So if you’re looking for a large portable Bluetooth speaker for summer 2025 then the most popular options are the JBL Xtreme 4, Bose Soundlink Max and the brand new Sony ULT Field 5. Now all of these speakers are portable and durable, but they are very different from one another. So today we’re going to compare the JBL Xtreme 4, Sony ULT Field 5 and Bose Soundlink Max, and lets see which one is right for you. Cause depending on your needs, one is going to be better than the other.
Regarding pricing, this might be a deciding factor for some people. Now the Bose Soundlink Max has a retail price of $400 which I do feel is a lot, and if you want a shoulder strap, thats going to be an additional $45, which I feel is ridiculous. Where as these other two speakers from with shoulder straps. Now the JBL Xtreme 4 has a retail price of $380 and the Sony ULT Field 5 has a retail price of $330. Now I do expect all of these speakers to go on sale, 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.
Now first theres the design of these speakers. Now all of these speakers are durable and portable and all of these speakers are water proof. However, the Sony ULT field 5 is the largest and heaviest speaker here. Nonetheless is still feel that this speaker is super easy to take on the go with you and it also comes with a high quality shoulder strap. Now the JBL Xtreme 4 also comes included with a high quality shoulder strap so its also very easy to take it on the go with you, plus its a little lighter and a little smaller too…but when make the Xtreme 4 stand out here a little bit is that it does have a built in bottle opener, which is very convenient. But then theres the Bose Soundlink Max… now this speaker has a carrying handle, which works, but its not as convenient as a shoulder strap… and I guess Bose knows this cause they are more than happy to sell you a shoulder strap. So if you’re looking for something portable, and you dont want to pay extra, then personally id recommend either the Sony ULT Field 5 or the JBL Xtreme 4.
But a very small detail regarding the durability of these speakers is… the USB C port on both the Xtreme 4 and Bose Soundlink Max is exposed, where as the USB C port on the ULT Field 5 is covered. And I point this out cause if lets say you take these speakers to the beach, lake or pool and if they get wet… before you can. Charge the Xtreme 4 back up you want to make sure that its dry. Or else you’re going to get a red blinking light on the front. Where as with the ULT field 5. Since its covered, you dont have to wait. I know this is a very niche scenario, but I point it out cause I have had to deal with this in the past.
But a much bigger design difference between these three speakers is that the ULT Field 5 has a built in light feature. And I feel that the built in light feature on the ULT Field 5 is actually worth using again. So if you want something thats also going to liven up the mood, then you'll might want the ULT Filed 5. However, if you do decide to use the light feature on this speaker, that is going to take its toll on the battery life.
Now when it comes to battery life, the Bose Soundlink Max has an advertised battery life of 20 hours, Xtreme 4 has an advertised battery life of 24 hours where as the ULT Field 5 has an advertised battery life of 25 hours… however this advertised battery life of 25 hours on the Sony is with the light feature turned off, which I do feel is fair. But real world use with all of these speakers playing at 80% volume, and thats with the ULT field 5 playing with its light feature turned off and with ULT 2, the Sony is good for about 12 hours and the Xtreme 4 is good for about 14 hours and the Bose is good for about 10 hours.
But what really makes the Xtreme 4 stand out here is, you can actually remove the battery on this speaker. So if you want you can get multiple batteries and keep the party going, or if you get to the point where your speaker can no longer hold a charge, instead of buying a new speaker, you just need to get a new battery.
However, removing the battery on the Xtreme 4 isn’t as easy as removing the battery on the Partybox 320 or 120. With the Xtreme 4 you’re going to need Alan keys, and the Xtreme 4 has this set up so that it can keep its IP68 rating. So swapping out the battery on the Xtreme 4 is doable, but its not super convenient. But it can be done.
But when it comes to actually charging these speakers, like I mentioned earlier all of these speakers charge via a USB C port, which is great. However both the Bose and JBL come included with complete charging cables, where as with the Sony, its comes with a USB C cable, but you are going to have to use your own wall adaptor. But more importantly, with both the JBL and Sony, if you use them while they are plugged in, you are going to get a performance boost out of them, where as with the Bose, you dont.
But also, with all of these speakers you can also use their USB C port to charge your own devices, which is super conviente especially if you plan on taking these speakers to the beach. However you cant use the USB C ports on any of these speakers as a wired connection. However both the Sony and Bose still have an audio jack so you can still use them with a wired connection, where as the JBL can only be used wirelessly.
But when it comes to bluetooth connectivity, all of these speakers can be connected to two devices at the same time, 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 JBL Xtreme 4 only has support for SBC, the Sony ULT Field 5 has support for SBC and AAC, and the Bose has support for SBC, AAC and APTX adaptive.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Regarding speaker set up, these three speakers are very different. Now the Bose Soundlink max has a single frontward firing tweeter with dual woofers that shoot out at a slight angel and it has dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. Then theres the JBL Xtreme 4 which has a more standard set up of dual frontward firing woofers, dual frontward firing tweeters and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. And finally theres the Sony ULT Field 5 which has a single frontward firing woofer with dual frontward firing tweeters and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. But now we’re going to jump into the soundtest. All three of these speakers are playing at 75% volume while unplugged, both the JBL and Bose are playing with their stock EQs and the Sony ULT Field 5 is playing with ULT 2.
