I personally really like the new Sony ULT Field 7 cause it sounds a lot more balanced than its predecessor, the Sony XG500. It still has a ton of bass, but the mids are a lot more pronounced and this speaker gets loud. However, today we have to see how the Sony ULT Field 7 stacks up to the JBL Boombox 3… there might be a new king in town.
Regarding pricing, Both of these speakers retail for $500… however the Boombox 3 does like to routinely go on sale and I expect the ULT Field 7 to eventually go on sale as well. Now I know that theres the JBL Boombox 3 with wifi and the wifi version of this speaker gets a little louder… however the wifi version of the Boombox 3 retails for $650… so I dont feel that its worth that much and that’s why im not going to talk about it. Nonetheless if you want to pick either of these two speakers up they’ll be linked down below. Or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button.
So first theres the design of these speakers… now both of these speakers have a cylindrical design to them meaning that you’re going to have to tie them down if you plan on driving with them in the car. But more importantly, the Sony ULT field 7 is a little larger than the Boombox 3. I dont think that its a huge deal, but its worth pointing out. Nonetheless both of these speakers are great options to take on the go with you cause they both have built in carrying handles and both of these speakers weigh in less than 15 pounds… actually the ULT 7 is less dense than the Boombox 3. The only thing that I really miss on both of these speakers are shoulder straps, and I do think that this is a missed opportunity for Sony cause you can very easily add one to the ULT 7. But when it comes to overall durability these tow speakers are the same. They both have mostly fabric wrapped bodies so they can easily stand up to constant abuse from bumps and scraps. And they are both water resistant so rain or if they get splashed on isn’t going to be a problem for either of these two speakers.
The main design difference between these two speakers is that the ULT 7 has a built in light feature which is tucked away in the passive radiators. Now I feel that this light feature is okay and you have a few different lighting modes to choose from… but I dont use this light feature cause its so hard to see and instead I just enjoy the improved battery life.
Now when it comes to battery life, the JBL Boombox 3 has an advertised battery life of 24 hours where as the Sony ULT Field 7 has an advertised battery life of 30 hours. However this advertised battery life on the JBL Boombox 3 of 24 hours is with this speaker playing a little below 50% volume
Where as with the ULT Field 7, its advertised battery life of 30 hours is this speaker playing at 32% volume which is already a good listening volume, with the light feature turned off but with the ULT feature turned on which is good. And if you were to use this speaker with its light feature turned on then its going to be good for about 25 hours.
But real world use with both of these speakers playing at 80% volume which I feel is a really good volume to use with friends, then both of these speakers are going to be good for about 8 hours of playback time. However 80% volume on the ULT 7 is slightly louder than 80% volume on the Boombox 3. And this is with the Lights on the ULT 7 being off.
So overall battery life on the ULT 7 is a little better than the on the Boombox 3, but not by much. But something that I really like about both of these speakers if that they both charge via an AC port… so now with both of these speakers you can charge them with any standard AC cable and you dont have an external power brick that you have to worry about. And I like this cause it makes life a little easier.
Now when it comes to connectivity, both of these speakers can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so that you and a friend can both be DJ. Latency is not an issue for either of these two speakers so you can use them to watch videos with on your phone… and when it comes to audio codecs, the Boombox 3 has support for SBC and AAC where as the ULT 7 has support for SBC AAC and LDAC which is Sony’s own high res audio codec, Just keep in mind that if you want to take advantage of LDAC, you do have to be an android user cause iPhone’s top out at AAC.
Regarding ports, both of these speakers have a USB A port so that you can plug in your own devices and charge them up… or with the ULT 7, you can also plug in a USB Stick and play music off of it. Now I think its great and all that both of these speakers have USB A ports on them, but I still really wish that they have USB C sticks so that you can charge your own devices and or use them as a wired connection like you can with the USB C port on the Xtreme 3 cause most phones these days come with USB C to USB C charging cables.
But, both of these speakers still have your standard 3.5 millimeter audio jack so you can use them with a wired connection. Now I know this sounds very basic, but I do have to point this out cause 3.5 millimeter audio jack aren’t all that common on smaller speakers now.
