So the JBL Partybox Ultimate is an unnecessarily large bluetooth speaker that sounds great and
looks amazing… But there’s also the JBL Partybox 710 which I feel is also
overkill… and for any sane person, one is more than enough. Nonetheless if you’re trying to
choose between getting the JBL Partybox 710… or going all out for the JBL Partybox Ultimate,
lets see what these two speakers are all about and lets see which one’s right for you.
Regarding pricing, both of these speakers are up there… the JBL Partybox Ultimate has a retail
price of $800 but it does like to go on sale for $700… and then there’s the JBL Partybox Ultimate
which has a retail price of $1,600… or double. Nonetheless both of these speakers and they’re a
lot of fun, so if you want to pick either of these two speakers up they’ll be linked down below.
Now first lets talk about the design of these speakers. Now both of these speakers have a mostly
plastic body which can get scratched rather easily and they both have a metal grill on the front
which can get dented rather easily cause they’re relatively thin. But both of these speakers are
IPX4 water resistant, so if they get caught on in the rain or if a drink gets spilled on them,
they’ll be fine, just remember to keep the ports panel on the back closed. Now both
of these speakers are on the larger side, but the ultimate does dwarf the 710. The Ultimate
has a hight of 41 inches and it has a base of 17 inches by 17 inches and it weighs in at 87
pounds. Where as the 710 has a hight of 36 inches and a base of 17 by 16 inches and it weighs in at
62 pounds. Now overall, moving both of these speakers is a 2 person job… but both of these
speakers do have built in wheels, so you can roll them around and thankfully these wheels
are chunky so they’re both going to work well on asphalt and even on a little bit of grass.
Overall, both of these speakers are large and difficult to move, but the Ultimate is larger.
Now both of these speakers also have built in light features… And though their apps you can
choose from different lighting modes and you can customize these lights features. And JBL’s light
features have always been very impressive and they have always been getting better and better. Now
both of these speakers have conjoined light rings on the front, they both have built in stars, they
both have light rails on the sides and they both have strobe lights up top. However the lights on
the Ultimate is expanded cause the light ring on the front now has an inside and outside boarder,
giving you a 3D effect, the light rails now extend to the sides of this speaker,
and most importantly the Ultimate now has floor lights which I personally really
love cause it just gives this speaker a larger presences. But ultimately, one of the reasons as
to why you would want to spring for the Partybox Ultimate is cause of the expanded light feature.
Now usually, this is the party of the video where I would say that if you do decide to use the light
feature on your speaker, that is going to take an additional toll on the battery life… but the
Ultimate and 710 dont have a built in battery, you can only use it while them while they are
plugged in. Which is understandable just given the sheer size of these speakers… the
only thing to point out here is that the ultimate has a dedicated
compartment so that you can store your cables where as the 710 doesn’t.
But now lets talk about connectivity, regarding wireless connectivity,
both of these speakers have bluetooth, and with both of these speakers they can be
connected to two devices at the same time so that you and a friend can both be DJ,
latency isn’t an issue for either of these two speakers so you can use them to watch videos
with on your phone. The only thing is, both of these speakers only have support for SBC.
However, the Ultimate also has wifi and it has support for both Airplay 2 and Chrome cast,
so whether you’re an iPhone user or an android user if you’re connected to
the same wifi network as your ultimate you’ll be able to stream music to it.
But also, if you’re streaming music to the ultimate over wifi and using a compatible
streaming service, then you’re going to have support for Dolby Atmos, however this
is going to be artificial dolby atmos cause the ultimate doesn’t have any upwards firing drivers.
But then there are the ports on these speakers… and they are pretty much the same… and just
given the sheer size of both of these speakers, that’s not a good thing. Now first, both of these
speakers have a USB A port so that you can plug in a USB Stick and play music off of it, or you can
plug in your own devices and charge them up, But I really wish these speakers also had a USB C Port.
Both of these speakers also have a 3.5 millimeter audio jack so you can use them with a wired
connection, but more importantly, they both have an audio out jack so you can always daisy
chain them to any other speaker regardless of size or brand and get them to play in sync.
And finally both of these speaker have dual quarter inch inputs so that you
can either plug in 2 microphones for karaoke, or you can also plug in a guitar, and both of
these speakers have control panels up top where you can adjust the sound of your microphone.
