So the Soundboks Go is Soundbok’s more portable but still ultra rugged and super loud bluetooth speaker that does a good job of keeping up with its larger brother… the Soundboks 3. Now like I said in the full review, I think the Soundboks Go is a very niche speaker and I also feel that it is going to get cross referenced with a lot of other speakers out there. But today we’re going to compare the Soundboks Go to both the JBL Partybox 110 and Sony XP500. Form factor wise, these are the most direct competitors to the Soundboks Go.
However, when it comes to pricing… these speakers are in two completely different leagues. Both the Partybox 110 and XP500 have a retail price of $400. Thanks to inflation, they have gotten a $50 price increase from when I initially reviewed them and the 110 can be a little hard to find. Where as the Soundboks Go has a retail price of $700 and if you want to add the shoulder strap, that’s going to be an additional $60. Now price wise, I know this is not an apple’s to apples comparison… but it is form factor wise. 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 size wise the Go is a little smaller than the 110 and XP500… specifically, its not as long, but it is relatively the same hight and and has the same depth. And all of these speakers weigh in between 20 and 25 pounds. So generally speaking… all of these speakers are just as portable as one another. However, the major design difference between all of these speakers is their durability. Now both the 110 and XP500 have a mostly plastic body and metal grill on the front. Now don’t get me wrong, these speakers are very well built. But their softer plastic bodies love to collect scratches anytime you're transporting either of these two speakers and you do run the risk of denting their fairly thin metal grills. Where as the Soundboks Go, that a whole other story. The Go also has a mostly plastic body and front honeycomb grill… however, the plastic used on the Go is way denser than the plastic used on these other two speakers and the Go does a phenomenal job of standing up to constant abuse. The only wear and tear that I have seen the Go collect is just some dirt that is found around its Extruded Rubber Bumpers. So if you are looking for a portable bluetooth speaker, and you need something super rugged… then the Go is the obvious choice. And besides just being way my durable than these other two speakers, the Go is also rocking higher IP water and dust resistance certifications coming in with a rating of IP65. Where as both the 110 and XP500 are both rocking IPX4 ratings. Basically all of this means is that both of the Speakers aren’t afraid of a little bit of water… so rain or getting splashed on isn’t going to be an issue… But the Go is also officially Dust resistant. Now even though the Go is technically more resistant than these other two speakers… and clearly this is a main selling point of this speaker… I would still be mindful about not getting any dust or water into the front firing exhaust ports found around the main woofer of this speaker. And the same goes for the 110 and XP500. But durability and portability aside, I also have to point out that the both the Go and 110 have speaker stand mounts on the bottom… where as the XP500 doesn’t. Which is a small but still very important detail for some. And as a bonus, the Go does have a built in loop strap, so you can always attach something to it if you need to.
However, something that these other two speakers have over the GO are their built in light features. Now you shouldn’t make your speaker purchase decision solely on a light feature… but if you were… obviously the 110 has a much better and was more dynamic looking light feature than the XP500. And if you plan on mostly using any of these box speakers mostly at home, at a lower volume while you entertain guests while on your deck, or if you plan on using them in your man cave on a regular basis… then the light feature on the is really going to come in handy. The light feature on the XP500 is also nice… but it just doesn’t compare.
But now lets talk about the battery life on these speakers cause there’s a lot of nuance here. The Sony XP500 has an advertised battery life of 20 hours where as the Partybox 110 has an advertised battery life of 12 hours. But the XP500’s advertise battery life of 20 hours is with it playing at 30% volume, with its light feature turned off but with its mega bass feature turned on which is good. However 30% volume on this speaker is nothing. Its good for like ambiance but its not good for like actually listening to music. And overall, max volume on the XP500 is a problem, but we will get into that later.
Where as with the Partybox its advertised battery life is with this speaker playing at a little over 20% volume, but with its light feature turned off and with bass boost turned off. However 20% volume on the Partybox is noticeably louder than 30% volume on the Sony XP500. And in general the Sony XP500 is a little quiet for its size while playing off of its internal battery. So personally I feel most people will be using the Sony between 50 to a hundred percent volume on a regular basis. Where as with the partybox, 60 to 80% volume is a good listening volume.
So real world use with the XP500 playing at 80% volume, with its light feature turned on and with mega bass turned on this speaker is good for about 8 hours which is fine. Where as with the partybox playing at 65% volume which is the same loudness as the XP500, with its light feature turned on and with bass boost set to level 1 this speaker is also good for about 8 hours of play back time.
So even though at first glance the Sony XP500 has a much longer advertised battery life than the Partybox 110… since I feel most people are going to have to use the XP500 at higher volumes than what they would with the Partybox 110… thats going to cause their battery life to drain much faster… but also keep in mind battery life on these speakers really depends on how you use them. If you use them at higher volumes thats going to drain your battery. If you have their light features turned on thats going to drain their batteries… and if you have their bass features turned on thats also going to drain their batteries especially on the Partybox 110 since you’ve got 3 levels of bass to choose from.
