Personally, I was very disappointed with the Bose Soundlink Flex 2 cause this speaker is very hard to justify when compared to its direct competitors, the JBL Flip 7 and the Sony ULT field 1… this speaker just lacks the proper speaker setup you’d expect in a premium speaker these days. But now we have the Bose Soundlink Plus, and im actually impressed by this speaker… but its still hard to justify when compared to its direct competitors. But today we’re going to compare the Mid Sized Bose Soundlink Plus with the small sized JBL Flip 7 and Sony ULT Field 1 so that you can see how much bose needs to improve.
Regarding pricing, the JBL Flip 7 has a retail price of $150 and the Sony ULT Field 1 has a retail price of $130… but both of these speakers do like to go on sale on a regular basis and I feel that they are adequately priced. Where as with the Bose Soudnlink Plus, this speaker has a retail price of $270 which is a lot even if you were to compare it with its direct competitors, the JBL Charge 6 and Sony ULT Field 3. And since this is a bose product, I dont expect it to go on sale any time soon. 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 watch the related videos in the description down below.
So first theres the design of these speakers. Now both the JBL Flip 7 and Sony ULT field 1 are significantly smaller and lighter than the Bose Soundlink Plus. Now yes the Plus is a mid sized speaker… but even when compared to other mid sized speakers, the Bose is very big and dense for a mid sized speaker. But also traveling with the Bose Plus isn’t super conviente cause it only has a built in loop. And since this speaker is so dense, attaching it to your backpack is very uncomfortable. Where as with the JBL Flip 7, it does make sense to attach this speaker to your bag cause its much lighter. And then theres the Sony which has a loop, or you can also use it as a carrying handle… so what im saying is, the Bose Plus’s portability isn’t all that great cause of its sheer size and weight… but also its loop is very limiting for a mid sized speaker. And unlike the bose Max, you cant remove this loop for something else. So if you’re looking for something portable, then obviously you’ll want either the Flip 7 or ULT Field 1.
However, something that all of Bose’s speakers have over their competitors is that their speakers feel very durable and luxurious thanks to their silicon wrapped bodies and powered coated front grill… now both the JBL and Sony are also super durable… but they have fabric wrapped bodies, which is fine. But like I said, if you’re looking for something portable, then the Bose wouldn’t be my first pick cause its way too big and heavy for a mid sized speaker.
Now when it comes to battery life, the smaller JBL Flip 7 and Sony ULT Field 1 have an advertised battery life of 14 hours and 12 hours… which is good for a small sized speaker. Where as with the bose soundlink plus, this speaker has an advertised battery life of 20 hours, which is good… but given this speaker’s sheer size and weight, I do expect to see a longer lasting battery life… and also if you were to compare it to its direct competitors, the JBL Charge 6 and Sony ULT field 3, those speaker have an advetsited battery life of 24 hours while being smaller and lighter than the bose.
But to charge these speakers that all charge via a USB C port as they should… but also with the Bose you can use its USB C port to charge your own devices, which is super useful for a portable speaker. However you cant use this USB C port as a wired connection, but you can with the JBL Flip 7…
And 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, and latency is not an issue for any of these speakers so you can use them to watch videos with on your phone. But when it comes to audio codecs, all of these speakers have support for SBC and AAC… the Bose halso as support for Snap Dragon Sound which are higher quality audio codecs, but you do have to be android users to actually use that… but regardless all of these speakers sound great with AAC.
But now lets talk about sound. When it comes to speaker set up, this is the reason why im doing this strange comparison. Both the JBL Flip 7 and Sony ULT field 1 have a frontward firing woofer, a frontward firing tweeter and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. Where as the Bose Sondlinlk plus also has a frontward firing driver, a frontward firing tweeter and passive radiators that shoot out the front and back. Where as with the Bose Flex 2, this speaker has a frontward firing driver and passive radiators that shoot out the front and back… and given the flex 2’s price and size, I expect it to have a tweeter, but it doesn’t. So its not really a fair comparison when compared to the Flip 7 or ULT 1 cause the woofer and tweeter set up helps with instrument seperation like this.
Tweeter demo
So like you may have just seen, the woofer handles the mids and the tweeter handles that highs, so this helps with instrument separation and with your speaker sounding more open. And since the Flex 2 doesn’t have this… its not a fair comparison when compared to its competitors. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test, all of these speakers are playing at 75% Volume with their stock EQ’s.
Sound test
so when it comes to sound quality, both the JBL Flip 7 and Sony ULT Field 1 do a very good job of keeping up with the Bose Soudlink plus. Now they dont get as loud and they dont have as much bass, but that is to be expected just cause they are smaller… but their instrument separation and openness is up there with the plus thanks to their speaker set ups. But I do think the Sony sounds more balance than the JBL cause the JBL leans towards a brighter sound signature, but overall, these smaller speakers do a great job od keeping up with the larger and much more expensive Bose Soundlink Plus. And when it comes to max volume performance, I feel that both the JBL and Sony are going to be good for like a 5 to 8 person get together, where as the Bose is good for like a 10 person get together. But overall, I like the sound that comes out of the Bose soundlink plus, but for me it is still hard to justify this speaker especially when compared to these smaller and much more affordable options.
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, but they have to be two of the exact same speakers, and with the Sony, thats it, you can’t connect it up with any other sony speakers unfortunately.
Where as with the Bose Soundlink Plus, you can pair it up with your bose soundlink flex 2 or bose soundlink max and get them to play in sync, but you can only have a total of 2 speakers paired together… which I still very limiting.
But then theres the JBL which is using aura cast, so you can pair it up to other aura cast speakers like lets say the JBL Charge 6, Xtreme 4, JBL Boombox 4, Flip 7, Clip 5 or Go 4 and get them to play in sync as well. But you can also pair it up to any of JBL’s Partybox’es that are also using Aura Cast like the Partybox Encore 2, Partybox 120, 320, 520, 720 or ultimate and get them to play in sync as well.
Just keep in mind that you cant connect this JBL speaker to any of JBL’s older speakers that are using Partyboost like lets say the JBL Boombox 3, Boombox 2, Xtreme 3, Charge 5, Pulse 5, Pulse 4 or to a flip 6 or Flip 5. But if you are planning on growing your collection of speakers then you do want to go with the JBL Flip 7 here.
But with all of that being said, I like the sound that comes out of the Bose Soundlink Plus, however for me it is hard to justify this speaker given its size and price. For a mid sized speaker, this speaker just isn’t as portable or as conviente. And even though this speaker sounds great… both the JBL Flip 7 and Sony ULT Field 1 do a great job of keeping up while being much smaller and way more affordable.