This is the Soundboks Go. If you’re looking for a super rugged portable box speaker that can take a whole lot of abuse, keep up with your constant on the go, outdoors life style… all while packing a whole lot of volume in a relatively compact form factor… then the Soundboks Go is for you. The Soundboks go is literally going to give you Partybox 310 max volume performance in a more rugged and smaller body than the Partybox 110. However, the Soundboks Go is not the best if you plan on using it indoors. But nonetheless, lets checkout the Soundboks Go and see what its about.
Now regarding pricing. The Soundboks Go has a retail price of $700. Now you can also get the additional carrying strap which retails for $60. Its not a must have, but it does make life a little easier especially if you have to hike with this speaker. But for comparison sake, the Soundboks 3 has a retail price $1000. Then there’s the Partybox 310 and Sony XP700 which both have a retail price of $550, then there are the Partybox 110 and Sony XP500 which both have a retail price of $400… and finally there are the more portable JBL Boombox 2 and Sony XG500 which both have a retail price of $500 and finally there’s the Hyperboom which retails for $450. Now overall, what I’m trying to say here is, the Soundboks Go is a rather niche speaker that I feel people are going to cross reference with a lot of other different speakers before they decide to pickup the Soundboks go. Now in this video we’re mainly going to focus on the Soundboks Go… And I’ll more directly compare the Go to these other speakers in the Versus videos. But for right now, if you want to pick the Soundboks Go up, it’ll be linked down below.
Now first lets talk about the design of this speaker, cause this is a main selling point of the Go. Now the Go has a width of 18 inches, a hight of 12 inches and depth of 10 inches. And it weighs in at 20 pounds. Now yes it is larger and heavier than your Boombox 2, XG500, and Hyperboom… but it is smaller than your Partybox 110 and Sony XP500… all while delivering Partybox 310 and Sony XP700 performance… and then some. And obviously, the Go is smaller than the Soundboks 3… and does a decent job of keeping up with its larger brother. But obviously the Sounboks 3 out performs the Go. And when it comes to portability, the Go has a built in carrying carrying handle… and this should be good enough for most people. However if you want you can get the optional carrying strap. And this carrying strap really comes in hand if you have to hike with this speaker to your camp site or whatever. And I also want to point out, the Go does have a built in loop strap, so you can always attach somethings to this speaker. And finally, I also want to point out that there is a top hat mount on the bottom of this speaker. So you can always use a speaker stand mount if you want with it. But size and portability aside, another selling point of the Soundboks Go is just its sheer ruggedness. Now all along its body, the Go has extruded rubber bumpers… so you can drop this speaker down and not worry about it. And both the cabinet and front grill are made of a very dense plastic that is going to be able to standup to constant abuse like lets say throwing this speaker into the back of you pickup truck or camper with all of your camping equipment… or maybe even power tools cause this speaker would be a good option to use at a construction site. And along side just the sheer toughness of this speaker… the Go is also rocking an IP65 rating. Meaning that is it both water and dust proof. However, I would be mindful about not getting any dirt or water into the exhaust ports which are found around the main woofer under the honey comb grill.
But now lets talk about tech specs… when it comes to battery life, the Go has a removable 99.84 watt hour battery. And this is great for multiple reasons… first off this is going to extend the life of your investment… Because for example, the battery pack that came included with my Soundboks 3 is dead after 3 years. Now instead of having throw out my speaker or trying to figure out how to change the battery… I can just swap it out for a new one.
But also, having a removable battery like this is good, because if you have multiple batteries… you can just easily swap them out as your batteries get drained. And this is good either if you’re somewhere that’s off the grid, or like I mentioned earlier if you’re at a construction site.
Now in order to charge this battery you can either charge it while its outside of your speaker… or you can charge the battery while its in your speaker and continue to play music. However, if the charger is plugged into this speaker… you don’t want the volume to go past 50% volume. I tried using this speaker past 50% volume while it was plugged in and it just started screeching. It scared me and I’m never doing that again.