But then there’s the Soundboks Go which is just on a whole other level. The Go has an advertised battery life of 40 hours and that’s with this speaker playing at 50% volume and while it using its power EQ. And for context… having the GO at 50% volume is like having the Partybox 110 playing ay 75% volume. And if you were to use the Go at max volume… you’re going to have an advertised battery life of 10 hours. And max volume on this speaker is just begging to get a visit from the cops.
However, if you were to use this speaker while in its Bass plus EQ, which is my preferred EQ setting cause its going to get louder and you’re going to get more bass… you are going to have to sacrifice some battery life… and at max volume its good for 6 hours… or if you want to extend your battery life, you can always use it while in indoors mode and at max volume its good for unto 14 hours. Nonetheless, the important thing here is that the Go’s battery life just doesn’t compare to these other two speakers. Its on a whole other level.
And the really cool thing about the Go is that you can easily swap out the battery. So if you have multiple batteries you can keep the party going even if you’re off the grid… but also this is going to extend the life of your investment. Cause if your batteries completely dies like mine did on my Soundboks 3… I can just get a new battery.
So even though I really love the battery life performance on the Soundboks Go and I really like the easy to remove battery on it… something that I really don’t like about the Go is its port set up. The Soundboks Go only has an audio jack. Now yeah, you can use a wired connection with the Go… but the port setup here is really lacking when compared to these other two speakers.
Where as these other two speakers… they both have 2 quarter inch inputs so if you want you can plug in a pair of microphones. They both also have USB A ports so that you can plug in a USB stick and play music off of it… or you can charge your own devices if you really need to… and with the 110… it has an audio out jack… so you can always daisy chain another speaker with it and have them play in sync.
So yeah, the port setup on the Soundboks Go is really lacking when compared to these other two speakers… and its really disappointing given that the Soundboks 3 has a really impressive ports panel.
And when it comes to bluetooth connectivity even though the GO is using Bluetooth 5.0 it can only be connected to one device at a time and its still only using SBC. But latency is not an issue, so if you are going to watch a video with the Go… your audio will still be in sync.
Where as with these other two speakers… they're both using bluetooth 5.1… but more importantly they can both be connected to two devices at the same time so you and a friend can both be DJ… and they also don’t have any latency issues. However, the 110 is using SBC and AAC… where as the XP500 is using SBC, AAC, and Sony’s own LDAC.
And before we move onto sound and speaker set up, I do want to address one petpeeve that I have about the Go. Now you can adjust the local volume of this speaker by using its dial… but you can’t play or pause your music or skip through your music directly from the speaker itself… you gotta do that from your phone or whatever media source you’re using. Where as with these other two speakers… you can control your music playback directly from their control panels.
But with all of that out of the way… lets talk about sound. Now when it comes to speaker set ups the Go has a single frontward firing 10 inch woofer and a single frontward firing tweeter horn. But the really important thing to keep in mind here is that the Go has frontward firing exhausts ports… and this is a big deal cause you can’t amplify the bass on this speaker by placing it up against a well like you can with other box speakers out there. Where as with these other two speakers… they have dual frontward firing woofers, dual frontward firing tweeters and exhaust ports that shoot out the back… so you can increase their bass by simply placing them up against a well. But another very important thing to keep in mind about these two speakers… is that they have a left channel and a right channel… where as the GO is a mono speaker. But with all of that being said, we’re going to jump into the sound test. Now both the Go and 110 are playing at the same loudness… where as the XP500 is trying to keep up and playing at max volume. The Go is playing while in its Power EQ, the 110 is playing with its bass set to punchy and the XP500 has mega bass turned on.
So first, we have to talk about max volume performance on these speakers… and I think we should start off with the XP500. Now when running off of its internal battery, the XP500 is a very quiet speaker relative to its size. This speaker really leave you wanting more when its playing at max volume of off its internal battery. Where as the 110 get decently loud when its running off of its internal battery… and then there’s the Go which is just a little monster. It get significantly louder than these other two speakers. However, with both the 110 and XP500… if you were to use them while they are plugged in… you are going to get a performance bump out of them. They are going to get louder and they are going to have more bass. When the XP500 is plugged in… that’s when this speaker performs as you would expect. Now you’re also going to get a performance bump out of the 110 while its plugged in, but its not as dramatic as the XP500. And that’s perfectly fine. And then there’s the Go… Now Soundboks says that you should not use this speaker past 50% volume if you have it plugged in and charging the battery. But for science… I did it, and there is no performance boost here. And while we are here… I also want to let you know that you shouldn’t use the Go while it is plugged in without a battery. I tried doing this and the Go started screeching. But with all of that being said, max volume performance on the XP500 is really disappointing while running off of its internal battery. But if you plug it in, that’s when this speaker starts to perform as you would expect. The 110 get decently loud off of its internal battery… but you can always get a little more out of it if you use it while its plugged in. And finally there’s the Go… this thing gets significantly louder than these other two speakers. And using it at max volume will result in angry neighbors and a visit from the cops. And the Go manages to get super loud while off of its internal battery. Now you can use this speaker while its plugged in and while its charging its battery… but you shouldn’t raise the local volume past 50%.
