This is the review of the comparison between two portable speakers from two different brands popular in the market. The comparison here is between Marshall Stockwell II and JBL Xtreme 2. To know which one is good for you to buy, go to the detailed review.

Marshall Stockwell II	JBL Xtreme 2
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Powerful audio performance with rich bass and bright highs. Highly portable. Bluetooth 5.0. Adjustable bass and treble knobs. Great battery life.	Clean, clear sound. Balanced bass. Solid design.
CONS	CONS
Expensive considering the competition. Bass sounds remote. DSP comes on a little strong at high volumes. No Wi-Fi.	Big. No wi-fi or multi-room. Presentation too grown-up for some.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

Marshall Stockwell II

From a design perspective, you’ll see this is quite different from the previous version and almost aims to serve a different market altogether. This is one of the premium speakers available in the market. This speaker is retailing for around two hundred and forty-nine dollars currently on Amazon.

JBL Xtreme 2

The Xtreme 2 is the updated version speaker of the Xtreme portable speaker from the JBL. This is one of the premium range speakers from the JBL. This speaker is retailing for around three hundred and fifty dollars currently on Amazon. This speaker comes with quite great feature sets.

DESIGN: 

Marshall Stockwell II

Unwrapping the speaker reveals a very solidly built device and this thing definitely has some weight to it, coming in at around three pounds. It is slightly heavier than its predecessor. The first thing to do is to attach the carrying strap which is very reminiscent of an electric guitar strap paying homage to the brand’s rock-and-roll roots. This actually took me a few tries and some elbow grease to get on, which is good because you certainly don’t want the speaker to break free of the strap potentially ruining the device. The speaker does have rugged silicon protecting the edges and corners but you obviously don’t want to drop this from very tall Heights if it can be avoided.

Taking a closer look at the speaker, you can see this is definitely the more portable cousin of the original Stockwell speaker. The drivers are protected by a metal mesh on the front and back, much like Marshalls premium amplifiers, and the entire unit is surrounded by what they’re calling roadworthy silicon. The casing should be able to handle some bumps and tossing around but do know it is not advertised as shockproof. Similar to the previous design, up top, you will have your control knobs, so you have your volume knob and two separate controls for bass and treble much as you find on a guitar amp bearing the same brand name. You also have a Bluetooth button to help you connect and the battery indicator light which displays vertically much like a volume or gain level display. On the side, you have a USB-C charging port as well as a 3.5-millimeter input.

JBL Xtreme 2

Although this has a pretty good amount of weight in size compared to its main competitor the Sony XB41, that supplied carrying strap tremendously helps offset the weight and how large this thing is. Aesthetically, I love the subtle changes or refreshes of some of the translucent pieces here and there with a subtle amount of branding. The same durable fabric grill as most mainstream outdoor speakers makes a return and with my testing of dunking this into the water, it’s still IPX7 certified and it still does float awesome plus there. We have the famous passive bass radiators that move during music keep in mind for those who are new, this doesn’t push out audio, a matter of fact although this is in the case in that fabric there is no audio coming out from the back, it’s just front directional audio. If we look at the very top, buttons are identical with all the other JBL speakers with easily identifiable raised buttons, there’s Bluetooth pairing, volume up and down.

Then you have the JBL Connect Plus button, then over to the very far right there, you can use the play button to only skip a song, you really can’t go back with a triple press which is common among other brands. But the same button can be changed to your voice assistance such as a Google Assistant or Siri but oddly you lose the pause play feature which doesn’t make much sense to me. On the other hand, the voice assistant does work but you do have to walk up to the speaker to press it, to ask it a question you can’t stand from like 10 feet away and ask. On the backside, there is a water-resistant flap and inside the flap, you simply have a 3.5 millimeter port for physical connections a reduction to only one USB charge out port, and less is simply the AC power cord connection.

FEATURES:

Marshall Stockwell II

As far as the unboxing, right up top, you will see Marshall is claiming 20 plus hours of playtime on a single charge and my real-life results are right around that level. Thanks to the strap, this thing is much more portable than the previous model, making it seem aimed at the summer beach-going crowd more than anything else. On the back of the box, you’ll see some other highlights including Bluetooth 5.0, multi-directional sound, IPX4 water resistance, and multiple device capability. Inside the box not much really going on, the speaker comes protected with a nice sheet of durable plastic, and you’ll also find the manual, and the red velvet carrying strap tucked on the side, digging a bit further you’ll also find the USB-C cable for charging, this is obviously a big plus in terms of connectivity and it’s good to see Marshall future-proofing a Bluetooth speaker like this, especially at its hefty price tag.

As far as the charging, the speaker offers quick charge a feature often found in premium headphones and that means just 15 minutes of charging time will give you up to six hours of playtime. A great feature if you forget to charge your speaker for that epic beach party, you can essentially get the entire day’s worth of tunes in just 15 minutes, and a full charge takes around 5 hours. Missing from this updated model is a USB out for charging devices which isn’t really a deal-breaker as most people have portable battery packs nowadays and that feature was rarely used on the original Stockwell. There’s no real lag if you decide to watch videos pair to the speaker and also a quick note there is no microphone, so you cannot make or receive phone calls using the unit.

