Buy Them Here:
JBL Partybox Club 120: https://amzn.to/4axtVb4
JBL Partybox 110: https://amzn.to/3TWCg0z
So over the last few years, the JBL Partybox 110 has been my favorite mid sized box speaker to recommend… and I feel that the 110 is more than enough for most people, it sounds good, it get very loud off of its internal battery, it has a ton bass, and it has a really good looking light feature. But now, we have the JBL Partybox Club 120 which more refined and it has some important upgrades over the 110. Nonetheless, today we’re going to see the the Partybox Club 120 is all about and we’re going to see if it worth upgrading if you already have the 110.
Regarding pricing, the JBL Partybox club 120 has a retail price of $400, the same as the 110 when it first came out. But I do expect the 120 to go on sale in Q4 of 2024 and so on. Nonetheless if you want to pick this speaker up it’ll be linked down below.
Now first lets talk about the design of this speaker. Now the 120 is a mid sized box speaker… and its basically the same size as the 110. So taking this speaker on the go with you is relatively easy… however something that I did notice about the 120 is its weight. The 120 weighs in at 24.4 pounds… now thats not bad, but the 110 weighs in at 23 pounds… almost a one and a half pound increase on the 120. Regardless transporting the 120 is easy enough, plus personally I like the new center mounted handle found on the 120… it just feels more comfortable carrying this speaker around than the handle on the 110. Now this is a very minor upgrade and difference on the 120… but I just want to point out that this handle just helps make this speaker feel more premium cause this handle very easily swivels up and down… and it feels like theres a magnetic latch or something keeping this handle in position. I know its dumb, but I find the handle on this speaker so interesting and premium. And also, I really like that theres now an LED on the ports panel in the back, which again helps make this speaker look and feel more premium. But when it comes to durability, the 120 still has a mostly plastic body which is going to collect scratches very easily… and theres also a thin metal grill on the front which can get dented very easily as well. However the 120 is IPX4 rated meaning that a little bit of water isn’t going to hurt this speaker. Now regarding the control panel up top, things are very similar to the 110, we have a big dial for your volume, and a dial for your light feature. But what is new are these DJ buttons which we will talk about later, and just like before, the 120 still has a top hat mount on the bottom just in case you put this speaker on a stand.
But then theres the light feature on this speaker… and I think this is why the 120 gained a little bit of weight. Just like before, the 120 has your two conjoined light rings on the front. But now, the 120 has LED stars on the front panel and light bars up top and down below. And in general I feel that this is a very dynamic looking light feature. I just hate that the tweeters aren’t illuminated like the tweeters on the 110. But regardless through JBL’s app you can choose from a few different lighting modes, you can also activate or deactivate certain portions of the light feature and you can also customize the light feature. Overall the 120 has a very impressive looking light feature that going to look great in your man cave and its also the same as the light feature found on the larger Partybox 320.
But just keep in mind, if you do decide to use the light feature on this speaker, that is going to take its tool on the battery life. Now regarding battery life, the 120 has an advertised battery life of 12 hours, just like the 110. However this advertised battery life of 12 hours is with this speaker playing at 25% volume, which is a decent lisnteing volume for when you’re alone, with the light feature turned off and with the bass boost feature turned off.
Realworld use with this speaker playing at 65% volume, which is feel is decent for when you’re with friends, with the light feature turned on and with the bass boost feature turned on, its good for about 6 to 7 hours of playback time… which is good, but the 110 has little more stamina than the 120 cause under the same circumstances its good 7 hours… and I feel the 120 has less stamina than the 110 cause it has a larger light feature to power plus it has a 34 watt hour battery where as the 110 has a slightly larger 36 watt hour battery.
HOWEVER, one of the main upgrades on the 120 over the 110 is that it now has a swappable battery. And this swappable battery is great for 2 reasons. The first reason is, if you get multiple batteries you can just easily swap them out and keep the party going… or, since batteries degrade over time due to multiple charging cycles… if you get to a point where your battery can no longer hold a charge, you can always just get a new battery instead of having to get a whole new speaker.
But for those curious, yes you can use this speaker while its plugged in and with the battery removed. But you cant hot swap these batteries… as soon a you pull the battery out, the speaker is going to turn off… and also, the battery that comes with the 320 is larger than the battery that comes with the 120…
So, yes the 120 has slightly less stamina than the 110… but I personally don't mind cause it still has a good real world battery life… but more importantly, being able to get multiple batteries and swap them out as they run out is a huge game changer and a very important upgrade in my opinion. And JBL is claiming that a 10 minute charge from a dead battery will get you 80 minutes of playback time.