But something the Sony ULT 7 has over the JBL Boombox 3 is that it has a quarter inch input so you can plug in a microphone for karaoke or you can plug in a guitar. Just keep in mind that you can only use the ULT 7 with a wired microphone, and you cant use it with a wireless microphone like lets say the ULT Tower 10.
But with all of that out of the way lets talk about sound. Regarding speaker set up, the Sony ULT 7 has a pretty standard set up of dual frontward firing woofers, dual front ward firing tweeters and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. 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 both of these speakers you can go in and you can adjust their EQ to your liking… and in this soundtest we’re going to try something new and were going to use the Boombox 3 with its bass raised all the way up. Where as with the ULT 7… you can also 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 with both 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. So now we’re going to jump into the soundtest. Both speakers are playing at 87% volume, the Boombox 3 is playing with its bass raised all the way up and the ULT 7 is playing with ULT 2 and we’re going to use both speakers while they are plugged in and unplugged.
Sound Test
So when it comes to sound quality, I feel that the Sony ULT Field 7 sounds a lot more open and has much better clarity in the mids than the JBL Boombox 3. With the Boombox 3, this speaker just sounded a little narrow at times. And the reason why I used the Boombox 3 with its bass raised all the way up it was so that it could have a chance of matching the bass on the ULT 7. But in the real world, the bass on the ULT 7 just hits harder than the bass on the Boombox 3. And personally I find this very impressive cause the Boombox 3 has a full frontward firing subwoofer which just isn’t found on the ULT 7. And when it comes to max volume, the ULT 7 still manages to out perform the Boombox 3. Now I feel that both of these speakers are good for about 15 people parties when they are running off of their internal batteries. But like I mentioned earlier, with both of these speakers if you use them while they are plugged in, they are going to get you a preomance boost. But still, the ULT 7 manages to still out preform the Boombox 3. So overall, I think the Sony ULT Field 7 is the clear winner here, now this speaker get a little louder and has more bass than the Boombox 3, but more importantly, with ULT2 turned on, the ULT 7 has much better definition in the mids and sound a lot more open than the Boombox 3. Personally, I only use this speaker while in ULT 2 and I think that you should too.
But finally lets talk about paring these speakers up to other speakers. Now with both of these speakers, if you get two of the same speakers you can pair them up and get them to play in left and right stereo mode. Or with the Boombox 3, since this is a party boost speaker, you can pair it up to other party boost speakers like another Boombox 3, to a Boombox 2, Xtreme 3, Charge 5, Pulse 5, Pulse 4, flip 5 or to a flip 6 and you can pair up to 100 speakers together and you can get them to play in sync.
But also, you can pair these party boost speakers to up coming aura cast speakers like either an Xtreme 4, Clip 5 or go 4. But unfortunately, you can not connect your boombox 3 to any of JBL’s large Partybox speakers like either a Partybox encore, 110, 310, or to a 710… and you also cant connect your boombox 3 to any of JBL’s newer speakers that are using Auracast like either a Partybox 120, 320 or ultimate. And also, you cant connect the standard Boombox 3 to the Boombox 3 with wifi.
But then theres the Sony ULT 7 which is using Sony’s party connect and you can wirelessly connect it to other Partyconnect 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.
But the really cool thing about Sony’s party connect is that you can connect your smaller more portable speakers to Sony’s larger speakers like lets say 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.
But overall, Sony’s party connect is a lot more accommodating than JBL’s Partyboost cause there is a lot of fragmentation going on. The important thing is, both of these speakers have decent preforming speaker pairing protocols and they both have a lot of speakers to choose from. The leg up JBL has here is that you just have to press one button on your speakers to pair them up, where as with sony you have to use the app… but the leg up that sony has here is that theres less fragmentation and you can pair your smaller speakers to your larger box speakers.
But with all that being said, if I had to choose between the Sony ULT Field 7 and the JBL Boombox 3… for me it is an easy choice. Peronsally I prefer the Sony ULT Field 7 cause it sounds a lot more balanced and a lot more open than the JBL Boombox 3. I also like that it get louder and I like that even though it has better instrument separation than the Boombox 3, it also still has a lot of bass as well. The quarter inch input on the ULT 7 is a nice touch as well and I like that you can connect your smaller speakers to your larger box speakers as well. The only draw back about the ULT 7 is that this thing is a little larger than the Boombox 3.