The Soundcore Rave 3S is a very imrepssive mid sized box speaker cause it sounds good, and it looks good… but its also an amazing option to consider for karaoke cause it comes included with two wireless microphones, but more importantly, it has this really cool AI vocal removal tool so you can remove the vocals from any song you’re playing, and it does all of this locally from the device. Overall, the Soundcore Rave 3S gives you a very big bang for your buck, and I think a lot of people are going to be happy with this mic sized box speaker. But if you’re looking for something a little smaller and a lot more durable, lets see how it compares to both the JBL Boombox 3 and Sony ULT 7 which is currently one of my favorite speakers to use.
Regarding pricing, the Soundcore Rave 3S has a retail price of $350 and it comes included with two wireless mics for karaoke. Where as both the JBL Boombox 3 and the Sony ULT 7 have a retail price of $500 but they do like to go on sale for $400 and sometimes the ULT 7 goes on sale for $300 which is a total steal. But these speakers dont come included with a wireless mic… but you can use a mic with the ULT 7. 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, and if you want to further support the channel then you can always pick up some merch.
So first theres the design of these speakers. Now the Soundcore Rave 3S is a mid sized box speaker. So its small enough and light enough to easily take it on the go with you, but its still large enough to easily fill a large large if you’re doing karaoke… and its rocking an IPX4 rating so a little bit of water isn’t going to hurt this speaker. But then there are these other speakers which are a lot smaller and a lot lighter by comparison, so they are much easier to take on the go with you… and they are also much more durable cause they have mostly fabric wrapped bodies so they can easily stand up to constant abuse from bumps and scrapes and they are also a lot more water proof… so if you need something small and durable, then you do want to go with either of these two other speakers.
But something that the soundcore does have over these other two speakers is its built in light feature. Now this light feature is very bright, it very dynamic, I really like its layer hexagonal design and through Soundcore’s app you can customize this light feature. So the Rave 3S is going to bring its own vibe. Now the ULT 7 also has a built in light feature… but since this light feature is tucked away in its passive radiator, it can be hard to see. So personally I just use my ULT 7 with its light feature turned off and instead I just enjoy the improved battery life.
Now when it comes to battery life, the Soundcore Rave 3S has an advertised battery life of 12 hours, but that’s with this speaker playing at 50% volume, which is already a decent listening volume but thats with its light feature turned off and with its bass up feature turned off. But for me, real world use with this speaker playing at 80% volume, which is a great volume when you’re with friends and doing karaoke, with the light feature turned on and with the bass up feature turned on, for me its good for about 7 hours of playback time. Still not bad at all.
But then theres the Sony ULT 7 which 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 the Rave 3S is going to be louder and its going to have more bass than these other two speakers playing at 80% volume.
And when it comes to charnging these speakers, the Rave 3S charges via a USB C port which is super conviente cause you can charge it with your phone’s charger. Where as both the Sony and JBL charge via a double barrel AC port, which isn’t a conviente… but I feel that these cables are still fairly common. But more importantly, with both the JBL and the Sony, if you use them 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. Where as with the Rave 3S, you dont get a performance boost out of it.
But then there are the ports on these speakers, and both the Sony ULT 7 and Rave 3S have a 3 quarter inch input so if you want you can plug in a mic for karaoke or you can plug in a guitar. Where as with the Boombox 3, there is no input.
But like I mentioned earlier, the Rave 3S comes included with 2 wireless mics, so you can get a total of 3 mics going with the Soundcore… so if you’re planing on doing lots of karaoke, then the more mics the better. But the really cool thing about the Rave 3S is that it has this AI Vocal removal tool which will move the vocals from any song that you’re playing, and it does all of this locally from the device. And we’re actually going to jump into a quick demo of that right now.
AI Demo
So overall, I think the AI Vocal removal tool on the Rave 3S is very cool and in general, this is just a great karaoke machine right out of the box. So if you’re planning on doing lots of karaoke, you have to check out the Rave 3S… now the Sony ULT 7 can also get the job done if you’re planning on doing lots of karaoke… but the Rave 3S is better cause you can easily get 3 mics going and theres that AI vocal removal tool that honestly works very well.
And when it comes to overall connectivity, all of these speakers can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so you and a friend can both be DJ. 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.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Regarding speaker set up, the Soundcore Rave 3S has a single frontward firing woofer with an exhaust port that shoots out the back and it has a total of 3 frontward firing drivers. 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 with all of that being said, we’re going to jump into the soundtest. The Soundcore Rave 3S is playing at 75% volume where as both the JBL and the Sony are playing at max volume and all of these speakers are playing off of their internal batteries.
Sound Test
So like you may have just heard, the Soundcore Rave 3S sounds more balanced and more open the both the JBL Boombox 3 and the Sony ULT 7… and its also going to have a lot more kick in its bass. But also, the Rave 3S just gets a lot louder than these other two speakers, and all of this is to be expected cause its simply larger. But like I mentioned earlier, if you were to use both the JBL boombox 3 and the Sony ULT 7 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. But even when these speakers are plugged in, they dont get anywhere near as loud or have as much bass as the Soundcore Rave 3S. So simply put, both the JBL Boombox 3 and Sony ULT 7 are smaller and more durable than the Soundcore Rave 3S, but they’re not going to sound anywhere near as good as the Rave 3S cause this speaker has better instrument seperation so it sounds more open and balanced and it has a lot more bass. And overall I feel the soundcore is going to be good for like 15 to 20 person party where as these smaller speakers are good for like a 15 person party.
But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers up with other speakers. Now with all of these speakers, if you have 2 of the same speakers then you can wirelessly pair them up and get them to play in left and right stereo mode.
Now the Soundcore Rave 3S is using Aurcast, and if you want you can get up to 10 Rave 3S’s together and get them to play in sync and the light features will play in sync as well. However even though the Soundcore Rave 3S is using aura cast… I haven’t been able to get it to pair with other aura cast speakers out there. Now maybe this feature will come in a future software update… but right now I haven’t been able to pair this speaker up with non Soundcore speakers.
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.
Overall, all of these speakers are good options if you’re planning on growing your collection of speakers… but for right now I think Sony might be the best option to go with cause the Partyboost might start to get phased out… and Auracast still has its issues. Cause even JBL’s newer speakers that are using Auracast aren’t perfect.
But with all of that being said, the Soundcore Rave 3S is a great speaker for karaoke and it give you a very big bang for your buck. First off this speaker comes with 2 wireless mics and if you want you can add a third wired mic, and when it comes to karaoke, the more mics the better. But the coolest thing about this speaker is the AI vocals removable tool which works very well and its just makes it so easy to do karaoke. This speaker also sounds good, it looks good and it has a decent performing battery. Overall, the soundcore Rave 3S is a solid option especially if you want to do kakroke.
But if you’re looking for something smaller and more durable, then you’ll might want to go with either the JBL Boombox 3 or the Sony ULT 7. These speakers are much either to take on the go with you and they can take much more of a beating. Now even though these speakers do get plenty loud and they have plenty bass, they aren’t going to sound as good or perform as good as the Soundcore Rave 3S… but overall if I had to choose between these two speakers I do prefer the Sony ULT 7 over the Boombox 3 cause it sounds fuller, it gets louder, it has more bass, and you can use it with a mic if you want.