- JBL’s two BandBox speakers are made for instruments and microphones
- AI stem separation so you can play with your favorites
- $249 / £199 for BandBox Solo; $599 / £549 for BandBox Trio
JBL has introduced two new portable speakers and practice amplifiers that solve a common musical problem: finding other musicians to practice and play with. The new BandBox Solo and BandBox Trio feature an AI-powered system that should let you play guitar with Geese, rock out with Rammstein, or, say, play trumpet with Taylor Swift. Although, as JBL is at pains to point out, the features are for purely non-commercial purposes.
It’s all about the stems. Bases are the individual tracks that make up a recording (the drum tracks, guitar track, lead vocals, etc.) and BandBox speakers can separate and adjust those bases from the played music through the power of AI.
That means you can turn off or isolate specific stems to play or sing along with the band, or turn off the rest of the band so you can hear a little more clearly when you’re trying to learn it.
Stem separation has been available in digital music applications for some time now, but live stem separation on an amplifier/speaker is actually quite clever and could be really useful for anyone learning new music. And the larger speaker could be very useful for bands who want to rehearse or play live without having to shell out for a public address system.
I think they’re fascinating, not only because they contain the kind of technology I would have killed for when I was a teenager with a guitar, but because they combine the two worlds of JBL: while many people will know him for making the best Bluetooth speakers and many legendary hi-fi speakers, he also helped shape the rock’n’roll sound in the Fender guitar amplifiers of the 60s, and has been a big player (so to speak) in recorded and live music for decades.
JBL BandBox Solo and BandBox Trio: key features and price
The BandBox Solo is a wireless Bluetooth speaker that delivers 18W of power and promises zero distortion (unless you’re playing with a distortion pedal), and comes with a selection of instrument effects including classic amp tones and pedals including chorus, reverb, tremolo and phaser. There’s even a looper so you can play along with your own playing, and of course there’s a tuner too.
There are more musician-friendly features, including a built-in metronome to keep time and a detune that can make songs easier to sing or guitar parts easier to play. And you can connect the speaker to your laptop to capture performances on your favorite digital audio workstation.
As the name suggests, the BandBox Trio is designed for multiple musicians, although there are four inputs, not the three you might expect. It is a larger, wedge-shaped and much louder speaker: 135W. It’s designed to be used alone, but can be connected to other speakers for even more power.
BandBox Trio has the same AI and effects as its little brother, but also adds a four-channel mixer and drum machine. JBL is releasing this one for small bands, open mics, and other multi-musician setups where you don’t want to lug around pedalboards and PA systems, and it comes with a swappable battery that offers up to 10 hours of playback.
The BandBox Solo costs $249.99 / £199.99 (around AU$395) and the BandBox Trio costs /$599.95 / £549.99 (around AU$1,085). Both models will be available from February 2026.
The best Bluetooth speakers for all budgets
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course, you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and tiktok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
