Review: SOUNDBOKS Go – A Powerful, Bass-Kicking Party Speaker, To Go!

Speakers have come a long way in the last century. Especially in the last decade. There are many to choose from which ultimately leads to the question: 

“Which one should I choose?”

The answer to that question is up to you to decide. However, are you looking for an easy-to-transport, robust speaker, with a great design, that sounds incredible outdoors, includes recent device-sharing technology, and can take a serious beating?

Then lend me your ears and I will tell you why the SOUNDBOKS Go is easily one of the best “strap on your shoulder” speakers out there.

The Vision

The creators of SOUNDBOKS have been living their vision since 2015. Their vision has been to create a sound system that will help everyone disconnect from their screens in order to connect with friends and family more. They believe this quality time is important and I couldn’t agree more.

Design

The SOUNDBOKS Go is rugged, simple, and sleek. With a reinforced ABS casing, it can easily withstand major tumbles. I will tell you more about that below in the “Real-World Use” section.

Unlike many of its competitors, it is bordered with an extruded silicone rubber bumper which makes setting the device down a breeze. I wouldn’t drop it on purpose, but you could.

The SOUNDBOKS Go has an IP65 rating, which means it’s been tested to withstand water and dust. However, do avoid getting any kind of elements in the main exhaust ports located at the front of the device.

Connectivity

The SOUNDBOKS Go has 5.0 Bluetooth technology with a TeamUP (SKAA) connection. This allows users to link up to 5 compatible devices, wirelessly. With the latest Bluetooth technology creating a nearly perfect connection, all devices will distribute your event’s music simultaneously.

The SOUNDBOKS Go has 3 settings for connecting with other devices. SOLO, HOST, and JOIN.

1. SOLO is used when you want to jam out alone. It blocks your device from connecting to other devices, as well as other devices from connecting to yours.
2. HOST is used when you are looking to connect other devices to yours.
3. JOIN is used when looking to connect to the host device.

While they’ve made note of this next part and have made corrections for newer models, the SOUNDBOKS Go only has a single 3.5mm Stereo Input. So plugging in your Stratocaster or microphone will require an adapter.

Bass

3 Bass settings are found in the SOUNDBOKS app, INDOOR, POWER, and BASS+.

1. INDOOR has the least amount of bass.
2. POWER is neutral bass.
3. BASS+ adds the most bass.

I recommend becoming familiar with these settings for use in different environments.  I didn’t at first, but now understand how important they are.  You don’t necessarily want to use BASS+ indoors, and INDOOR mode isn’t great for outside.

Battery

This battery has 99.84Wh or 7.8Ah capacity at 12.8V and is made of Lithium Iron Phosphate that is said to last up to 40 hours at medium volume. Which, I fully believe. Something cool about this battery is that even though you can use it while plugged in, you won’t ever need an extension cord as long as the battery is charged.

The battery design allows you to smoothly remove it for portable charging, or to quickly swap batteries should you choose to add a second one at checkout. It also has a charge level indicator button on the battery that tells you the strength of the charge. This makes it easy to check the charge level at any time. Plugged in, or not.

The SOUNDBOKS website recommends using this speaker only with the battery plugged into it. Doing otherwise above 50% volume will create a poor sound quality.

A final note on the battery. The higher the bass setting is set, the more power the device consumes. The calculated 40-hour battery life won’t apply when using the BASS+ setting. So, if you are out in the wilderness and need your battery to last longer, just turn down the bass settings via the app.

Additional Specs

• 2 x 72 Watt continuous Class D amplifiers
• 1 x 10″ Woofer
• 1 x 1″ silk dome tweeter
• The frequency range is between 40Hz – 20kHz
• SOUNDBOKS bass enhancer to boost your bass levels and volume (121 dB)
• Weight: 20 lbs (9.2 kg)

Carrying Strap

If you can spend a little extra at checkout for the carrying strap. Do it! Even over an extra battery, I would say get the strap. It is an absolute must and can be purchased through their website, or during checkout.

While you can use the already attached carrying handle, it is not recommended for longer walks or hikes, and certainly not for riding with two hands on a bike, which I love doing. It includes padding for your shoulders and makes longer adventures a breeze. I’ve found it to be very comfortable and it balances nicely on my shoulders and back.

Top hat mount

The SOUNDBOKS Go has a top hat mount located on the bottom for suspending above the ground and is great for formal parties or events. A tripod stand can be purchased for this via the SOUNDBOKS website as well.

Real-World Use

I love music, so to fully test this out, I had to take the SOUNDBOKS Go into its intended environment, which is around people and the outdoors. It goes everywhere and easily packs alongside other items for longer road trips.

I often take it on bike rides with my kids. We create playlists for the trails and blast the music when we know no one is around. It’s fun!

I love taking the SOUNDBOKS Go on campouts. I never worry about the battery dying overnight.

On the 4th of July, I was on a solo bicycle ride with the SOUNDBOKS Go strapped on my back. The weather was great, fireworks were all around, my music was blaring and I was having a great time.

I was headed down a gravel road doing about 15 MPH and tried to take a quick turn onto another path, but my bike didn’t follow. My breaks locked up and I was thrown over the handlebars with the SOUNDBOKS still on my back.  I know, this was a user error.

My body took some hefty damage. But the SOUNDBOKS remains pretty much unharmed. Just some minor wear on one of the rubber protection borders, which, is exactly what the rubber protection borders are designed for.  This feature seriously rocks for so many reasons.  I love the rubber border and how it allows me to basically “toss” the speaker around.

Criticisms

Since the SOUNDBOKS Go doesn’t incorporate any type of microphone or instrument input, it’s not very convenient when an adapter is not around. However, that wasn’t the intended purpose of this design, and has been added to the newer SOUNDBOKS (Gen 3).

Would I recommend the SOUNDBOKS Go to others?

Absolutely! At the end of the day, I was very impressed with SOUNDBOKS’s overall dedication to design, portability, sound, innovation, and quality.

I look forward to receiving the SOUNDBOKS (Gen 3) and syncing it with my current SOUNDBOKS Go to see how the sound feels coming from multiple angles.  From what I’ve seen online about it so far, it seems quite awesome.

The SOUNDBOKS Go currently retails at $699.00 and can be found via the SOUNDBOKS website.