So this is the Bose S1 Pro, and this is a speaker thats better left to the professionals than plan on using their speaker with a microphone, some type of instrument, or a mixer on a regular basis… probably for work. But if you’re a causal user looking for a solid box speaker then I feel you’re going to be way better off with either the JBL Partybox 320 or the Sony XV800. And even if you’re a pro, you’ll might be better off with one of these over the Bose. Nonetheless, lets see how the Bose S1 Pro Plus stacks up to both the JBL party box 320 and the Sony XV800.
Regarding pricing, this is one of the key reasons why im making these videos on the Bose S1 Pro, this speaker has a retail price of $700, which is a lot. Now this speaker gets super loud for its size and you’ll see in a minute, but this speaker is better left for the pros. Where as the JBL Partybox 320 has a retail price of $600 and the Sony XV800 has a retail price of $650… but they both like to go on sale for around $450. Regardless, both the JBL and Sony are going to give you a much bigger bang for your buck than the Bose. Nonetheless if you want to pick any of these speakers up they’ll be linked down below or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button.
So first theres the design, the Bose is actually impressively small for how loud it gets. Its has a built in carrying handle and it weighs in at 14 and a half pounds. However, this speaker isn’t super durable and its not water resistant cause all of its ports are easily exposed. Where as with this other two speakers, yes they’re larger and heavier, but they’re still relatively easy to take on the go with you and they’re both water resistant cause their ports are all sealed off. Plus these other two speakers have the added benefits of built in light features, however JBL’s light feature is a lot more dynamic than Sony’s light feature… but nonetheless both the JBL and Sony bring an extra dynamic that the Bose just doesn’t have.
Now when it comes to power, all of these speakers have a built in battery. However the built in battery on the Bose is rated at 11 hours where as the JBL has an advertised battery life of 18 hours… but this advertise battery life of 18 hours is with this speaker playing at 50% volume which is already a decent listening volume when you’re with friends but thats with the light feature turned off and with the bass boost feature turned off as well.
but real world use with this speaker playing at 70% volume, with the light feature turned on and with the bass boost set to deep, its going to be good for about 7 hours of playback time.
But then theres the Sony XV800 which has an advertised battery life of 25 hours… but this advertised battery life of 25 hours is with this speaker playing at 30% volume, which is a decent listening volume… and that’s with the mega bass turned on, which is good but that’s with the light feature turned off.
But real world use with this speaker playing at 70% volume… which I feel is a reasonable volume to use this speaker while you’re with friends… with the mega bass turned on and with the light feature turned on… its good for a solid 10 hours of playback time. And sony claims that if you were to use this speaker at max volume its good for 3 and half hours of playback time.
But then when it comes to chargning these speakers, both the JBL and the Sony charge via a double barrel AC cable, which I personally really like cause I feel that these cables are much easier to plug in and they’re super common and really easy replace. Where as with the Bose, it charges via a 3 prong AC port and it has a ground, so I feel that this cable is less common than the cable that comes with these other two speakers.
But the main feature that really makes the JBL special here is that you can swap out its battery. Which is great for two things, either you can get multiple batteries and keep the party going if you’re somewhere where you cant plug in… or if you get to a point where your battery can no longer hold a charge, then you can just replace your battery instead of replacing your whole speaker, and this is just great for over longevity of your investment.
But then there are the ports on these speakers, with all of these speakers you can easily plug in two microphones if you want for karaoke, and both the JBL and Sony, you can plug in a guitar if you want. However with the Bose, you can plug in 2 guitars if you want… but more importantly, it has 2 XLR inputs so you can plug in a mixer if you want…
Now with both the Bose and JBL you can adjust the sound of your mic directly from the speaker it self. You can adjust the bass and treble and you can add an echo to hide how off key you are. But with the Sony, you cant adjust the bass or treble but you can add an echo to hide how bad you are. Nonetheless, both the JBL and Sony are going to be great options if you want something to do karaoke with your friends and family. Where as with the bose its going to lean more towards the pros that want to connect a proper mixer.
Now with all of these speakers they can be used with a wired connection if you want… but the JBL also has an audio out jack making it super easy to daisy chain any other speaker with this speaker by just using any audio cable and get your speakers to play in sync. Now the Bose also has a line out so you can connect it to another Bose S1 Pro, but thats going to require an XLR connection.
And then theres the Sony which has optical port so if you want you can always hook up this speaker to your tv and use it as a soundbar which could be very useful for game day.
