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 casual user looking for something portable and durable, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re looking at either the JBL Boombox 3 or the Sony ULT 7. And size wise, these speakers are very similar, but the Sony and JBL are very different from the bose. Nonetheless lets see how the Bose S1 Pro plus compares to both the JBL Boombox 3 and the Sony ULT 7 and lets see which one is right for you.
So first theres pricing, and this is a huge deal… the Bose has a retail price of $700 which is a lot especially for what you’re getting. Where as both the JBL and Sony have a retail price of $500 and they like to go on sale for around $400 and sometimes that ULT 7 goes on sale for $300 which I feel is a crazy steal. 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 of these speakers. Now all of these speakers are small, light weight and they’re very portable. However, both the JBL and Sony and way more durable than the Bose cause the bose has a mostly plastic body with a thin metal grill on the front… and the bose isn’t water proof cause all of its ports are exposed. Where as with these other two speakers, they have a mostly fabric wrapped body and their ports are covered. And personally I feel that durability is vey important for speakers of this size and price cause it could be a big deal for someone that has a social life.
But also very quickly, the Sony is the only speaker here that has a built in light feature. Now this light feature is tucked away in the passive radiator, so I feel that it can be hard to see… but its there if you want it. But personally I like to use my ULT 7 with the light feature turned off and instead enjoy the improved battery life.
Now when it comes to battery life, all of these speakers have built in batteries, now the bose has an advertised battery life of 11 hours, where as the Sony ULT 7 has an advertised battery life of 30 hours and the JBL boombox 3 has an advertised battery life of 24 hours. But real world use with both the JBL and the Sony playing at 80% therye both going to be good for like 8 hours of playback time, which is not bad at all and the Sony is going to be louder and has more bass than the JBL.
But also, with both the JBL and Sony they charge via a double barrel AC cable. Which is feel is super conviente cause these cables are lot more common and they’re a lot easier to replace. Where as with the Bose, it charges via a 3 prong AC port and it also has a ground… so this cable is going to be a lot harder to replace if you use it… or if you’re at a friends house, its less likely that they’ll have this cable over a double barrel AC cable.
But then there are the ports on these speakers… and this is where the Bose really stands out. It has dual XLR combo jacks so you can plug in 2 mics, or 2 guitars or you can even connect this speaker to a mixer. And this is the main reason why this speaker is better left for the pros. And the Bose also has these built in screen where you can directly adjust the sound of your mic.
However, the Sony ULT 7 does have a single 3 quarter inch input so you can plug in a mic… but you cant adjust the sound of your mic like you can with the Bose. If you’re looking for something to do Karaoke with then the Sony can get the job done… but if you’re looking for more conneocvty options you either want to look at the bose or at some other box speaker out there.
And finally, all of these speakers have bluetooth and latency is not an issue for any of these speakers so you can use them to watch videos with on your phone… and all of these speakers can be used with a wired connection as well… how the bose just gives you more connectivity options as well.
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. Where as the Sony ULT 7 has dual fronted firing woofers, dual frontward firing tweeters and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides, and this is a pretty standard speaker set up for a speaker of this size. Where as with the JBL Boombox 3, this speaker has a frontward firing subwoofer, dual frontward firing woofer, dual frontward firing tweeters which are stacked on top of the woofers and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test, now we’re going to be using the Bose at 75% volume which is going to be super loud, but just cause its loud it doesn’t mean that it sounds good. And we’re also going to be using it with its treble decreased and the bass increased cause im trying to help it out as much as I can. And both the JBL and Sony are playing at max volume while unplugged and the Sony is playing with ULT 2.
Sound Test
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. So overall the bose just sounds like its screeching. Where as with these other two speakers, they sound a lot more balanced and open and they actually have clean bass that resonates. Now when these speakers are running off of their built in batteries, they dont get anywhere near as loud as the bose. But with both of these speakers, if you use them while they are plugged in, you are going to get a performance boost, they are going to get louder and they are going to have more bass. But even when they are plugged in, they aren’t going to get as loud as the bose. Nonetheless both of these speakers are going to be good options for outdoor use and crowds of like 12 or 15 people.
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.
But then theres the JBL Boombox 3 which is using Partyboost and you can pair it up to other party boost speakers like either another JBL Boombox 3, Boombox 2, Xtreme 3, Charge 5, Pulse 5, Pulse 4, Flip 5 or to a flip 6 and again you can have up to 100 speakers together… and you can also connect it to the JBL Xtreme 4 which is using aura cast, but it is backwards compatible with party boost.
But then theres the Sony ULT Field 7 which is using Sony’s Partyconnect and you can connect it up to other Partyconnect speakers like either another ULT 7, an XG500, XG300, XE300, XE200, or to an XB43, XB33, or XB23. But the really cool thing about Sony’s Party connect is that you can connect your smaller speakers to any of Sony’s larger speakers which are also using Partyconnect like either an ULT Tower 10, XV900, XV800, XV500 or XP700 or XP500. And this is cool cause you cant connect any of JBL’s smaller Partyboost speakers to any of JBL larger Partybox 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 if you’re a casual user that just wants something small for the house and something that you can easily take on the go with you, then you do want to look at either the Sony or JBL. But personally I do prefer the Sony ULT 7 here over the Boombox 3 cause it gets louder, it has more bass, it sounds fuller in the mids and it also has that mic input if you want to do karaoke.