{"id":610088,"date":"2023-02-20T07:49:18","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T13:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/20\/jbl-pulse-5-review-fun-to-look-at-and-listen-to\/"},"modified":"2023-02-20T07:49:18","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T13:49:18","slug":"jbl-pulse-5-review-fun-to-look-at-and-listen-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/20\/jbl-pulse-5-review-fun-to-look-at-and-listen-to\/","title":{"rendered":"JBL Pulse 5 Review: Fun to Look at and Listen to"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Like e-readers, <\/span>Bluetooth speakers<\/a> are the apotheosis of a product form. It\u2019s a single-use product that turns on and off and does exactly what you want it to do\u2014nothing more and nothing less. A portable Bluetooth speaker works anytime, with any phone, anywhere. You don\u2019t have to find an outlet or have the right kind of cable. It works with Android and iOS. You don\u2019t even need Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n

Smart speaker manufacturers have tried hard to capture our imaginations. And it kind of worked; My kids occasionallyask Siri questions, but most of the time they ignore the HomePod Mini\u2019s<\/a> existence.<\/p>\n

There is no ignoring the JBL Pulse 5. The styling of this thing makes that impossible. When I got it, I placed it in the middle of the kitchen table, turned it on, and watched the kids circle around it, oohing and aahing.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s a beautiful, 8.5-inch-tall tube with an LED display shining through a smooth, clear skin. It\u2019s basically a lava lamp that plays music. You have never seen pure joy until you\u2019ve seen 10 second-graders running around your house, turning all the house lights off, and going wild around this thing while listening to Katy Perry. The price is outrageous, especially when compared to other speakers of similar size, but the Pulse 5 might be worth the expense just for the fun extras packed within.<\/p>\n

Never Break the Chain<\/p>\n

The Pulse 5 is the latest entry in JBL\u2019s line of portable light-up Bluetooth speakers. It\u2019s slightly bigger than 2019\u2019s Pulse 4, among a few other differences. It has a thick, convenient carrying strap and a slightly better build quality\u2014a dustproof and waterproof IP67, compared to the Pulse 4\u2019s IPX7, which is rated only against immersion in water. (This is a good thing, as I just inspected mine and found smashed-up crayons in the top diaphragm.)<\/p>\n

The Pulse 5 also has Bluetooth 5.3, which means that it can connect to multiple phones. It can also connect to other JBL Bluetooth speakers using JBL\u2019s PartyBoost. The feature is incredibly simple to use. Just press the Bluetooth connection button on both of the JBL speakers that you want to pair, and the two sync up instantly. You can pair two JBL speakers to get stereo sound, or keep adding speakers to get them all playing the same thing. JBL claims you can wirelessly string together more than 100 speakers, but I didn’t get to test that claim.<\/p>\n

Here is the first feature where the price tag starts to justify itself. Only certain JBL speakers support PartyBoost\u2014sadly, my beloved Clip 4<\/a> doesn\u2019t have it. However, I found a dusty Flip 5<\/a> from 2019 in my gear closet, and it worked! If you\u2019re a longtime JBL fan, you may also be able to instantly create stereo sound by pairing this new speaker with your old one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The vast majority of the surface area of the speaker is a clear plastic with a lighted tube inside. The speaker diaphragms are at the top and bottom. The Pulse 5 also has tall feet that are satisfyingly squishy, making it a positive pleasure to set it down on hard surfaces. (Hey, I take what I can get.) The speaker moves tons<\/em> of air, and it can get really loud. Like, house-filling loud.<\/p>\n

The upper registers of the audio spectrum aren\u2019t as clear or as piercing as they are on other speakers this size\u2014or even the years-old Flip 5\u2014but it\u2019s hard to hold this against a \u201cparty\u201d speaker. Nicola Benedetti\u2019s Vivaldi recordings<\/a> sound strangely strangled, even once I upped the treble in the app. But you know, I\u2019m not listening to concertos on this thing by myself at home. Robert Palmer sounds just fine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shine Bright\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The lights inside the Pulse 5 move in concert with your music and can be customized in JBL\u2019s mobile app.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photograph: JBL<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

What really sold me are the lights. Light-up speakers can be a cheesy gimmick\u2014I\u2019ve tried versions<\/a> where a minimal, colored, pulsing light ring added virtually no value to the speaker. But the Pulse 5 is gorgeous. You can customize the light experience in the JBL Portable app, turning the main panel lights on or off, as well as the lights emerging from the bottom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Adrienne So<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like e-readers, Bluetooth speakers are the apotheosis of a product form. It\u2019s a single-use product that turns on and off and does exactly what you want it to do\u2014nothing more and nothing less. A portable Bluetooth speaker works anytime, with any phone, anywhere. You don\u2019t have to find an outlet or have the right kind<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":610089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3436,661,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-610088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pulse","category-review","category-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}