Get Them Here:
Sony ULT 7: https://amzn.to/4eR5c3P
JBL Xtreme 4: https://amzn.to/3XWcJsb
JBL Boombox 3: https://amzn.to/4cvSkOV
So the JBL Xtreme 4 has some very big upgrades to it like a swappable battery, better sound and Auracast. And in general, this is a super portable and loud speaker thats great to take to the beach or park with you. However, the JBL Xtreme 4 is a little pricy, and for not a lot more you can get either the JBL Boombox 3 or the Sony ULT 7, which is currently my favorite speaker for summer 2024. Either way if you’re trying to choose between picking up the JBL Xtreme 4 or either of these two big boys, lets see which one is right for you.
Regarding pricing, the JBL Xtreme 4 has a retail price of $380, a little up there. But I do expect this speaker to eventually go on sale. But then there are both the JBL Boombox 3 and Sony ULT 7 which both retail for $500, but they do like to go on sale for around $400. 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. One of the main selling points of the Xtreme 4 is just that its small and durable, so you can easily take it on the go with you, and it also has a built in shoulder strap which just make it that much easier to take on the go with you. But an added benefit of this shoulder strap is that it has a built in bottle open, a very nice touch from JBL so you can open your not so soft drinks. Now, both the JBL Boombox 3 and Sony ULT 7 are portable and they are easy enough to take on the go with you, however these speakers are larger and they are heavier cause the Boombox 3 weighs in at 14.7 pounds and the ULT 7 weighs in at 13.9 pounds… where as the Xtreme 4 weighs in at 4.6 pounds. So the Xtreme 4 is a lot smaller and portable, but all of these speakers are equally as durable, they all have a mostly fabric wrapped body so they can all stand up to constant abuse from bumps and scrapes, and they’re all water proof.
However, there is one thing that the ULT 7 has over these two JBL speakers and thats its built in light feature that’s tucked away in its passive radiator. Now its there if you want it, but personally I dont use this light feature cause its hard to so and it does take an additional toll on the battery life. So personally I just use the ULT 7 without the light feature an instead I enjoy the improved battery life.
Now when it comes to battery life, both the Boombox 3 and Xtreme 4 have an advertised battery life of 24 hours. However, this advertised battery life of 24 hours is with both of these speakers playing at 50% volume, but obviously, 50% on the Boombox 3 is going to sound louder, fuller and its going to have a lot more bass than 50% volume on the Xtreme 4.
But real world use with both the Boombox 3 and Xtreme 4 playing at 80% volume, the Boombox 3 is going to be good for about 8 hours of playback time where as the Xtreme 4 is going to be good for about 14 hours of playback time. But just keep in mind, 80% volume on the Xtreme 4 is not going to sound anywhere near as impressive as the Boombox 3.
But also if you want, you can always extend the battery life of the Xtreme 4 by setting it to its PartyTime Boost mode which is basically just going to lower the bass on this speaker and make it sound brighter. Basically this is JBL’s version of Sony’s stamina mode.
But then theres the Sony ULT 7 which has an advertised battery life of 30 hours, but that’s with this speaker playing at 32% volume but with the light feature turned off but with the ULT feature turned on, which is good. But real world use with this speaker playing at 80% volume and while set to ULT 2 it good for about 8 hours of playback time as well. However, 80% volume on the ULT 7 is a little louder than the 80% Volume on the Boombox 3.
However, one major upgrade on the Xtreme 4 over these other two speakers is that you can now fairly easily remove the battery in it. 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 chargning these speakers both the Boombox 3 and ULT 7 charge via a double barrel AC port and there are no external power bricks that you have to worry about. Where as the Xtreme 4 charges via a USB C port so you can either charge it with your phone’s USB C charging cable, or you can use the included chargning cable. But with all of these speakers you are going to get a performance boost out of them if you use them while they are plugged in. They’re going to get louder and they are going to have more bass.
But then there are the ports on these speakers. Now the UBC port on the Xtreme 4 is the only port that you’ll find on this speaker. Unfortunately there is no audio jack and you cant use it with a wired connection. However, you can use the USB C port on the Xtreme 4 to charge your own devices which I think it great.
Where as with both the Boombox 3 and ULT 7, they both have an audio jack so you can use them with wired connection, and they both have a USB A port so that you can charge your own devices. However, I feel that these USB A ports aren’t as useful as the USB C port on the Xtreme 4 cause most phones these days come with USB C to USB C charnging cables. However, with the USB A port on the ULT 7 you can always plug in a USB Stick and play music off of it.
But something that the ULT 7 has over both the Boombox 3 and Xtreme 4 is that it has a quarter inch input so you can either plug in a microphone for karaoke or you can always plug in a guitar. But more realisitcly I think its great that the ULT 7 can be used for karaoke, I just hope that you’re decent at it and not just getting gassed up cause your aunt is clapping in the background saying how great you are.
But when it comes to Bluetooth connectivity, all three of these can be connected to two devices at the same time so that you and a friend can both the DJ, and latency is not an issue for either the Boombox 3 or ULT 7 so you can use them to watch videos with on your phone, where as the Xtreme 4 does have some latency to it so I hope JBL will fix that through a software update. But when it comes to audio codecs, the Xtreme 4 only has support for SBC, where as the Boombox 3 has support for SBC and AAC, and then theres the ULT 7 which has support for SBC, AAC and LDAC which is Sony’s own in house high res audio codec.
