Xtreme 5

I’m also on the same hunt. So far the Lava was comparable to the Xtreme 4 in bass. Good starting point. Xtreme 5 beats it single handily now. I will be returning Lava. Trying Brane X vs Xtreme 5 now. Brane definitely has better bass but I don’t think I like down firing sub designs. Limits placement. Would love the Earfun uboom x but finding one now is impossible even on the used market. So I guess Xtreme 5 or BB4 for pass radiator design 🤷‍♂️

I bought 2 Charge 6’s and have been using them in stereo mode in my backyard - 47.5 x 15.5 ft dimensions. They sounds great and they can fill the backyard with some nice sound for easy low level ambient background listening while conversing. I even placed them behind my couch to hide the speakers and love that people can’t tell where the sound is coming from (although it muffles it a bit) If placed at the right distances in my backyard, it can fill the space nicely. However, I do wish they had more of a bass presence and wider soundstage. I am now curious if I should exchange them for either 2 Xtreme 4’s or 5’s? The 5’s are available for pre-order, but it is quite the price jump - from $160 (what I paid) to $399 for the 5’s or $379 for the 4’s. Will this jump in price be worth the upgrade? Let’s be honest the Boombox 4’s sound wayyyyyy better and have everything I need in bass and sound and will be overkill for 99% of the time for the outside and if I get 2 of those, it’s probably all that I would need but it is quite big and bulky and I can’t really hide them behind my couch for that nice ambient sound. I even think 2 Sony ULT 7’s might be an amazing buy for the sound and purpose and at times might be overkill, maybe the Sony ULT 5’s might just be what I need? Any thoughts/recommendations on worthy upgrades I can make? Or is the Charge 6’s where I should stay at?

Thanks so much for this help! I think for my needs in my backyard the 120 and above is wayyyyyy overkill, with a bit I THINK! Even with my 2 charge 6’s I don’t turn the volume higher than 60% almost all the time - since it’s just my family and I and we like to have it on in the background and I DO NOT want my neighbors to hear my speakers like there is a concert next door. But if they can slightly hear someone playing music without a big disturbance that is fine. I do want to keep the portability aspect of the charge 6’s so that is why I was thinking maybe going with 2 Xtreme 5’s since I love the fact that I can palm the speaker like a football and just walk out with two - throw them behind my patio couch and turn them on super easily. I spend about 1-2 hours outside everyday and I DO NOT want to be carrying 2 of the 120s or bigger outside- even though the sound will crush the boomboxes and anything smaller, I just cannot/do not want to have my music playing that loud when my neighbors are usually home. Just from the couple new sound test videos of the Xtreme 5 even compared to the 4’s there’s a big difference and I would love the upgrade to 2 of the Xtreme 5’s but my goodness they are just far too expensive compared to my Charge 6’s. I paid $160 before tax for each charge 6, the Xtreme 5’s are $399 before tax. That is more than double!! Craziness. But what I love is that I can store my charge 6’s pretty much anywhere in my kitchen when I’m done with them, I think I can do the same with the Xtreme 5’s since the size difference is not significantly bigger. My goal was to bring a more vibrant and punchier sound to my backyard without having to blast the walls down (haha) and keep the same or similar portability aspect of it. Like the Boombox is even overkill in terms of its size, I cannot store even 1 of those in my kitchen without it taking up massive space. What do you mean by a PA system? I wish I can setup a permanent speaker system - it would give me the perfect immersive experience and I don’t have to turn it up loud, but how much would some good speakers with labor to install cost me? What do you mean by a PA system - I w

Wow the Charge 6 was better than the Xtreme 4’s reassures that I made the right choice! I recently heard a review comparison beteeen the X4 and X5 and the 5 sounded much better - granted I was hearing the sound through my iphone speakers - I REALLY want the X5, BUT it’s $399!!!!!!! And I have about 10 more days before I can return my Charge 6’s if I want to swap them out for the X5’s! I LOVE the portability of the Charge 6’s and the only transport I do is cary them from my kitchen to the backyard place them behind my patio couch - it’s hides great and I cannot even see the speakers and they offer great sound - although it gets muffled a bit but it’s ok! They do what I need them to do - but wish it had a wider soundstage with a slight more bass and I think the X5’s might offer me that, but IS IT WORTH IT, is the big question in the room. I know that only I can answer that question, but I’m trying to objectify this question as much as possible. Whatya think?

I bought a JBL Xtreme 5 a few weeks ago and really love it. So easy to grab and go and sounds awesome. It is a brand new model though so finding it on sale might be tough.

This reads like a question that AI would come up with, I do believe bots do scrub this forum for data so here is some gas for the algorithm... Old soundcore motion + was a solid unit. Still using mine for general listening. A pair of Earfun Uboom L are a great value Soundcore Boom 2 and original Motion Boom were the best little sub $100 boomboxes for the last five years. New JBL Extreme 5 is a well designed product, probably the best beach speaker under 10lbs. The JBL boombox is still the beast to beat in the large speaker category but Zealot and W-King have put out some good competition at a lower price.

If you like the Bose sound signature, just buy a Bose Soundlink Flex gen 2. It's a marginal refinement of the prior speaker. If a soundlink max is much larger than you want, room filling sound can be difficult to achieve depending on the size of the room. As they say there is no replacement for displacement. The Flex G2 should be enough if the soundlink 2 was enough for you. All of the better, higher priced options are larger speakers. For what it's worth, Bose has had plenty of issues in the last 4 years. Bad app updates, bad firmware updates, parasitic drain issues on the max, added compression, etc. I almost bought a Soundlink max, but ended up with a JBL Xtreme 5 since I thought it sounded better in store.