So this is the JBL Partybox Ultimate, its an insanely large speaker that gets super loud, it has very violent bass and it has an incredible looking light feature. However, it is big and it is pricy. But today we’re going to compare the Partybox Ultimate to two great options that are smaller, and more affordable. Now this isn’t an apples to apples comparison, but let see how the JBL Partybox Ultimate compares to both the Soundboks 4 and the Sony XB900.
Regarding pricing… this alone can be a deciding factor. The JBL Partybox Ultimate has a retail price of $1,600… that’s way up there. Where as the Soundboks 4 has a retail price of $1000, still up there but not as painful… and finally there’s the Sony XV900 which has a retail price of $900 but it likes to go on sale for $800. Overall, all of these speakers are great, but depending on your needs, one is going to be better over the other. 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.The Partybox Ultimate just dwarfs these other two speakers. It has a hight of 41 inches, a base of 17 by 17 inches and it weighs in at 87 pounds. Where as the XV900 has a hight of 35 inches and a base of 16 by 19 inches and it weighs in at 59 pounds. Overall moving these speakers is a 2 person job, especially if you plan on carrying them up stairs. But more so the Partybox Ultimate. But thankfully, both of these speakers have built in wheels, so transporting these speakers is a little easier. But the thing is, the wheels on the Ultimate are chunky so they’re very usable… where as the wheels on the XV900 are small, so they’re not as helpful especially outdoors. But then there’s the Soundboks 4… now one of the main selling points out the soundboks 4 is its relatively small size and durability. First off this speakers is much smaller and much lighter weighing in at 35 pounds. So moving this speaker around is much easier and its a one person job. But also, the Soundboks 4 is a lot more durable than these other two speakers thanks to its poplar cabinet, aluminum frame, silicon balls and rugged steel grill on the front. Where as these other two speakers and their plastic bodies are a lot more fragile. So if you’re looking for a large speaker to take on the go with you… then the Soundboks 4 is the way to go thanks to its smaller size and added durability.
But something the Soundboks 4 doesn’t have is a light feature… which you could miss if you’re looking for something for your man cave. Now both the Sony and JBL have a built in light feature, but of these light features have floor lights which I just love, and you can customize these light features… but clearly you can see that the light feature on the JBL Partybox Ultimate is a lot more impressive and dynamic.
But here, this is one of the biggest differences between the Partybox Ultimate and these other two speakers, and that’s, the Partybox Ultimate doesn’t have a built in battery, you can only use this speaker while its plugged in. So if you’re looking for something with better portability, then the ultimate might not be for you.
Where as the Sony XV900 does have a built in light feature. But if you use the light feature on the Sony XV900… that is going to take a toll on the battery life. Now the XV900 has an advertised battery life of 25 hours… but that’s with the volume set to 30% but with the mega bass turned on which is good but that with the light feature turned off. But if you were to use this speaker with the light feature turned on… than your battery life is going to go down to 12 hours.
But if you were to use this speaker at max volume and with the mega bass turned on and with the light feature turned on… than its going to be good for up to 4 hours. But definitely, whether you have the light feature or mega bass feature turned on on this speaker, that is going to affect your battery life.
But then there’s the Soundboks 4… first off if you use this speaker at 50% volume with its stock eq then its going to go as long as 40 hours… but if you were to use this speak at max volume, and while in its stage EQ which is the EQ setting that you want to use to get the most out of this speaker cause its going to have more bass and its going to get louder… its going to be good for up to 6 hours of playback time… which is longer than the Sony XV900 and max volume the Soundboks 4 is significantly louder than the Sony XV900 when its at max volume.
But the really cool thing about the soundboks is that you can easily swap out the batteries in it, so if you have multiple batteries… than you can just swap them out and keep the party going with the soundboks. And this is just something that you cant do with these other two speakers.
Now regarding connectivity, with both the JBL and Sony both of these speaker can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so you and a friend can both be DJ, where as with the Soundboks, it can only be connected to one device at a time.
But what it unique to the partybox Ultimate here is that it has wifi support. So if you’re connected to the same wifi network as your speaker, you can stream music to it via Airplay 2 or chrome cast.
But with all of these speakers, they all have an audio jack so you can use them with a wired connection… but with both the JBL and Soundboks… they have an audio out jack as well, so you can always daisy chain any other speaker to these two speakers and get them to play in sync.
Where as with the XV900… it doesn’t have an audio out jack… but it does have an optical port… so you can always hook it up to your tv and use it as a soundbar if you want… and with both the JBL and Sony, they have a USB Port so you can plug in a USB Stick and play music off of it. Where as with the soundboks, you cant.
And finally, with all of these speakers, you can plug in 2 quarter inch microphones for karaoke or you can plug in a guitar. But with the Soundboks… its using an XLR combo jack so you can also plug in a mixer if you want. So if you’re someone that likes to moonlight as a DJ, you’ll might want to go with the soundboks.
but if you’re a more casual person and you just want to do karaoke, than you’ll might want to go with the JBL cause you can easily adjust the sound of your microphone either directly from the control panel up top or you can just use the app.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Regarding speaker setups, these speakers are fairly different from one another. With the soundboks we have dual frontward firing woofers with exhaust ports that shoot out the sides, and we have a single tweeter horn. With the Sony XV900, we have a frontward firing woofer with an exhaust port that shoots out the front, dual frontward firing mid range drivers and we have a total 6 tweeters, two on the front, one on each side and two that shoot out the rear and upwards. And finally there’s the Partybox Ultimate, now its the largest speaker here and it has dual frontward firing woofers with an exhaust port that shoots out the back, dual frontward firing mid range drivers, and dual frontward firing drivers. But now we’re going to jump into the soundtest. Now all of these speakers are playing at 75% volume… but so that the XV900 can keep up, its playing while its plugged in cause when you use it while its plagued in you’re going to get a performance boost out of it. Where as with the Soundboks, you dont get a performance boost. Now the Ultimate is playing with its stock EQ and with its bass boost set to deep, the Soundboks is playing with its Stage EQ, and this is the EQ setting that you want to use to get the most out of this speaker, and the XV900 is playing with its mega bass turned on.
