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This is the JBL Boombox 2… its the latest and largest party boost speaker in JBL’s line up and obviously its the successor to the super popular JBL boombox. Now this speaker does have some changes on both the outside and inside from the original Boombox… But lets see how the new JBL boombox 2 stacks up to the original… and lets see if its worth upgrading for you if you already have the original boombox.
Now for starters there’s price… the original Boombox used to retail for $450 when it first came out, but then its retail price got changed to $500 in mid 2019. But now the original boombox is typically on sale for $400 these days. Where as the new boombox 2 currently retails for $500. So if you want to pick either of these speakers up they’ll be linked down below, and I highly suggest you check them out cause JBL’s speakers routinely like to go on sale.
Now first off lets talk about the design of this speaker… the boombox 2 looks very similar to the original. You’ve got your exposed passive radiators on either side, the majority of this speaker is covered in fabric so it can stand up to constant wear and tear, you’ve got your control buttons up top, and you’ve also got your built in carrying handle. But there are some minor cosmetic changes to point out here. Most notably the passive radiators on this speaker are way more stylized this time around. cause yeah, even though the original boombox has the same exposed passive radiators… looks wise they look much simpler than the new Boombox. Now two other minor cosmetic differences to point out on the new Boombox 2 is that there’s a lot more gnarling underneath the carrying handle than the original’s and the battery status indicator light is a lot more prominent… which personally im not a fan of cause it just looks like its tacked on. But more importantly, the new boombox 2 is a touch larger over all than the original Boombox. Its a little taller and its a little wider. And its also a little heavier weighing in at 13 pounds versus the original boombox which weighs in at eleven and a half pounds. Now this one pound and a half difference isn’t a huge deal but it is something that I noticed the first time that I grabbed this speaker. But just like before, the boombox 2 is a good large speaker that you can take on the go with you somewhere. Its super durable thanks to it mostly fabric body, and just like before its still IPX7 water proof. So if this speaker gets any kind of water on it, its going to be perfectly fine. The only thing to watch out for is just to make sure to not push these radiators in.
Now when it comes to tech specs the boombox 2 has been upgraded to bluetooth 5.1 where as the original boombox uses bluetooth 4.2. now this isn’t a huge deal cause both speakers can be connected to 2 devices as the same time so you and a friend can both be DJ and they both have stable bluetooth connections… but I did notice that the Boombox 2 still has a little bit of latency when ever you try to watch a video on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device across the board. Its easy enough to ignore but its still there. And just like before… the boombox 2 is still strictly SBC, there’s still no AAC or Aptx support.
But thankfully, the Boombox 2 still has audio jack… which I know might sound a little weird but JBL has been getting rid of the audio jack on their speakers lately. They got rid of the audio jack on their Pulse 4 and flip 5. And the boombox 2 still has a USB A out port so that you can charge your own devices, but I do want to point out that they got rid of a USB port cause the original boombox actually has 2 USB ports for charging. But personally wish the Boombox 2 also a USB C port cause some phones are starting to come with Usb C cables. So I think a USB C port would have future proofed the Boombox 2 a little better.
Now when it comes to battery life, the Boombox 2 has the same advertised battery life of 24 hours just like the original boombox. But those numbers are for when you’re using your speaker at 50 percent volume. But real world battery life with this speaker set at 80 percent volume im getting around 7 hours of playback time which is a little less than the original boombox cuase for me the original boombox has been good for around 8 and a half hours of playback time.
And this slightly reduced battery life performance at higher volumes is probably cause the Boombox 2 is now a 30 watt speaker when playing off of its built in battery versus the original boombox which is a 20 watt speaker when its playing off of its built in battery. But regardless the battery life on the Boombox 2 is decent and it can last you a full day of listening.
But now lets talk about actually listening to music with these speakers. Like I just mentioned, the new Boombox 2 is a 30 watt speaker when playing off of its built in battery where as the original Boombox is a 20 watt speaker. What this means is that the Boombox 2 gets a little louder and it has a little more bass than the original boombox. But under the hood these speakers still have the same set ups. Both of these speakers still have dual four inch woofers, dual 20 millimeter tweeters which is about .8 inches. And like we discussed earlier, both of these speakers also have those signature dual passive radiators shooting out the sides. Now for this sound test we’re going to do things a little differently… since both of these speakers have the same sound signatures so they sound identical, we’re going to compare these speakers a maximum volume instead. Cuase I feel thats what most people are interested in. But something that I do have to point out is that the boombox 2 no longer has an indoors mode and outdoor mode like the original boombox those. Which personally I don’t know why JBL got rid of that, cause now you’re stuck with only one EQ on the Boombox 2. But with all that being said, lets jump into the sound test.
