Audio review
JBL Charge 5 Review: The Bass Stops Growing at 60 Percent
It gets louder past that point but not deeper, and distortion arrives instead. Everything else about it is built to be thrown in a bag and forgotten.
By Paulo GerchonPublished 2 min read
Illustration, not a photo — we don’t have a licensed image of this product yet.
JBL
JBL Charge 5
Good · researched from 3 sources
Set it somewhere near half volume and it is one of the easiest speakers to live with, waterproof enough to stop thinking about and loud enough for a garden. Push it past 60 percent and you get volume without depth, which is the one thing worth knowing before buying.
- Buy if
- Pools, showers, beaches and anywhere water is a real risk · Listening at conversational to moderately loud levels · Trips where charging a phone from the speaker is genuinely useful
- Skip if
- Filling a large room or an outdoor party on its own · Anyone who wants speakerphone or a wired input · Pocket portability, given the weight
We don’t list prices, because Amazon’s change hourly.
The number that decides how you use it
The Product Analyst found that above roughly 60 percent volume the Charge 5 starts to distort, and that bass output stops rising even as the dial keeps going.
That is the whole review in one finding. Below that point this is a warm, confident speaker with real low end, clear vocals and softened treble, and Serious Insights describes it handling both loud rock and quiet ballads convincingly. Above it, you are trading fidelity for sound pressure.
Outdoors, with wind and conversation to compete with, that trade is worth making and you will not notice much. Indoors it is audible, and it is the reason this speaker sounds better in a garden than in a living room.
Waterproof in the way that matters
IP67 gets used loosely. Here it means dust-tight and survivable at one metre of fresh water for thirty minutes.
The Product Analyst adds the parts the rating does not cover. It is not rated for salt water or high pressure jets, and it does not float, so the pool is fine and the ocean is a risk.
Serious Insights supplies the practical version: one lived in a bathroom for weeks, taking soap residue and steam, and kept working. That is the level of carelessness the design is built for, and it is most of why people keep buying this line.
What it will not do
No microphone. Not a weak one, none at all, so calls are impossible.
No 3.5 mm input, which rules out a wired source.
No 360-degree dispersion. The Product Analyst notes it fires directionally, so it wants to be pointed at people rather than placed in the middle of them.
And PartyBoost is stranded between generations. It will not link to older Connect+ speakers, and it will not link to the Auracast system in the Charge 6.
The power bank, honestly
There is a USB-A port on the back that charges a phone.
It draws from the speaker's own 7,500 mAh cell, so the playing time and the charging capacity are the same battery spent two ways. Both The Product Analyst and Serious Insights make the point.
Treat it as an emergency reserve on a long day rather than a habit. Serious Insights also measured about four hours to fill it back up, which is slow enough that you want to be plugging it in the night before rather than an hour before leaving.
Where the battery figure lands
JBL rates it at 20 hours. The Product Analyst cites laboratory testing from RTINGS that recorded about 17 hours 12 minutes at a steady 75 dB.
Those are not in conflict. A rated figure assumes moderate volume; a lab figure fixes the volume and measures. Seventeen hours at a genuinely loud steady level is a good result, and it means a day at a beach or a party at sensible volume will not run it flat.
How it scored
The overall 7.8 is the weighted average of these five criteria — we never adjust it by hand.
Sound quality
The Product Analyst describes deep bass and clear mids with rolled-off highs, then notes distortion above 60 percent volume where bass also stops increasing. Serious Insights calls it rich and nuanced at sane levels.
Value
SoundGuys scored it 8 out of 10 and The Product Analyst 8.3, with both saying it is most recommendable when discounted rather than at full price.
Build quality
IP67, meaning dust-tight and submersible to one metre for thirty minutes. Serious Insights used one in a bathroom for weeks through soap and water without trouble.
Ease of use
Nothing to configure, but there is no microphone, no aux input and The Product Analyst finds the app limited. Serious Insights measured a four-hour recharge.
Battery
Rated 20 hours. The Product Analyst cites an RTINGS lab result of about 17 hours 12 minutes at 75 dB, and the USB-A output draws from the same cell.
Pros and cons
What we liked
- IP67 rated, so it survives dust, rain and a drop in the pool
- A 20 hour rating that independent lab testing gets within three hours of
- USB-A output turns it into a power bank when a phone is dying
- Serious Insights ran one in a bathroom for weeks with no ill effects
- PartyBoost links a stereo pair or a much larger group of compatible JBL speakers
What we didn’t
- The Product Analyst reports distortion above 60 percent volume, with bass no longer increasing past that
- No microphone at all, so it cannot take a call
- No 3.5 mm input, which SoundGuys lists as a criticism
- At 960 g SoundGuys compares it to carrying a football
- Serious Insights measured about four hours to recharge
- PartyBoost does not talk to the Charge 6 or to older Connect+ speakers
Specifications
| Drivers | 90 mm racetrack woofer and 20 mm tweeter with dual passive radiators per The Product Analyst |
|---|---|
| Battery | 7,500 mAh, rated 20 hours; about 17 hours 12 minutes at 75 dB in RTINGS testing cited by The Product Analyst |
| Recharge | About four hours per Serious Insights |
| Weight | 960 g per The Product Analyst |
| Water resistance | IP67, submersible to 1 m for 30 minutes; it does not float |
| Bluetooth | 5.1 |
| Extra output | USB-A for charging phones, drawing on the speaker battery |
| Multi-speaker | PartyBoost, not compatible with Auracast or Connect+ |
| Missing | No microphone and no 3.5 mm input |
How we researched this
We have not had this unit on the bench. This review synthesises the manufacturer’s published specifications, independent measurements and owner reports listed below. Every figure on this page comes from one of those sources rather than our own measurement.
3
sources reviewed
The Product Analyst is the most technical source, supplying the driver configuration, the weight, the battery capacity, the water resistance detail and the 60 percent distortion finding, and citing an RTINGS laboratory battery result rather than measuring one itself. SoundGuys contributed the scoring, the Bluetooth version and the list of omissions. Serious Insights is the only long-use account, having kept one in a bathroom for weeks, and supplied the recharge time and the Connect+ incompatibility. None of the three published a frequency response curve for this speaker, so no measured response is claimed here.
What we read
Common questions
How loud can the JBL Charge 5 go before it sounds bad?
Can I take it in the pool?
Does the power bank feature actually help?
Will it pair with my other JBL speaker?
Can I use it for calls?
The bottom line on the JBL Charge 5
Set it somewhere near half volume and it is one of the easiest speakers to live with, waterproof enough to stop thinking about and loud enough for a garden. Push it past 60 percent and you get volume without depth, which is the one thing worth knowing before buying.
More tech & gadgets reviews
Audio
1MORE SonoFlow
SoundGuys measured almost seven hours beyond the claim. TechGearLab's frequency breakdown shows 36.2 dB of reduction in the highs and 15.6 in the lows.
Audio
AKG K371
Sonarworks measured up to ±4 dB of channel imbalance and ±3 dB of bass variation between units. That is a bigger difference than most of the arguments about how it sounds.
Audio
Apple AirPods Max
One lab scored comfort 4.6 out of 10 and found glasses cut wearable time to less than sixty minutes. Everything else about them is very good, which is the frustrating part.