But now lets talk about actual battery life, cause battery life on this speaker really varies depending on how you use it. Now the Go has an advertised battery life 40 hours… and that’s with this speaker playing at 50% volume and while its using its Power EQ. And for comparison sake… 50 percent volume on the Go is like 80% volume on your boombox 2 or hyperboom. However, if you were to use the Go at max volume, then its going to have a battery life of 10 hours. And for context… if you use the Go anything above 75% volume while indoors… you’re going to need hearing protection.
However, if you were to use the Bass Plus EQ on this speaker… where you’re going to get the most out of this speaker cause it going to have more bass and get louder… your battery life is going to reduce a bit. And if you were to use this speaker with its indoors EQ… where it has reduced bass and doesn’t get as loud… it’s going to increase your battery life.
So overall, if you want to get the most out of the Soundboks Go, you do want to use it while in bass plus mode, even though it does mean that you will have to sacrifice some battery life. But if you want to extend your battery life and still thoroughly enjoy your music… Power is a good option. But whether you decide to use power or bass plus, the Soundbox Go will easily be able to keep up with you… but if you demand lots of battery life, then you can always swap out the battery with another one.
Now when it comes to ports… unfortunately, the Soundboks Go only has an audio jack. Now, I am happy to see an audio jack here… but unfortunately, there isn’t an audio out jack so that you can daisy chain another speaker here… there also isn’t a quarter inch input so that you can plug in a microphone like you can with a Partybox 110, or Partybox 310… and there isn’t an XLR input like on the Sounboks 3, so you can’t plug a mixer into this big and capable speaker.
Now personally I am rather disappointed about the port set up on this speaker. Okay, I can let the lack of an XLR port pass… But no quarter inch port or audio out jack is a pretty big deal, cause these are very standard ports when we look at other box speakers out there.
Now when it comes to bluetooth connectivity… the Soundboks Go is using bluetooth 5.0. now the wireless connection is fine and latency is not an issue. So if you were to play a video with this speaker… latency isn’t going to be an issue. However, even though the Go is using Bluetooth 5.0… it can only be connected to one device at a time and its still only using SBC.
And finally before we talk about sound and speaker set up… I do want to address the volume dial on this speaker. Now in order to turn this speaker on or off you press and hold on the volume dial, and you can adjust the local volume of this speaker… however, just like with the Soundboks 3… you still can’t play or pause your music and you also can’t skip through your music. You gotta do all of that through your phone.
But now lets talk about speaker set ups. The Soundboks Go has a single frontward firing 10 inch woofer… with frontward firing exhaust ports, and it also a has a single frontward firing tweeter horn. Now like I mentioned earlier, I would avoid getting any water or dirt into these exhausts ports… But also, since the Go has frontward firing exhaust ports… from a sound quality stand point… you’re not going to be able to place this speaker up against a wall and amplify its bass like you could with other box speakers out there who’s exhaust ports shoot out the back or place it in a corner and amplify its bass like you can with the Soundboks 3 who’s exhaust ports shoot out the sides. Now like I mentioned earlier, there are 3 stock EQ settings for the Go. There’s power which gives you a balanced sound signature with good battery life. There’s Bass Plus… and basically you’re going to get the most out of the speaker with this EQ setting, albeit, you are going to have to sacrifice some battery life… and finally there’s indoors mode which reduces the overall bass and max volume of this speaker. Now we’re going to jump into the Soundest… we’re going to be cycling between these three EQ modes… and the Go is going to be playing at 75% volume.
