JBL PartyBox Ultimate

Verdict

If regular party speakers aren’t enough for your needs, the PartyBox Ultimate is exactly what you need. It’s super-sized, super loud, extremely flashy and very well-connected. It’s probably too large for most homes, but if you’re running events, this speaker delivers seriously great sound at a fairly reasonable price.

Introduction

JBL’s party speakers have a reputation for delivering big bassy sounds and dazzling light shows, but one speaker towers above the rest – the JBL PartyBox Ultimate. 

This thing is an absolute unit. It’s well over 3 feet tall, weighs almost 40kg and can output a ground-shaking 1100W of pure power.

There’s no doubt this speaker is overkill for any normal home, but if you’re looking for that concert or nightclub sound that you can feel in your chest, maybe this could be the one for you. If you’re a DJ, an event organiser or a busker, this speaker starts to look even more appealing.

It’s sure to be loud, and the flashing RGB lighting is guaranteed to attract attention, but is it worth investing in such a large, heavy and expensive speaker? I was keen to find out, and after annoying my neighbours for the last couple of weeks, here’s what I made of the JBL PartyBox Ultimate.

Design

• Integrated handle and wheels
• IPX4-rated splash resistance
• Bright and impactful light show

When the JBL PartyBox Ultimate arrived at my house, I was not fully prepared for the scale of this behemoth. I’m no stranger to large speakers, having tested the Sony SRS-XV800, but the PartyBox Ultimate is on a different level. The super-sized box prominently tells you that carrying it is a two-man job, and it’s no exaggeration to say that it was a challenge to fit it through my front door.

Thankfully, once it’s out of the box, manoeuvring the speaker becomes a bit easier. It has suitcase-style wheels on the rear, and a built-in grab handle so you can tow it along. That said, you aren’t going to want to trundle it for long distances, the 39.5kg weight is something that’s hard to contend with. You should also keep in mind that while it’s technically portable, it’s still likely to be too large for many car boots.

The speaker is mostly made from a durable-feeling black plastic material, with a gigantic metal speaker grille covering the six drivers on the front. There’s a prominent JBL badge in the centre of this grille, finished in dark grey with a subtle orange trim around the edge. This signature orange colourway is repeated on the inside of the grab-handle, with a soft-touch rubberised material.

When it’s turned off, the design is rather subtle, but that quickly changes the second you turn it on. This speaker has more lights than any other speaker that I’ve come across, and they’re able to shine, flash and pulsate in a dazzling rainbow of colours along with the music. Of course, if that’s not you thing, you can turn them off too.

Around the back, you’ll find three rubber bungs covering the various connection points and a bass reflex port that’s so large you could almost fit your head inside. The central flap covers a small compartment that’s just large enough to fit the AC cable inside for storage, a thoughtful touch. The bottom-most flap hides the figure-8 mains connection, while the top one has the rest of the I/O. 

Here you’ll find two 1/4-inch jacks, one that’s designed for a microphone and the other that can be used with a guitar or a mic – with a separate gain control knob. Then, there are two 3.5mm sockets, one that acts as an auxiliary input, while the other is an output that can be used to daisy-chain speakers. Finally, there’s a USB-A port, and that can be used to charge other devices or to play back music from a flash drive. 

On top, there’s a set of physical controls for the basic speaker functions and a convenient slot that can act as a stand for your phone or tablet. There are two large rubberised knobs, one for volume control and one for cycling through lighting modes, there’s also a play/pause and lights on/off toggle in the centre of each. 

You also get four backlit buttons, one for Bluetooth pairing, one for wireless pairing of multiple speakers, a favourite preset button and a bass boost toggle. At the rear, you’ll find physical controls for the microphone EQ, and in the centre, there’s a PartyPad. This allows you to play samples and effects on the fly for a bit of DJ-style action.

Features

• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity
• JBL One companion app
• Works with microphones and guitars

The JBL PatyBox Ultimate packs in a serious amount of features, and it’s so well equipped on the connectivity front that you’d struggle to find a music source that’s incompatible. Of course, you get the basics like Bluetooth 5.3 and 3.5mm aux, but the speaker can also connect to your Wi-Fi network to enable an extra set of capabilities.

