- JBL launches two new rugged speakers
- JBL Go 5 is a tiny pocket speaker for $49 / £39 / AU$59
- JBL Xtreme 5 is a robust party speaker for $379 / £329 / AU$499
We ranked JBL outdoor speakers among the best Bluetooth speakers you can buy, and one of our top picks has seen an update, so let’s start with the successor to the JBL Go 4.
The JBL Go 5, which appears to match the $49.95 / £39.99 / AU$59.95 price of its predecessor (judging by the UK price, which is confirmed to be £39.99), offers some improvements over one of our favorite pint-sized options.
JBL has apparently improved the sound to increase volume and deliver deeper bass than before, both by 10%. It has an extra hour of battery life over its predecessor and a new preset equalizer gets you another two hours.
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JBL has also made it easy to pair multiple Go 5 speakers – you just need to put them together and then they can play in stereo, rather than wasting time in the app.
Since these are the type of inexpensive speakers you can easily purchase for days out, picnics, or hikes, there’s a good chance your friends have some too. Soon you will be able to play in unison.
And then there’s the Xtreme
The other new speaker is the JBL Xtreme 5, which as you can imagine is an improved Xtreme 4. The predecessor was $379.95 / £329.99 / AU$499.95, and we know the 5 will match that price in the UK.
The Xtreme 5 has also seen some performance changes: it has been redesigned to let its drivers sing and it also has an improved output to make the most of its specifications. Perhaps most importantly for bass fans, it also has a subwoofer.
These changes allow the Xtreme 5 to match the Go 5’s upgrades of, according to JBL, 10% more bass and 10% more volume. There’s also a new SmartEQ mode, which identifies what you’re listening to and applies an appropriate EQ preset and sound booster to reduce distortion at higher volumes.
These two speakers were launched alongside the JBL EasySing Mics, which are karaoke microphones designed to work with the brand’s speakers. Its built-in technology can remove vocals from tracks, immediately turning them into karaoke-friendly songs, and lasts 10 hours on a single charge.
We’ve seen them before, most recently alongside the PartyBox On-The-Go 2 Plus, and they seem to work on most JBL speakers. The UK price is £129.99.
The best Bluetooth speakers for all budgets
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