JBL Pulse 5 overview: Lightshow and occasion starter

JBL’s Pulse 5 Bluetooth speaker has rather a lot occurring. At its most simple, it carries over the corporate’s skilled audio high quality in a (largely) portable wireless speaker that may work simply as effectively at a seashore BBQ as it’s stowed on a shelf in your bathe.

What makes the Pulse 5 actually stand out, although, is its entire secondary position as a smart light. It is in some ways a celebration inside a speaker, containing sufficient energy to fill a room with sound and light-weight for hours if wanted. There are much more sturdy, wealthy sounding Bluetooth speakers on the market, even in JBL’s personal lineup, however should you’re on the lookout for a Bluetooth speaker that provides the peanut-butter-and-jelly pairing of a extremely customizable mild and extremely loud sound, you would be hard-pressed to search out something higher.

A tube-shaped, rainbow-colored Bluetooth speaker with JBL printed on the side.

JBL Pulse 5

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$200 $250 Save $50

The JBL Pulse 5 combines loud, highly effective bass with a customizable mild system that may immediately spruce up your subsequent occasion or set the temper in your workplace.

Execs

Customizable mild patterns
Sounds nice out of the field
IP67 dustproof and waterproof

Cons

No bodily quantity controls
Heavy

Designed like an alien lava lamp

When it is off, the JBL Pulse 5 is restrained, perhaps even plain. At 4.2 x 8.5 x 5.2 inches, it is concerning the peak of a water bottle and solely marginally thicker. Inside, the Pulse 5 has a 2.5-inch 30W woofer and a 0.6-inch 10W tweeter, and a dynamic frequency response vary of 58Hz to 20kHz. JBL has designed the Pulse 5 to have a built-in material carrying strap to make it simpler to port round, and in my time with the Pulse I appreciated it. This speaker, regardless of its dimension, weighs in at 3.2lbs, the burden of most 13-inch laptops. That does not make it inconceivable to raise, but it surely may make you assume twice about throwing it in your backpack earlier than strolling to the park.

In fact, that is simply the Pulse 5 when it is off. Press the facility button on the again and the speaker fills with pulsing coloured mild. JBL is proud to notice that the Pulse 5 is a Red Dot Design Award winner, and I believe it deserves it. The best way the Pulse 5’s mild supply is ready a number of layers deep into the speaker provides it an added sense of depth that makes the intense mild and sound that emanates from it all of the extra ethereal and alien.

The JBL Pulse 5 hanging from it's built-in strap and glowing green.

One of many few issues I had with the Pulse 5 was how restricted its controls and inputs are. In addition to an influence button, there is a button to allow Bluetooth pairing, a button for biking via the Pulse 5’s numerous mild modes, a button for connecting to different Bluetooth audio system through JBL’s PartyBoost function, and a USB Kind-C port for charging audio system.

Noticeably lacking are any form of quantity controls, which is not an enormous deal, however I discovered it to be annoying the entire time I used the Pulse 5. Audio system, particularly audio system designed to be the centerpiece of a dwelling house due to their distinctive capacity to placed on a lightweight present, ought to have a simple approach for anybody to manage them, not simply the particular person holding the telephone.

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Moody lights and white noise

Paying for the JBL Pulse 5 provides you trendy JBL options, like a simple technique to group a number of Bluetooth audio system collectively, however the standout is the JBL Transportable app. Companion apps might be hit and miss, and are sometimes straight-up dangerous, however on this case JBL confirmed restraint. You want the JBL Transportable app to regulate how the Pulse 5 seems to be whereas it is on, amongst different issues, so it helps that it has some helpful options on prime of simply letting you regulate the speaker’s “Lightshow” function.

Totally different colours and light-weight patterns sync to your music, matching the climate, the fluctuating circulation of the Aurora Borealis, or the reflections of a spinning disco ball.

