So the JBL Boombox 3 is a very capable and very portable bluetooth speaker. Thanks to it new speaker set up, the Boombox 3 sounds good, its super durable, and thanks to it built in battery, it can hang for awhile. However, the Boombox 3 is a very premium speaker. But then there’s the Partybox 110 and Sony XP500 which are usually a little more affordable and they pack a lot more sound. So today we’re going to see how the Boombox 3 stacks up to both the Partybox 110 and Sony XP500 and lets see which one is right for you.
Regarding pricing, Both the Partybox 110 and Sony XP500 retail for $400… a $50 increase from when they first came out. But nonetheless, these speakers are still $100 les than the boombox 3 which has a retail price of $500. Now depending on your needs and wants, you’ll be better off with one of these speakers over the other. Nonetheless, if you want to pick any of these speakers up, they’ll be linked down below.
Now first lets talk about the design of these speakers. Now one of the main characteristics about the Boombox 3 is just its sheer size and ruggedness. The Boombox 3 is noticeably smaller than these other two speakers, and its also noticeably lighter weighing in at 14.7 pounds. So taking this speaker on the go with you is going to be comparatively much wiser than these other two speakers. The only thing that you need to watch out for is… if you’re going to throw this speaker into the trunk of your car, you have to secure it somehow, or else its just going to roll all around. Where as, that isn’t an issue for these other two speakers. Now portability wise, both the Partybox 110 and Sony XP500 are also doable… but they are bigger and heavier, the 110 weighs in at 23 pounds and the XP500 weighs in a little under 25 pounds. But more importantly, these speakers just aren’t as rugged. Both the 110 and XP500 have mostly plastic bodies… and these plastic bodies can easily collect scratches. Whereas, the mostly fabric wrapped body of the Boombox 3 does a much better job of standing up to constant abuse from bumps and scrapes. But also, the Boombox 3 is rocking an IP67 rating, meaning that its both dust and water resistant. Where as these other two speakers are rocking an IPX4 rating. Basically, with these box speakers, they can get a little wet and rained on a little… but with the Boombox 3, you can drop it into a pool and it’ll be fine.
However, something that these two box speakers have over the boombox 3 are their light features. And these light features could be a good addition if you plan on using these speakers in your man cave. But it is pretty obvious that the 110 has much better looking light feature than the XP500. It is much more dynamic and brighter. Whereas, the light feature on the XP500 is a lot more tamed by comparison. But another thing that the 110 has over the XP500 which is pretty important if you’re looking into getting a box speaker is that it has a top hat mount on the bottom. Where as the XP500 doesn’t.
But now lets talk about the battery life on these speakers. The Sony XP500 has an advertised battery life of 20 hours where as the Partybox 110 has an advertised battery life of 12 hours. But the XP500’s advertise battery life of 20 hours is with it playing at 30% volume, with its light feature turned off but with its mega bass feature turned on which is good. However 30% volume on this speaker is nothing. Its good for like ambiance but its not good for like actually listening to music.
Where as with the Partybox its advertised battery life is with this speaker playing at a little over 20% volume, but with its light feature turned off and with bass boost turned off. However 20% volume on the Partybox is noticeably louder than 30% volume on the Sony XP500. And in general the Sony XP500 is a little quiet for its size while playing off of its internal battery. So personally I feel most people will be using the Sony between 50 to a hundred percent volume on a regular basis. Where as with the partybox 60 to 80% volume is a good listening volume.
So real world use with the XP500 playing at 80% volume, with its light feature turned on and with mega bass turned on this speaker is good for about 8 hours which is fine. Where as with the partybox playing at 65% volume which is the same loudness as the XP500, with its light feature turned on and with bass boost set to Deep, this speaker is also good for about 8 hours of play back time.
So even though at first glance the Sony XP500 has a much longer advertised battery life than the Partybox 110… since I feel most people are going to have to use the XP500 at higher volumes than what they would with the Partybox 110… thats going to cause their battery life to drain much faster… but also keep in mind battery life on these speakers really depends on how you use them. If you use them at higher volumes thats going to drain your battery. If you have their light features turned on thats going to drain their batteries… and if you have their bass features turned on thats also going to drain their batteries especially on the Partybox 110 since you’ve got 3 levels of bass to choose from.
