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Soundcore Boom 2 Plus & Soundcore Boom 2
👉 Shop on soundcore.com: https://soundcore.tech/A31342ide
👉 Shop on AMZ: https://soundcore.tech/A31342aLb
🚨Use The Codes For Discount
🚨 Code： US - B2PBOOMINUS UK - B2PBOOMINUK CA - B2PBOOMINCA
Bose Soundlink Max: https://amzn.to/3y1zBfj
So the Bose Soundlink Max is a very premium feeling speaker, I really appreciate that it still has an audio jack and I like that you can use its USB C port to charge your own devices. However relative to its size and price and overall performance, I feel the Bose Soundlink Max is over priced and hard to justify. But today we’re going to go ahead and see how the Bose Soundlink Max stacks up to two very budget friendly options, the Soundcore Boom 2 Plus and the Soundcore Boom 2.
Regarding pricing, the Bose Soundlink Max retails for $400, very up there if you ask me epically relative to its sound performance. And if you want a shoulder strap, thats going to be sold separately for $45. Where as the Soundcore Boom 2 plus retails for $250 and the Boom 2 retails for $130… and both of Soundcore’s speakers routinely like to go on sale. Personally, I can only recommend the Bose Soundlink Max if its heavily discounted, where as with the Boom 2 plus and Boom 2, these two speakers give you a really big bang for your buck. 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.
Now first theres the design of these speakers. Now all of these speakers are relatively small and easy to take on the go with you. However, both the Boom 2 and Xtreme 4 are noticeably smaller than the Boom 2 plus. But the Boom 2 plus is still relatively easy to take on the go with you cause it is smaller than either the JBL Boombox 3 or Sony ULT field, and it also comes included with a shoulder strap. Where as with the Bose, if you want that shoulder strap, it is sold separately. But regarding durability, all of these speakers are water proof and they all float in water, which is nice. However, the Bose feels a lot more durable and a lot more premium cause this speaker has a mostly silicon wrapped body, it has a metal face plate on the front and its very dense weighing in at 4.9 pounds. Where as with both of Soundcore’s speakers, they both have mostly plastic bodies which is fine. But they can get scraped up a lot easier.
But something that both Boom speakers have over the Xtreme 4 is that they both have built in light features in their passive radiators. And I actually really like these light features cause they are fairly dynamic. However, if you do decide to use these light features then that is going to take an additional toll on the battery life.
Now when it comes to the battery life on these speakers, the Boom 2 has an advertised battery life of 24 hours and the Boom 2 Plus has an advertised battery life of 20 hours. However these advertised battery lives of 20 and 24 hours is with both of these speakers playing at 50% volume and with the light feature on these speakers turned on but with the bass up feature on these speakers turned off. And 50% volume on the Boom 2 plus is noticeably louder than 50% volume on the Boom 2.
But real world use with both of these speakers playing at 80% volume, and with the light feature turned on and with the Bass UP feature turned on, both of these speakers are going to be good for about 6 to 7 hours of playback time. And just keep in mind, the Boom 2 Plus is going to get louder and its going to have more bass and the Boom 2.
But then theres the Bose Soundlink Max and this speaker has an advertised 20 hours, but this advertised battery life of 20 hours is with this speaker playing at 65% volume, which is not bad, but this speaker is a little quiet for its size and price. But real world use with this speaker playing at 85% its good for about 10 hours of playback time. Now in general, the Bose is a little louder than the Boom 2, but the Boom 2 plus is noticeably louder than the Bose.
Now when it comes to charging these speakers, all of these speakers charge via a USB C port, even the Soundcore Boom 2 plus which I feel is impressive given its size. So you can charge any of these speakers with your phones charger. However, only the Bose comes included with a proper chargning cable where as with both boom 2 speakers, you just get a USB to USB C charging cable and you have to use your own wall adaptor.
Now when it comes to ports, both the Bose and Boom 2 Plus have a USB C port and they have an audio jack. So you can use either of these two speakers with a wired connection. But with both of these speakers you can also use their USB C ports to charge your own devices which is feel is super useful especially for a speaker that you want to take to the beach. Where as with the Boom 2, its USB C port is strictly used for charging the speaker, and if you want to charge your own devices you have to use the USB A port which I dont feel is a useful.
