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This is the all new Soundboks… and this is by far the biggest and most expensive bluetooth speaker I’ve ever reviewed on this channel. So thank you very much to Soundboks for sending this speaker out and lets see exactly what this beast can do cause there are some very notable and important upgrades from the Soundboks 2 that you’re definitely going to want to know about.
Now for starters for those who may not know, Soundboks is a young company that makes these super big and super rugged bluetooth speakers that get super loud so that you can basically set up your own music festival any where you go. Now obviously one of the first questions here is going to be price. Now the new Soundboks is going to be retailing for $999 which is $100 more than the Soundboks 2. But if you want to pick this speaker up it’ll be linked down below.
So exactly how rugged is this speaker? Well for starters this speaker has silicon balls on every corner so you can just drop this speaker anywhere and not worry about damaging it, it has a powder-coated aluminum frame, an easy to remove steel grill on the front and everything else is just a plywood cabinet. This speaker also has built in carrying handles on each side so it makes luging this 34 pound behemoth a little easier, there’s a top hat mount on the bottom if you moon light as a DJ and it also has an IP65 rating which means that if it starts raining during your party you don’t gotta worry about this speaker getting a little wet. Now even though yeah it is a workout carrying this speaker around… the end result is so worth it.
When it comes to tech specs, this Soundboks has an advertised battery life of 40 hours when used at 50% percent volume and an advertised battery life of 5 hours when used at max volume. But one of the coolest features of Soundboks’s in general is their removable battery. If you’re going to be using this speaker somewhere where you can’t plug in, if you have multiple batteries you can easily keep the party going.
Now obviously the Soundboks 3 comes with a single battery and if you want to get another one its going to run you an extra $149. But still obviously if you don’t plan on getting another battery you can still just still use your speaker while plugged in and also charge your battery at the same time.
Regarding wireless connectivity, this speaker is rocking bluetooth 5.0 and I was able to get a wireless range of over 100 feet with direct line of sight which is a really good thing. But unfortunately even though this speaker is using bluetooth 5.0 it can only be connected to one device at a time and from what I can tell there’s no AAC or APTX support.
But if you really want to get the best sound out of this speaker then you can use a wired connection. There’s your standard 3.5 millimeter audio jack just like the soundboks 2, But there’s also a 3.5 millimeter out so you can daisy chain any other speaker you might have lying around and there are 2 XLR inputs so you can hook up instruments, mics, or a DJ mixer. And the addition of this 3.5 millimeter out port and 2 XLR inputs is just something previous Soundboks’s didn’t have.
But now lets talk about speaker set ups cause its slightly different from both the original soundboks and the Soundboks 2. So the new soundboks has dual 10 inch diameter woofers with reflex ports that shoot out the sides through the carrying handles that I mentioned earlier and there’s a single 1 inch tweeter horn. Now when it comes to sound quality, yes this speaker sound very good and it has a neutral sound signature. But what’s truly impressive here is just how loud this speaker gets just off of battery power. Now this is Soundboks’s loudest speaker yet. The original soundboks was rated at 119 decibels, the soundboks 2 was rated at 122 decibels and the soundboks 3 is rated at 126 decibels. So this sound test is going to be very different from what I usually do. First off we’re going to be doing it outside and all of the speakers here are going to be playing at max volume. So major headphone waring.
Now yes, I know this isn’t an apples to apples comparison… honestly I just don’t currently have any other large cabinet speakers like the JBL Partybox 300 or Sony XB90… but I’ve kind of been looking for an excuse to make a sound test pairing all of my JBL and Sony speakers together so I thought this would still be fun.
But with all of that out of the way lets focus back on the Soundboks. Now like I mentioned earlier this speaker has a neutral sound signature, but just as you’d expect this speaker still has a lot of bass just cause all of the air those 10 inch woofers are pushing around. And even though this speaker has a lot of bass thumping bass, its still tight and it doesn’t drown everything else. But more importantly even at max volume there isn’t any noticeable audio distortion or narrowing of the soundstage which is great for your next block party or if you’re a DJ your next gig.
But one of the biggest new features on the new soundboks besides getting louder and the new Pro panel with the audio out and dual XLR inputs is the addition of a speaker pairing protocol like most other Bluetooth speakers have these days which soundboks calls TeamUp. And its very simple to use, you just set one speaker up as the host and you set the other speakers up to join. So this way, if you have multiple third generation soundboks you can wirelessly pair them up and have them all play in sync. And TeamUP allows you to pair up to 5 third generation Soundboks’s together which I think is plenty.
So over all, the new soundboks has some major improvements over the soundboks 2. Relatively speaking it gets slightly louder than the Soundboks 2 but in general this new Soundboks is a freakishly loud bluetooth speaker that still sounds great when turned up to eleven, only PA systems can compare to it… and personally I was a little worried I was going to get the cops called on me when I was doing that sound test. But the new Soundboks can now also appeal to prosumers thanks to those new dual XLR inputs and thanks to that new 3.5 millimeter out port you can daisy chain any other speaker you have lying around… maybe a soundboks 2 or an original soundboks. And the new TeamUp feature is great too cause if you get multiple third generation Soundboks’s you can easily wirelessly pair them up together at the press of a button. The new soundboks definitely aint for the faint of heart, but this thing is sick.