JBL Boombox 2 vs. UE Hyperboom: Battle of the portable Bluetooth beasts

This is the Boombox 2, JBL's new jumbo portable Bluetooth speaker. This thing is designed to put out some serious volume with thumping bass and it certainly does that. But the question is, how does it stack up against Ultimate Ears' new portable beast, the HYPERBOOM? Let's find out, shall we? [MUSIC] First things first, Price These aren't cheap. The boombox to list for $500 the HyperX boom is $400 but this is the type of speaker you get when you want to take the party on the go tailgating, the beach, maybe this is even the main speaker in your house or apartment. The point is it goes where you go. [MUSIC] As an outdoor speaker, I probably have to give the nod to the JBL is designed both of these weigh 13 pounds, but the JBL is a little more natural to carry around. It's got the handle the tubular design, it looks like it belongs outdoors. The Hyper Boom, on the other hand, has a thick rubber strap and it kind of feels like you're carrying around a big picture of something really solid, it's boxy, it's understated and it looks a little more at home indoors. The Hyper Rim is splash proof with an IPx4 rating while the Boombox 2 is fully waterproof with an IPx7 rating Could take a dump and survive both charged with AC adapters and are listed as having up to 24 hours of battery life. That number is really going to drop. If you crank the volume, probably only looking at three to four hours at top volume and the hyper boom takes only 2.5 hours to charge on the boombox two takes around twice that What's interesting about the boombox two is that it has a smaller 10,000 milliamp battery than the original which had a 20,000 milliamp battery. But the speaker is more energy efficient with a new Bluetooth 5.1 chipset and then it weighs About a pound and a half more, which means the added weight went into other components besides the battery. Both of these have a USB output allows you to charge external devices like your cell phone, there's also an analog audio input, if you wanna go wired and connect A device without using Bluetooth. The hyper boom as an optical digital input. That means you can connect it to a TV, PC or game console [MUSIC] [MUSIC] also toggle between two Bluetooth connections. It has a built in microphone that calibrates the speaker sound to wherever it is indoors or outdoors. [MUSIC] Big difference in sound between the boombox two and the original is really the bass it goes deeper it has more punch to it, or the power rating is a little higher for the boombox two its top vibe is about the same as the original. It just sounds fuller and more dynamic and it's top volume and has no indoor or outdoor mode like the original did. You can link up wirelessly to the latest JBL Bluetooth speakers but sadly, you can't link to the original boombox. Now my somewhat superficial 11 year old kid saw me playing around the speakers outside and after taking a quick look, he declared that the boombox two sounded better, except he hadn't really listened to them. He was more basing the sound on the looks of the speakers. I then had a delisted and he realized like I already had. The hyper boom is actually the better sounding speaker. [MUSIC] Both play loud but the hyper boom sounds more natural as a bigger soundstage with better overall clarity and smoother sound. It doesn't win by a lot in the sound department but it does win. I do like the design of the boombox too, and it's an excellent portable party speaker that punches out deeper bass and richer sound than the original. But the Hyperloop is the better overall sounding speaker indoors and outdoors and it does cost $100 less I'm David Cartwright for cnet.com. Thanks for watching and let me know what you think in the comment section. [MUSIC]