So first, we’re going to have to address max volume performance on these speakers. Now just as you’d expect, since the Partybox Ultimate is the largest speaker here, its going to get the loudest and it also has the most physicality in its bass. And since it has a rear firing exhaust port, you can always amplify its bass by simply placing it up against a wall. But then there’s the Soundboks 4… now the soundboks 4 also gets super loud… and its sheer loudness is very impressive relative to its size and when compared to the Partybox ultimate. Now the Soundboks 4 also has a lot of physicality, it has more bass than its predecessor… but the physicality is nowhere near as much as the Partybox Ultimate, and since its exhaust ports shoot out the sides, if you want to amplify its bass you’re going to have to place it in a corner. But in general, the Bass on the Soundboks leans more towards the audible than on the physical side like with the Partybox. And then there’s the Sony XV900… now again this speaker gets very loud… but it just doesn’t get as loud as these other two speakers. And if you were to use the Sony XV900 while its unplugged, then its performance is going to reduce a little bit, it won’t get as loud and it won’t have as much bass. Now dont get me wrong, this speaker still gets more than loud enough… it just doesn’t get as loud as these other two speakers. And then there’s its bass, the bass on the XV900 is much more to the audible side than with these other two speakers.
And when it comes to the overall sound quality of these speakers, the Sony XV900 has a neutral sound signature to it. Both the vocals and the bass have equal footing here. Now the vocals on the Soundboks 4 are also very well pronounced… but the bass comes in much stronger than on the XV900… but the crucial thing here is, the vocals on the Soundboks 4 aren’t over emphasized and they aren’t overly bright. But finally there’s the JBL Partybox Ultimate which always manages to keep its mids and vocals front and center, but the bass is still always present and it comes in very violently when it has to. So with the JBL Partybox Ultimate, its always aiming to have the best clarity, even if that means pumping up the mids to keep front and center. Now personally I also really like how the Soundboks 4 sounds and finally there’s the Sony XV900, I also like how this speaker sound but it just dont have as much bass or gets as loud as these other two options.
But most importantly, with all of these speakers, they all have an adjustable EQ, so you can always make them sound however you want. If you want more bass you can do that, or if you want a brighter EQ for out door use, you can also do that.
But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers to other speakers… and plainly said, the JBL Partybox Ultimate is the worst option here if you plan on getting multiple speakers. First off, right now you can only pair your ultimate to another ultimate and get them to play in stereo mode and your light features are going to play in sync… the problem is… you need a wifi connection.
So if you plan on using your two ultimates together in an area where there isn’t any wifi, you’re going to have to daisy chain them together, they’re only going to play in sync and your light features aren’t going to play sync.
But more importantly, you can not pair your Ultimate to any of JBL’s other Partyboxs like a 710, 310, 110 or encore… and you also can’t pair your ultimate to any of JBL’s smaller party boost speakers like a Boombox 3, Boombox 2, Xtreme 3, Charge 5, Pulse 5, Pulse 4, Flip 5, or flip 6, unless you have the wifi version of the boombox 3 or charge 5.
The only silver lining here is, since the Ultimate is a wifi speaker, you can pair it up to your other wifi enabled speakers. Now there have been talks that JBL will fix this issue on the Ultimate… but until they get it done, this over reliance on wifi is ridicules.
But then there’s the Soundboks 4, now you can pair you soundboks 4 up to another soundboks 4, a soundboks 3 or soundboks go, you can have a total of 5 soundboks wirelessly paired together, you can use any two soundboks to play in left and right stereo mode, and most importantly, you dont need wifi… so you can wirelessly pair your speakers up anywhere.
And finally there’s the Sony XV900, and you can wirelessly pair it up to another XV900 and get left and right stereo sound going or you can pair it up to an XV800, XP700, or XP500 and you can get them to play in sync, and you can pair up to 100 speakers together. But also, you can connect your XV900 to any of Sony smaller speakers like and XG500, XG300, XE300, XB43, XB33 or XB23… and most importantly… you don't need a wifi connection.
Overall, I really like the versatility in Sony’s speaker pairing protocol here… but sometimes it can be a bit of a hassle to use. However if you plan on getting a large box speaker and if you plan on building out your collection of speakers, then the Sony is the best option here right now.
But, both the Partybox Ultimate and Soudnboks 4 have those audio out jacks that we mentioned earlier, so you can always daisy chain them to any other speaker that you would like and get them to play in sync.
But with all of that being said, all of these speakers are great… but they are very different from one another. The JBL Partybox Ultimate is a monster, its light feature looks amazing, it gets extremely loud and it has very violent bass. One is more than enough for any sane person. However, I dont like its over reliance on wifi and this isn’t the most portable thing out there. But then there’s the Soundboks 4… this speaker also sounds great and gets very loud, but most importantly its super durable and portable. And the swappable battery makes it great for outdoors use. Plus you can use it with a mixer if you’d like. But finally there’s the Sony XV900… this speaker is a decent middle ground between the Partybox and Soundboks. It has a built in battery and it has a built in light feature. It just doesn’t get as loud as these other two speakers, but you can pair it up to you smaller Sony speakers.