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JBL Xtreme 4: https://amzn.to/3DpWxHD
Bose Max: https://amzn.to/4fuPjPy Bose Flex 2: https://amzn.to/4fwNxxE
So the Bose Soundlink Flex Gen 2 is a very durable, portable and premium feeling speaker that performs fairly well. And with Bose’s speakers, you can wirelessly pair 2 speakers together and get them to play in sync, or if you have two of the same speakers you can get them to play in left and right stereo mode. So today we’re going to see how 2 Bose Flex Gen 2’s sound compared to the Bose Soundlink Max and the JBL Xtreme 4.
Regarding pricing, the Bose Flex 2 has a retail price of $150, but they can be found on sale now for $120. So dual Flex 2’s are going to run you between $300 and $240. Where as the Bose Soundlink Max has a retail price of $400 but it can be found on sale for $300 and the JBL Xtreme 4 has a retail price of $380 but it also likes to go on sale for $300. Now depending on your needs, you’ll be better off with on over the other, but nonetheless, if you want to pick any of these speakers up they’ll be linked down below.
So first theres the design of these speakers. Now both the Bose Mac and JBL Xtreme 4 are large portable speakers that are still very easy to take on the go with you. Now the Bose Max has comes included with a carrying handle, where as the Xtreme 4 has a shoulder strap. So just being able to throw this speaker over your should just makes its a lot easier to take on the go with you. Where as with the Bose, you can get a shoulder strap, but thats sold separately. But then theres the Bose Flex 2 which is just smaller than these other two speakers. So you can easily throw them into your back pack if you want. But regardless all of these speakers are durable cause they are all rocking an IP67 rating meaning that they are both dust and water proof.
But when it comes to battery life, these speakers are very different from one another. Now the Flex 2 has an advertised battery life of 12 hours while its playing at 50% volume but real world use with this speaker playing at 80% volume its going to be good for around 7 hours of playback time. Which I do feel is a little low for its size and price.
Where as with the Bose Max, it has an advertised battery life of 20 hours while its playing at 65% volume. But real world use with this speaker playing at 85% volume, its good for about 10 hours of playback time. And this is a speaker that you’ll might want to use at a slightly higher volume on a regular basis cause its a little quiet for its size.
Where as with the Xtreme 4, this speaker has an advertised battery life of 24 hours while its playing at 50% volume which is similar to the Bose max playing at 65% volume. And real world use with this speakers playing at 80% volume, its good for about 14 hours of playback time. And 80% volume on the Xtreme 4 is noticeably louder than 85% volume on the Bose Max.
But one of the biggest things about the Xtreme 4 is that you can fairly easily remove the battery. Now its fairly easy to remove cause you have to unscrew some bolts. But the important thing here is, if after 3 or 4 years, your speaker battery doesn’t last as long, then you can just replace it… or if you have multiple batteries than you can keep the party going cause honestly, swapping out this battery isn’t all that hard.
Now when it comes to charging these speakers, they all charge via a USB C port, which is great. But with the both the Bose Max and JBL Xtreme 4, you can use this USB C port to charge your own devices, which I feel is super useful. But also, with the JBL Xtreme 4, if you use the included chargning cable, then you are going to get a performance boost out of it while its plugged in. Its going to get louder and its going to have more bass. Where as that doesn’t happen with either of Bose’s speakers.
And continuing on the topic of ports, both the Bose max and JBL Xtreme 4 have an audio jack, so you can use them with a wired connection if you want, where as with the Flex 2, you can only use this speaker wirelessly.
But when it comes to Bluetooth connectivity, all of these speakers can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so 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.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Regarding speaker set up the Bose flex 2 has a very simple speaker set up of a frontward firing driver and dual passive radiators that shoot out the front and out the back. Where the Bose 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. And then theres the JBL Xtreme 4 which has dual frontward firing woofers, dual frontward firing tweeters and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. And with all of these speakers, you can go into their apps and adjust their EQ to your liking. And like I mentioned earlier, with the Xtreme 4 if you use it 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. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test. Both the Bose Flex 2 and Bose max are playing at 75% volume with their stock EQ’s, we’re going to use the a single flex 2 and dual flex 2’s… and the JBL Xtreme 4 is playing at 63% volume cause otherwise it would have clipped the mics.
So something that both the Bose Flex 2 and Bose max have in common is that they both lean toward a very warm sound signature. Which I personally find very odd because Bose’s earbuds, headphones and soundbars all like to leans towards a brighter sound signature. But a key difference with the Bose Flex 2 here is, this speaker does not have a tweeter, so the Flex 2 doesn’t sound as open and the highs aren’t as defined as with these other two speakers. However, when you have two speakers in stereo mode, then your music is going to sound more open cause you physically have 2 speakers and your music is going to get louder. However, since the Bose Max has that tweeter that is just missing on the dual bose flex 2’s… the highs are just cleaner and the max just sounds a little more open than then dual Bose Flex 2’s. So I honestly just feel that if you’re thinking about getting dual bose flex 2’s, you’re going to be better off getting the max cause it does have better overall sound quality. And then theres the JBL Xtreme 4… this speaker does like to lean towards a brighter sound signature… but you can always got into its app and pump up the bass. But more importantly, I do think that this speaker sounds and performs better than the Bose max and dual flex 2’s. Now in this sound test, the bass on the Xtreme 4 wasn’t as deep as Bose’s speakers, but keep in mind, the Xtreme 4 was running at a lower volume. If you use it at a higher volume than the bass is going to be on par if not more than the Bose Max. So sound quality wise, either the Bose Max or JBL Xtreme 4 are going to give you better sound performance than dual Bose Flex 2’s… but I still feel that if you’re trying to choose between the Bose max and JBL Xtreme 4, you’re going to be better off going with the Xtreme 4.
But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers up with other speakers. 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 you can get them to play in sync. But with Bose’s speakers you can only have a total of 2 speakers paired together. But if you want your can pair your bose flex gen 2 up to your bose max.
But then theres the JBL Xtreme 4 which is using aura cast. So you can wirelessly pair it up to any other aura cast speaker, and aura cast is a universal speaker pairing protocol. So you can pair you JBL speaker to any other speaker regardless of brand as long as it has aura cast. But personally im not the biggest fan of aurcast right now cause it is very slow, and echos happen a lot.
But thankfully, the JBL Xtreme 4 is backwards compatible with JBL’s older speakers that are using party boost. So you can pair your Xtreme 4 up to other party boost speakers like either a Boombox 3, a Boombox 2, an Xtreme 3, Charge 5, a Pulse 5, a Pulse 4 a flip 5 or to a flip 6 and get them to play in sync and you can pair up to 100 speakers together.
So if you plan on getting more than two speaker then you’ll want to go with the Xtreme 4… now aura cast gets the job done and its the future… but I still prefer JBL’s own speaker pairing protocol Partyboost cause its a lot faster, and a lot more stable than 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 very hard to justify this speaker cause of its lack luster upgrades over its predecessor and its price. Personally, I find it hard to justify one Flex 2, let alone 2 flex 2’s. For the price of 2 flex 2’s you can get either a Bose Max or a JBL Xtreme 4. And both of these speakers are going to offer you much better battery life… but more importantly they are both going to offer you better sound, speicficly cause they have tweeters for the highs… now 2 bose flex 2’s get almost as loud as a Bose max… but a JBL Xtreme 4 does get noticeably louder. And in general I still recommend that you get a JBL Xtreme 4 over a bose Max or dual flex 2’s cause you’re going to get extra features like an included shoulder strap, a removable battery and aura cast.