JBL Charge 4 - Waterproof Portable Bluetooth Speaker - Black

I own a $500 Sony 1070 home receiver with $800 Polk Lsim703 speakers so I am very picky about my stereo. I tried several made-in-China portable speakers but they were lacking in depth and quality and I had to return them. I happened to be in Target store and they had a Charge 5 speaker as a demo and I liked the sound. This Charge 4 is one generation behind but reviews indicated the sound quality was equivalent so I decided on the Charge 4. Very happy with the sound quality and the Bluetooth pairing was troublefree with my Samsung S20FE phone. I connected my MP3 player via mini aux connection and everything works well. Now for the negatives: (1) There is no handle so I had to buy a case. (2) manual is poor so you have to figure out the controls by yourself. (3) The controls are difficult to see since there is no contrast and the color is the same as the speakers. (4) only 30 watts so it is not a party speaker and you need a larger 100 watts and more expensive speaker for super loud volumes. Despite these minor negatives, I gave it 5 stars given the excellent sound quality and the relatively low price. Both the speakers and amp are definitely a cut above the no name speakers.

THE FOLLOWING IS A REVIEW I LEFT FOR THE CHARGE 5 SPEAKERS. THE COMPARISON WITH THE CHARGE 4 IS AT THE UPDATE NEAR THE END OF THE REVIEW!-------------------I purchased two of these to work as a stereo pair in my apartment to obtain a nice full sound without having to really crank the volume to have an enjoyable experience and bother the neighbors.Well it all started out great, the white look clean and are small enough to not take up too much visual space. They also sound fantastic for a battery powered speaker, relatively full low end and crisp highs without needing to be EQed. They are setup roughly 15’ feet from one another in opposing corners of my studio space. They add presence and a fullness that I was missing from my Notabrick Bluetooth speakers.Now for THE PROBLEMS:I synced the speakers together and switched them to “stereo” mode from the app with no problem using my iPhone 13 Pro running Bluetooth 5.1. When it was time to connect it to my stationary media hub it was intended for (a 2020 iPad 8th gen) it would only connect one speaker and not allow for a party link or stereo link between the two Charge 5’s anymore. It took my some time of testing and no help from the internet to find out that the Bluetooth 4.2 that the iPad uses means the JBLs could no longer connect in a pair. I figured they had their own connection protocol (perhaps wifi 2.4ghz) for party mode. This shared audio functionality will ONLY work if your device that is sending audio is Bluetooth 5.1.SECOND ISSUE:So I put the iPad aside and would only be using my iPhone for music since that’s the only way I could get the Stereo mode to function. But after 15-30 minutes of music playback the speakers will disconnect themselves from one another requiring you to manually go to them and reconnect themselves. Every third time or so they will also drop the Bluetooth connection requiring you to “forget device” on your phone and resync Bluetooth to your host Charge 5 and then relink the speakers.This is all to say that if you want to use more than one speaker, even using a compatible Bluetooth 5.1 device that they are extremely finicky. Using a single Charge 5 has proved to be very reliable, sound great and look great. I am an audiophile and have many thousands of dollars in pro audio.The current tested Firmware version is 0.8.6.0 and has not been updated for over a year so this is unlikely to be fixed.UPDATE: I purchased two Charge 4 speakers to run through all the same testing and scenarios as the newer Charge 5 Models and found that with the exception of the occasional dropout and auto reconnection (perhaps once every two hours or so) these have solved all my issues. In fact, having the Aux plug on this model has also meant I can plugin my DJ decks to them when we are at the park and the primary speaker that is being plugged into will duplicate the signal and send it to the second speaker wirelessly with no issues. There is about one second of lag with this setup so the use of my DJ headphones is a requirement, but I love the added functionality. I also find the battery meters to be much more easy to read on the Charge 4. Finally, I do not know if it's because the transmission power of the Bluetooth 4.2 in the Charge 4 over the Bluetooth 5.1 in the Charge 5, but I find that I get a longer transmission range with no dropouts with the older Charge 4 model. On paper this should be backwards but testing 4 independent units in different scenarios have shown this to be recurring findings for me. I have used the 2020 iPad, iPhone 13 pro and Macbook M1 pro and a HD Firestick as my test subjects.I do notice that the Charge 5 has a slight edge in real world testing for maximum volume and clearly has a crisper high end to it where the Charge 4 sounds a little more round but is still very pleasing to the ear. I suggest to save a ton of money and pickup the Charge 4 if you are planning on using them in a multi speaker setup like me.

I bought the JBL Charge 3 a few years ago and lost it on a camping trip last year. I love it, so I bought the Charge 4. It is portable for both the house and travel. The sound quality is great, and the battery life lasts a couple of days on one charge. It's easy to use and has simple functions.

It holds a charge forever and the sound quality is excellent. I take it to the beach or just use it around the house—it’s perfect for both. Super reliable and easy to use!

Absolutely LOVE this thing! We have larger JBL portable speakers that we use around the pool at home, but this little guy is great for taking to the beach. Sound quality is great and it really packs a punch!

The good first. This came in the best packing I have ever seen! It was great. It sounds like something small, packing, can be a big thing. The very bad. Not one word in english of instructions . 2 books in probably 20 languages , no instructions.The very, very good. This thing sounds great! The wife complains it is too loud! That makes it even better! I at last got it working because my son in law sent me a video of how to pair it with my i phone. very simple if you have an idea of how to do it. I hated to take a star away, but no instructions does not work for old people.

Works great, sounds great. Nice little speaker for any room.

I bought this speaker because it does not require a bluetooth connection. I can direct connect this speaker to my mp3 player. It has the bluetooth capability if thats what you want. It sounds great!!