JBL PartyBox 110 Speaker Review

The JBL PartyBox 110 is a big party speaker that you can place horizontally or vertically, and you can also mount it on a tripod pole. It comes with four customizable RGB light rings surrounding its drivers that can sync to the beat of your audio, as well as two white strobe lights on its sides. There's also a groove atop the speaker, which you can use to place a phone or tablet.

The JBL PartyBox 110 is reasonably portable. It's battery-powered, so you don't have to keep it connected to a power outlet for it to work, and it has two handles to help with carrying it. However, it's large and heavy, so it isn't easy to carry around with you. For a more portable PartyBox speaker, check out the much smaller JBL PartyBox Encore Essential.

The JBL PartyBox 110 is decently built. It feels solid, is mostly made of plastic, and there's a metal grille protecting its drivers. There are rubber feet on its sides and on its bottom to place it either horizontally or vertically. It also comes with two rubberized slip-proof handles to help with carrying, and two thick rubber flaps protect its inputs. When placed vertically, and when these flaps are tightly sealed, it's rated IPX4 for water resistance, certifying it to be protected from small splashes of water. There's a cover underneath it for its mounting hole so you can mount it to a tripod stand, which you can purchase from the manufacturer.

The JBL PartyBox 110 has rubberized controls that are easy to use. There's a button on each dial atop the speaker that you can use to turn the lights on/off and to play/pause your audio. You can double-press the play button to skip your track and triple-press it to backtrack. You can also switch between the different RGB light effects by turning the dial and pressing the button atop it for two seconds to enable and disable strobe lights. The RGB lights at the front also display its volume level as you adjust the volume.

There's a Bluetooth pairing button, a power button, and a Bass Boost button to bump up the bass in your audio, which has three different settings: Off, Level 1, and Level 2. There's a small LED bar underneath the power button to indicate its remaining battery level. You also can use the TWS button on the rear of the JBL PartyBox 110 to connect the PartyBox to another compatible speaker when you want to create a stereo pair. Also, there are Mic and Guitar inputs, each with volume and gain knobs.

• JBL PartyBox 110
• Power cord
• Quick Start Guide

The JBL PartyBox 110's frequency response accuracy is decent. It has a somewhat boomy sound profile that can please fans of bass-heavy music like hip-hop and EDM. The rest of its sound profile is fairly balanced, making it suitable for listening to a wide range of audio content, and you can tweak its sound to your liking using the graphic EQ in its companion app. It lacks some low-bass, so you can't feel the deep thump and rumble in bass-heavy music like EDM or hip-hop. If you're looking for a PartyBox speaker that can produce a more extended low-bass, consider the JBL PartyBox 710. That said, if you're looking for a smaller and more portable PartyBox speaker that can produce a low-bass that's as deep and thumpy, check out the JBL PartyBox Encore Essential.

Note: We performed our sound tests with the JBL PartyBox 110's 'Bass Boost' feature set to '1'. We also placed the speaker vertically since it doesn't adjust the left and right channels when placed horizontally, causing the channel separation to be heard as coming from the top and bottom instead of from the left and right.

The JBL PartyBox 110 has a decent soundstage performance, though it may be perceived as narrow and directional-sounding. When placed vertically, you can clearly distinguish between this stereo speaker's left and right channels. However, it doesn't adjust these channels when placed horizontally, so the channel separation can be heard coming from the top and bottom instead of from the left and right.

The JBL PartyBox 110 has a good dynamics performance. It can get pretty loud, making it suitable to use at parties. Its volume also increases by around 2dB when connected to a power source. That said, there's some compression present at max volume that can affect the clarity of your audio during louder listening sessions.

Note: The test results above represent the JBL PartyBox 110's dynamics while operating on battery power since we expect most users to use the PartyBox 110 wirelessly.

The JBL PartyBox 110's battery performance is superb. With its lights turned off, it lasts up to almost 15 hours from a single charge in our tests, making it suitable for long listening sessions. With its lights turned on and set to its default mode, it lasts up to 12 hours. The PartyBox 110 also enters standby mode once it's been left inactive for 20 minutes.

Like the JBL PartyBox 310, the PartyBox 110 is compatible with the JBL PartyBox app. You can use it to access its DJ effects, and also to control and customize its RGB lights. You can see a video sample of its light effects here.

There's a graphic EQ to tweak the JBL PartyBox 110's sound profile to your liking. You can use the app to turn its stereo pair mode on and off. You can also use the app to access karaoke settings that allow you to adjust the bass, treble, and echo on an external microphone connected to the speaker.

The JBL PartyBox 110 features an AUX input which you can use to wire your devices to the speaker, as well as an AUX output. There are separate mic and guitar inputs, each with volume and gain knobs, which may please musicians and karaoke-lovers. However, it doesn't support USB Audio since you can't use its USB port to wire devices like your laptop to the speaker. That said, you can still use the port to playback your audio from a USB stick, though the manufacturer says it only supports .mp3, .wma, and .wav files. You can even use it to charge other devices like your phone.

The JBL PartyBox 110 has good Bluetooth connectivity. It can be paired to up to two devices at once, which is handy if you ever need to quickly switch between audio sources. It also has excellent range, so your paired device remains connected to the speaker, even when it isn't close to it. Unfortunately, the JBL PartyBox 110 has somewhat high latency with iOS and Android devices, which can cause syncing issues between audio and visuals, so it isn't suitable for watching videos and movies over this connection. That said, some apps compensate for latency differently, so your experience may differ.