So with both the Flip 6 and the Charge 5, JBL added an additional tweeter to their smaller portable bluetooth speakers which really does help improve the sound quality of their speakers. Since the woofer handles the mids and the tweeter handles the highs, that means better instrument separation.
And surpassingly, JBL managed to add a new tweeter to their Pulse 5 by staking a tweeter on top of the woofer. And the Pulse 5 does have better instrument separation than its predecessor.
But in this video, we’re going to compare what two Pulse 5’s playing in stereo mode sound like compared to two Charge 5’s. Cause thanks to Partyboost a lot of people like to buy their speakers in pairs so that they can get that stereo sound going… And defneitly, one set up is going to give you better sound quality and the other set up is going to give you better looks.
So first lets address these speakers individually, from a sound quality standpoint, the Charge 5 just sounds more open, and it has more bass cause it has dual passive radiators, where as the Pulse 5 only has one passive radiator and its a little smaller than the Charge 5’s. But also, the Pulse 5 does sound a little brighter than the Charge 5, making it sound a little nasally.
Now this is fine, cause you can easily go in and lower the highs on the Pulse 5 through its app… and in general, most of JBL’s newer speakers have a brighter EQ to them. In my opinion, the Charge 5 is the only speaker that sounds balanced with its stock EQ.
But also from a performance standpoint, the Charge 5 simply gets louder than the Pulse 5. Now if you were to use two Pulse 5’s while they are paired together… they are going to get louder and they are going to have more bass. But still, they just don’t compare to two charge 5’s which are just going to sound more open and have even more physicality in their bass.
However, what the Pulse 5 has going for it is its light feature. The light feature on the Pulse 5 is very impressive, and if you have two Pulse 5’s playing in sync, the light features are going to play in sync as well. However, with the Pulse 5 you are going to be paying a premium and you will be making some compromises when it comes to sound quality.
Where as with the Charge 5, sure this is a basic looking speaker compared to the Pulse 5… but it does sound and preform noticeably better than the Pulse 5, it has significantly better battery life and its little more affordable. Personally, I would go with 2 Charge 5’s over 2 Pulse 5’s… but hey, maybe you really want something with a light feature. And if that’s the case, the Pulse 5 has one of the best light features out there.