So for summer 2024, there are two new portable Bluetooth speakers that are competing to be at your next get together. Theres the JBL Xtreme 4 which has had some very big and important upgrades to it, and then there’s the Bose Soundlink Max which really feels likes a first generation product. Nonetheless, if you are thinking about picking up either the JBL Xtreme 4 or Bose Soundlink Max, lets see which one is right for you.
Regarding pricing, both of these speakers are pretty up there, the JBL Xtreme 4 retails for $380 and the Bose Soundlink Max retails for $400… and if you want a shoulder strap that going to cost you an extra $45. For me, it is much easier to justify the JBL Xtreme 4 over the Bose Soundlink Max cause I do feel that the Bose Soundlink max is grossly over priced. Nonetheless, if you want to pick either of these two speaker 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 both of these speakers are small enough so that they’re easy enough to take on the go with you, however, the JBL Xtreme 4 is even easier to take on the go with you cause it comes with a shoulder strap and this shoulder strap has a built in bottle opener which is super handy. Where as with the Bose Soundlink Max, this speaker comes with very premium braided carrying handle, but if you want a shoulder strap like the Xtreme 4, thats sold separately, and there’s no bottle opener. So, I feel if you’re looking for something for the beach, the Xtreme 4’s included shoulder strap is super useful. However, the Bose Soundlink Max is a little smaller than the Xtreme 4, but I think the size difference is negligible. But interestingly enough, the Bose is a little heavier weighing in at 4.9 pounds where as the Xtreme 4 weighs in at 4.6. But in general, the increased density on the Bose does contribute to it feeling more premium than the Xtreme 4. Cause the Bose’s mostly silicon body and metal face plate feels more premium than the Xtreme 4’s mostly fabric body, but regardless, both of these speakers are very durable and they can easily stand up to abuse from bumps and scrapes, and both of these speakers are IP67 rated so they are both dust and water proof and they both float in water.
Now when it comes to tech specs, the Bose has an advertised battery life of 20 hours, where as JBL has an advertised battery life of 24 hours. However this advertised battery life of 20 hours on the bose is with it playing at 65% volume… which is a descent listening volume. However, the Bose is a little quiet for its size and price. Where as with the Xtreme 4, its advertised battery life of 24 hours is with it playing at 50% volume which is comparable to the Bose playing at 65% volume.
But real world use with the bose playing at 85% volume its good for about 10 hours of playback time and with the Xtreme 4 playing at 80% volume, its good for about 14 hours of playback time. And 80% volume on the Xtreme 4 is slightly louder than 85% volume on the Xtreme 4.
And when it comes to charging these speakers, they both charge via a USB C port which is super convient cause you can use your phone’s charger to charge them up… and both of these speakers also come with complete charging cables. Which I feel is important to point out cause most speakers just come with USB C to USB C cables. But also, with both of these speakers, you can use their USB C ports to charge your own devices which I also feel is super conviente. However, these USB C port are only used for chargning, you cant use these USB C ports as a wired connection.
However, the Bose Soundlink Max does have an Audio jack so you can use it with a wired connection that way, where as the Xtreme 4 doesn’t have an audio jack. Now I dont mind that you can’t use the Xtreme 4 with a wired connection, but I do feel that this speaker is too big and too expensive to not have an audio jack.
But the Xtreme 4 does have two power features over the Bose Soundlink Max, first off if you use this speaker while its plugged in you are going to get a performance boost out of it, its going to get louder and its going to have more bass. Where as with the Bose, these is not performance boost.
But the biggest feature the Xtreme 4 has over the Bose is that its battery is fairly easy to remove. Now I say thats its fairly easy cause you do have to use an Alan wrench to remove these screws, and I feel that JBL used screws here to keep their IP67 ratting. instead of using a spring loaded door like what’s found on the Partybox 320 or 120. But regardless, being able to fairly easily remove the battery on the Xtreme 4 means this is either going to extend the overall life of your speaker… or you can always get multiple batteries and just keep the party going cause the Xtreme 4 uses the same battery found in the Partybox 320.