So like you may have just heard, JBL’s sound signature likes to put an emphasis on the mids and vocals and the bass comes in when it has to. Now from a performance standpoint, I feel that the new Boombox 2 just manages to slightly out perform the Original Boombox. The Boombox 2 manages to get a touch louder and it has a touch more physical bass. But honestly I feel that if you weren’t able to switch between these two speakers and listen to them back to back you wouldn’t even know there was a difference. Now during the sound test you may have seen and or heard that the original Boombox sounded a little brighter when in outdoors mode. And that is to be expected cause what outdoors mode does is that it slightly reduces the bass on the boombox and increases the mids and highs a little bit so that the boombox sounds louder and so that its sound can travel out a little farther. So I kind of wish they didn’t get rid of the out doors mode on Boombox 2 cause it could have still came in handy.
But also keep in mind if you want to get a little bit more out of this speaker you can always plug it in. Now like I mentioned earlier this is a 30 watt speaker when playing off of its battery but when you plug it in it then increase to a 40 watt speaker. And when you have this speaker plugged in you a get a little more bass and a little more loudness out of it. And this is also the case as the original Boombox, except its a 30 watt speaker when plugged in. But interestingly enough the original boombox continues to keep up with the Boombox 2 even when plugged interestingly, again the difference between these two speakers at max volume is very marginal.
Now like I mentioned earlier, the Boombox 2 no longer has an indoors or an outdoors mode. And unfortunately JBL’s app doesn’t allow you to directly change its EQ… And here’s my problem with that. Like I mentioned earlier the Boombox 2 puts an emphasis on mids and a little bit on the highs. Which means vocals are very pronounced. But the problem with that is that if you use this speaker at higher volumes indoors then the highs can get ear piercing at times. So personally I avoid using this speaker past 85% volume when indoors. But also the bass on both Boombox’s doesn’t increase linearly as you increase the volume. The bass on both of these speakers increase up until they hit 80% volume and then from there on out just the mids and highs get louder. So when used at high volumes even though these speakers are blaring out a ton of mids and highs, since the physical bass isn’t there to back it up these speakers sound a little shallow in my opinion. But at lower volumes especially anything below 80% these speakers sound well rounded and full because they have the bass to back it up. So overall even though the Boombox 2 gets a little louder and has little more bass than the original boombox its not a huge difference and it wouldn’t constitute an upgrade in my opinion.
But one major difference between the original boombox and boombox 2 that might constitute an upgrade for some people is that the Boombox 2 now has party boost. Which means you can pair the boombox 2 up to another boombox 2 or to a JBL Pulse 4 or to a JBL flip 5 or all of the above cause you can pair up to 100 party boost speakers together.
Where as the original boombox is using JBL connect plus, so you can pair it up to another original boombox, an extreme 2, a charge 3, a charge 4, flip 4, and or a Pulse 3 cuase they’re all also using JBL connect Plus. But you can’t pair a Partyboost speaker to a JBL Connect Plus speaker. So no you can’t pair a Boombox to a Boombox 2.
Now I absolutely agree that this sucks and does look and feel like planned obsolescence but I a have found that party boost is little more stable and you get way better range between speakers than you do with JBL Connect Plus. And if you plan on getting more JBL speakers in the future then the smart investment would be to go with the part boost speaker today.
But overall even though yeah the JBL Boombox 2 is a decent speaker… from a performance standpoint it doesn’t constitute an upgrade from the original Boombox for me. Even though the Boombox 2 gets a little louder and has a little more bass than the Original Boombox… its marginal at best. And keep in mind, the Boombox 2 is getting slightly less battery life than the original Boombox at higher volumes. Even though 7 hours of playback time at 80% volume is decent… the original boombox is good for eight and a half hours. SO if you already have the original boombox I wouldn’t recommend that you upgrade and if you’re looking for a deal I would actually recommend that you get the original boombox over the boombox 2 especially if you can save yourself a good amount of money. But if you are planning on getting more JBL speakers in the future then you are better off getting the JBL Boombox 2.