As soon as you have related to the Pulse 5 over Bluetooth the JBL Transportable app shows a display with a number of preset Lightshow choices to select from, loosely themed round issues like Nature, Cocktails, Climate, and Occasion. Every of those classes has completely different colours and light-weight patterns that may sync to your music, matching the climate, the fluctuating circulation of the Aurora Borealis, or the reflections of a spinning disco ball. From there, you’ll be able to change the velocity and brightness of the Pulse 5’s patterns, together with turning off complete sections of the sunshine (particularly the highest and backside) if you wish to.

These numerous mild patterns are enjoyable and might be additional custom-made with a built-in colour wheel, however the function I discovered most surprisingly fulfilling was the app’s white noise function. Mainly, you’ll be able to choose from a number of preloaded white noise tracks with matching mild patterns that could possibly be set to finish at particular instances. That is performance you will get by downloading a easy pomodoro timer app in your smartphone, however I appreciated utilizing the Pulse 5 to schedule little centered writing sprints for myself that had some background noise, however with out additional distractions.

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Images paint a greater image of how the Pulse 5 lights up a room than phrases ever will, however you get fairly a little bit of vary from the speaker relying on whether or not you want moody purple hues for an evening house alone or one thing, brighter, sooner shifting, and enjoyable earlier than pre-gaming an evening out. It is not as customizable as a Philips Hue product, but it surely gave me extra choices to play with than I used to be anticipating.

Loud, bassy, and clear even at increased volumes

You in the end need loudness from a celebration speaker, and the Pulse 5 delivers handily. Even at medium quantity, it fills up a room, and it could possibly get to fairly excessive volumes (increased than I used to be comfy with, sharing a wall with my neighbors) with out noticeable distortion.

The speaker has a deep, booming bass that feels higher than its dimension and nearer to what I get out of my TV’s Sonos Ray sound bar.

Positioned on a desk, you’ll be able to hear and really feel thump on songs like Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain. On the entire, nearly all the pieces I performed on the JBL Pulse 5 sounded crisp and clear. My solely actual difficulty was an issue I chalked as much as the scale of the speaker moderately than something JBL did. You naturally get much less separation between bass and treble on a smaller speaker with fewer woofers and tweeters and I observed it after listening to the Pulse 5 for lengthy sufficient.

It is a testomony to how good the Pulse 5 sounds that that is what stands out above all the pieces else. I beloved how a lot texture Katie Crutchfield and MJ Lenderman’s voices had in Waxahatchee’s Proper Again to It, and the groovy riffs of Age of Consent by New Order have been simple to throw on repeat due to how a lot punch the bass had. You could possibly in all probability get even higher audio high quality by tweaking the equalizer settings, however what JBL presents out of the field is sweet sufficient for most individuals.

The JBL Pulse 5 on a bookshelf with its lights off.

Bumpin’ bass and battery

JBL says the Pulse 5 will get round 12 hours of playback time, which feels correct for prolonged intervals of use throughout a social occasion, however is likely to be conservative should you’re not always altering the Lightshow on show. I made it via over 4 days of taking part in music from the Pulse 5 for 2 to a few hours a day earlier than the battery standing mild signaled I ought to cost.

You could possibly get much more should you use the Pulse 5 much less recurrently. I in the end ended up utilizing the Pulse 5 extra as a result of the speaker’s IP67 dustproof and waterproof rating meant I may use it within the bathe with out having to fret about water harm. The outer plastic layer fogs up, but it surely by no means stopped blasting mild or sound as I received prepared for the day.

Verdict

The JBL Pulse 5 is quite a lot of enjoyable, and for a speaker that is so clearly meant to be loved by a crowd, its flaws, weight and an absence of quantity controls fade to the background if you’re entertaining with customizable lights and a punchy, bassy sound. Finally, JBL delivered a reliable occasion speaker with some enjoyable options to attempt if you’re alone, stress-free, or attempting to focus. There’s not a ton to it, however should you’re on the lookout for a enjoyable technique to play audio at house or an occasion on the go, the JBL Pulse 5 sounds and appears adequate for nearly everybody.