But when it comes to bluetooth connectivity, both of these speakers can be connected to two bluetooth devices at the same time so you and a friend can both be DJ, but when it comes to latancy, the Bose can be used to watch videos with on your phone, where as I am noticing some latency on the Xtreme 4 so I hope JBL fixes that through a software update. But when it comes to audio codecs, the Xtreme 4 only has support for SBC, where as the Bose has support for SBC, AAC and APTX adaptive.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Regarding speaker set up, the Bose Soundlink max has dual frontward firing woofers which are angled out a little bit, theres a single frontward firing tweeter and there are dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. Where as with the Xtreme 4, this speaker has dual frontward firing woofers, dual frontward firing tweeters and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. And with both of these speakers, you can always go into their apps and adjust their EQ to your liking, and finally like I mentioned earlier, with the Xtreme 4 you will get a performance boost if you use it while its plugged in. But with all of that being said were going to jump into the soundtest. Now both of these speakers are playing at 75% volume while unplugged and the Xtreme 4 is playing with its stock EQ. But I am going to give the Bose some help here and were going to use it with my preferred EQ settings for it where the bass is raised by 4 clicks and the treble is raised by 5 clicks.
Sound test
So I decided to use my preferred EQ setting on the Bose cause I wanted to help it out. But in general, I cant help but feel that the algorithm on the Bose Soundlink Max likes to emphesis the the bass and vocals on the Bose. As a result, this speaker has an impressive amount of bass on it for its size. However the over emphasis of the vocals on this speaker makes this speaker sound hallow in real life. I feel that the instrumentals are lost on the Bose quite a bit. Where as with the Xtreme 4, this speaker also has a lot of bass to it, but it sounds a lot more balanced than the Bose cause the instrumentals are a lot more prominent. But also like I have mentioned before, the Xtreme 4 gets louder than the Bose SOundlink max, and for a speaker that you’ll might want to take to the beach with you, you’re going to want something loud. But again, if you use the xtreme 4 while its plugged in, you’re going to get a performance boost out of it, its going to get louder and its going to have more bass. And this could be useful for when you’re using it at home. Overall I feel the xtreme 4 is good for like a 10 person party and the Bose is good for like maybe an 8 person party. But performance wise and sound quality wise, I feel the Xtreme 4 is the better buy here.
But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers up with other speakers. Now with the Bose Soundlink Max you can pair it up to other Bose products like your Bose Smart Soundbar, but you have use Simple sync. So your bose smart soundbar is doing all of the work and the Bose Soundlink max is just there for the ride. And you cant connect this speaker to lets say your bose soundlink flex.
Where as with the JBL Xtreme 4, first off if you have two of the exact same speakers than you can wirelessly pair them up and get them to play in left and right stereo mode. Or you can get your JBL Xtreme 4 which is an aura cast speaker and pair it up to other aura cast speakers like a clip 5 or a go 4… or you can even pair it up to JBL’s larger partybox speakers that are also using Aura cast like either a Partybox 120, 320, or ultimate.
But also, aura cast is backwards compatible with JBL’s older speakers that are using Partyboost. So you can pair your Xtreme 4 to a JBL Boombox 3, a Boombox 2, Xtreme 3, charge 5, pulse 5, pulse 4 or to a flip 5 or to a flip 6 and you can pair up to 100 speakers together and get them to play in sync.
Now if you’re going to pair an aura cast speaker to an aura cast speaker all you have to do is press the aura cast button on each speaker. But if you’re going to connect your Xtreme 4 to a Partyboost speaker then you do have to use JBL’s app. So overall, if you plan on growing your collection of speakers, JBL is clearly the way to go here, unless you really want to pair your speaker with your soundbar, which I feel is pointless. And even if you have a bose Soundbar, you can just use simple sync to connect it to your JBL Xtreme 4 and get them to play in syncs as well.
But with all of that being said, if you’re trying to choose between the JBL Xtreme 4 and Bose Soundlink max, its a no brainer. The JBL Xtreme is clealery the better option here cause it sounds better, it get louder, if you use it while its plugged in you get a performance boost out of it, you can swap out the batteries, and you can grow your collection of speakers and easily pair them up and get them to play in sync. The Bose Soundlink Max feels like a beta product and I can only justify buying it if its easily discounted.