SOUNDBOKS 4 review

SOUNDBOKS 4 is the ultimate portable Bluetooth speaker for a very specific buyer. Is that you? Some people show up to parties with food. Others are known for bringing good libations. Some folks are known for bringing the “life of the party” vibes to the gathering and getting the wallflowers onto the dancefloor. But what if you’re the one with the music tastes your circle of friends love? What if you’re the honorary DJ for your tribe?

This two-foot tall (66cm), foot deep (32cm) “portable” Bluetooth speaker throws sound as loud as Godzilla’s roar and as far-reaching. It has multiple connectivity options and a build that should withstand years of stomping around Tokyo — or a lifetime's worth of parties and gatherings. The question, again, is: Is it for you? The answer might surprise you because the SOUNDBOKS 4 isn’t a one-trick pony. So, read on, and we’ll help determine if this juggernaut is not just one of the best outdoor speakers, but whether its the speaker for you.

Soundboks 4 review: Cheat Sheet

• What is it? A large, portable Bluetooth speaker with a price to match
• What does it cost? $999/£899
• Who is it for? Those looking for a party speaker for large gatherings
• What should you use it for? Providing the tunes for beach parties, massive house parties, and small-to-medium-size events in large spaces
• What are its weaknesses? Price, and portability for some people

Soundboks 4 review: Design

• Grill only on one side
• Bass resonance chamber
• Carry handles on both sides

This isn’t a cutesy LED-laden party speaker but more like the Bluetooth speaker equivalent of a Mullet (except it’s party in the front and business in the back). In the absence of a built-in light show, you are treated to a massive sound show powered by two front-facing 10-inch woofers and one 1-inch compression driver tweeter in a poplar wood cabinet. The speakers sit behind a swappable steel grill with a relatively small SOUNDBOKS badge in the top left-hand corner.

Around the back, you’ll find the Pro Panel, which adds to the Bluetooth 5.0 connection by giving you four physical ports. Those Pro Panel ports support line-in, microphones, and instruments. There aren’t any controls on the top of the box, and the corners are brilliantly fitted with large, round silicone bumpers to protect the speaker box's edges from drops. The bottom of the speaker cabinet has a standard pole mount so you can use it on a stand. If you’re facing the speaker grille, the right side of the SOUNDBOKS 4 is where you’ll find the minimalist play and connection controls. There you’ll find the power button, the TeamUP button, which allows you to connect wirelessly to other SKAA-compatible speakers, and the volume knob, which also works as the power button and has an LED indicator around it.

The left side of the speaker is where you plug in the supplied 99.84Wh swappable battery. You seat it into a cavity in the body, then plug the DC cable into the speaker to power it. The battery can act as a battery bank with its USB-C port, also used for charging. Because the battery is pretty massive, you’ll want to use the most powerful charger you have on hand to top it off because it doesn’t come with one in the box.

The unit’s internals are coated for IP65 water and dust ingress, and the whole unit feels like it could stand up to some pretty frequent movement from home or storage to venues and back. Though this is a “portable” speaker, it isn’t “portable” like the Beats Pill or Sony ULT Field speakers. Weighing in at 35.5lbs (16.1kg), it’s light enough for me to carry around (I deadlift around 300lbs), but heavy enough that if I were to take it to a beach bonfire, I’d bring along my heavy-duty wagon in case I have to park and walk a distance to the bonfire site. For my 5-foot wife, though, this speaker is not portable. She can lift it just fine, but carrying it somewhere not so nearby would be problematic.

Soundboks 4 review: Connectivity

• Bluetooth 5.0
• Loads of physical connectors

The SOUNDBOKS 4 connects via the somewhat dated Bluetooth 5.0 standard, so SBC codec support only- I would love to see BT LE Auracast support for a device like this. You also get the ability to bond this speaker to others that support the SKAA wireless standard, which is a low latency 2.4Ghz RF standard for media that hasn’t seen wide adoption since its introduction in 2017. This speaker bonding is part of what SOUNDBOKS calls its TeamUP feature.

For pro-level connectivity, the back of the box’s Pro Panels is where you’ll find:

• 2 XLR, ¼ “ combo balanced inputs
• 1 3.5mm stereo input
• 1 3.5mm stereo output
• Bond Button for advanced speaker grouping functions

Those inputs support instruments, microphones, and line-in, but I had neither, so I could not test that. The only mics I own feature USB-C connections. I tested the 3.5mm stereo input, but we’ll touch on that more in a moment.

Soundboks 4 review: Sound Quality

• Incredibly loud
• Great bass
• Good clarity

The sound quality of the SOUNDBOKS 4 is impressive. First, let’s talk about the volume pushed by those dual 10-inch woofers. I took the unit to two different parks. It wasn’t necessary to do that to test it, but the speakers were so loud that it made my wife uncomfortable. Being the thoughtful lady that she is, when I cranked the unit up to its max, she felt like I was disturbing passersby who were wearing earbuds and out for their walk. Her impression was bolstered by her helping me test out the speaker by walking clear across the park, a few hundred feet away, and still being able to hear the speaker.