But finally, all of these speakers can be used with Bluetooth and latency is not an issue for any of these speakers so you can use them to watch videos with on your phone.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Regarding speaker set up, the Bose has a single woofer with exhaust ports that shoot out the front and it has a total of 3 drivers which are stacked on top of the woofer. And this speaker gets very loud for its size, but just cause it gets loud it doesn’t mean that it sounds good. But then theres the Partybox 320 which has dual frontward firing woofers with an exhaust port that shoots out the back and it has dual frontward firing tweeters. And then theres the Sony XV800 which has dual frontward firing woofers but its exhaust port shoots out the front and it has a total of 5 tweeters. Three on the front and two that shoot out the back. Now when this speaker it standing up right it’ll use these two top tweeters and the 2 on the back… and when its on its side it’ll use these two tweeter and the ones on the back as well. And with the Sony you’re going to get a much more balanced and neutral bass where as with the JBL you’re going to get a lot much punch in your bass and you can amplify your bass by placing it up against a wall.
But now we’re going to jump into the soundtest. Now all of these speakers are playing at their 75% volume… and with the Bose you’re going to see that its a lot louder. But the bose is playing with its table decreased and bass increased cause it leans towards a very bright sound signature. And the JBL is playing with its bass boost set to deep and the Sony is playing with mega bass turned on.
Soundtest
So like you may have just seen, the Bose gets super loud. But just cause it gets loud its doesn’t mean that it sounds good when its playing music. The problem with the Bose is that it leans towards a bright sound signature and it doesn’t have all that much bass. And when it does start to put out bass, then the bass really bottoms out very quickly. Where as these other two speakers dont get as loud as the bose, but they sound a lot better cause they sound more balanced and more open, but more importantly that actually have bass. And when it comes to max volume performance, with both the JBL and sony, if you use them while they’re plugged in you’re going to get a performance boost out of them. They’re going to get louder and therye going to have more bass. Now at max volume, the Bose does manage to sound louder than both the 320 and XV800… but thats cause its just blaring out a bunch of highs, making it sound like its just screeching. Where as both the 320 and XV800, they actually sound good cause they both actually have bass that you can hear and feel. And overall, both the JBL and Sony are going to be able to handle lets say a 30 person party and actually sound good. Cause bose says that the Bose S1 pro is good for like a 50 person crowd… but its not actually going to sound good.
But finally theres pairing, now with the bose you can always pair it up with Bose’s external subwoofers so that you can get a lot more bass going, but if you do that you should might as well get yourself a Partybox Ultimate… and like I mentioned earlier, this speaker does have a line out, but you have to use an XLR cable.
Where as with the JBL, this speaker has actually gotten some very big updates over the last few months. Now if you have two of the same speakers then you can wirelessly pair them up and get them to play in left and right stereo mode… or you can pair it up to any of JBL’s other speakers that are also using aura cast like either a partybox 120, 320, ultimate, or the up coming 520 and get them to play in sync. And since this speaker is using Aura cast you can pair it up to JBL’s other speakers that are also using Auracast like either an Xtreme 4, Clip 4, or a Go 4, or to any other speaker out there that uses Auracast, even if its not from JBL
But also, you can now wirelessly connect this speaker up to JBL’s older partyboxes that are using TWS like either a partybox 110, 310, or 710 and get them to play in sync. However, if over to do this you have to do so through JBL’s app. But this is a lot better than when these Partybox’s first came out. However, you cant connect you partybox 120 or 320 up to any of JBL’s smaller older speakers that are using party connect.
But then theres also the audio out jack that I mentioned earlier, so you can always daisy chain this speaker up to any other speaker and get them to play in sync.
And then theres the Sony which is using Sony’s Party Connect which is a lot simpler to use. Again if you have two of the same speakers then you can wirelessly pair them up and get them to play in left and right stereo mode. Or you can pair this sony speaker up to a Sony XV900, XV800, XV500, XP700, XP500 or to an ULT Tower 10… and you can also pair it up to any of Sony’s smaller speakers that are also using party connect like either an ULT 7, XG500, XG300, XE300, XE200, XB43, XB33 or XB23.
And overall I do feel that Party Connect is faster and easier to use than Aura Cast on JBL’s speakers cause sometimes they take for ever to pair up, skipping might happen or echos might form. But more importantly, both Sony’s and JBL’s speakers allow you to easily grow your collection of speakers.
But with all of that being said… if you’re thinking about getting the Bose S1 Pro and you’re a casual user, I highly recommend that you look at something else. Yes this speaker gets very loud for its size… but sound quality wise it doesn’t sound good. You should only consider the Bose if you plan on using it with a microphone or other instruments 100% of the time.
But even still both the JBL Partybox 320 and Sony XV800 can easily be used with a 2 mics or a guitar and they work just fine. They just dont have XLR inputs. But they get plenty loud, they sound a lot more balanced and they have a lot more bass. Plus they have their built in light features an they’re very easy to pair with other speakers. But the JBL partybox 320 does have some big features over the Sony like a better looking light feature, more punch in the bass, a removable battery and it has that audio out jack as well.