So like I have mentioned a few times already, if you want to get the most out of this speaker, you want to use it while in Bass plus mode. Power sounds good… but it just doesn’t have enough physicality in its bass for my taste. And with indoors mode there’s even less bass and this speaker just doesn’t get as loud. However, I feel that it is very important that I stress that this speaker is only worth getting if you plan on using it 90% of the time while outdoors. The Soundboks Go is a very hard speaker to use while indoors. The Soudboks Go really likes to use its tweeter for both the highs and a good amount of mids. Now this is good, cause at higher volumes where the bass on this speaker is really kicking off… you can still very easily hear the lyrics and instrumentals on this speaker. The bass doesn’t over power the rest of your music and the Soundboks Go continues to sound very balanced at those higher volumes that you can only use outdoors. However at lower volumes… since the Go really likes to put its tweeter to work… it can sound rather bright with very little physicality in its bass. Now you can go in and raise the bass and lower the treble on the Go so that it doesn’t sound super bright and so that it has a good amount of physicality in its bass at the lower volumes that you will might want to use this speaker while indoors… But still even with this adjusted EQ the bass is still lacking a little bit when compared to other options out there… and since I have to lower the highs on this speaker so much when I’m going to us it indoors… it can sound a little shallow. So like I said, this speaker is best used while out doors so that you can lets this speaker stretch its legs… and even though the 10 inch woofer on this speaker does put out an impressive amount of bass… the Go does lean more towards a brighter sound signature cause that tweeter is working over time here.
But when it comes to max volume… this thing is a little monster. Now this speaker is going to get the loudest when its playing with its Bass Plus EQ. Power EQ is up there as well… But bass plus is a touch louder. And then there’s indoor mode which like you may have seen during the soundtest… it just doesn’t get as loud. And here it is playing at max volume while its plugged in… which is something Soundboks says that you SHOULDN’T do… But as you can see, you aren’t going to get a performance increase like you do with some other speakers out there. Now In relation to other speakers… the Soundboks Go manages to get slightly louder than your big box speakers like the JBL Partybox 310 or Sony XP700 even while they’re plugged in. Cause with both of these Box Speakers, if you were to use them while they’re plugged in, you’re going to get a performance boost out of them. They get louder and have more bass. Now even though yes, the Soundboks Go does Manage to get louder than these other two speakers… the Go just doesn’t have as much bass as these other two speakers. So the Go does sound much brighter by comparison. But nonetheless, max volume performance is very impressive for the Go given its relatively small size.
But finally lets talk about pairing this speaker up with other speakers. Now you can pair the Soundboks Go either up to another Soundboks Go or to a Soundboks 3… and you can pair up to 5 speakers together. Which I feel is plenty. Now through the app, you have a good amount of flexibility. You can use any EQ setting that you want and you can still make your own. And all of the connected speakers will use the same EQ setting as well. But if you want, you can have all of your speakers play in mono mode and they’ll all be in sync… or if you want you can assign one as the left speaker and the other as the right speaker… and if you have a third speaker I assume that you can set it up as a center channel if you want. But the important thing here is that you can mix and match speakers here and you can assign whatever channel you want on them. You don’t have to have two of the same speakers to get a stereo set up going like you do with a lot of other brands out there.
But with all of that being said, the Soundboks Go definitely delivers on its promises… but it is a very niche speaker, and I would not blame some people finding it very hard to justify getting the Soundboks Go over some other options out there. But it honestly boils down to your needs. The Soundboks Go definitely delivers on its promise of being a super durable and portable speaker. This thing truly is built like a tank. All of these other box speakers that I mentioned in this video are using are using noticeably softer plastics which are much easier to scratch up, and they have very thin metal grills which are very easy to bang up. Where as the Soundboks Got, it can take anything you throw at it. And sound wise, the Soudboks Go gets louder than both the Partybox 310 and XP700 while they’re plugged in, while being half their size. However, the Go just doesn’t have as much bass as these other two speakers. But like I mentioned earlier the Soundboks Go is only worth getting if you plan on using it mostly out doors. And by mostly outdoors, I mean 90% of the time. Since the Go is really putting its tweeter to work… it can sound very bright and flat at lower volumes. And at higher volumes, even though the Go sounds balanced with a good amount of bass… it still leans towards a brighter sound signature. But nonetheless, you do want to use this speaker out doors just so that it has room to stretch its legs. And besides, this speaker is designed to be used outdoors and off grid. Its got a super long battery life when used at normal listening volumes, and you can quickly swap out its batteries if you’ve got backups. The only thing that is truly disappointing about the Soundboks Go is its port set up. I really wish the Soundboks Go had at least one XLR input, one quarter inch input and an audio out jack like its bigger brother.