JBL Charge 3 Waterproof Portable Bluetooth Speaker (Black), 1

Had a friend say it had a better quality sound than her Bose speaker. Very happy. Got it because my son got one and I was so impressed by the sound I had to get one too.

JBL IS WORTH EVERY PENNY

I was given one of these as a gift many years ago. It just finally stopped working. I did lots of research to decide which JBL would be the best replacement. I was very happy to see this model offered again. Its excellent quality, reliable and holds its charge for a long time. It really is water & dust proof. I used my older one while doing all sorts of projects indoors and out where moisture and dust were everywhere....it continued to work very well.

All very good accept you sent me 2 I only ordered 1

Realized I bought this thing four years ago and still havent reviewed it. I was delighted this morning at how bluetooth on the charge always just works. So easy to connect / disconnect and seems to have some intelligence around this. Other devices are a pain (and have been especially, lately) but this guy always just gets it right, no matter which device Im using (personal MBP, work MBP, iPhone, iPad - I switch around all the time). And, of course, it sounds amazing. Starting to see some diminished battery life here, which isnt surprising after 4 years of heavy use - but can still get several hours off of a single charge. And can always just plug it in if needed. Im a JBL customer for life if they keep making products like this.

First off, I like me Charge 3 and ended up buying a second one to pair for stereo outdoors! If you are trying to connect a mic using the 3.5mm Jack you have to know two things. First: Not all 3.5mm jacks are the same. I believe there are tr, trs and trrs plugs and you need to look at the number of black plastic rings, the tip shape and length of the plug. Hopefully, someone at JBL can advise all of us Secondly the Impedence and resistance of the mic and the length and thickness effect that. Also hope they give advice on that, as well.

Fantastic speaker. Ive had it for about a month now with no major complaints. I would love if I could hear a bit more of the mids. Its fairly bass-heavy, but then again, so is most of the music culture these days. Overall the sound is very good & it gets plenty loud. No distortion, even at maximum volume, which is great. It doesnt have the loudness to fill my whole condo, but certainly more than enough to fill the largest room. And much more than what I need to fill the garage. The point of the battery-powered speaker is that I can take it anywhere. If Im going into a different room, I can just pick it up and bring it with me. No need to fill the whole condo. I once borrowed a co-workers same model JBL Charge 3 & tested the stereo function & it worked great. The two speakers together make for a fantastic setup & very cool feature. I would love to have this at all times, but one of the points of having a battery-powered bluetooth speaker is so that I can take it places. And I dont have the space in my bag to lug around 2 of these things. Its already big-enough as it is. Big, but manageable. Possibly one of the greatest features about the Charge 3 is that the battery lasts FOREVER. Its awesome. I can watch movies on my tablet (which needs to be plugged in after 4 hours), but the speaker just keeps on going and going. More than anyone should ever need in one session. The other great thing about this guys battery is it has removed the need to carry an additional portable phone charger during long trips. I can use this bad-boy instead. Only issue is on planes it makes a loud startup & shutdown noise. Then again, that can be somewhat muffled & the plane is already somewhat loud itself, so its not the end of the world. Also, planes these days have plug-in chargers, so if youre really reluctant to use this to charge your phone on a plane, then youve got a work-around. And if youre thinking 20 hours of battery life seems excessive, then perhaps you havent considered the life-span of the speaker. My last bluetooth speaker was the Jabra SoleMate. It was a great little speaker with weather resistance & an 8 hour battery life. The thing was great for the first year. However, after a year, that 8 hour battery life was more like 6 hours. And after 2 years it was more like 4 hours. If extrapolation is true across all batteries (but it probably isnt), then I would expect the Charge 3 will only last about 10 hours in 2 years. And I will be okay with that. That is still a great amount of battery for a whole day using the thing. Anyways, thats kind of like worst-case planning. Before buying this I did a bunch of comparative research. The closest competitor I found was the UE Boom 2. Its smaller/slimmer and at least marketed as durable during drop. My co-worker had one that he let me borrow to test. I think at medium volume that the UE Boom 2 sounded better. Very warm mids, no muddiness, great overall clarity; however, there was a lot of distortion above ~75% volume. If I cant use the full loudness range of the speaker, then why does UE even allow it to go that loud? Especially such a great-sounding speaker at medium volume? Very disappointed that their audio team wasnt allowed or able to push harder to fix this. Another, more minor downfall of the UE Boom 2 is that it doesnt float. So although it is waterproof, if you bring this thing out on the lake and accidentally drops in the water (God forbid), then someone better catch it before it sinks to the bottom & busts from excessive water pressure. And the last benchmark where the Charge 3 had the Boom 2 beat was the battery life. 15hrs for the UE Boom 2. Quite admirable, but it didnt match up to the Charge 3. So thats how I ended up with this bad-boy. TL;DR: Great speaker, buy it.