But finally when it comes to bluetooth connectivity, all of these speakers can be connected to two devices at the same time so that you and a friend can both be DJ, latency is not an issue for any of these speakers so you can use them to watch videos with on your phone, and then it comes to audio codecs, both of these soundcore speakers have support for SBC and AAC, where as the Bose has support for SBC, AAC, and APTX Adaptive. However, if you want to use APTX Adaptive you do have to be an android user cause iPhones top out a AAC.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Regarding speaker set up, the Boom 2 plus has a single frontward firing woofer, dual frontward firing tweeters and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. But then theres the Bose which has dual frontward firing woofers which are angled out a little bit, there’s a single frontward firing tweeter and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. And finally theres the Boom 2 plus which has dual frontward firing woofers, dual frontward firing tweeters and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. Now with all of these speakers you can always go into their app and adjust their EQ to your linking, but also, with all of these speakers, if you use them while they are plugged in you are not going to get a performance boost out of them. But with all of that being said we’re going to go in and jump into the soundtest. All of these speakers are playing at 75% volume while unplugged and both Boom 2 speakers are playing with their signature EQ and with bass up turned off. But I am going to help the Bose out a little bit and we’re going to use it with my preferred EQ settings which is with the bass raised by 4 clicks and the treble raised by 5 clicks.
Sound test
So from a performance standpoint, the Bose has slightly better instrument separation than both the Boom 2 and Boom 2 Plus. The instrumentals are slightly easier and more defined than on these other two speakers. However, the improved instrument separation on the Bose isn’t as much as you’d expect for a speakers of this price. As in, since the Bose is significantly more expensive than both Soundcore Speakers, you’d expect the fidelity to be better. Where as with both soundcore speakers, I feel that both of these speakers sound great relative to their price. They both have a lot of bass so you can feel your music and the vocals are well pronounced. Where as with the Bose, in this soundtest I gave it some help by using it with my preferred EQ settings cause with its stock EQ, it has a lot of bass and strong vocals… but somehow it sounds hallow in real life. But then theres the max volume performance of these speakers. Now the Boom 2 gets imrepsivly loud for its size and price and its good for like a 8 person party. Where as with the Bose, its a little louder than the Boom 2, but I would still say that its good for like an 8 person party, but I did expect this speaker to get louder than it does. And then theres the Boom 2 plus which gets significantly louder than the Bose and its has a lot more bass cause its simply larger and this speaker is going to be good for like a 12 person party. And like I mentioned earlier, with all of these speakers, if you use them while they are plugged in, they are not going to get you a performance bump. Overall, I think both the Soundcore boom 2 plus and Boom 2 get surprisingly loud for both of their prices and size and they sound more than good enough to get the job done, especially for an outdoor speaker. Where as with the Bose, I did expect better performance out of it.
But finally lets talk about spring this speaker up with other speakers. Now with the Bose Soundlink Max, pairing is very limited. All you can do is use simple sync with your other bose products and get them to play in sync… but simple sync works with any Bluetooth product. So theoretically, you can connect a JBL Xtreme 4 or Soundcore boom 2 plus to your Bose smart soundbar and get them to play in sync.
Where as with both of Soundcore’s speakers, if you have two of the exact same speakers you can pair them up and get them to play in left and right stereo mode, but also both of these Soundcore Speakers are using Soundcore’s Partycast 2.0, you can pair them up together and get them to play in sync and you can have up to 100 speakers playing in sync. And there are a few Soundcore speakers to choose from that are also using Partycast 2.0.
Overall, if you’re planning on growing your collection of speakers then you are better off going with Soundcore here over Bose. Cause this type of pairing feature is great cause maybe you want to take two boom 2’s speakers to the beach and pair them up and get them to cover a large area of music without having to crank your volume super loud or draining your battery super fast.
So with all of that being said, the Bose Soundlink max is a very premium feeling speaker… however due to its price to performance ratio, I find it very hard to justify this speaker. It doesn’t sound as open as id expect, it doesn’t get as loud as id expect, and its pairing capabilities are very weak. Where as both of Soundcore’s speakers give you a very big bang for your buck. The Boom 2 plus gets very loud and it has a lot more bass and the Boom 2 doesn’t sound all that far off from the Bose. Both soundcore speakers also have a decent looking light feature which I personally really enjoy, and they are both a lot more affordable than the Bose Soundlink Max.