This is the JBL Partybox 300… and in short this thing is no joke. Its a battery powered box speaker thats essentially a sup’d up JBL boombox but it also has a built in light feature. Something that JBL is actually really good at if you just look at their pulse 3 and pulse 4. And if you’re looking for a speaker to use in your garage slash man cave… I think the Partybox 300 is a pretty solid option. 

But first off I want to go over pricing. There’s the Partybox 100 which retails for $350, there’s the Partybox 200 which retails for $450 there’s the Partybox 300 which is what I have here and retails for $500… and then there’s the Partybox 1000 which retails for $1,200. But the Partybox 1000 and 200 don’t have a built in rechargeable batteries, so they’re not as portable or as versatile as the Partybox 100 or 300. But non the less if you want to pick this speaker up it’ll be linked down below.

Now I want to address the portability of this speaker cause I assume that if you’re looking into getting a battery powered box speaker like this you’ll might plan on taking it on the go with you on occasion. This speaker weighs in at 35 pounds which isn’t too bad and it also built in carrying handles. But when it comes to the over all durability you still gotta be mindful of it. This speaker has a mostly plastic body which can easily get scratched and it also doesn’t have any type of IP water or dust resistant ratings mainly cause of the exposed ports on the back. 

Now when it comes to ports this speaker has a pair of RCA inputs and outputs so you can hook this speaker up to a receiver or you can hook this speaker up to another speaker. But this speaker also has an AUX jack and it also has a USB A port which you can use to charge your phone. And you can also use the USB port on this speaker to plug in a thumb drive and play music from there. 

And lastly this speaker also has a mic and guitar input if you want to hook either of those things to your speaker. The only input that I wish this speaker had was a USB C port since a lot of phone these days are starting to come with USB C to USB C cables and even the new iPhone 11 Pro comes included with a USB C to lighting cable.

But now I want to address the charging ports on this speaker. You get your standard two prong AC cable and you use the AC port on this speaker to either power the speaker and or charge the internal battery. But you also get a second cable which you can use with your car charger to power the speaker. But keep in mind, if you’re powering this speaker with your car it’ll play music but it won’t charge the internal battery. 

Now when it comes to the battery life on this speaker… this speaker has an advertised battery life of 18 hours. But thats with the sparker set to 50 percent volume. If you use this speaker at higher volumes we’re looking at a battery life of around 4 hours which isn’t all that. But I do want to point out that this speaker sounds very different from when its plugged in versus when its running off of its battery. 

This speaker sounds its best when its plugged in cause when its plugged in you can really feel the bass. Where as when its running off of its battery the bass is reduced to help save battery life. But this speaker also has a bass boost button. So if you want you can increase the bass on this speaker but you’re going to sacrifice battery life. And also there’s two levels to this bass boost button. And if you press the bass boost button twice then this speaker is going to sound like it does when its plugged in. 

Now the bass boost button doesn’t change the overall sound signature of this speaker it literally just increases the amount of bass that you physically feel… which I really appreciate. Now just like the rest of JBL’s speakers the Partybox has a slight emphasis on the mids and vocals so that they don’t get overpowered by the bass. But so that you can hear for yourself we’re going to jump into a sound test. 

But as a heads up we’re going to be sound testing the Partybox with its flat sound signature against its bass boosted sound signature and Im also going to be using the New Soundboks. Now I know this isn’t an apples to apple comparison cause the Soundboks is a $1000 speaker… but the new Soundboks is currently my favorite speaker.

So like you may have just heard… the bass boost button on the PartyBox doesn’t really change how it sounds. Mids and vocals are still front and center and the only difference is the amount of physical bass that you feel. But the instrument separation and soundstage on the PartyBox is noticeably weak when compared to the Soundboks. The Soundboks sounds much more open and clearer. And not to mention the Bass on the Soundboks hits way harder and it gets way louder. But again the Soundboks costs literally twice as much as the Partybox. 

But non the less the Partybox sounds decent and distortion isn’t a problem at higher volumes. But I do want to point out that the Partybox only gets slightly louder than the JBL Boombox. I was kinda expecting loudness difference between the PartyBox and Boombox to be greater than it actually is. But the major performance difference between the Partybox and Boombox is the bass. The difference between the bass of these two speaker is huge… but the over all loudness not as much as id like it to be. 

But with sound quality out of the way lets talk about the extra features on this speaker. Obviously this speaker has a built in light feature and I personally think this light feature looks way better than a lot of other similar speakers out there that also have a light feature. Namely Sony’s speakers. But unfortunately JBL’s speaker only has 3 different lighting modes to choose from. They all look good but I just really wish this speaker had more lighting modes to choose from. 

Also, unfortunately this speaker doesn’t connect to JBL’s connect app so you can’t customize the color of this light feature on this speaker like you can with the Pulse 4. So overall even though JBL’s Partybox has an impressive light feature I think it has a lot more potential cause the Pulse 3 and Pulse 4 proves that JBL can do a lot more with this light feature. 

But now lets talk about the bluetooth connectivity on this speaker. This speaker is using bluetooth 4.2 and it can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so you and a friend can both be DJ. But unfortunately this speaker I only suitable for listening to music cause this speaker has a lot of latency whenever you play videos through it. 

But finally even though this speaker is a JBL speaker… unfortunately the Partybox doesn’t have JBL connect plus or party boost. Meaning that you can’t pair this speaker to any JBL connect plus speakers or party boost speakers. But you can wirelessly pair this speaker to one other PartyBox speaker. Even though thats cool and all I really wish this speaker had Partyboost so that you can pair it up to some of JBL’s newer speakers.

But overall the JBL PartyBox 300 is a pretty solid speaker to consider if you’re looking for something big to use in your garage, man cave, home gym or maybe even frat house. And thanks to its rechargeable battery you can easily move it around or take it on the go with you from time to time. But if you’re looking for a speaker to constantly shuttle around from location to location I would think twice before getting this speaker. The construction of this speaker isn’t super durable so you don’t want to risk breaking it by dropping it or getting it wet. But non the less it sounds good and it has a lot of bass but I still wish it got a little louder. But don’t get me wrong it does get more than loud enough. The light feature on the front is impressive and I think it looks better than Sony’s light feature but I wish you had more customization options. And finally even though you can wirelessly chain this speaker up to another PartyBox I wish you could pair this speaker to JBL’s Partyboost speaker. I’m not knocking on the Partybox im just giving JBL ideas for the Partybox 2.