The JBL Charge 5 has been one of my favorite and most used speakers for the past year.
Its a mid sized speaker with a decent battery life, and transducer, tweeter and dual passive
radiator set up. Honestly, you can’t go wrong with the Charge 5. But then there’s the new Sony XE300…
if you’re looking for a mid sized speaker and youre trying to choose
between the Charge 5 and XE300… lets see which ones right for you.
Now first lets talk about price… the Sony XE300 has a retail price off $200,
where as the JBL Charge 5 has a retail price of $180. But both off these speakers routinely
like to go on sale. The XE300 can be found routinely on sale for $170 where as the Charge 5
can be routinely be found on sale for $150. Price aside, the Charge 5 easily out preforms the XE300
which is just a muffled mess. And personally, I just can’t recommend the Sony XE300. Nonetheless,
if you want to pick either of these two speakers up they’ll be linked down below,
or you can press on the YouTube shopping button.
Now first lets talk about the design of these speakers.
First off, the XE300 is noticeably larger than the Charge 5… so taking the XE300 on the go with you
or chucking it into your backpack isn’t going to be as easy as with the Charge 5. Something that I
think is important to consider if you’re thinking about getting a mid sized speaker like this.
Now durability wise, technically the XE300 wins cause its passive radiators are covered
where as the passive radiators on the Charge 5 are exposed. But other than that, both of these
speakers are rocking an IP67 rating, meaning that they are both water and dust resistant.
And both of their bodies are going to be able to stand up to constant abuse from bumps and
scrapes. However, preosnlly I feel that they mostly fabric wrapped body on the Charge 5
is going to do a better job of looking new for longer, cause the mostly silicon wrapped
body on the XE300 can be a scratch magnet. But overall, design and portability wise, the Charge 5
is my pick here cause its noticeably smaller, and its also very rugged. You just have to be mindful
of those exposed radiators, which have never been an issue for me when I travel with this speaker.
Now when it comes to tech specs, the XE300 has an advertised battery life of 24 hours…
but that’s with this speaker playing at 50% volume… which is very quite cause this speakers
does have a very warm sound signature to it, and while its in stamina mode,
which is going to severely reduce its bass. Making this speaker sound super flat. Or if you were to
use this speaker with its stock EQ… then its going to have an advertised battery life of 14 hours.
But real world use with this speaker playing at 80% volume and with its stock EQ, this speaker
is good for about 8 hours of playback time. However, since this speaker is so quiet, I do
expect most people to use this speaker at a higher volume, thus draining its battery life faster.
But then there’s the Charge 5 which has an advertised battery life of 20 hours…
and thats with this speaker playing at 50% volume. Which is a decent listening volume. But real world
use with this speaker playing at 80% volume, its good for about 10 hours of playback time. Which
is not bad at all. And 80% volume on the Charge 5 is noticeably louder than 80% volume on the XE300.
Now when it comes to connectivity, the Charge 5 is using bluetooth 5.1 and the XE300 is using
Bluetooth 5.2 but more importantly, both of these speakers can be connected to two
devices at the same time, so you and a friend can both be DJ… and when it comes to audio codecs,
the Charge 5 only has support for SBC and AAC. Which is normal. Where as the XE300 has support
for SBC, AAC, and Sony’s own LDAC which is their own in house high res audio codec.
Now whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device, AAC is going to work perfectly fine.
But if you do want to take advantage of LDAC on the XG300 you do have to be an android user…
and also keep in mind that LDAC does take its toll on the battery life.
But unfortunately, you can only use these speakers wirelessly cause neither of these speakers have an
audio jack. And even though these speakers do have USB C ports… these USB C ports are strictly used
for charging. You can’t use these USB C ports as a wired connection like you can on the Xtreme 3.
However, the Charge 5 does have a USB A out port so that you can charge your own devices, where as
the XE300 doesn’t. But personally I don’t think that this USB A out port is going to get much use
cause most phones these days come included with USB C cables instead. Personally, I would like if
these companies would remove the USB A out port on these speakers and instead include a second,
more versatile USB C port so that I can use it as a weird connection and or charge my own phone.
But now lets talk about actually listening to music with these speakers.
Regarding speaker set ups, the XE300 has a very standard speaker set up for mid sized speakers.
It has dual frontward firing woofers and dual passive radiators that shoot out its sides.
Where as with the Charge 5, it also has dual passive radiators that shoots out its sides…
but it has a single frontward firing woofer that handles the mids,
and it has a single frontward firing tweeter that handles the highs. And having this type of set up
really does help with the instrument separation. But let me just show you.