But then there’s the Boombox 3… Now this speaker has an advertised battery life of 24 hours… But that is with this speaker playing at 50% volume… which already a decent listening volume. But real world use with this speaker playing at 80% its good for about 8 hours of playback time. So stamina wise, the Boombox 3 is able to easily out last these other two speakers cause 50% Volume on this speaker is a lot more usable than 20 and 30 percent volume on the other two speakers. But the Boombox 3 sounds very different from these other two speakers cause it sounds brighter and has less physicality in its bass than the other two speakers.
Now when it comes to charging these speakers, all of these speakers charge via an AC port… which I personally find to be very convenient, and this is new for the Boombox 3 cause before, there was an external power brick that you would have to worry about. So, the Boombox 3 has the better stamina here regarding real world use… plus charging it is rather easy as well. If you take this speaker to a friend’s house… its very likely that they have one of these cables laying around.
Now 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. But when it comes to audio codecs, both of JBL’s speakers are only using SBC… where as the XP500 has support for SBC, AAC, and Sony’s only LDAC which is their own in house high res audio codec. But regardless, whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device, SBC is going to work perfectly fine.
But if you want to, you can always use any of these speakers with a wired connection cause they all still have a 3.5 millimeter audio jack. Now I would expect an audio jack on the Box speakers… but wouldn’t have been surprised if JBL removed the audio jack on the Boombox 3. However, something that is unique to the 110 here over these other two speakers is that it has an audio out jack. So if you have a spare audio cable laying around, you can always daisy chain any other speaker to the 110 and have them play in sync.
Now all of these speakers have USB A ports on them so that you can charge your own devices… but with both the 110 and XP500 you can also plug in a USB Stick and play music off of it. Now personally, I am glad that all of these speakers still have USB A ports… but I also wish that these speakers had USB C ports on them so that you could use them as a wired connection and charge your own devices… like you can with the USB C port found on the Xtreme 3.
But something that is found on these two box speakers that the Boombox 3 simple doesn’t have are dual quarter inch inputs so that you can plug in a guitar and or a microphone. And this is very handy either for hosting events or karaoke.
But now lets talk about actually listening to music with these speakers. Now regarding speaker set ups, both the 110 and XP500 are pretty standard as box speakers go. They both have dual frontward firing woofers with exhaust ports that shoot out the back… and they both have dual frontward firing tweeters. Pretty standard if you ask me. Where as with the Boombox 3… it also has dual frontward firing woofers… but they are significantly smaller than the woofers that you’ll find on these other speakers… and the Boombox 3 also has dual frontward firing tweeters… but these tweeters are stacked on top of the woofers… now don't be alarmed, the boombox 3 doesn’t sound muffled… but JBL did this so that they can squeeze in a new frontward firing subwoofer, to compliment the dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. And in general, bass is the major improvement found on the Boombox 3. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test. Now in order for the XP500 to keep up, this speakers is playing at max volume. Where as these other two speakers are playing at 81 percent volume while in their stock EQ’s, but the Partybox has its bass set to deep.
So first, I think that we’re going to have to address max volume performance on all of these speakers. Like you may have just seen, even at max volume, the XP500 struggled to keep up. And like I mentioned earlier, the XP500 sounds very quite for its size while running off of its internal battery and I feel that real world use, most people will have to use this speaker between 80 to 100 percent volume on a regular basis. And even at 100% volume, the XP500 is disappointing. Where as with both of JBL’s speakers, they both get decently loud when running off of their internal batteries. They get as loud as you’d expect. And surprisingly, the Boombox 3 does a very good job of keeping up with the Partybox 110. But with all of these speakers, if you were to use them while they are plugged in, they are all going to get a little louder and they are all going to have more bass. And when the XP500 is plugged, that’s when this speaker starts to perform as you’d expect. Now the performance improvement that you’ll find on JBL’s speaker isn’t as drastic as the XP500’s… But you will notice a difference. But overall, the Partybox 110 does have the best max volume performance here. Now even though it does seem like the Boombox 3 manages to get louder than the 110 at times… the Boombox 3 is able to do this cause it has a brighter sound signature… it puts more of an emphasis on the mids and highs than the 110. Where as with the 110, its highs aren’t as exaggerated and there’s a lot more physicality behind its bass. Now in general, the Boombox 3 does have a very bright stock EQ, but thankfully the Boombox 3 now has an adjustable EQ, a new concept for JBL’s speakers. And personally I feel that if you want to get the best performance out of this speaker, you have to go in and raise the bass by 2 clicks and lower the treble by one click. With this EQ, I feel the Boombox 3 is going to sound much more balanced. Regarding the 110, personally I just like using this speaker with its bass set to deep, but thanks to a recent firmware update, you can now go in and adjust the EQ on the 110 as well. So if you want even more bass, you can do that. Or if you want to raise the mids and treble so that this speaker can sound louder for out door use, you can also do that. And finally there’s the XP500, which also has an adjustable EQ. But in general, the XP500 is a very warm sounding speaker. So with all of that being said, when it comes to sound quality and overall performance… yes, both of these box speakers are going to sound better than the Boombox 3, specifically cause they aren’t going to sound as bright, and they are going to have a lot more physicality in their bass then the Boombox 3. However, with the XP500… this speaker is very disappointing at higher and at max volume… it simply just can’t keep up with these other two speakers. So for that reason I prefer and recommend the Boombox 3 over the XP500. Sure, the bass on the Boombox 3 isn’t as impressive as the XP500… but you won’t feel disappointed when you want to use your speaker at max volume while running off of its internal battery. But then there’s the Partybox 110. With the 110, you’re going to get better sound quality than the Boombox 3 cause the highs aren’t as emphasized, plus the bass has a lot more physicality to… and at max volume, the Partybox is going to sound a lot more balanced than the boombox 3.
