The JBL Boombox 2 is a large, transportable Bluetooth speaker that promises effective bass intensity and excessive volumes. At $499.95, it’s additionally pretty expensive. The speaker’s boosted bass and sculpted highs in all likelihood might not attraction to purists, however lovers of a large sound will revel in its sturdy output. While you could truely discover audio system that supply a greater nuanced sonic revel in at this price, if you are searching out an out of doors-pleasant, absolutely water-resistant birthday birthday celebration device, the Boombox 2 might not disappoint.
Design
Available in black or camouflage fashions, the 10.1-through-19.1-through-7.9-inch (HWD), 13-pound Boombox 2 isn’t always the type of transportable speaker you could throw in a bag. It’s large and heavy, and transportable withinside the experience that it has a integrated cope with for taking it to the backyard, rooftop, or to and out of your car’s trunk. Its IPX7 score method it is able to be submerged as much as three.three ft underwater for as much as 30 minutes. We don’t endorse this, as Bluetooth doesn’t paintings properly underwater, however the factor is that the speaker can get sopping wet and paintings simply fine.
The appearance of the Boombox 2 is just like its predecessor. A large cope with is located over a cylindrical housing protected in grille. Beneath the grille, twin 30-watt, 0.8-inch tweeters and twin 40-watt, 4-inch woofers integrate for a frequency variety of 50Hz to 20kHz. On both stop of the speaker, there are massive passive radiators that resource in pumping out bass.
Across the the front face of the speaker, there are controls for electricity, Bluetooth pairing, play/pause (this button also can pass ahead a tune with presses, however oddly can’t pass backward with three), and plus/minus buttons for quantity control. There’s additionally a Partyboost button for linking the Boombox 2 with different JBL audio system to output the equal audio. A repute LED strip at the the front face additionally offers a battery existence readout.
A protected panel at the lower back of the speaker homes connections for the protected electricity deliver, a USB port for charging cellular devices, a micro USB port for carrier simplest, and a three.5mm aux enter for stressed track sources. The protected electricity deliver is bulky, however ships with a cable cinch to hold the cord slack below control.
What’s missing? A cable for the aux enter would’ve been nice, and there’s no accomplice app, so no EQ modifications may be made. There’s additionally no speakerphone functionality, which isn’t always sincerely a marvel for a speaker this size, even supposing it’s not unusualplace amongst smaller fashions.
The Boombox 2 is well matched with Bluetooth 5.1, however helps simplest the SBC Bluetooth codec, now no longer AAC nor AptX. For a transportable Bluetooth speaker, this isn’t always sincerely a marvel, however for a $500 speaker, it feels a chunk off.
JBL estimates battery existence to be more or less 24 hours, however your outcomes will range together along with your quantity levels.
Performance
On tracks with extreme sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the Boombox 2 promises effective low-frequency reaction. At pinnacle volumes (this speaker can get pretty loud), the bass doesn’t distort, aleven though the DSP (virtual sign processing) kicks in and thins out the lows slightly. Regardless, even if the DSP is thinning the bass to keep away from distortion, the reaction remains pretty extreme. At slight to excessive volumes, you get the maximum bass intensity and the least DSP meddling.
Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a tune with a long way much less deep bass withinside the mix, offers us a higher experience of the Boombox 2’s widespread sound signature. The drums in this tune sound borderline thunderous—there’s a notable deal of bass boosting occurring here. Callahan’s baritone vocals additionally acquire a further supporting of low-mid richness, however thankfully, there’s masses of excessive-mid and excessive-frequency sculpting to stability the boosted lows. So even as there’s a bass detail that’s a bit too dialed-up, the higher-check in percussive hits and acoustic strums aren’t buried through the low-frequency blitz. Overall, that is a completely sculpted, boosted sound signature this is particularly scooped—there may be plenty of boosting withinside the lows and highs, with a long way much less withinside the manner of midrange presence.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church withinside the Wild,” the kick drum loop gets masses of excessive-mid presence, permitting its assault to preserve its punchy presence withinside the mix. However, the loop’s maintain receives a long way greater bass intensity than we’re used to hearing, including a few severe thump to the equation. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are effective, however now no longer as in-your-face because the beefed-up drum loop—this isn’t always commonly the case. Usually, the sub-bass synth hits are the maximum bass-heavy and effective detail withinside the mix. So the boosting withinside the lows is strong, however it tapers off a chunk earlier than it reaches the super-low subwoofer realm. The vocals in this tune are introduced cleanly and clearly, with out lots delivered sibilance.
On Fiona Apple’s new album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, the vocals also are clean and crisp. The loss of delivered sibilance is a tough trick to tug off whilst balancing the highs with lows which might be this boosted, however JBL manages to make it happen.
Orchestral tracks, just like the commencing scene from John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, have a particularly herbal sound in spite of the delivered bass intensity. Purists won’t be pleased, however for all of the boosting and sculpting withinside the Boombox 2’s sound signature, it promises a extraordinarily balanced, crisp, wealthy overall performance that doesn’t lean too closely at the lows.
Conclusions
When it involves large, out of doors-pleasant audio system, we’re additionally lovers of Braven’s $399.ninety nine BRV-XXL/2, even as JBL’s PartyBox 300, additionally $500, is a fair large device entire with a mild show, however is decidedly much less smooth to transport around. The $four hundred Ultimate Ears Hyperboom is likewise an excellent, effective transportable Bluetooth speaker, aleven though it has a much less fantastic water-resistance score. This JBL Boombox 2 suits in with those audio system nicely, imparting masses of electricity for out of doors events in a nostalgic design. Considering there’s no scarcity of incredible massive, effective fashions to be had proper now, we propose deciding on the only that has the maximum functions you are searching out.
