So the Skullcandy Terrain XL is the largest speaker in skullcandy’s line up right now. Now in general skullcandy’s speakers are packed with features and they are very affordable… but they don’t sound amazing. But for those that are curious, today we’re going to see how the Skullcandy Terrain XL stacks up to both the JBL Flip 6 and the JBL Charge 5.
Regarding pricing, the Terrain XL has a retail price of $80… where as the Flip 6 has a retail price of $120 but it likes to routinely go on sale for $100 and the Charge 5 has a retail price of $180, but it likes to routinely go on sale for $150 and sometimes a little less. Now personally the Charge 5 and Flip 6 are my favorite speakers to recommend… but if you want to pick any of these speakers up, they’ll be linked down below.
Now first when it comes to the design of these speakers… all three of these speakers are super durable cause they all have fabric wrapped bodies… and they’re all water proof… so they are all good options if you need something to take on the go with you. But from a size standpoint… the Terrain XL is almost as large as the Charge 5… but the flip 6 is smallest speaker here. But something that did surprise me about the Terrain XL is that is super light weighing in at 635 grams. Where as charge 5 weighs in at 960 grams and the flip 6 weighs in at 550 grams.
Now regarding tech specs… the Terrain XL has an advertised battery life of 18 hours… which is fairly impressive. But that’s with this speaker playing at 50% volume. And 50% volume is a decent listening volume for at home use. But if you were to use this speaker at max volume… its going to be good for about 8 hours of playback time. Just keep in mind that this is a 20 watt speaker… so its max volume performance isn’t as impressive as more premium speakers out there.
Where as with the JBL Flip 6, this speaker has an advertised battery life of 12 hours… but real world use with this speaker playing at 80% which is already louder than max volume on the terrain XL… its going to be good for about8 hours of playback time. Now the reason why the battery life on this speaker drains faster than the battery on the terrain XL is cause this is a 30 watt speaker… so its going to get louder and have more bass.
And with the Charge 5… it has an advertised battery life of 24 hours… but with it playing at 80% volume… its going to be good for about 10 hours of playback time… and this is a 40 watt speaker.
Now in order to charge all of these speakers, they all charge via a USB C port as they should… and with all of these speakers, they can only be used wirelessly cause none of them have an audio jack. But the charge 5 does have a USB A port so that you can charge your own devices… but I do feel that this port is a little obsolete now cause most phones these days come with USB C to USB C Charging cables.
Now when it comes to bluetooth connectivity, the terrain XL can only be connected to one device at a time, where as both of JBL’s speakers can be connected to two devices at the same time so that you and a friend can both be DJ.
But with all of the simple stuff out of the way, lets talk about sound. With the Terrain XL, you have dual frontward firing woofers and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. Where a both of JBL’s speakers have a frontward firing woofer and a frontward firing tweeter and they both have dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. Now the fact that both of JBL’s speakers have a woofer and a tweeter set up is a big deal… cause this helps with instrument separation. The woofer handles the mids and the tweeter handles the highs. But let me just show you.
Tweeter demo
So like you may have just seen, the woofer handles the mids and the tweeter handles the highs. So this helps you’re speaker sound more open and just better. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test. All of this speakers are playing at 75% volume and they are all playing with their stock EQ.
Sound Test
So plainly said, JBL’s speakers sound better than the Terrain XL… specially cause both of JBL’s speakers have better instrument separation thanks to their tweeter and woofer set up. So both of JBL’s speakers just sound more open, they have better clarity and they both have better detail in the mids than the Terrain XL. But also with the terrain XL… this speaker has a very harsh V shaped sound signature as in they have a lot of bass and very empshaised highs… but the mids dont have the best detail to them. So with the terrain xl you’re mainly only going to hear the bass and vocals. And Unfortunalty, you can’t directly change the EQ of this speaker cause this speaker doesn’t have app support. Where as both of JBL’s speakers you can adjust them to your liking.
But finally, from a performance standpoint, both of JBL’s speakers just get louder and have more bass than the Terrain XL. Now dont get me wrong… the terrain XL gets decently loud… but the JBL Flip 6 is able to deliver more sound in a smaller package… and the charge 5 just dractcilly out performs the Terrain XL… its not even close.
But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers up with other speakers. Now the both the Charge 5 and Flip 6, they’re both using PartyBoost so you can connect them to other PartyBoost speakers like lets say a Boombox 3, a boombox 2, Xtreme 3, Charge 5, Pulse 5, Pulse 4, Flip 5 or to a flip 6 and you can pair up to 100 speakers together.
Now if you’re going to be mixing and matching speakers, like lets say connect a flip 6 to a charge 5… they are only going to play in sync… but if you have two of the exact same speakers… then your speakers will play in left and right stereo mode.
But then theres the Skullcandy Terrain XL which is using multi link… and with multi link you can connect up to 99 Skullcandy Terrain Speakers together and get them to play in sync.
But also, you can get any two skullcandy terrain speakers, regardless of size and you can get them to play in left and right stereo mode. So overall, both of these speakers have really good speaker paring protocols cause they are both easy to use and skipping isn’t an issue… but I am going to say that skullcandy is a little better cause you can get stereo sound going with any two terrain speakers.
So with all of that being said… yes both pf JBL’s speakers are more expensive than the Terrain XL… but with both the Flip 6 and Charge 5 you’re going to get significantly better sound quality. You’re music is going to have better clarity, its going to sound more open, its going to get louder and its going to have more bass. But the Terrain XL is an affordable option that provides good enough sound to get the job done… it has a very long battery life… and you can pair multiple Terrain speakers and you can either get them to play in sync or you can mix and match and get left and right stereo sound going.