Soundtest
So first off, I do have to point out that the Bose Soundlink Max sounds and performs much better than when it first came out. When it first came out, this speaker sounded very hollow cause the mids just went there. But now this speaker sounds a lot better, however the Bose Soundlink max still like to lean towards a warmer sound signature. And from a max volume performance stand point, this speaker doesn’t get as loud as these other two speakers. So with the Bose Soundlink Max, I feel that this speaker sounds a lot better than when it first came out… but I feel that both the JBL Xtreme 4 and Sony ULT Field 5 give you better sound performance at a more affordable price.
Now with the JBL Xtreme 4, this speaker gets louder than the Bose Soundlink max and it has stronger mids, so overall I think this speaker sounds more balanced. But then theres the Sony ULT Field 5 which I feel sounds even better than the JBL Xtreme 4 cause its mids are a lot more present, and this speaker sounds a little more open than the Xtreme 4 as well. With the JBL Xtreme 4, I cant help but feel that the mids on this speaker still sound a little hollow compared to the mids found on the Sony ULT Field 5. And then theres the max volume performance on these speakers. Now both the JBL and Sony get louder than the Bose… but the Sony sounds better at max volume than the JBL cause its sounds fuller and it has more bass than the JBL Xtreme 4. Cause at max volume, the JBL Xtreme 4 starts to sound overly bright cause just the mids and highs increase, but the bass doesn’t keep up as well. And like I mentioned earlier, with both the JBL and 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. But overall, I feel that all of these speakers are going to be good for like a 10 to 12 person get together… but more importantly I feel that both the JBL Xtreme 4 and Sony ULT Field 5 are going to give you better overall sound performance… but ultimately I feel that the Sony ULT Field 5 is the overall best sounding speaker here.
But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers up with other speakers. Now with all of these speakers, if you have two of the exact same speakers then you can wirelessly pair them up and get them to play in left and right stereo mode so you can have one for your left channel and another for your right channel.
But with the Bose Soundlink max, you can only have a total of 2 speakers playing together and you can only pair their speaker up to another Bose Soundlink max or to a bose Soundlink Flex 2 and thats it. So if you plan on growing your collection of speakers, then the Bose is very limited.
But then theres the Sony ULT field 5, which is using Sony’s party connect. So you can pair it up to other Sony speakers that are also using party connect like either an ULT Field 7, XG500, XG330, XE300, XE200, XB43, XB33, XB23 or to another ULT Field 5 or ULT Field 3 and you can pair up to 100 speakers together and get them to play in sync.
But also, you can pair your smaller Sony speakers to any of Sony’s larger speakers that are also using Party connect like either an ULT Tower 10, ULT Tower 9, or XV800, XV500 or to an XP700 or XP500. The only unfortunate thing here is, you cant connect your ULT Field 1 to an ULT Field 5… and I really think that this is unfortunate cause this is my favorite small portable bluetooth speaker…
And then theres the JBL Xtreme 4 which is using Aura Cast, and you can pair it up to other JBL speakers that are also using aura cast like either another Xtreme 4, or to a charge 6, flip 7, clip 5 or go 4… and you can also pair it up to JBL’s partybox that are also using aura cast like either a Partybox encore 2, partybox 120, 320, 520 or Partybox ultimate and you can get them to play in sync.
But also, something that makes the JBL Xtreme 4 very special here is that you can also pair it up to JBL’s older speakers that are using Partyboost like either a Boombox 3, Boombox 2, Xtreme 3, Pulse 5, Pulse 4, Charge 5, flip 5 or flip 6. And this is a big deal cause the Xtreme 4 is currently the only JBL Auracast speaker that can also connect to JBL’s older party boost speakers. So if you have any of JBL’s older party boost speakers, then you’ll might want to go with the Xtreme 4.
Overall, if you plan on growing your collection of speakers then you’ll might want to go with the JBL Xtreme 4 cause its using aura cast and cause it can connect to JBL’s older party boost speakers… and you can also pair it up to other non JBL speakers that are also using aura cast… however, I do find that Sony’s Party Connect is more stable than Auracast, but with Sony’s party connect you’re stuck inside of Sony’s eco system.
But with all of that being said, if you’re trying to choose between the JBL Xtreme 4, Bose Soundlink Max and Sony ULT Field 5, I still feel that the Bose Soundlink Max is hard to justify over these other two speakers. Yes, the Bose soundlink max sounds better than it did when it first came out, but the Bose Soundlink max is the most expensive speaker here, you get less sound performance out of it, it has the shortest battery life here, its shoulder strap is sold separately, and its pairing options are very limited.
Personally I think the Sony ULT Field 5 is the best option here cause it sound the best cause it has very strong mids, but it also has a lot off bass which allows this speaker to sound very full even at max volume, plus it also has a long battery life, it has a built in light feature that actually worth using now, and its the most affordable speaker. Now the JBL Xtreme 4 is also a solid option to consider here, and if you need it, it has a removable battery, and it also has aura cast if you plan on growing your collection of speakers.