So both the JBL Charge 6 and JBL Flip 7 have some notable performance improvements over their predecessors. And if you’re trying to choose between the JBL Charge 6 and JBL Flip 7, then its honestly going to come down to portability, battery life and sound performance. But then theres also the JBL Pulse 5, which is a very impressive looking speaker thanks to its light feature. But sound quality wise, it doesn’t compare to these other two speakers. Nonetheless today lets compare the JBL Flip 7, JBL Charge 6 and JBL pulse 5 and lets see which one is right for you.
So first theres pricing, now the JBL Flip 7 has a retail price of $150, and the Charge 6 has a retail price of $200… and both of these speakers have gotten a price increase from their predecessors. But then there’s the JBL Pulse 5 which has a retail price of $250… now I do expect all of these speakers to go on sale on a regular basis, however with the Pulse 5 you are mostly paying for the light feature. 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 both the JBL Flip 7 and JBL Charge 6 are very durable speakers cause they both have a mostly fabric wrapped body so they are going to be able to stand up to coasts abuse from bumps and scrapes. Where as the JBL pulse 5 has a mostly acrylic body. Now this acrylic body is very durable and in order to crack it your going to have to spike this speaker onto the concrete floor like a football… but if you were to drop it, it can get scratched up pretty easy. But all of these speakers are water proof so if they get wet they are going to be perfectly fine. But from a portability standpoint, the Flip 7 is just the smallest and lightest speaker here and you can easily attach it to your backpack. Where as the Charge 6 is a little larger, but its still very easy to take on the go with you, and it now has an included carrying handle making it much easier to take it on the go with you as well. But then theres the pulse 5. Now this speaker looks great, but its noticeably larger and heavier than these other two speakers… personally this isn’t a speaker that I would like to use out side of the house.
But what makes the Pulse 5 stand out here is that it has a built in light feature. And this light feature is very dynamic and you have a lot of different styles to choose from. This is a great looking speaker. However for the best experience you do want to use this speaker either indoors or while at night, cause in direct sunlight, you’re not going to see much.
And when it comes to battery life, these speakers are very different from one another. Now the JBL Pulse 5 has an advertised battery life of 12 hours, but battery life on this speaker really varies cause of the light feature. For me real world use with this speaker playing at 80% volume and with the light feature set to 50% brightness, its good for about 6 hours of playback time. So this is a speaker thats constantly going to live on the charger, which is another reason why I dont or recommend that you use it while outside of the house.
But then there are the Charge 6 and Flip 7. Now the JBL Flip 7 has an advertised battery life of 14 hours where as the Charge 6 has an advertised battery life of 24 hours. And real world use with both of these speakers playing at 80% volume, the Flip 7 is good for about 8 hours of playback time and the Charge 6 is good for about 10 hours of playback time. However, 80% volume on both Flip 7 and Charge 6 is way louder than 80% volume on the Pulse 5 and the Charge 6 is louder than the Flip 7 as well.
And to charge all of these speakers, they charge via a USB C port, as they should… but actually all of these USB C ports are different from one another. Now with the USB C port on the Charge 6 you can use it to charge your own devices and you can also use it as a wired connection. Where as with the Flip 7 you can only use it USB C port as a wired connection, but you cant charge your phone. And then theres the USB C port on the Pulse 5 which can only be used to charge the speaker it self.
But when it comes to bluetooth connectivity, all of these speakers can be connected to two 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 when it comes to audio codecs, the Pulse 5 only has support for SBC where as both the Flip 7 and Charge 6 has support for SBC, AAC, and LDAC.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Now when it comes to speaker set up, these speakers are more similar than you’d realize. Now both the Flip 7 and Change 6 have a frontward firing woofer, a frontward firing tweeter and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. Where as with the Pulse 5, its also a woofer and tweeter, but they are upwards firing and the tweeter is actually stacked on top of the woofer. And it has a single downward firing passive radiator. But the fact that all of these speakers have a woofer and a tweeter set up is a big deal cause this is going to help these speakers sound more open an have better instrument separation.