But now lets talk about pairing these speakers up with other speakers. With the boombox 3, its using JBL’s PartyBoost, meaning that it can get pairing up to other PartyBoost speakers like either another Boombox 3, a Boombox 2, Xtreme 3, Charge 5, Pulse 4, Flip 5, or flip 6, and you’ll also be able to pair it up to the upcoming Pulse 5 and you can pair up to 100 speakers together which is obviously over kill.
Where as with the Partybox 110, you can only wirelessly pair it up to one other Partybox. Now you can either pair your 110 up to another 110, or to a 310, 710, or even up to an encore… but you can only have a total of two party boxes wirelessly paired together. And also, you can not pair any of your larger Partybox speakers to any of JBL’s smaller, PartyBoost speakers. So if you have a 110, you can not wirelessly pair it to a boombox 3. However, the Partybox 110 does have that audio out jack, so you could always daisy chain it to a boombox 3 or any other speaker by using an audio cable.
But then there’s the XP500 which is using Sony’s Party Connect. Now you can either pair you XP500 to another XP500 or to an XP700… but you can also wirelessly connect your XP500 to any of Sony’s smaller speakers that are also using party connect like either an XG500, XG300, XE300, XE200, XB43, XB33, or to an XB23… and you can pair up to 100 speakers together as well.
Now even though Sony’s speaker pairing protocol is very accommodating and it gets the job done, it is not my favorite speaker pairing protocol out there. Sometimes it can be a hassle to get all of your speakers paired together and sometimes echos do form. Now Party connect does correct these echos, but its only a matter of time for these echos to come back. So like I said, its not perfect and it can be a hassle to use, but it gets the job done.
Where as with the Partyboxes… this speaker pairing protocol is much easier to use, but it is very limited and you can only have one other speaker wirelessly connected to the 110… but at the least the 110 has that audio out jack that I mentioned earlier.
But finally there’s PartyBoost. Now this is my preferred speaker pairing protocol cause its very easy to use and I never have any issue with it. And you also have a healthy ECO system of speakers to choose from. But unfortunately you can’t pair any of your smaller PartyBoost speakers to you larger Partybox speakers.
But with all of that being said, personally for me, the Sony XP500 is a hard pass just given its max volume performance while running off of it’s battery. This speaker just doesn’t get as loud as you’d expect when its running off of its battery. But also, if you were to compare it to the Partybox 110… its light feature doesn’t compare either. The only reason I would pick up the Sony XP500 is cause you already have an XG500 or an XB43 or XB33 and if you want to pair them up to the XP500. Besides that, I find it hard to justify the XP500 over the Partybox 110. Now when it comes to choosing between the Partybox 110 and Boombox 3… with the 110 you’re still going to get the better sound quality thanks to its richer and harder hitting bass. Plus with the 110 you’ve got that cool looking light feature on the front, and you’ve got extra goodies like dual quarter inch inputs for karaoke and you’ve got that audio out jack so you can daisy chain another speaker to it. However, if you need something more portable and more durable with more stamina then the Boombox 3 is the way to go. Now even though the Boombox 3 doesn’t sound as good as the Partybox 110, the Boombox 3 still sounds good and has more than enough bass thanks to it new frontward firing subwoofer. But with the Boombox 3, you are paying a premium for durability and portability.