The Partybox Encore Essential is a great little box speaker that packs a very big punch in a very small package. And for most people, I think this speaker will have no problem delivering. But if you’re looking for something durable and portable to constantly take on the go with you… the encore will get the job done… but today we’re going to compare the Encore to the JBL Boombox 2, the Sony XG500 and the UE Hyperboom.

Now when it comes to price, the Encore essential has a retail price of $300… not bad. But so that there isn’t any confusion, there’s also the Partybox Encore in the pipeline which is going to retail for $400. And basically, this speaker is going to have a longer battery life, an extended light feature, and its going to come included with 2 mics. But honestly at $400, I think you should just go with the 110 if you can find it. But then there are all of these other speakers which are a little more expensive than the Encore Essential. The Hyperboom has a retail price of $450 and both the Boombox 2 and XG500 have a retail price of $500. So the Encore does undercut all of these other speakers by a good amount. Nonetheless, if you want to pick any of these speakers up, they’ll be linked down below.

Now first lets talk about the design of these speakers. Now all of these speakers are fairly small and coincidentally, they all weigh in at 13 pounds… they’re all very easy to take on the go with you. But one specific thing that I like about both the Encore and Hyperboom are their square designs. These speaker aren’t going to roll around in the trunk of your car while you’re driving like both the Boombox 2 and XG500 do. But even though the Encore is very portable, its nowhere near as durable as these other speakers. Now all of these speakers have varying degrees of water resistance and the XG500 is officially water resistant as well… so a little rain or getting splashed on isn’t going to be a problem for any of these speakers. But the Encore is rocking some relatively soft plastic so it does love to collect scratches… and the metal grill on the front is pretty thin. Where as with all of these other speakers… they all have fabric wrapped bodies that an take a beating. So with these other speakers, you don’t have to baby them as much. So overall, all of these other speakers are just more durable than the Encore, which could be very important if you plan on constantly taking your speaker to the park or beach. Now don’t get me wrong, the Encore will get the job done as well… but its not my first pick.

But, the Encore would be my first pick if I was looking for a speaker for my man cave. The light feature on the Encore is very impressive and you have a few different lighting modes to choose from. And this light feature is going to look great either indoors or outdoors at night. Now the XG500 is the only other speaker here that also has a built in light feature… but to be honest, since this light feature is tucked into the passive radiators of this speaker… its very hard to see.  So personally I never use the light feature on the XG500 and instead just enjoy the extended battery life.

Now when it comes to battery life… the XG500 has an advertised battery life of 30 hours… but that with this speaker playing at 50% volume, with its light feature turned off but with its mega bass feature turned on. And under similar circumstances… both the Boombox 2 and Hyperboom have an advertised battery life of 24 hours.

However, real world use with the XG500 playing at 80% volume, with the light feature turned off, but with its mega bass feature turned on… its good for a very healthy 10 hours of playback time. Where as under the same circumstances, the Hyperboom is good for about 8 and half hours of playback time and the Boombox 2 is good for about 7 hours of playback time. Overall, all of these speaker will have no problem keeping up with you… but the Sony does have the best stamina here.

But then there’s the Encore Essential which has an advertised battery life of 6 hours. And that’s with this speaker playing at 65% volume… which is a very good listening volume while out doors… but its not as loud as 80% volume on these other speakers… with the light feature turned off and with bass boost turned off as well.

But real world use with the Encore essential playing at 80% volume, with the light feature tuned  on and with the bass boost feature set to punchy, which is the second level of bass boost… im only getting about 3 hours of playback time. So if battery life is really important to you… the Encore essential just isn’t going to be able to keep up with you like these other speakers.

Now when it comes to ports… both the Encore Essential and Sony XG500 have a single quarter inch input… so if you want you can plug in a microphone. And this is a feature that these other two speakers don’t have. However, the hyperboom does have an optical port, so you can always use it as a sound bar with your TV if you want. But personally I think karaoke is more important for a speaker like this.

Now continuing on the topic of ports, all of this speakers have audio jack so you can use them with a wired connection as you should… and they all have USB A ports so that you can charge your own devices, if you really must. But with both the Encore and XG500… you can plug in a USB Stick and play music off of it. Now I think its great and all that all of these speakers have USB A ports… but I still wish these speakers had USB C ports on them.

Now when it comes to bluetooth connectivity… all of these speakers can be connected to two devices at the same time, so you and a friend can both be DJ. And all of these speakers don’t have any latency issues, so if you’re going to watch a video with any of these speakers, your Audio and visual will be in sync. But when it comes to audio codecs… both the Hyperboom and Boombox 2 are only using SBC… where as the Encore has support for both SBC and AAC… but then there’s the XG500 which has support for SBC, AAC, and Sony’s own LDAC.

But now lets talk about sound. Regarding speaker set ups, the Encore has a single frontward firing woofer, and dual frontward firing tweeters. But the Encore also has a rear firing exhaust port. So with this speaker, you can amplify its bass by simply placing it up against as wall. But then there’s the Boombox 2 and XG500 which both have dual frontward firing woofers, dual frontward firing tweeters and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. So with both of these speakers you can amplify their bass if you place them in a corner. And finally there’s the Hyperboom which also has dual frontward firing woofers and dual frontward firing tweeters… but its passive radiators shoot out the back. So you can also amplify its bass by placing it up against a wall. But now we’re going to jump into that sound test. All of these speakers are playing at 80% volume. Both the Boombox 2 and Hyperboom are playing with their stock EQ’s where as the XG500 is playing with its mega bass feature turned on and the Encore is playing with its Bassboost set to punchy.

