JBL Boombox 2 vs PartyBox 100: Which to Buy?

JBL Boombox 2 vs PartyBox 100

This is the review of the comparison between two speakers from the same brand but from different series. The comparison here is between the JBL Boombox 2 and the JBL PartyBox 100. To know which is one is good for you to buy, go to the detailed review.

JBL Boombox 2JBL PartyBox 100
JBL Boombox 2 JBL PartyBox 100
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PROSPROS
Very powerful audio performance, with booming bass and sculpted highs.
24-hour battery life.
Loud, distortion-free sound.
IPX7 water-resistant.
Powerful, dynamic, energetic, and detailed sound.
Build Quality is good.
Versatile.
CONSCONS
Expensive.
Lacks a bit of low bass.
Missing the best Bluetooth codecs.
Doesn’t have an EQ.
Won’t work with the original.
Battery life is not sufficient.
No remote.

SPECIFICATIONS:

HEADERJBL BOOMBOX 2 JBL PARTYBOX 100
BrandJBLJBL
ModelBoombox 2PartyBox 100
GENERALJBL BOOMBOX 2JBL PARTYBOX 100
ManufacturerHarmanHarman
Design Featuresfor portable useLED effects
SPEAKER SYSYTEMJBL BOOMBOX 2JBL PARTYBOX 100
Amplification Typeactiveactive
Crossover Channel Qty2-way2-way
Frequency Response50 – 20000 Hz45 – 18000 Hz
Output Features360° omni-directionalBass Boost
Output Level (SPL)80 db
Audio Amplifierintegratedintegrated
Connectivity TechnologyWirelessWired, Wireless
BATTERYJBL BOOMBOX 2JBL PARTYBOX 100
Rechargeable Batteryrechargeablerechargeable
Run Time (Up To)24 hour(s)14 hour(s)
POWER DEVICEJBL BOOMBOX 2JBL PARTYBOX 100
Power SourceAC power adapter, batteryIntegrated power supply, battery
OptionsUSB charging (powerbank function)
NETWORK AND INTERNET MULTIMEDIAJBL BOOMBOX 2JBL PARTYBOX 100
Connectivity InterfacesBluetooth
Internet Streaming Services
SPEAKER SYSTEM DETAILSJBL BOOMBOX 2JBL PARTYBOX 100
Speaker TypePortableSpeaker
Speaker Channel Qty2
Speaker Channel Typestereo
DRIVER DETAILSJBL BOOMBOX 2JBL PARTYBOX 100
Driver Typetweeter driver, woofer drivertweeter driver, woofer driver
Driver Qty22
Driver Diameter0.79 m, 4 m2.25 m, 5.25 m
CONNECTIONSJBL BOOMBOX 2JBL PARTYBOX 100
TypeUSB (power only)USB, audio line-in, audio line-out, guitar audio input, microphone
DIMENSIONS & WEIGHTJBL BOOMBOX 2JBL PARTYBOX 100
Width19.1 in11.3 in
Depth10.1 in11.4 in
Height7.9 in21.7 in
Weight13.03 lbs21.38 lbs
FEATURESJBL BOOMBOX 2JBL PARTYBOX 100
FeaturesGet the loudest, most massive JBL Original Pro sound on our most powerful portable JBL Boombox 2 speaker.

The iconic grip handle makes it easy to transport the JBL Boombox 2 portable speaker.

24 hours of battery life.

JBL Boombox 2 is IPX7 waterproof for fearless outdoor entertainment.

Boost your party with an epic light show.

Rock on from sunup to sundown with a massive battery life, up to 12 hours.

If you have mic and guitar, just plug into your speaker, take to the stage and rock that party.

Personalize your party. Build your ultimate party sounds from the ground up. Just make your playlist, pop it on a USB-capable thumb drive and slip it into your speaker.

Link up to two compatible party speakers with True Wireless Stereo.

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

JBL Boombox 2

The JBL Boombox 2 being the newest and most powerful addition to JBL’s lineup of Bluetooth speakers. It sets out to impress with its pro sound signature, unique design, deep bass, all for around five hundred dollars currently on Amazon.

JBL PartyBox 100

The PartyBox 100 is the lowest version speaker from the PartyBox series speakers from the JBL. There is also the PartyBox 200, PartyBox 300, and PartyBox 1000 the highest one. This speaker is retailing for around three hundred and fifty dollars currently on Amazon.

