts. Where as the Xtreme 3 is rated at 50 watts while its plugged in but unfortunately I can’t get an exact number as to its out put while its running off of internal battery. Nonetheless the Xtreme 3 is a beast of a speaker all on its own… but you do get a performance bump out of it if you use it while its plugged in just like with the Boombox 2. But with all that being said we’re going to jump into a sound.

So like is said for the most part the larger the speaker the louder and more bass you’re going to get. Now first I want to focus on the smaller speakers here like the Flip 5, Charge 5, and Pulse 4. Like I mentioned earlier since the Charge 5 has a woofer and a tweeter its able to sound noticeably more open than both the Flip 5 and Pulse 4 that have a single transducer thats doing the bulk of the work. Also since the Charge 5 has a higher output than the flip 5 and pulse 4 its able to get louder and have more bass. Now the flip 5 sounds fine for its size… but like I mentioned earlier with the pulse 4 you’re mainly paying for its light feature and getting flip 5 sound. But with the Pulse 4 since it has an upward firing transducer if you want to get the best sound out of it you wanna use it while in doors so that it sound has a ceiling to bounce off of. But besides the Charge 5’s superior speaker set over the flip 5 and pulse 4… the charge 5 also has a slightly different sound signature. The Charge 5 does sound a little brighter than both the Flip 5 and Pulse 4 meaning that it does like to put a slight emphasis on the mids and vocals. And the Xtreme 3 also has this slightly brighter sound signature as well. Now after a while you do get used to the slightly brighter sound signature, and a brighter sound signature does have its advantages cause it makes your speaker sound louder which is good for out door use… but unfortunately since JBL still doesn’t allow you to directly change their speaker’s EQ you are stuck with the Charge 5’s and Xtreme 3’s brighter sound signature. Now when it comes to comparing the Xtreme 3 to the Boombox 2… the boombox 2 does sound more balanced than the Xtreme 3. The Boombox 2 doesn’t put as much of an emphasis on the vocals. And also since the Boombox 2 is larger and has a higher out put its get older and has more bass than the Xtreme 3. But like I mentioned earlier if you want to get the most out of the Boombox 2 you wanna use it while its plugged. When its plugged in its going to get a little louder and you’re going to get a little more bass. Now you’re also going to get a performance boost out the Xtreme 3 if you use it while its plugged in with its included charger. Now this is a pretty big deal for the Xtreme 3 cause not a lot of other speaker out there that charge via a USB C port get you a performance boost when they’re plugged. But with all that being said, if you’re looking into getting one of these smaller speakers then you do want to go with the Charge 5 cause thanks to its new speaker set up the Charge 5 sound noticeably more open than the Flip 5 and Pulse 4. The Charge 5 truly is a miniature Xtreme 3 thanks to the addition of that new tweeter. But if you want more sound than what the Charge 5 is able to offer then you do want to go with the Xtreme 3. But if you do decide to go with the Boombox 2 over the Xtreme 3 you’re not just going to get a louder speaker with more bass… in my opinion you are getting a more balanced sounding speaker cause the Boombox 2 doesn’t have that brighter sound signature thats found on the Charge 5 and Xtreme 3. But keep in mind the Charge 5 and Xtreme 3 are newer than the Boombox 2… so I wouldn’t be surprised if the boombox 3 as well as the future Flip 6 and Pulse 5 all have brighter sound signatures to match the Charge 5 Xtreme 3. And they’ll probably have that new huge JBL logo on the front as well.

But finally lets talk about speaker pairing protocols. Like ive mentioned in the past JBL does speaker pairing protocols very well. You just press one button on each speaker, they pair themselves up, you don’t gotta open any apps you can pair up to 100 speakers together which is over kill, if you have 2 of the same speakers you can set them up to play in left and right stereo, but more importantly it just works.

But unfortunately the JBL Clip 4 doesn’t have Partyboost so you can’t pair it up to any other speakers period.

And also keep in mind you can only pair Partyboost speakers to other partyboost speakers. If you have any older JBL speakers that are using JBL connect plus like lets say an original boombox, an Xtreme 2, Flip 4, Charge 4, Charge 3 or JBL Pulse 4 you’re not going to be able to pair them up to any party boost speakers. Now I know this isn’t ideal, but partyboost does have some performance improvements over JBL Connect plus. Specifically you can have a lot more range in between your speakers.

And also for my Partybox owners… no you can’t pair any of JBL’s Partyboost speakers with any Partybox speakers. Which I think is pretty unfortunate especially if you have a larger party boost speaker like either an Xtreme 3 or Boombox 2.

But now that the Partyboost family is complete does that mean we’re going to see some new speaker pairing protocol come out with the next JBL speaker to come out. Which personally I hope is a flip 6 with a new tiny tweeter. Personally I hope JBL doesn’t come out with a new speaker pairing protocol with their next speaker cause when we went from JBL Connect Plus to Partyboost it did look and feel like forced obsolesces. And the community really didn’t like that.

Personally I would like to see JBL continue to support Partyboost and bring party boost to their partybox line up. This way you can easily pair multiple partybox speakers together and even pair them up to JBL’s smaller speakers. And instead of forcing people to upgrade with a new speaker pairing protocol… you can incentivize people to upgrade by improving your speaker set ups like you did with the Charge 5, add new software features like an adjustable EQ, improve battery life, and maybe even introduce wireless charging or even reverse wireless charging.

But ultimately here’s my break down of JBL’s current speaker like up. If you’re looking for a small ultra portable bluetooth speaker to take on the go with you then the Clip 4 is a great option. It get decently loud for its size, but keep it mind it can’t paired to any other speakers. But if you want something a little louder thats still easy enough to take on the go then the Flip 5 is a good upgrade. Now if you're looking into getting a small or mid sized speaker and you want to the best sound then you definitely want to go with the Charge 5. Thanks to its all new speaker set up that now features a tweeter, the Charge 5 has noticeably better instrument separation than both the Flip 5 and Pulse 4. But if you’re looking for a cool looking speaker for you bedroom then you really can’t go wrong with the Pulse 4. The Pulse 4 really does have the best looking light feature on the market right now. However the pulse 4 is strictly better used at home cause of its upward firing transducer, its not as durable as these other speakers and its real world battery life isn’t the greatest. But if you’re looking for a large speaker to constantly take on the go with you then the Xtreme 3 is the best choice here. With the Xtreme 3 you’re getting great sound in a very small and light weight package with decent real world battery life. This is a speaker thats either going to be great either at home or on a camping trip. But if you do want the loudest speaker here with the most amount of bass then you do want to go with the Boombox 2. But personally for me I would rather mostly use the Boombox 2 at home and only occasionally take it on the go with me cause traveling with it isn’t as easy as the Xtreme 3.