Now first I have to point out that the XG500 has a much warmer sound signature to compared to all of these other speakers. So the XG500 can sound a little shallow at times. Where as all of these other speakers do a better job of putting an emphasis on the mids, so vocals are more pronounced. Now sound signature wise, the Encore and Boombox 2 are very similar to one another… however, the Boombox 2 has much better instrument separation than the Encore, so the boombox 2 sounds much more open than the Encore. And then there’s the Hyperboom, which I feel sounds little more open than the Boombox 2 and it also has a little more bass. Now while the Encore is playing with its bass boost set to deep… it does have a little less physicality in its bass than the all of these other speakers. However if you were to use this speaker with its bass boost set to punchy… or the second level of bass boost… the Encore will have more bass than these other speakers. But this speaker just won’t sound as open as open as all of these other speakers. So if your main priority is bass, then the Encore can deliver when its bass boost is set to punchy. And if you’re really crazy, you can even go in and raise the bass through its customizable EQ… plus have bass boost turned on… and its going to have even more bass… but if you do this, its going to sound super shallow. But its an option. Now with both the Hyperboom and XG500 you can also customize their EQ’s to your liking if you want. The Boombox 2 is the only speaker here that you can’t customize its EQ. And I don’t think the Boombox 2 is going to get a customizable EQ anytime soon cause JBL is probably saving that feature for the upcoming Boombox 3.

But then there’s max volume performance on these speakers. When their running off of their internal batteries… the Hyperboom get the loudest here, closely followed by the Boombox 2. But then there’s the Encore and XG500 which don’t get as loud as these speakers when they’re running off of their internal batteries. The XG500 doesn’t get as loud partly cause of its warmer sound signature and the Encore just doesn’t get as loud. But nonetheless, all of these speakers get decently loud. But with all of these speaker, except the Hyperboom. If you were to use them while they’re plugged in, you’re going to get a performance boost out of them. They’re going to get a little louder and have a little more bass. And when the Encore is plugged it… it gets just as loud as the Boombox 2 when its plugged in as well. And the XG500 does a good job of keeping up as well. Even with its warmer sound signature. But the Hyperboom still manages to inch ahead all of these other speakers when it comes to max volume. So overall, if you’re looking for the speaker here with the best sound quality and the best instrument separation… I still maintain that the Hyperboom is the way to go.

But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers up with one another. Now Sony is super accommodating here cause you can pair your XG500 up to Sony’ larger box speakers like either their XP500 or XP700… or you can also pair it up to an XB43, XB33, or to an XB23, and you can pair upto 100 speakers together which is unnecessary. Now even though Sony’s speaker pairing protocol is very accommodating… its not my favorite. Sometimes not all of your speakers get paired up and sometimes you will hearing skipping in your music. But it works when it does.

Then there’s UE’s party up which works very well. You can pair your Hyperboom up to another hyperboom or to a few Boom or Megaboom speakers and you can have up to 150 speakers paired together. Which is also unnecessary. But more importantly, Party Up is very easy to use, all of your speakers get paired up very quickly, and skipping is not an issue.

And then there’s JBL’s speaker pairing protocol which is also very easy to use and its very stable… but there is some fragmentation that you need to look out for. With JBL’s smaller more portable speakers that are using Partyboost… you can only pair them up to other Partyboost speakers. So if you’ve got a Boombox 2… you can only pair it up to another Boombox 2, or to a Boombox 3, Pulse 5, Pulse 4, Charge 5, Flip 6 or Flip 5 or any other speaker that using Partyboost. And you can have upto 100 speakers paired together.

But you can not pair a Partyboost speaker to a Partybox speaker. So a Boombox 2 is not going to connect to a Partybox Encore. But you can wirelessly connect a Partybox Encore up to another Encore, a 110, 310, or to a 710… and you can only have up to two speakers wirelessly paired together. Which I feel is just not enough. Now JBL’s TWS is also very stable… but I still wish JBL would just bring Partyboost to their Partybox speakers.

But with all of that being said, the JBL Partybox Encore is a little speaker that packs a very big punch. Its got a ton of bass, its got a great looking light feature and you can plug in a microphone into it if you want. The main draw backs with the Encore is that it doesn’t have the longest battery life out there, and its not super durable. But the Partybox Encore Essential does give you a big bang for your buck.

But still, there is merit if you are thinking about getting one of these other more premium speakers. They’re all much more durable, and they all have much better battery life. And both the Hyperboom and Boombox 2 have much better instrument separation and sound much more open than the Encore. Now personally, I recommend that you pick up the Hyperboom if you want the speaker here with the best sound. The XG500 is a great pick if battery life is very important to you. And if you plan on getting multiple speakers and you want to pair them up together on a regular basis… then the Boombox 2 is my top pick. But just remember, the Boombox 3 is confirmed for right around the corner.