My JBL Charge 3 just got the biggest upgrade with a minimal investment. I spent just Bt 1300, and it was every Baht well spent.
Summary:
- Buying the same speaker and setting up a stereo pair is the biggest upgrade
- The sound improvement is exponential
- Buy used one, and check well before buying
- It's a great improvement, but at the expense of convenience
Buying the same speaker and setting up a stereo pair is the biggest upgrade
I recently inherited a JBL Charge 3. The sound was ok, nothing special. Last month, my curious side decided to try out something new. I bought another used JBL Charge 3 for peanuts, and set up a stereo pair using the JBL Portable app. The result was a huge improvement, the biggest yet from all the things I've tried.
The sound improvement is exponential
- My first and immediate observation was the pair of speakers produced an overall much fuller sound, filling the room much better
- The bass improvement was probably the most pronounced, with the bass having much more weight
- Most important of all, and this was after sitting down to enjoy the music, was the imaging and soundstage which were previously non-existent from the single speaker. We human beings were created with left and right ears for a reason, and recording engineers would go to the end of the earth and back to capture music the way it was performed. Listening to a great recording like "Isn't She Lovely?" by Livingston Taylor using the stereo pair I could appreciate hearing one guitar coming from the left, one from the right, and the vocal and whistling coming from the center.
Tips: buy used, but check well before buying
- Make sure your speaker model supports stereo pairing, not all of them do (e.g. Bose Soundlink Mini II & Cambridge Audio Yo-Yo S do not support).
- Buy used. I paid Bt 1300 for the 2nd Charge 3. The prices of discontinued bluetooth speakers drop a lot. Just make sure the seller is legit, you get to try the item or at least get a test clip, and it is in an overall working condition.
- Use your old phone as a dedicated player. I used my iPhone 5S to play music the JBL stereo pair. The iOS version can still support Plexamp and Spotify, and the speakers support the AAC codec. Having a dedicated phone ensures music is not interrupted by incoming calls or chat messagesม, and that you can leave the old phone next to the speakers and walk anywhere without losing the bluetooth connection.
It's a great improvement, but at the expense of convenience
Stereo pairing requires additional steps every time the speakers are turned on (at least for my JBL pair). The two speakers do not automatically enter into stereo mode after turning both on. The pairing takes about a minute, and sometimes can be unstable. Hence, this upgrade may not be suitable for ones who value convenience over sound quality (e.g. everyone in my family, except me).
Have you tried using stereo mode or any other tweaks? Please share us your experience.