JBL - Charge 5 Wi-Fi SE

This Costco JBL Charge 5 Wi-Fi is a better buy than the standard JBL Charge 6, it has the best of all of Jbl's connectivity options, making it valuable for folks already heavily invested into their existing JBL speakers!

Auracast that is a game changer for the Charge 5 SE!

I ended up getting the Charge, and I am very happy with it! The clarity from it playing thru Wi-Fi is phenomenal! In fact it sounds so good, I might get another for stereo pair! The Charge 5 SE outperforms my JBL Xtreme 4 at least indoors under 50% volume! I had it paired with my JBL Partybox Club 120 thru Auracast watching Apple TV, F1: The Movie, and it shines!

I hope you're digging the Charge 5 SE. I'm having fun with mine being incorporated into my ever growing list of Auracast speakers!

Those citing cheaper prices for the Charge 5 Wifi off eBay, etc.... note that the SE is a completely new version of the Charge 5 Wi-Fi. The SE includes auracast, which is a big deal to many

Two charges(maybe even the 6)

The smalleat portable WiFi speaker is the Charge 5 WiFi try to see If you can get the SE Version though as it also hast Auracast

The smalleat portable WiFi speaker is the Charge 5 WiFi try to see If you can get the SE Version though as it also hast Auracast

Thanks for posting this! I bought a JBL Charge 5 Wifi from Costco about 4 months ago and was really disappointed that auracast wasn't supported! A previous thread + the HW saying Bluetooth 5.3 led me to believe Auracast was going to work. I went to Costco today, returned the Charge 5 Wifi (thanks Costco return policy) and bought the Charge 5 Wifi SE! Auracast is now working! This is perfect because now, this speaker has Google cast, airplay, and Auracast support.

Thanks for posting this! I bought a JBL Charge 5 Wifi from Costco about 4 months ago and was really disappointed that auracast wasn't supported! A previous thread + the HW saying Bluetooth 5.3 led me to believe Auracast was going to work. I went to Costco today, returned the Charge 5 Wifi (thanks Costco return policy) and bought the Charge 5 Wifi SE! Auracast is now working! This is perfect because now, this speaker has Google cast, airplay, and Auracast support.

JBL CHARGE5 WiFi SE is your best bet, otherwise the older CHARGE5 WiFi is similar but just without auracast (universal speaker pairing protocol for connecting to other speakers to play in sync). If you're willing to sacrifice a significant amount of bass for a much more portable size, the Sonos Roam is worth checking out as well-- it's comfortable to hold in the hand and light enough to hold for long periods whereas the JBL CHARGE5 series is typically around 1kg and can get fatiguing to hold.

JBL CHARGE5 WiFi SE is your best bet, otherwise the older CHARGE5 WiFi is similar but just without auracast (universal speaker pairing protocol for connecting to other speakers to play in sync). If you're willing to sacrifice a significant amount of bass for a much more portable size, the Sonos Roam is worth checking out as well-- it's comfortable to hold in the hand and light enough to hold for long periods whereas the JBL CHARGE5 series is typically around 1kg and can get fatiguing to hold.

People is saying the opposite but i had the same experience. It loses all of its bass past 70% and the overall detail and clarity is not as good as on the Charge 5, strangely, and it doesn't even sound THAT loud.

I recieved my new Ult Field 1 yesterday and i've been doing some tests comparing it to both of my JBL Charge 5's, TL and TT versions. Today i wanted to test the bass so i put my usual bass test video wich goes from 100hz to 20hz with 5hz steps and i discovered that when the Charge 5 goes below 60hz, the volume decreases significantly when in the other hand, my Sony Ult Field 1 kept almost the same good volume on the bass up to 50hz. Below that, on 45hz the bass on the Charge 5 completely dissapears when the Sony still kept reproducing the frequency at a reasonably audible volume. Any thoughts about this? Has anyone tested it? This shocked me because many reviewers and people in general tend to say that the JBL FLIP 6 has a deeper bass than the Sony and even though i don't have the Flip 6, taking in count what the Sony managed to do here, it just cannot be true that the Flip 6 has a better bass response. The Sony basically reached the JBL Xtreme 3 frequency response being a quarter of it's size. On rtings.com page, the Sony ult field 1 reached a low-frequency response of 55.8hz, the Flip 6 reached 75.5hz, the Charge 5 reached 58.2hz, and the Xtreme 3 reached down to 55hz. I saw those charts before recieveng my Ult Field 1 and i thought that they did something wrong in the tests but it just proved me wrong. NOTE: both of my Charge 5's we're equalized with the bass turned all the way up and tested on the same phone and same place so there's no excuses here.

JBL basically aims for everything but it is widely known for it's bass and volume for the size. Even though in this test the Sony won, i still think that JBL is the king of the bass on portable speakers nowadays because this is only one speaker and JBL wins in any other size or model. Sony older portable speakers are just bad and can't compete with current JBL models, this was an exception. Though i think that the possibly upcoming Sony Ult Field 3 and 5 have the potencial to be the best portable speakers.

I literally made my entire post saying that i TESTED it and compared it myself, i heard it myself. It does go deeper. And i know about sony's 20hz claim on their page, i'm not basing my facts on that at all; the page that i mentioned is RTINGS.COM wich is a page that does detailed speaker reviews, they have a whole speaker testing method and even tell you the level of distortion of them.

I actually think that this happens because JBL optimized their Charge 5 to go only up to 60hz because is already a good frequency range and maybe that leaves enough room to give the speaker more volume without distorting the bass or something like that.

I can agree that the Charge 5 is a better overall speaker but there's a size difference wich plays a huge role. I was just commenting that it's still an amazing achievement for a speaker that size to reach 45hz. Thanks for your opinion!

You use speakers only for white noise? That's a lot of money just for sleeping. Well, both have great battery in my use tbh there isn't much difference, i've used both for an entire day playing loud music in my school and house and neither of them died on me, that's from 8:15 am to 12 am.

No problem, and yeah though it is technically true that if you use it at 50% volume it could last you 12 hours, a speaker that sounds so good just makes you want to crank up that volume! If you want any opinions/recommendations though, right now my favourite and the one that i'm gonna stay with is the Earfun Uboom L (i've had Soundcore motion 300, JBL flip 6, Sony ULT Field 1, Soundcore Motion+, JBL Charge 5, etc). You might be surprised, but that single 10 band equalizer is what makes it so good, because you can have the clarity and brightness of the Flip 6 while having the strong deep bass of the Ult Field 1. Just to compare, it goes deeper and way louder than the ULT Field 1, and i think that on indoor Mode it has a deeper bass than the Charge 5, while in outdoor mode it gives an amazing party soundstage, and i also think that it goes the same loudness of the Charge 5, at least with high volume equalizers. The battery life is a bit better than the Sony too!

Man, i literally mentioned that the Ult Field 1 mantains a good volume on bass down to 45hz while the Charge 5 died at that same frequency, you didn't even read my post at all, or do i have to explain that 45hz is a deeper frequency response than 60hz? It seems like you don't know what is deep bass. You are extremely biased.

I had a charge 5, after 11 months barely held a charge for 2 hrs.

I own both Dummy.. they ARE the same in loudness, bass, and even quality. Nothing has changed on the wifi exept chromecast streaming and Dolby atmos (which is bullshit). They have the same driver layout, same battery, same charging speed, and they removed partyboost.. THEY ARE THE SAME SPEAKER.

Personally i find the x600 awful. Charge 5 comes to mind given your requirements or even soundlink max.

Have the same jbl charge 5, love those speakers with the jbl app for stereo mode. Nice portable gaming setup!