Go 5

So, I bought the new GO 5 about a week ago. I've tried the GO 4. And I just bought the CLIP 5. Why? Because the new GO 5 is significantly underwhelming and I'm returning it. The GO 4 has punchier bass compared to the GO 5. You can feel it when powering it on. The signature JBL power on sound just rumbles more in the palm of your hand on a GO 4. The new GO 5 has significantly less bass. You have to play with the EQ to get some punch. The "JBL Signature" EQ setting is pretty thin, so you MUST adjust the EQ. The new lights are pretty cool though. Most people find them tacky. And I can understand. But they are fun. But the new GO 5 just isn't loud enough. It's probably 10% louder than the GO 4, but on its max volume, it just becomes thinny. I recommend one volume down (90% max). I need it to fill a room and still sound good when it's loud(est). So, I just came home with a CLIP 5 after playing with it at the store. It's SIGNIFCANTLY louder and more punchy. This thing can fill a big room and it would be good for outdoors, too. Hell, it can even be too overpowering. I can change between the GO 5 and CLIP 5 on the fly and it's immediately obvious which one is which. Now, the CLIP 5 doesn't win any beauty contest, but the carabiner is very useful. I have a few more bars I can slide up and down in the GO 5 EQ settings. It's more waterproof (IP68). It looks better and smaller. It's got Bluetooth 6 and fun lights. But in the sound department, the CLIP 5 blows it out of the water. Battery life on the GO 5 is 8 + 2 hours, while the CLIP 5 is 12 + 3 hours. Oh, by the way. The GO 5 is faster to power on and off. It's quicker to react when pressing buttons. Especially when powering off, the CLIP 5 is incredibly sluggish, but you really have to do side-by-side comparison.

Jbl Go is always good. Go5 is even better, Go6 best. Remember, they all sound good. The higher the number the harder the sound. And the higher the price. Soundcore also gets good reviews, but i never tried them.

Jbl Go is always good. Go5 is even better, Go6 best. Remember, they all sound good. The higher the number the harder the sound. And the higher the price. Soundcore also gets good reviews, but i never tried them.

Jbl Go is always good. Go5 is even better, Go6 best. Remember, they all sound good. The higher the number the harder the sound. And the higher the price. Soundcore also gets good reviews, but i never tried them.

Your opinion, your decision, for me I somehow like my Go 5 more than my Go 4 lol

Strange my Go 5 has a well rounded sound with good bass

I’ve done measurements and on the song of my choose using Apple Music, the JBL GO4 produced 78DB whilst the GO5 made just 76DB. Both on full volume and both on JBL signature EQ. I wouldn’t even say it sounds louder in person either. Only thing that’s good is the lights. I love them personally and if you don’t you can turn them off.

I’ve wondered the same thing. Even small Bluetooth speakers were always stereo originally. If you remember, the first few generations of the HK Onyx Studio, JBL Charge, JBL Flip, etc., were all stereo, then suddenly everything was mono. I can understand it for the very smallest speakers - Bose Micro, Tribit Micro, JBL Go, etc. - it wouldn’t make sense to try to cram dual speakers into those tiny housings or to try to create stereo sound in such a small space, but with the rest of them, I don’t get it. The only thing I can think of is the ‘race for the bass.’ After a while, it evolved to where all anyone cared about was ‘how much bass is there?’ and if companies could cram 1 large woofer into the same space that had once held 2, or even 4, smaller speakers, they could produce much more bass. The other possibility, as someone suggested when I asked basically the same question on another post a couple of weeks ago, is so that companies can now force you to buy 2 speakers instead of 1 if you want stereo sound.

I've had most of the lineup from JBL. The Go, Clip, flip, charge, extreme, and boombox. The only one I wasn't really happy with was the clip...it was being sold in a two pack and yet lacked the capability of virtually every JBL speaker which is to be able to link up to other JBLs and play in stereo. They're all good for their size/price. Obviously the Go doesn't thump like the boombox does but it's a fraction of the price and size. I think any of them up through the Charge can be charged with a USB cable then the bigger ones like the extreme/boombox have a proprietary charging cord. They're all at least somewhat water resistant and rugged all the way up to the Boombox and the Extreme being submersible. I remember when I first got the Boombox, being at a pool and my brother asked if I was worried about the speaker being so close to said pool. I said it's supposed to be waterproof and I then proceeded to throw it in the pool. It was totally fine. Battery life on them are all respectable, and at least personally, I haven't had a battery fail yet. The extreme and even more so the Boombox, seem to last forever. More recently I bought a Sony xg500 (Boombox equivalent) when it was on sale. Not a bad speaker, has good mids and highs, but the bass was a little lackluster and overall it couldn't get quite as loud as my 5 year old Boombox. It has an inferior IP rating compared to the Boombox as well. The only thing it really has over the Boombox, that I didn't even realize for a while, and it may or may not be a positive depending on the person, is it has some lighting effects on the side that strobe with music. Overall the Boombox is really the better buy for sure. The only other speakers I've heard that were as good or better were some bose ones, but they didn't have much bass, and the ones I saw didn't seem too rugged. The UE speakers I've heard were fine but not as good as JBLs