Charge 6 Tweeter demo
So like you may have just seen, the woofer handles the mid and the tweeter handles the highs, so this is going to help with your instrument separation and its going to help these speakers sound more open. However with the Pulse 5, if you want the best sound you do want to use it while indoors cause this way your music will bounce off of the ceiling. And if you’re looking for a speakers to use while out doors, you’re going to be better off with either the Flip 7 and Charge 6 cause they are a lot more directional. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test. All of these speakers are playing with their stock EQ and they are all playing at 75% volume.
Soundtest
So first, I do want to focus on the JBL Pulse 5. Now thanks to the Woofer and tweeter set up, the JBL Pulse 5 has similar instrument seperation to both the JBL Flip 7 and JBL Charge 6. However, this speaker just doesn’t get nearly as loud as these other two speakers and the Pulse 5 has noticeably less bass than the these other two speakers as well. Overall, with the JBL Pulse 5, you are mainly paying for the light feature. If you are looking for sound, your are going to be better off going with either of these two speakers.
But now lets focus on both the Flip 7 and Charge 6. Now these two speakers sound very similar to one another, just as you’d expect, however with the Charge 6 you are obviously going to get more performance out of it. Its going to get louder and its going to have more bass. And in general, I feel that both of these speakers get impressively loud for their size. However, I do feel that JBL is pushing both of these speakers a little too hard, and sometimes you’ll might hear a little bit of distortion in the highs on rare occasion. Nonetheless, I feel that the Flip 7 is going to be good for like a 7 to 8 person get together where as the Charge 6 is good for like a 12 person get together. But overall with the Charge 6 you are going to get a fuller lisnteing experience at those lower volumes specially cause its going to put out more bass.
But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers up with other speakers. Now with all of these speakers, if you have two of the same speakers you can pair them up and get them to play in left and right stereo mode. But also, both the JBL Charge 6 and JBL Flip 7 are using aura cast, so you can pair them up to other aura cast speakers like either another charge 6, an xtreme 4, a flip 7, a clip 5 or to a go 4 and you can also pair them up to any of JBL’s larger partybox speakers that are also using aura cast like either a Partybox Encore 2, a 120, 320, 520 or Partybox ultimate.
Where as with the Pulse 5, this speaker is using JBL’s party boost, so you can only pair it up to other party boost speakers like either e Boombox 3, a Boombox 2 an xtreme 4, xtreme 3, pulse 5, pulse 4 a charge 5, a flip 6 or a flip 5.
And if you’re paying attention, the JBL Xtreme 4 is the only speaker here that can connect to both Aura Cast speakers and Partyboost speakers… but unfortunately, this is something that that neither the Charge 6 or Flip 7 can do and I dont know if these speakers are going to get an update in the future to be able to do this.
Nonetheless, if you’re thinking about getting any of these speakers than you do want to go with either the Charge 6 or Flip 7 cause they have aura cast and JBL’s future speakers are also going to be using aura cast… and you can also pair your JBL speakers with other non JBL speakers that are also using aura cast. But if you already have any Partyboost speakers, just be warned.
But with all of that being said, if you’re trying to choose between any of these speakers, first off with the JBL pulse 5, you are mainly paying for the light feature. Yes this speakers looks great, but it doesn’t sound as good as these other two speakers and its battery drains a lot faster. Plus its larger and heavier too.
But if you’re trying to choose between the JBL Charge 6 and JBL Flip 7, both of these speakers are great options to consider cause they are both durable and portable and they both get impressively loud for their size. But if you do go with the JBL Charge 6, this speaker gets louder, it sound fuller cause it has more bass, it also has a longer lasting battery life, plus you can also use it to charge your own devices, making it a lot more useful than the Flip 7 if you were to take your speaker to the beach.