JBL Charge 4 - Waterproof Portable Bluetooth Speaker - Black

A solid easy pairing speaker. It isn’t necessary to use the app. There is no equalizer function in the app for the charge 4 anyway.Edit 1: it is easy pairing - but after pairing when i walked 15 feet away all connection would drop. No music. Would have to re- pair.The Amazon music app has an equalizer function built in that allows you to configure custom levels for each song, even during a song. And the charge 4 is perfectly responsive to the Amazon music app equalizer. So no need for the jbl presets to limit your music style.I bought the 4 because it has the 3.5 aux input. Charge 5 does not. The aux input is a more steady, stable and stronger signal than any Bluetooth. And the sound quality is superior. In addition the battery will last longer.This charge 4 uses an older version of Bluetooth. That is not an issue because all 5 range bluetooth is backwards compatible to 4. I’ve had no problem with Android or ios or kindle fire connections.Edit 2. Distance is an issue if you pair and walk awayI’m happy listening to everything on this. Most of my music is piano, orchestral and folk. I alter the preset in the Amazon music app or my device equalizer. This is not just a boom box. But it can definitely boom a deep enough bass on the factory presets.Fast pairing on all devices, great loudness, good sounds that i can alter with my own equalizer. Works for classical or jazz, too. Including symphonies. Not hi fidelity or stereo but very pleasant. Good price.Connects to other jbl connect devices. Has 3.5 aux.I liked it so much i bought it a carrying case.Edit 3: i returned the Jbl charge 4. Now i have an empty jbl charge 4 case which i will use as an ugly purse.

I originally bought this on June 22 for my wife, but ever since it showed up, I’ve been using it more than she has. I’ve been working on a big cabinet project out in the garage, and this speaker has basically been my background soundtrack the whole time.The sound quality is seriously impressive — it’s clear, loud, and the bass has a surprising amount of punch for something this size. I listen to everything from rap to classical depending on the day, and the speaker handles it all without any distortion or muddiness. It’s also been great having my ears open while working. I used to use earbuds, but I like that I can still hear what’s going on around me while enjoying music.Bluetooth pairing is fast and reliable. I’ve switched between multiple devices without any issues, and the lag between pressing buttons and getting a response is minimal. Nothing that bothers me at all.Overall, I’d definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a good-quality wireless speaker that’s durable enough to handle workshop or garage life but sounds great for casual listening too.

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.