So like you may have just seen, with the XE300 both of its woofers are handling the
mids and highs, where as with the Charge 5, the woofer is handling the mids and mids lows and
the tweeter is handling the highs. And this helps make this speaker sound much more open
than the XE300. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test. Both of these
speakers are playing with their stock EQ’s. However the Charge 5 is playing while at 87%
volume and with the XE300 its also playing at 87% volume… but so that it can have a
chance of keeping up with the Charge 5… we’re also going to use it at max volume.
Now first off we’re going to have to address max volume performance on these speakers.
Like you may have just seen, even at max volume the XE300 was struggling to keep up with the
Charge 5 while it was playing at 87% volume. In general, the XE300 is a quiet speaker… combined
with the fact that this speaker has a warmer sound signature… this isn’t the best speaker out there
if you want to use this speaker out doors on a regular basis. Where as with the Charge 5,
this speaker gets decently loud for a mid sized speaker. It doesn’t leave you wanting more like
the XE300 does. Now with both of these speakers, I did find that if you use them
while they are plugged in, you technically will get a performance boost out of them,
but it is so small, I doubt that you’ll even notice it. I barely did. But max volume aside,
the Charge 5 is simply better sounding speaker as well. Like I have mentioned a few times already,
the XE300 is a very warm sounding speaker and it can sound shallow. Where as with the Charge 5,
its a much more balanced sounding speaker with stronger mids. Now you can go in and
raise the mids and treble on the XE300 so that it doesn’t sound as warm… but even still… the
XE300 just doesn’t have nearly as good instrument separation as the charge 5… and also, the charge
5 has harder hitting bass that also resonates cleaner than the bass on the XE300. So overall,
when it comes to sound quality, the Charge 5 easily out preforms the XE300… it has the better
instrument separation thanks its dedicated tweeter and dedicated woofer and it simply gets noticeably
louder. Now personally, I like how the charge 5 sounds with its stock EQ… But you can customize
it to your liking. And this is something that you couldn’t do when this speaker first came out.
So, if you want more bass, you can do that, or if you plan in using this speaker outdoors,
you can raise the mids and treble so that it can get a little louder.
But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers up with other speakers. The Charge
5 is using JBL’s Partyboost. Meaning that you can pair your Charge 5 to other Partyboost speakers
like lets say a Boombox 2, an Xtreme 3, a Charge 5,
Pulse 4, flip 5 or to a flip 6. Plus you can also pair it up to the up coming Boombox 3 and pulse 5.
However, you can not pair a Partyboost speaker to any older JBL speakers using JBL Connect plus, and
you also can’t pair any of your smaller Partyboost speakers to any of JBL’s larger Partybox speakers.
But then there’s the XE300 which is using Sony’s Party Connect and you can pair it up
to other party connect speakers like either a Sony XG500, a Sony XG300, an XE300, an XE200,
or to an XB43, XB33, or to an XB23 and you can pair up to 100 speakers together,
just like how you can with JBL’s speakers, but obviously that just over kills.
However, with Sony’s party connect, you can pair your smaller more portable speakers
to any of Sony’s larger box speakers that are also using party connect
like either an XP500 or an XP700. But keep in mind, you can’t pair any Party connect speakers
to any of Sony’s older speakers that are using wireless party chain.
And also, either of Sony’s or JBL’s speakers, if you want to get left and right stereo sound going,
you need to have two of the exact same speakers. Otherwise, they’re only going to play in sync.
Now overall, Sony’s party connect it very accommodating and it gets the job done.
But it is not my favorite speaker pairing protocol cause it can be a hassle to use.
For starters, with the XE300, you have to use the app which isn’t a convenient as simply pressing
a button like before. But also, sometimes it can take forever to get these groups running,
sometimes not all of your speakers get paired up, so you’ll have to go through the pairing process
multiple times… and sometimes echos do form. Now Party Connect will correct
these echo’s after awhile, but its only a matter of time before they come back.
Where as with JBL’s PartyBoost, it just works. You simply press a button on each speaker,
they sync up and they just start playing. So if you plan on getting multiple speakers
and if you plan on constantly pairing your speakers together,
then JBL is the way to go. Personally, I dread anytime that I know that I have to pair my Sony
speakers together when I have to get B roll with them, cause I know its going to be a problem.
But finally here’s the microphone test, now the
Charge 5 doesn’t have a built in microphone… and I don’t really think it matters.
Now the mic on the XE300 isn’t awful… but I still wouldn’t take any phone calls with this speaker.
But with all of that being said, if you’re in the market for a mid sized speaker,
and if you’re trying to choose between the Charge 5 and Sony XE300… the Charge 5 is the way to go,
its not even close. With the Charge 5 you’re going to get much better sound cause thanks to its
dedicated woofer and tweeter set up, the Charge 5 sounds more open the XE300… but also, the Charge 5
gets noticeably louder than the XE300… and it also now has a customizable EQ. And with the Charge 5,
you’re getting a better sounding a louder speaker… in a noticeably smaller package than the XE300.