But with power out of the way lets talk about ports and connectivity. Regarding bluetooth, the 120 is now using bluetooth 5.4 but more importantly, this speaker can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so that you and a friend can both be DJ and latency is not an issue for this speaker so you can use it to watch videos with on your phone. And the 120 has finally been upgraded to AAC…
Now when it comes to ports, things here are very similar to the 110… First off the 120 still has a USB A port so that you can either plug in and charge your own devices… or you can plug in a USB Stick and play music off of it. Now I think its great and all that the 120 has a USB A port… but I still wish that this speaker had a USB C port so that you can charge your own devices and use it as a wired connection cause most phones these days now come with USB C to USB C charging cables.
However, the 120 still has your 3.5 millimeter audio jack so you can still use this speaker with a wired connection…. And it also still has an audio out jack, so you can always daisy chain any other speaker to this speaker, regardless of size or brand and get them to play in sync.
But just like before, the 120 has 2 quarter inch inputs so that you can plug in a mic and or a guitar. However, the secondary quarter inch input on the 120 is different cause it can properly be used with a microphone. So with the 120 you can now properly use 2 microphones on this speaker.
Cause with the 110, you can only properly use one microphone… and if you plugged in at microphone into the other port that’s actually meant for a guitar, since theres so much resistance, your second microphone is going to sound very quite.
but thats no longer the case with 120, it can be used with two mic and both mics are going to sound good. And though JBL’s App you can go in and adjust the sound of your microphone. And also, the 120 now has these dj buttons up top and through JBL’s app you can also go in and choose from a few premade sounds. But sadly you cant record your own voice lines, so hopefully this is a feature that JBL will add through a software update.
But overall, I think its great and all that you can now use the 120 with 2 microphones making this a great option for karaoke.
But with all of that out of the way lets talk about sound. Regarding speaker set up, both the 120 and 110 have dual frontward firing woofers with an exhaust port shooting out the back and they both have dual frontward firing tweeters. The only major difference is that the tweeters on the 120 have been moved back up to the top… but honestly that not a big deal. Now through JBL’s app you can go in and choose from a few pre made EQ’s or you can make your own… and theres also a separate bass boost feature as well. But personally I just like to use this speaker with its signature JBL EQ and with bass boost set to deep. And also, with both of these speakers, if you use them while they are plugged in you are going to get a performance boost out of them. They’re both going to get louder and they’re both going to have more bass. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test. Both speaker are playing at 92% volume, they’re both using their stock EQ’s and we’re going to be using them while they are plugged in and unplugged.
Now when it comes to the overall sound quality of these two speakers, I say that the instrument separation on the 120 and 110 are very similar to one another. However the 120 does have a little more emphasis on the mids so vocals are a little more pronounced on the 120… but more importantly, the 120 does have more wall shaking bass than the 110. However, the real performance difference between the 120 and 110 comes down to max volume performance. When running off of its internal batteries, both the 120 and 110 get decently loud and I say that these speakers are good for cook outs or get togethers with 12 or 15 people… but the 120 does get a little louder than the 110. Now its not a huge difference, but you will notice it if you use these two speakers back to back. And like I mentioned earlier, if you use these speakers while they are plugged in you are going to get a performance boost out of them. They are going to get louder and they are going to have more bass. And again, even while they’re plugged in, the 120 gets noticeably louder than the 110. So overall, sound quality wise the 120 and 110 have very similar instrument separation, but when it comes to max volume performance, the 120 does get a little louder.
But now lets talk about pairing these speaker up with other speakers. Now with the Partybox 110, if you have another partybox 110 than you can wirelessly pair them up and get them to play in left and right stereo mode… or you can always pair your 110 up to one other partybox encore, a 110, a 310 or to a 710 and get them to play in sync… but you can only have a total of 2 speakers wirelessly paired to one another.
Where as the 120 is using Aurocast, and again, if you have another 120 then you can wirelessly pair them up and get to play in left and right stereo mode… or you can pair it up to another Aurocast speaker like the Partybox 320 and get them to play in sync. But unfortunately, you can not wirelessly connect a 120 to JBL’s older partybox speakers like either a 310 or 110, encore or 710. And you also can’t wirelessly connect your partybox 120 to any of JBL’s smaller Partyboost speakers.
Now I do feel that not being able to connect your 120 to your 110 wirelessly sucks… but like I mentioned earlier, the 120 still has an audio out jack… so if you have a spare audio cable lying around, you can still daisy chain any other speaker to this speaker regardless of size or brand and get them to play in sync.
But with all of that being said, the Partybox 120 has been refined from the partybox 110, and this is one of the best mid sized box speakers that you can get and I feel that this is going to be more than enough for most people. From a sound quality standpoint, the 120 has very similar instuemnet separation to the 110, but the 120 has more bass and it also get louder. The 120 also has a larger and more impressive looking light feature, but more importantly you can now properly drive two microphones with this speaker for karaoke, and the new swappable batteries on this speaker are very important. Either you can get multiple batteries and keep the party going… or if you get to a point where your battery has been degraded, you can simply replace the battery instead of having to replace the whole speaker.