JBL Boombox 2

DESIGN: 

JBL Boombox 2

The JBL has a really striking design, as it almost feels like it’s somewhat one piece. You have the really nice feeling of netting material wrapped all around the speaker itself. When you get up to the handle you can see how it just blends in and wraps around the passive radiators on the side, kind of encasing the netting. Turning it back toward the side, I really like the accents they did on each of the radiators, you have the exclamation point right there on one side and then on the other side the classic JBL logo with the textured back and kind of like we saw in the quantum headphones, and you can see just how I catching these are at first glance. They’re silver, they kind of have a brushed appearance to them and they really jump out. This speaker wants to be seen and wants to be known.

Then small detail but I really like it the JBL logo on this thing looks and feels great, that is a solid metal logo with really good coloration. Then if you look at the bottom one feature I really like is the little LED meter right there constantly tells you at just glance how much battery you have, really handy. Sliding down, you can see the bottom foot which has a very nice grip texturing to it and just completely disappears once you set the speaker down, which allows it to stay flush and secure no matter what surface you put it down on.

It offers many impressive features starting with the fact one it’s just the overall size for a portable speaker. If you look at the top, you can see the buttons are kind of a stealth mode blended into the body, you can see that the buttons are very clear as to what they do. You have your power, your Bluetooth, volume up and down, play and shuffle. At the top, you can see the Boombox 2 logo, the handle has got a nice grippy texture, so you never have to worry about accidentally dropping this thing. If you look at the back, this flap will open up to reveal your connectivity points such as charging USB a little service port, and three-and-a-half millimeter for analog connection, and then whenever you’re done with this seal this back uptight because keeping that sealed is gonna keep your speaker waterproof.

JBL PartyBox 100

It is heavy and it has feet on the side and it also has feet on the bottom, so you can lay it down or keep it straight. On the top of the speaker is where is your power button, Bluetooth button, and a light control button, bass boost so they have bass boost on here like on the Boombox, then the volume control, and play pause button right there. Then in the back, we have the gain control and the guitar input control volume, also in and out, so you can you know share and then you have a USB airport right there for charging, and they also have a giant bass port right back there. It’s not the most beautiful thing out there, I could just be so much used to the fabric speakers that they put out like all fabric. It’s not as appealing to me but it’s not like ugly, pretty cool.

JBL PartyBox 100

FEATURES:

JBL Boombox 2

If we take a look at the outside of the box, JBL always has some lovely packaging. On the front there obviously, we can see the product, see that this is the Boombox 2. I like how they’ve got it kind of splashing into the water because if you don’t know this product is IPX7 rated which means it is good for being submerged up to 3 feet. The dare to listen by JBL on one of the sides, on the back of the box, we got a massive sound all day long and close-up on the bass radiators.

One of the big features of the Boombox is that this thing can make some serious bass output from a portable speaker that’s what it’s all about. Then the box claims the speaker has a 24-hour battery, which’s awesome go all day, there’s that IPX7 waterproof rating that I already mentioned, the fact that it comes with a portable power bank, and a party boost for our multiple speakers. There is just a little bit more imagery and other mention of the JBL party boost feature on the other side, and that about does it for the box.

This is available in two different colors, the black one and it is also available in a squad camel. In the box with your Boombox 2, you will get your Quick Start Guide and owner’s manual, your safety information guide, your warranty information, a separate power cord that detaches from the power brick, which is like a laptop great charging brick. So, this is serious stuff that JBL’s built into the Boombox 2, and all of this connecting right to the back. It is 19.1 inches long, stands 10.1 inches tall, and is 7.9 inches wide. Its frequency performance is from 50 Hertz to 20,000 Hertz that’s huge, that’s a lot better than some bookshelf speakers even. The passive radiator design and really speaks to the performance of this product.

As for the battery and connectivity options, this is a 10,000 milliamp-hour battery which is huge, which’s good for 24 hours of playback. The way the battery system is designed in this is that it allows it to charge while you are playing, so you can keep this plugged in and just use it indefinitely if you want. It features Bluetooth 5.1 the newest and highest quality standard, and what that means is that not only is it going to sound great but virtually every Bluetooth device that exists will work with the Boombox 2. It also features a JBL party boost feature which allows it to connect to other JBL products, you can have multi-room performance.

