JBL’s long-praised lineage may be rooted in its classic loudspeakers, but the California-based audio masters have made nearly equal a name for itself with its portables that are among some of the best Bluetooth speakers money can buy.
In fact, when JBL’s premium mid-sized speaker, the Xtreme 4, launched in June of this year, it easily elbowed its way to the top of our best-of list after I gave it a 4.5/5 rating in my review. Which is why I was excited to see the Xtreme 4 go on sale for the first time for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. And while its $80 discount only drops the price to $300, if you’ve had your eye on this powerful mini boombox for a while like I have, now’s the time to strike.
What I’ve grown to like the most about the JBL Xtreme 4 since the summer is the ease at which it transitioned from rugged, sand-and-water-proof beach speaker to indoor provider of dinner-party grooves. In a sea of utilitarian plastic Bluetooth speakers, it’s one of few on the market that looks as good slung around a shoulder on the way to the beach as it does with its strap removed and tucked back on a midcentury credenza.
Sure, it’s portable, but it doesn’t have to be, and its sound certainly doesn’t suffer because it is. Sound is another area that JBL has most of the competition beat, save for some excellently-tuned portables like the Bose SoundLink Max and my old favorite, the Marshall Middleton, both of which are also discounted for Black Friday.
Two 2.75-inch woofers, two 0.75-inch tweeters, and double bass radiators pump out a beautifully rich and clean 100 watts of power, with soundstage for days. It’s surprisingly loud and can easily fill a medium-sized room. The JBL app has loads of features and allows you to EQ the Xtreme 4 to four presets, including JBL’s Signature sound that can be found on all of its portables, and a Custom setting for you to get it just right.
The Xtreme 4 also gets a little help from AI for sound optimization, and is among the first of JBL’s latest speakers to include Auracast Bluetooth connectivity, but it remains to be seen if JBL will expand the technology’s use to its full, impressive potential. For now, the feature is solely being used to connect multiple speakers together for bigger sound, which is a good feature, too.
One last improvement to the JBL Xtreme line that perhaps makes its $300 Black Friday price tag worth it most of all is the Xtreme 4’s battery. Its 30 hours (yes, 30) of total playtime is beastly, but it’s the fact that it’s replaceable that has JBL fans in a tizzy. A few turns of a screw and the Xtreme 4’s battery pack can be removed and replaced for $100, extending the life of the speaker indefinitely.
The JBL Xtreme 4 was worth its regular price, and this Black Friday/Cyber Monday, the $80 discount makes it even more of a no-brainer.