Most features are controlled via the JBL One companion app, which is available for both Android and iOS, but once it’s set up you can play your tunes directly via Chromecast, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and Apple AirPlay. You can also access some music services directly in the JBL One app, including Amazon Music, Tidal, Qobuz, TuneIn and iHeartRadio.

The advantage here, compared to relying on Bluetooth, is that you can play your favourite music without interruption from notifications or incoming calls. It also means you can listen in Dolby Atmos using supported services like Tidal and Amazon Music.

The app gives you access to a 5-band EQ, which is on the basic side, but to be honest, it sounds so good by default that I didn’t feel the need to tinker too much. Besides, there are plenty of other ways to tweak the sound. For example, you can choose between deep or punchy presets for the bass boost function, allowing you to add more rumble or thud, depending on your tastes.

There’s also an Effects Lab, which allows you to apply numerous DJ-style filters and effects, like an echo, repeater, gater and a bunch of sound effects. It’s not going to replace an actual mixing desk anytime soon, but it’s a good bit of fun. You can also choose to add your favourite effects and samples to the PartyPad on top of the speaker, giving you quick access to physical effect pads at all times.

Personally, my favourite feature is the lighting. This speaker is loaded with bright vibrant LEDs, there’s a giant diffused figure 8 on the front, LED strips around the perimeter and the sides, downward-firing LEDs on the base and white strobes sprinkled across the grille. It looks incredible in action, it really is a party in a box.

In the app, you can fine-tune these effects to your liking. There are 6 preset modes, all of which are music-reactive, and you can change the colour of each, as well as selecting which lighting zones are active. Say, for example, you love the LEDs on the side, but you don’t want the strobes or the big figure 8 active, you can just toggle them off in the app.

If you’re a musician, an event organiser or if you’re holding a karaoke party, you can connect up to two microphones and control how they sound using the convenient control dials on the top panel. You get controls for volume, bass, treble and echo, so dialling things in should be no trouble at all.

If you’ve somehow found a space large enough to require more than one of these speakers, you can quickly create a wireless pair using the button with a triangular symbol on it. Plus, if you have a non-JBL speaker that you’d prefer to connect instead, you can easily daisy chain them using the 3.5mm output on the rear panel.

Sound Quality

• Capable of extremely high volumes
• Up to 1100W of output power
• Dolby Atmos support

The scale and price of this speaker gave me high hopes for its audio quality, and I’m pleased to say it did not disappoint. In fact, the JBL PartyBox Ultimate exceeded my expectations. I knew it would be loud, and I expected plenty of bass, but I wasn’t expecting the refined sound that this speaker is capable of delivering.

All the frequencies are well represented, vocals are clean and clear, the highs have plenty of detail and texture, and of course, with twin 9-inch woofers, the bass can shake your fillings loose. 

Being a party speaker, it’s definitely bass-heavy genres like house, techno, hip hop and pop that let this speaker flex its muscles, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the way acoustic tracks and jazz sound through it. It’s a really well-balanced sound with the bass boost disabled. It’s still bass-forward, but it’s very pleasant.

With bass boost active, you can really kick things up a gear, and it’ll deliver enough rumble and punch to satisfy the biggest bass fiends. With the speaker placed in the corner of my living room, I often found that the bass boost was a bit overbearing, but in an open space, it helps to bring the low end back to the forefront.

The other big selling point of this speaker is its output power, after all, a good party speaker needs to be able to fill a big space and compete with the din of a large number of guests. On this front, the JBL PartyBox Ultimate delivers the goods. It’s astonishingly powerful.

I usually like to test speakers at max volume to get a good idea of their output power, but with this unit, I daren’t even come close. Most of my listening was done at 25% volume or lower, and with bassy tracks, I could hear my shelves rattling at around 30% volume. 50% volume sounds absolutely mad in a small house, and I never got much higher than that due to fears of damaging my windows or acquiring an ASBO.

Needless to say, if you’re looking for a speaker powerful enough for a medium-sized event, this won’t let you down. And if you pair a couple of them together, you’re well on your way to starting your own festival.

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