Now with max volume out of the way… we can talk about actual sound quality. Now the Soundboks Go is a very hard speaker to use while indoors. The Go really likes to use its tweeter for both the Highs and good amount of the mids. So at the lower volumes that you would want to use this speaker while its indoors… it can sound rather bright and flat. Now you can go in and make your own EQ setting… and I went in and raised the bass and lowered the treble on the Go so that it doesn’t sound bright at lower volumes… But even still, it can sound a little flat and narrow at lower volumes. Where with these other two speakers… they have a good amount of physicality in their bass even at lower volumes. And unlike the GO which does like to lean towards a brighter sound signature… both the 110 and XP500 sound much more balanced by comparison.
However, if you plan on using your speaker outdoors… this is where the Go really gets to shine. At higher volume this is where this speaker gets to stretch its legs and you’re finally going to be able to feel all of the chest thumping bass the Go can put out. And at these higher volumes… the GO continues to sound clear with strong vocals and instrumentals… but like I mentioned earlier, since the Go really likes to put its Tweeter to work… it can sound a little on the brighter side. So with all of that being said, I would only recommend that you get the Go if you plan on mostly using it out doors… and by mostly out doors… I mean like 90% of the time. Because if you plan on using your speaker 50% of the time indoors and 50% percent outdoors… and fit you only plan on using your speaker at lower volume when out doors… then I really feel that you’re better off getting the Partybox 110 cause you’re still going to get a good amount of physicality in its bass at lower volumes.
However with the 110… I do have to point out that you can customize its EQ like you can with these other two speakers. Now you have 3 different bass mode to choose from… but you can’t adjust the mids and highs to you liking on this speaker like you can with these other two speakers.
But finally lets talk about paring these speakers up with other speakers. Now the XP500 is the most accommodating speaker here. You can pair it up to another XP500 or to an XP700… and you can also pair it up to Sony’s more portable speakers like either an XG500 or even an XB43, XB33 or XB23… and you can pair upto 100 speakers together. Now even though Sony is super accommodating… their speaker paring protocol isn’t the best. Syncing your speakers together can sometimes be a pain and sometimes they will cut out when they are playing. Its not my favorite… but it works when it does.
Then there’s the Partybox 110, which is a lot more restrictive by comparison. You can only pair your 110 up to another 110, a 310, a 710 or to a party box encore. And you can only have 2 speakers wirelessly connected to one another… which I feel isn’t enough. However, JBL’s speaker pairing protocol is easier to use than Sony’s and its a much more stable. However, the unique thing the 110 has going for it here is that it has that audio out jack that mentioned earlier. So you can always daisy any other speaker to it. So there’s that.
And finally there’s Soundbok’s speaker pairing protocol. It works very well, and you can pair a Soundboks Go and Soundboks 3 together. And you can have upto 5 speakers paired together, which I personally feel is plenty. And the good thing about Soundboks is that you can assign whatever channel you want to your speaker. You don’t need to have 2 of the same speakers to get left and right stereo sound going like you do with these other two speakers.
So with all of that being said, even though the Soundboks Go does have its short comings like a very disappointing port setup, and this isn’t the best speaker for indoor use cause at lower volumes it does sound bright and flat… the Soundboks Go is still an amazing road worrier that isn’t meant to be used while indoors or at lower volumes. The Soundboks Go is designed to be in the middle of the action and off grid. Thanks to its super durable construction the Go can easily take a beating… and thank to it 99.84 watt hour battery… its going to have no problem keeping up with you on a single charge. And if you’re going to be off grid for awhile or if you demand lots of battery life… then you can always swap out the battery and keep the party going. But more importantly this thing gets loud… it gets dangerously loud.
But if you’re looking for something that much more tamed… something that you’ll be using half while at home and the other half while out doors… the party box 110 is still a solid option, and it’s easily one of my favorite speakers to recommend. At lower volumes you’re going to get the physicality in your bass that you crave… and at max volume the 110 gets more than loud enough. However, if you do plan on taking the the 110 with you on the go… you are going to have to baby it a little bit. Yeah its durable… but it can still get banged up pretty bad. And then there’s it battery life… don’t expect the 110 to keep up with you like the Soundboks Go can.