After that abbreviated outing, I took the SOUNDBOKS 4 to a less crowded park in the middle of the week, later in the afternoon. I measured 200 feet from a fence at the entrance of an area with two baseball diamonds in the middle of the park. Marking distances at 50-foot increments, I started at 0 feet from the speaker and moved further away. With the music off, the ambient sound in the park measured 50dB. With it on, standing right in front of the speaker at full volume, I registered 84dB-as loud as, maybe a bit louder, than an airplane engine. At 50ft, the meter registered 75db. 67dB at 100 feet, then 58dB at 200 feet.

What was so impressive about the speaker was not its volume, which is much louder than any speaker I’ve reviewed, but the clarity. Even at 200 feet away, in an open field, the sound carried with a level of clarity in the vocals and mids that was remarkable. I played acoustic, hip-hop, and dubstep tracks, and the output was almost the same across all genres. When I pumped the volume up to its max, 11, and played Skrillex’s bass canon of a track, “Mumbai Power,” there was a hint of distortion standing in front of the speaker. Same with The Roots banger, “Do You Want More?!?!?!” The deep, hard-hitting bass was a bit much at that volume, and the physics of playing those speakers outdoors without a subwoofer meant that the deep, resonant sub-bass in “Mumbai Power” wasn’t reproduced. That said, as you move farther from the speaker, that slight distortion becomes imperceptible.

In the middle of a park, to the left of those baseball diamonds, was the sandbox area, full of children, so I also played Moana’s “You’re Welcome” at full volume, which was an absolute delight. I played these songs from a Google Pixel 9 over Bluetooth. I also played music from Astell&Kern’s excellent P1 digital audio player via its 3.5mm connection, which is connected to the 3.5mm input on the SOUNDBOKS 4, and the difference in those FLAC files was definitely audible. As clear as sound reproduction from the SOUNDBOKS 4 was via the Bluetooth SBC codec, it was even better with hi-res audio files.

Beyond the speaker being so loud that you could hear it throughout that large park, not just in the large, open spaces, the thing that surprised me most was its clarity at low volumes. Sitting in front of it with both, or either, the phone volume around 60% and the speaker around level five of its eleven steps of volume, music was just as full, and clear, and enjoyable at lower levels as it was roaring in large, open spaces, outdoors.

The digital signal processing SOUNDBOKS uses to achieve this balance of sound quality at low and high volumes makes dropping a $1000 more palatable as it extends the product's usefulness.

Speaking of extension, that TeamUP functionality allows you to use one speaker as a host, then pump the tunes through up to four SOUNDBOKS 4 speakers or connect them as a stereo pair. I’d really really like to test that functionality out as I was so impressed with the power and clarity of the mono output that I’d probably feel like I was in the middle of a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, standing around 50 feet away from two of these playing in stereo!

Soundboks 4 review: Battery Life

• 3.5 hour charging time
• Up to 40 hours playback
• 6 hours with volume maxed

It will take around 3.5 hours to charge the 98Wh battery with a fast USB-C PD charger. Testing the battery life was difficult this time because I’d have to blast this thing for hours straight, and it's loud enough to hear it across the entire block- a perfect portable block party speaker.

That said, SOUNBOKS says you should get around 40 hours with the volume halfway up, but that estimate drops considerably when you crank it to 11, which will get you around six hours of playtime. Bass-heavy content will also affect battery life as it takes more juice to drive low-end through those two 10-inch woofers.

To get the most out of this setup, you just need enough prep time. SOUNDBOKS sells extra batteries at $150 a pop, so you can grab one or more if you’re the type who plans hours-long ragers or all-day block parties as they do in New York. They even have carry accessories like a heavy-duty backpack to ease your travels, or a rapid charger.

Soundboks 4 review: Verdict

There isn’t much competition in this space, which helps the SOUNDBOKS 4 stand out, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that this speaker is remarkable for its volume, clarity, and feature set. At first blush, it would seem like it is a one-trick pony, but play it indoors for study music, or put it in your backyard with a projector and have a movie night, and you’ll find out that the SOUNDBOKS 4 has more range than just playing Godzilla, roaring at the city.

The app EQ comes in handy for those of you with a sweet tooth for bass, but it handles acoustic music, orchestral arrangements, and Moana with aplomb. Add to that the connectivity options if you’re in the position, financially, to pick up more than one, and you have a product that is easy to recommend. Next time, though, can we expand the Bluetooth support? LE with Auracast, aptX, and LDAC support would turn a noteworthy speaker into a nearly perfect product.

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