And up top there are also some buttons where you can play some sound effects if you want,
overall this is just a gimmick, but they’re there. But overall, I feel that both of these speakers
should have more than 2 inputs for karaoke… I think 4 would have been great… and also, I would
really like to see XLR inputs on both of these speakers so that they can be easily used by DJ’s.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Regarding speaker setup,
the Partybox 710 has your typical partybox set up of dual frontward firing woofers with an exhaust
port that shoots out the back and dual frontward firing tweeters. Where as with the ultimate,
it also has frontward firing woofers with an exhaust port that shoots out the back,
except larger… and it also has dual frontward firing tweeters. But what’s new here is that
the ultimate also has a pair of mid range drivers which is going to give more detail
to your mids. But now we’re going to jump into the soundtest. Both of these speakers
are playing at 75% volume… any louder and my mics wouldn’t be able to handle the Ultimate, both of
these speakers are playing with their stock EQ’s but they both have their bass boost set to deep.
So first, I just want to point out that if you watched the sound test, there were portions where
the camera was literally shaking cause both of these speakers just have that much bass…
but just as you’d expect, the Ultimate managed to the shake the camera more than the 710. Now
from a max volume performance stand point… the 710 is an 800 watt speaker and the Ultimate is a 1100
watt speaker. Basically, both of these speakers are already very loud if you use them past 50%
volume… at 75% volume you’re going to need hearing protection while in doors and at max volume,
a visit from the cops is guaranteed. However, with the Ultimate, yes this speaker is going to get
louder and its going to have more bass, just as you’d expect. But from a sound quality performance
stand point… the Ultimate does sound a little more open, especially in the mids. Now since
both of these speakers are from JBL they both have the same stock sound signature to them… however I
can’t help but feel that there was better details in the mids, specifically in the instrumentals on
the ultimate, and that’s thanks to the new mid range drivers. Overall yes, the JBL Partybox
Ultimate does have better instrument separation than the 710 thanks to the new mid range drivers…
but I feel the difference isn’t going to be a huge deal for causal users and you’re going to
have to listen to these speakers back to back to noice a difference. However the main performance
difference between these two speakers is going to be the additional bass and the additional volume.
Now personally I like to how these speakers sound with their stock EQ’s and I just use
them with their bass boost set to deep. And if you want even more bass, you can always
just place them up against a wall and their bass will get amplified. But if you want,
you can always adjust the EQ on these speakers to your liking. So if you want even more bass,
you can do that or if you want a brighter EQ, maybe for out door use,
you can also do that. But the important thing is, both of these speakers have an adjustable EQ.
But finally lets talk about paring these speakers to other speakers. For starts, with the ultimate
you can only pair it up to another ultimate and get left and right stereo sound going and your
lights will play in sync. But if you want to wirelessly connect your 2 ultimates together,
then you’re going to stream your music to your speaker using a wifi connection… cause
when you put them into pairing mode… they bluetooth turns off.
And the Ultimate’s over reliance on wifi is a problem cause if you want to use your two
speakers in an area where you dont have wifi, then you’re going to have to daisy chain them using a
wired connection, your music is only going to play in sync and the lights aren’t going to be in sync.
The only silver lining here is, since the ultimate is a wifi speaker you can always
pair it up to your other wifi enabled speakers and get them to play in sync.
Where as the 710 is using TWS… and you can pair your 710 up to another 710 and
get stereo sound going or you can pair it up to the 310, 110 or encore and get them to play
in sync… however you can only have a total of 2 parthboxes wirelessly paired together.
But them important thing is, you dont have to worry about needing a wifi connection.
But with both of these Partyboxs, you can not wirelessly connect them to any
of JBL’s smaller party boost speaker like a JBL Boombox 3, a Boombox 2,
Xtreme 3, Charge 5, Pulse 5, Pulse 4, Flip 5 or a flip 6… unless you have the
wifi versions or the Boombox 3 or charge 5 and if you’re using a partybox ultimate.
Overall, I am not a fan of all of this fragmentation when it comes to pairing
JBL’s different speakers. But if you are trying to choose between a 710 and
Ultimate and if you plan on getting multiple speakers, right now I lean towards the 710
cause you have more options to choose from and you dont need a wifi connection. Now there has
been talk that JBL will fix this issue on the Partybox Ultimate… but unit they do,
I dont like the over reliance on wifi on the Partybox Ultimate.
So with all of that being said, I think both the JBL Partybox 710 and Partybox Ultimate are
overkill… but if I had to choose one, I am going to go with the 710. For personal use,
the 710 is more than enough for large get togethers or events. But also with the 710,
you can wirelessly pair it up to other Partyboxes and you dont need wifi to do it. With the Ultimate
you’re mainly just paying for more sound and more bass and you’re also paying for that larger light
feature. The main differentiating factor here is that the Ultimate has wifi support,
which is nice. But I hate that you also need wifi to wirelessly pair your speakers together. But in
general, I feel that both of these speakers are too big not not have XLR inputs on them,
and I would really like to see more quarter inch inputs on them, cause I think 2 aren’t enough.