Voice 15
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Regarding speaker set up both the Xtreme 4 and ULT 7 have dual frontward firing woofers, dual frontward firing tweeters and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides, expect on the ULT 7, its larger. But then theres the Boombox 3 which has a frontward firing subwoofer, dual frontward firing woofers, dual frontward firing tweeters which are stacked on top of the woofers and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. Now with all of these speakers you can go in and you can adjust their EQ to your liking… But with the ULT 7… you can either adjust its EQ to your liking, or instead you can use either of its 2 ULT Settings. Theres ULT one which is going to give you more bass and then there’s ULT 2 which is also going to give you more bass but its also going to amplify its mids. And like I mentioned earlier, with all of these speakers if you use them while they are plugged in they are going to get you a performance boost. They are going to get louder and they are going to have more bass. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test, the Xtreme 4 is playing at max volume with its stock EQ, where as the Boombox 3 is playing at 75% volume with its bass raised by 3 clicks, and the Sony ULT 7 is playing at 75% volume as well and while in ULT2.
Sound Test
So from a performance stand point, obviously both the Boombox 3 and ULT 7 are going to sound a lot fuller and louder than the Xtreme 4 cause they’re just larger. Both the Boombox 3 and ULT 7 are going to put out a lot more bass and the bass on these speakers is going to be able to rattle the walls in your house a little bit. Where as with the Xtreme 4, not so much. However the Xtreme 4 does have really good detail in the mids for a speaker of its size, but again you are going to get better detail in these larger speakers. But when it comes to choosing between the Boombox 3 and ULT 7, the ULT 7 does have better details, clarity and emphasis on the mids than the Boombox 3, plus it also has more bass, and when it comes to max volume performance, the ULT 7 is the loudest speaker. But like I mentioned earlier, with all od these speakers if you use them while they are plugged in, they are going to get louder and they’re going to have more bass. Overall I feel that both the Boombox 3 and ULT 7 are good for like 15 people parties, where as the Xtreme 4 is good for like a 10 person party.
But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers up with other speakers. Now with all of these speakers if you have two of the exact same speakers you can wirelessly pair them up and get them to play in left and right stereo mode. But the Boombox 3 is using JBL Partyboost, so you can pair it up to other JBL Partyboost speakers like either another Boombox 3, a Boombox 2, Xtreme 3, Charge 5, Pulse 5, Pulse 4, Flip 5, or flip 6 and you can pair up to 100 speakers together and get them to play in sync.
But then theres the Xtreme 4 which is using Auracast, so you can pair it up to other Aura cast speakers like either a Clip 5 or a Go 4, or you can also pair it up to JBL’s partybox speakers that are also using aura cast like either a Partybox 120, 320 or Ultimate.
But also, with the Xtreme 4, it is backwards compatible with party boost, so you can pair it up with lets say a boombox 3. However, in order to pair an aura cast speaker with a party boost speaker you have to do that through JBL’s app, which is a little clunky compared to just pressing a single button on your speaker if your trying to pair a party boost speaker to a partyboost speaker or an aura cast speaker to an aura cast speaker.
However, its very important to point out that the Xtreme 4 can connect to either the Partybox 320 which is an aura cast speakers, and the Xtreme 4 can connect to the boombox 3 which is a Partyboost speaker, the boombox 3 can not connect to the Partybox 320 even though its an aura cast speaker just like the Xtreme 4. Cause here I have all three of these speakers turned on but the Partybox 320 and Boombox 3 do not want to talk to each other.
But then there the Sony ULT 7 which is using Sony’s Party Connect, and you can pair it up to other Party connect speakers like either another ULT 7, or to an XG500, XG300, XE300, XE200 or to an XB43, XB33 or to an XB23 and you can pair up to 100 speakers together and get them to play in sync… or you can also pair your ULT 7 to any of Sony’s larger box speakers that are also using Party connect like either the ULT Tower 10, XV900, XV800, XV500 or XP700 or XP500. The only sad thing here is that you can’t connect the ULT 7 to Sony’s ULT Field 1.
So either Sony’s or JBL’s speakers are good options if you plan on buying multiple speakers and pairing them up on a regular basis, however I do feel that Sony’s Party Connect is more accommodating and I have noticed that its more stable, cause with Aura cast, I am noticing a lot more echos and dropouts than with Sony’s party cast.
But with all of that being said, the JBL Xtreme 4 is a very impressive speaker that very loud, portable and durable and it will have no problem keeping up with you. The addition of Aura Cast is nice cause you can pair this speaker up to JBL’s older Partyboost speakers and you can pair it up to JBL’s newer Partyboxes that are also using Aura cast. Plus it has that fairly easy to remove battery which can either prolong that life of your speaker, or you can buy multiple batteries and swap them out and keep the party going. However, however, if you were to move up to either the Boombox 3 or ULT 7, both of these speakers are going to get louder and they are going to have more bass. They are going to sound fuller. But if you are trying to choose between the ULT 7 and the Boombox 3, personally I do lean towards the ULT 7 cause it sound more open, it has more bass, it gets louder and it can be used for karaoke.