After three days of almost constant use inside, Ive decided this is an okay speaker. But as the headline says, its just okay. Nothing spectacular. I bought this speaker instead of the Charge 4 because of some negatively reviewed aspects of the 4. The Charge 3 isnt a bargain, price-wise, but at $99 its not going to break your bank. And its lots less expensive than a lot of the current garbage Bose has on the market. Sound quality on the Charge 3 is decent, but it sometimes sounds a bit muddy depending on speaker volume and placement. In other words, it needs to be placed in a somewhat open space, not against a wall or on a shelf in a bookcase. Bass is lacking in this speaker. Seriously lacking. And the louder it gets, the more distortion you get. Hard to imagine this speaker providing acceptably clear sound levels at a large outdoor party. Again, for indoor use its pretty good. It makes a nice invisible sound source. I like it that this speaker comes in some vibrant colours in addition to your basic tech-tactical black. I chose the red version because I like bright colours. Two things about this speaker need to change. But of course since this is an older model, it isnt going to change. I understand the newer Charge 4 has these same issues, though. One is that it makes stupid beep-beep-boop-boop noises when you power it on and off. And theres no way to disable these sounds. Its irritating as hell and serves no purpose. The power light lights and turns off when the speaker is powered down...the customer doesnt need dumb noises to prove the speakers on or off. The other thing is that theres no back button. You cant scan backwards to previously played songs. Sure, you can scan backwards with your phone controls, but if the phone and speaker are located in different areas, that function goes out the window. Bottom line? Maybe you could do better for a hundred bucks, but if you arent in the mood to shop around and you get this with free Prime shipping, youll be okay.

I am using an iphone 8 and tried the bluetooth and other things. First, the bluetooth reception is very good for my uses. I tried other items and signals would stop. I had the phone in the house and took this easily 50 plus feet and put in a vehicle and could hear a phone and music no issue. Sound quality; I am picky (like most are) and Id say it quite good but not stupendous. It is really difficult to get good mids and highs and the bass is fairly clear and okay too. However, sometimes playing Chet Atkins (newest material) fusion base sometimes splashes apart, ... not really a distortion. Comparing it to a find set of Senhieiser SD 280 PRO it is about 80-90% ... is fine. To hear the stereo separation you have to hold it really close but the clarity and separation is very good. It doesnt goes as loud as Id think Id want but it is plenty loud. Youd have to turn it down to talk with someone ... but I am into it for attentive listening. Back to stereo, I ordered this one to see how I like it and ordering a second. Then will try the set up for two; one of left channel and one for right. ... and report on that. It is a little muddy on the dash board while driving it home but changes a lot based on placement. ...... It is good, clean sound and not distorting. Id order a second one... wait, I already did ... :-) ... I buy 2 minimum ... Gray is very nice and looks high end. Also some about of solid feel for it. Oh, tube and other information says this is the last dual driver true stereo units of this size. I dont know about their big boxes but read the data. I expect to be very happy with These...

It sounds better than I expected, especially considering its size. JBL should be proud as it lives up to its brags.