Sony ULT 1: https://amzn.to/4iDZtAc
JBL Flip 6: https://amzn.to/49Ewl83
Bose Flex 2: https://amzn.to/3DfOZqN
The Bose Soundlink Flex Gen 2 is a very portable, very durable, and very premium feeling speaker, and it performs very well. However, this is another example of bose adding some very minor upgrades to their products, and slapping a new name on them. And for 2025, I feel the Bose Flex 2 is a little hard to justify when compared to its most direct competitors. So today we’re going to see how the Bose Soundlink Flex Gen 2 stacks up to both the JBL Flip 6 which is pretty old now, and the Sony ULT Field 1 which is currently my favorite portable bluetooth speaker to recommend.
Regarding pricing, the Bose Flex 2 has a retail price of $150, pretty up there if you ask me. But it can be found on sale for $120… a little more reasonable, but a little hard to justify if you ask me. Where as both the JBL Flip 6 and Sony Ult 1 have a retail price of $130 but they like to go on sale for $100. Nonetheless if you want to pick any of these speakers up they’ll be linked down below or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button.
So first theres the design of these speakers. Now all of these speakers are meant to be small and portable and easy enough to take on the go with you. Now the Flip 6 is the smallest speaker here and its the easiest to throw into your water bottle holder either on your bike or backpack. Plus it also has a built in loop. Now the Sony ULT 1 is a little larger, but what really makes it stand out here is that it has the largest loop here and it can be used in two different positions. But then theres the Bose, now the Bose is very thin and its great for backpacks, but its loop is very small, it doesn’t stretch and this speaker does not come included with a carabeanier, which I feel is the bare minimum here. Now the Bose feels the most premium here cause of its powered coated front grill and silicon wrapped body… but when compared to these other two speakers, I dont think its as portable. I think bose should have either included a carabiner with this speaker, made the loop larger, or added an elastic band similar to whats found on the Bose Micro.
But then theres the batter life on these speakers. All of these speaker have an advertised battery life of 12 hours, but these advertised battery lives of 12 hours is with their speakers playing at 50% Volume. Real world use with these speakers playing at 80% volume, both the Sony and JBL are good for about 8 hours where as the Bose is good for about 7 hours. However, 80% volume on the Sony I louder than 80% volume on the JBL and 80% volume on the JBL is louder than 80% volume on the Bose.
And when it comes to charnging these speakers, they all charge via a USB C port as they should. However all of these USB C ports are strictly used for chargning, you can use any of these UBS C ports as a wired connection and you cant use them to charge your own devices.
And when it comes to bluetooth connectivity, all of these speakers can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so that you and a friend can both be DJ, and latency is not an issue for any of these speakers so you can use them to watch videos with on your phone. But when it comes to audio codecs, the JBL Flip 6 only has support for SBC where as the Sony ULT 1 has support for SBC and AAC and then theres the Bose Flex which has support for snapdragon sound.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Now the Bose has a very simple set up here. This speaker has a frontward firing driver and dual passive radiators that shoot out the front and out the back of this speaker. Where as both the JBL Flip 6 and Sony ULT field 1 have a frontward firing woofer, a frtonward firing tweeter and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. And the fact that both the JBL and Sony have a woofer and a tweeter set up is a big deal cause this helps these speakers have better instrument separation and better openess cause the woofer handles the mids and the tweeter handles the highs, like this.
Tweeter Test
So like you may have just seen, the woofer handles the mids and the tweeter handles the highs so this helps both the JBL and Sony with their instrument separation. And for 2025, I feel that this type of speaker set up is the standard for premium speaker brands. So the Bose Flex Gen 2 not having this is a bit of a problem. But something that Bose Flex 2 does have is an adjustable EQ, so at least theres that. And yes, these other two speakers have that too. But now we’re going to jump into the soundtest. All of these speakers are playing at 75% volume with their stock EQ’s.
Sound test
So like you may have just heard, the Bose Soundlink Flex gen 2 leans towards a bass heavy sound signature, where as with the JBL flip 6, it leans more towards a brighter sound signature. And then theres the Sony ULT field 1 which I feel sounds the most balanced. However, both the JBL and Sony sound more open here and the highs are a lot more pronounced thanks to their woofer and tweeter set up. Where as since the Flex 2 doesn’t have a tweeter, the highs aren’t as strong. And I really feel that bose should have at least added a tweeter to this speaker if they wanted to truly call it gen 2. And when it comes to max volume performance, all of these speakers get decently loud for their price and size. Now the JBL flip 6 does get a little louder than the Bose, but thats partly cause it does like to lean towards a brighter sound signature. But with the Sony, this speaker does get noticeably louder than these other two speakers cause sony is really focusing on sound pressure on this speaker when you have the ULT button turned on. Which is how you should always use this speaker.
But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers up with other speaker. Now with all of these speakers, if you have two of the same speakers then you can wirelessly pair them up and get them to play in left and right stereo mode or your an get them to play in sync. But with the Sony, you can only pair it up to one other ULT Field 1. Unfortunately this speaker does not have Party connect, so you cant pair it up to any of Sony’s other speakers.
Where as with the Bose Flex 2, you can pair it up to a Bose Soundlink Max and get them to play in sync, but you can only have a total of 2 speakers pair together. But who knows, maybe bose will release more speakers in the future so you can pair it up to the Flex 2.
And then theres the JBL Flip 6 which is using JBL’s party boost, so you can pair it up to other JBL party boost speakers like either a Boombox 3, a Boombox 2, and xtreme 3, a charge 5, a pulse 5, a pulse 4, a flip 5 or to a flip 6 and you can pair up to 100 speakers together, and you can also pair it up to the JBL Xtreme 4 which is backwards compatible with partyboost.
However, JBL’s newer speakers are moving over to Aura cast. Now aura cast is supposed to be universal… but personally I prefer JBL’s party boost over aurcast cause I find that it just a lot easier to use, its a lot more stable and its a lot faster. Now every though the JBL Xtreme 4 is aura cast and it is backwards compatible with party boost, theres no guarantee that’s JBL’s future aura cast speakers will also be backwards compatible. Cause the flip 6 wont connect to the Clip 5 or Go 4 which are also using aura cast.
But with all of that being said, the Bose Flex gen 2 is very portable, durable and it feels very premium. But for me it is hard to justify this speaker when compared to its direct competitors. Both the Sony ULT field 1 and JBL flip 6 are more affordable than the Bose Flex gen 2 and they both offer better sound cause they sound more open thanks to their woofer and tweeter set up. They both get louder as well. And from a portability standpoint, the loops on both the JBL and Sony are a lot more useful than the loop found on the Bose. But if I had to pick on speaker from this line up, I am going with Sony ULT field 1 here cause it sounds the most balanced, the most open and it gets the loudest.