JBLCharge 4 - Waterproof Portable Bluetooth Speaker - Black

THE FOLLOWING IS A REVIEW I LEFT FOR THE CHARGE 5 SPEAKERS. THE COMPARISON WITH THE CHARGE 4 IS AT THE UPDATE NEAR THE END OF THE REVIEW!-------------------I purchased two of these to work as a stereo pair in my apartment to obtain a nice full sound without having to really crank the volume to have an enjoyable experience and bother the neighbors.Well it all started out great, the white look clean and are small enough to not take up too much visual space. They also sound fantastic for a battery powered speaker, relatively full low end and crisp highs without needing to be EQed. They are setup roughly 15’ feet from one another in opposing corners of my studio space. They add presence and a fullness that I was missing from my Notabrick Bluetooth speakers.Now for THE PROBLEMS:I synced the speakers together and switched them to “stereo” mode from the app with no problem using my iPhone 13 Pro running Bluetooth 5.1. When it was time to connect it to my stationary media hub it was intended for (a 2020 iPad 8th gen) it would only connect one speaker and not allow for a party link or stereo link between the two Charge 5’s anymore. It took my some time of testing and no help from the internet to find out that the Bluetooth 4.2 that the iPad uses means the JBLs could no longer connect in a pair. I figured they had their own connection protocol (perhaps wifi 2.4ghz) for party mode. This shared audio functionality will ONLY work if your device that is sending audio is Bluetooth 5.1.SECOND ISSUE:So I put the iPad aside and would only be using my iPhone for music since that’s the only way I could get the Stereo mode to function. But after 15-30 minutes of music playback the speakers will disconnect themselves from one another requiring you to manually go to them and reconnect themselves. Every third time or so they will also drop the Bluetooth connection requiring you to “forget device” on your phone and resync Bluetooth to your host Charge 5 and then relink the speakers.This is all to say that if you want to use more than one speaker, even using a compatible Bluetooth 5.1 device that they are extremely finicky. Using a single Charge 5 has proved to be very reliable, sound great and look great. I am an audiophile and have many thousands of dollars in pro audio.The current tested Firmware version is 0.8.6.0 and has not been updated for over a year so this is unlikely to be fixed.UPDATE: I purchased two Charge 4 speakers to run through all the same testing and scenarios as the newer Charge 5 Models and found that with the exception of the occasional dropout and auto reconnection (perhaps once every two hours or so) these have solved all my issues. In fact, having the Aux plug on this model has also meant I can plugin my DJ decks to them when we are at the park and the primary speaker that is being plugged into will duplicate the signal and send it to the second speaker wirelessly with no issues. There is about one second of lag with this setup so the use of my DJ headphones is a requirement, but I love the added functionality. I also find the battery meters to be much more easy to read on the Charge 4. Finally, I do not know if it's because the transmission power of the Bluetooth 4.2 in the Charge 4 over the Bluetooth 5.1 in the Charge 5, but I find that I get a longer transmission range with no dropouts with the older Charge 4 model. On paper this should be backwards but testing 4 independent units in different scenarios have shown this to be recurring findings for me. I have used the 2020 iPad, iPhone 13 pro and Macbook M1 pro and a HD Firestick as my test subjects.I do notice that the Charge 5 has a slight edge in real world testing for maximum volume and clearly has a crisper high end to it where the Charge 4 sounds a little more round but is still very pleasing to the ear. I suggest to save a ton of money and pickup the Charge 4 if you are planning on using them in a multi speaker setup like me.

just bought this after having 2 JBL pulses and so far I love it. I really loved the pulse models but this definitely goes a lot louder.Problem is that the pulses basically stopped charging after a couple years. I'm hoping that doesn't happen with this one which is a common known issue with the JBL speakers but as of right now its great.

Just upgraded my previous JBL speaker with this one. You simply can't go wrong with a JBL. The sound quality and battery life are amazing. My previous JBL (Charge 3) was starting to have some quarks this summer but that thing was over 10 years old which I think is quite old for a bluetooth speaker. This guy is slightly larger than the Charge 3 so I did unfortunately have to buy a new case, but found one for fairly inexpensive.

I originally bought this on June 22 for my wife, but ever since it showed up, I’ve been using it more than she has. I’ve been working on a big cabinet project out in the garage, and this speaker has basically been my background soundtrack the whole time.The sound quality is seriously impressive — it’s clear, loud, and the bass has a surprising amount of punch for something this size. I listen to everything from rap to classical depending on the day, and the speaker handles it all without any distortion or muddiness. It’s also been great having my ears open while working. I used to use earbuds, but I like that I can still hear what’s going on around me while enjoying music.Bluetooth pairing is fast and reliable. I’ve switched between multiple devices without any issues, and the lag between pressing buttons and getting a response is minimal. Nothing that bothers me at all.Overall, I’d definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a good-quality wireless speaker that’s durable enough to handle workshop or garage life but sounds great for casual listening too.

Take it everywhere! It's small enough to even take on a plane and to the beach. It's super clear to hear and volume is awesome

Great little speaker, I gave it four stars though instead of five... just for one reason. This speaker is extremely bass heavy at low volumes. I thought that I could lower the bass response with the app, that there would be tone controls, but, no, there aren't any. So What you get is what you get. Speaker stays charged for a long time with heavy use and is pretty quick to recharge. I listen to Rock and Metal and a lot of podcasts. Overall Speaker is very solid and worth the money, with today's technology all apps should come with some type of equalizer (tone controls) that's my only gripe.

We had a flip 3 that was put through hell and it finally gave out. This one seems to be just as good. Great product

El producto está en buena condición el problema es que no viene el cargador eso no es justo en la descripción dice que viene cargador y un hoja guía