The speaker uses Blumlein stereo sound construction which actually fires audio out the front and back, providing a multi-directional experience immersing you in your music indoors or out. On the inside, you have 110 watt Class D amplifier for the woofer and two five-watt Class D amps for the tweeters. All in all, this is a great lifestyle Bluetooth speaker built for the road this is a great stylish summer speaker that will certainly get you some looks when carrying it out to your next house, beach, or pool party. The 360 degrees sound is adequate to fill the backyard, and audio quality while a bit low and volume is still worthy enough to carry the Marshall brand name into the next decade. Pair that with its quick charge technology, USB-C interface, and volume, bass, and treble control knobs, this is a great portable speaker for folks who like to tweak their sound on the go depending on genre, song, or mood.

JBL Xtreme 2

There is another feature that is similar to Sony or Sony is similar to JBL but there’s this feature called JBL Connect Plus that allows you to pair to JBL speakers together to achieve stereo sound this always worked well for me or compared over a hundred JBL Connect speakers together and have them all play at the same time. The function works quickly and efficiently and they’ve always been easier to pair than the Sony XB speakers.

The Xtreme 2 can only be charged with the wall cord which was my gripe back in the day. They’re not to say sony is better or at least I don’t want to set that tone. But Sony did introduce the second option of charging this speaker with a micro USB cord it’s the perfect alternative well you don’t want to lug that big cord that was supplied by JBL and instead use your friends like a phone charger or such. As far as the battery life, this is rated at just 15 hours of playback which is somewhat on the low end but over the years testing the JBL Flip speaker, the JBL Charge speaker, JBL for the most part for or have been very conservative about what they claim which is great, which is what I like. With the Xtreme 2, I got a full 25 hours and 36 minutes into the speaker die, the older Xtreme at 50% volume back in a day it also claimed 15 hours. This thing took 2 hours and 42 minutes from the dead to full.

The Bluetooth connection was perfectly fine again we’re still not yet at Bluetooth 5.0 but I have always stated Bluetooth 4.2 is still great for average consumers. I got a total length of 80 linear feet here at the office before the signal started to cut out. The last feature is the speakerphone option, and I confirm the speaker works best within just three feet though, any further the person I tested this with said they can hear an echo right away and five feet and further there’s just a bigger echo on my voice. Speakerphone wise it’s usable obviously, but clearly, I sounded like I was on a speakerphone in a bathroom just with an echo, a lot of hollowness in general.

SOUND QUALITY:

Marshall Stockwell II

As far as the audio quality, compared to the Stockwell I the speaker is noticeably lower. You really need to jack the unit up to seven or eight just to get it audible. That said once you pop it over seven, this will produce a room-filling sound. The treble and bass knobs are great and you can really transform your song soundscape on the fly by boosting either bass or treble as you wish. While I would not really ever drop the levels below five, boosting either treble or bass to the 8 to 10 range changes the sound.

JBL Xtreme 2

If you have the old Xtreme, I would not recommend upgrading it, they sound practically the same. The Xtreme 2 just ever so slightly sounds a little bit clearer, maybe a little bit more refined but it’s very minimal. Comparing to the competition JBL sounds it’s so much more refined though, the bass hits, and doesn’t distort or drill. It doesn’t muddle that mid-range, the bass is punchy, stronger than the UE speakers, and cleaner than these Sony XB41. It gets you into the music without sacrificing other frequency bands.

WHICH ONE IS GOOD TO BUY?

In my opinion, both of these speakers are good to buy, it just depends on you which features you prefer the most or whether you give importance to the amount you pay for the speaker. If you can afford 350 dollars then you can buy the Xtreme 2 if you do not own the original Xtreme already because there is not much difference in their sound quality. If you can’t afford that price range then you can buy the Stockwell II.

Expert Reviews of Marshall Stockwell II:

By PC Mag
The Marshall Stockwell II speaker delivers surprisingly strong Bluetooth audio performance from its modest frame.

By Pocket-lint
Marshall’s supremely portable Bluetooth speaker will provide you with powerful, adjustable audio – but there are some cheaper rivals around worth considering too.

By stuff
If you’re partial to the Marshall aesthetic, the Stockwell II has all of the looks – but its low-frequency problems mean it needs thinking about (and listening to) carefully before you commit your cash.

By Good Housing Keeping
Marshall Stockwell II is a portable Bluetooth speaker that looks and sounds great. Despite being the smallest in Marshall’s range of portable speakers, it’s quite heavy…

Expert Reviews of JBL Xtreme 2:

By What Hi-Fi?
One of the best portable speakers around, the Xtreme 2 offers sonic subtlety you wouldn’t expect from first impressions…

By Sound Guys
The JBL Xtreme 2 is for a specific kind of person and if you got to this point in the review then chances are that person is you. If you want…

By PCMag
The portable JBL Xtreme 2 speaker can be submerged in water and still pump out loud tunes with intense bass depth, making…

By TechHive
The JBL Xtreme 2 is an excellent portable Bluetooth speaker. Setup is a snap, and it sounds surprisingly good for such a small speaker, though…

By cnet
The JBL Xtreme 2 is a jumbo-sized Bluetooth speaker that trades light and easy portability for much fuller sound, both indoors and outdoors.