JBL PartyBox 100

The PartyBox 100 from JBL is a pretty big speaker. The box claims JBL signature sound, light shell, portable with a rechargeable battery, mic, and guitar inputs, wireless Bluetooth studio, streaming, and battery playtime up to 12 hours. In this box, you get your power cord and your user manual, your speaker itself, and that’s it. his is actually the fourth member, so they have the PartyBox 1000 which is 1100 watts, they have the PartyBox 300 which is 240 watts, they have the PartyBox 200 which is 240 watts as well, and then the PartyBox 100 which is 160 watts.

On the right side of the top, you have your power meter, which is five LED lights so it’s going to actually show you how much battery you have. The Bluetooth button will let you pair to another PartyBox 100 speaker, a maximum of one more to give you the stereo sound that you want. This has the light button because this speaker has led lights and you three options for lights. The first one is you can keep the light moving, two option is only one color will light up, and the third option is the color changes when the music is turned on, and also, you can keep the lights off if you want to do so. You do have the bass boost feature with this speaker as the Boombox and it has two levels, level one and level two which will have much more bass, and you can keep that off too.

To your left on the back, you’ve actually got your USB port, this port is actually made so you can plug in a USB drive with music on it and let it play, so that’s actually pretty cool. So you don’t have to have your phone nearby you can just rock with a USB drive and it’ll go. Then you have an auxiliary in and an auxiliary out, you can plug in a microphone or a guitar or both and you can have the gains set differently for each of these. So if you want your microphone to be louder than your guitar, you can adjust that which is really cool.

You’ve got a 12-hour battery, and it has it weighs 25 pounds. The other thing I noticed by the way is if you plug this in with the provided plug, it actually will give you a little bit additional bass. You have two five and quarter-inch woofers and you have two two-and-a-half-inch tweeters, so you get a good mix of sound. The other thing I want you to notice on the bottom is you have a pole mount. Why would you want to do that let’s say you’re going to have a party in your backyard and you don’t want this on the ground. If you did want it on the ground you do actually get the rubbers on the bottom and you do get the rubbers on the side as well and then you get it on the other side, so it’s not just a design it’s actually functional.

JBL Boombox 2

SOUND QUALITY:

JBL Boombox 2

It has strong bass, you can actually feel that and even watching those radiators go. It is also definitely strong enough to fill up a room and it is just bumping more than enough to fill up a room just as well as any set of the normal bookshelf or tower speakers almost, it’s awesome. All in all, if you just focus on sound performance, the Boombox 2 is a better performer in comparison to the older Boombox. But at the same time, I kind of expected a little bit more out of the Boombox 2 much especially when I saw that the wattage has increased by that much.

JBL PartyBox 100

I was expecting it to be a little bit louder at least than the Boombox, but definitely, you get more punchy, more power than the Boombox and I appreciate that. But in some instances or songs where the PartyBox 100  seems to be louder than the Boombox 2, as it is much bigger than the Boombox 2. This definitely has much bass to it than the Boombox 2.

JBL PartyBox 100

WHICH TO BUY?

In my opinion, you should buy the Boombox 2 because it sounds better than the PartyBox 100, it has a better connection than the PartyBox 100, and also, it has better battery life than the PartyBox 100. Even though the price of the Boombox 2 is higher than the PartyBox 100, it worth that price range, so in my opinion, the Boombox 2 is better than the PartyBox 100 to buy for you.

Expert Reviews of JBL Boombox 2:

By PC Mag
JBL’s Boombox 2 speaker is built for backyard parties, tailgates, and anywhere else you want to bring big Bluetooth audio.

By Rtings
The JBL Boombox 2 is decent for music. Although it lacks a bit of low-bass, its mid and treble ranges are well-balanced, so vocals and…

By Tech Radar
JBL doesn’t reinvent all that much with this newer iteration of the Boombox, though did manage to change its multi-speaker connectivity and…

By Good House Keeping
This portable speaker is ideal for a camping trip or for use in a large garden. It’s big and expensive but the sound it produces is worth it.

Expert Reviews of JBL PartyBox 100:

By World Wide Stereo
The JBL PartyBox 100 is the latest portable, Bluetooth, party speaker from JBL. Boasting 160 Watts of power and 12-hour playback time, the PartyBox 100…

By Sound Vision Review
The JBL PartyBox 100 is an easy and highly effective way to add good sounding music to your events or parties. The overall quality is very high, both in terms of audio and design/build quality.

By The Empire
Overall, I like the volume it’s capable of pushing out, long battery life, and robust construction I wasn’t keen on the standard sound, it needs…

By Gadgetgram
The JBL PartyBox 100 portable Bluetooth party speaker offers 12 hours of battery life and standard power support, featuring Bluetooth…