JBLPartybox Encore Essential: 100W Sound, Built-in Dynamic Light Show, and Splash Proof Design, Black

I wanted a speaker for family nights, and outside activities that packed more features and more volume than your typical small cylinder you'd see with JBL's own flip, or the Bose Revolve speakers. At the same time, I was not in the market for some heavy tower beast you typically see with $600+ party speakers.This really met my expectations. Not only was the price (on sale) a good budget pickup, but it's goldilocks size and performance set it apart. It's easily luggable, has some water resistance, connects quickly and clearly to my iPhone. The panels on the back allow for different connections, including a Microphone connector, and apparently a connector for USB drives with mp3's on it. It also has an auxiliary connection if you want to play some lossless HIFI audio from your phone.The audio inside the house easily caps out at 50% before it's just ridiculously loud. This is both on battery or plugged into power. Depending on your own home, you may not need to even use the bass boost function, as it can become overpowering. When used outside, however, the bass boost is much more useful and helps round out the sound.The sound it produces is pleasant, warm and clear. It's clearly a sculpted sound to punctuate the lows (bass), but it doesn't drown out dialogue, vocals, and other instruments. It's clearly trying to be the life of the party with it's tuning. I think it does a wonderful job given how small it is for the sound it produces.My 2 year old uses the JBL microphone I bought separately for this speaker and loves to singe along with his favorite songs, as does my 6 year old. The Karaoke feature is basically a must if you have kids. It's a great way to keep singing a central part of your family's activities, without buying some throwaway frozen themed karaoke toy that's hard use and gets forgotten about.Highly recommended for families who want more sound and features than a Flip or Revolve or Soundlink but still want to be able to carry the speaker from place to place without much fuss.

Love this speaker. It’s little but mighty. Has great sound and bass too. Love that you can be behind the speaker with the volume up loud and still carry a conversation. Use this for our baseball team warm up and walk ups.

Excellent speaker, buy it to connect my TV and it hears spectacular, it is very practical to take it wherever you want, I also use it to play music in the yard when I am with my plants.

Loud, crisp, and clear sound from an affordable speaker. We bought two for our pool instead of built-in speakers. The cost for performance is fantastic and we are even able to use them for youth sports and events away from our house. JBL makes some of the best speakers around.

EXCELLENT. A great choice to listen to music, good sound quality full recommended

I bought this JBL speaker about two weeks ago, and as someone who listens to music constantly, I’ve really put it to the test. To give you an idea, I’m in Spotify’s top 0.05% of listeners with over 100,000 minutes of music every year. I listen to music everywhere: in the shower, while working, working out, doing yard work, playing sports—you name it.Here’s what I love about this speaker:1. Portability and Design: It’s about the size of an air fryer and weighs less than 10 pounds, making it super easy to carry with its built-in handle. Perfect for moving it around the house or yard.2. Bass Quality: I’m incredibly picky about bass—any rattle or lack of fullness drives me nuts. This speaker delivers. The bass is clean, deep, and powerful, especially in smaller rooms like a bedroom or bathroom. You can really feel it.3. Volume and Clarity: This thing gets loud—loud enough to fill my backyard, and you can still hear it clearly from 150 feet away. The best part? It doesn’t sacrifice bass quality at higher volumes, which is rare in a speaker this size.4. Simple Controls: Straightforward and easy to use, which is always a plus.Now for the downside: the battery life. This is my biggest complaint. I always use bass boost and play my music pretty loud, so that could be a factor, but I’m only getting about 3-4 hours of playtime—maybe less. For longer outdoor sessions, I’ve resorted to bringing the plug and running it off power. It doesn’t help that plugging it in is a hassle. You have to remove a rubber cover and wrestle the oddly shaped plug into place.That said, for $200 (I got it on sale), I don’t think you’ll find a better-sounding speaker in terms of power, clarity, and bass. I’ve owned everything from Harman Kardon and Bose to cheaper off-brand options, and this one outshines them all in sound quality.Final verdict: 4 stars. If JBL could improve the battery life, it’d be a perfect 5. But even with this drawback, the sound quality alone makes it a standout choice at this price point.