JBL PartyBox Club 120 party speaker review

Portable Bluetooth speakers have been popular for years but, these days, there’s a growing subset or so-called “party speakers”. While they’re pricier and less portable than their slimline Bluetooth peers, party speakers offer a heftier way to fill a hall or outside space with the kind of volume that’ll have you reaching for earplugs.

JBL recently sent me the PartyBox Club 120, an iterative upgrade over its popular PartyBox Club 110, and I was blown away by just how loud this thing can get.

If you have money to burn, you can spend between $1,500 and $2,000 on a fully featured wireless party speaker. In that respect, the JBL PartyBox Club 120 is reasonably priced at $499 RRP in terms of name-brand party speakers. Price-wise, the Club 120 is effectively competing with its older PartyBox 110 sibling or the Sony SRS-XP500,the latter of which is slightly cheaper ($429 RRP).

Like a soundbar or PC speakers, the JBL PartyBox Club 120 is effectively a plug-and-play audio device. Just connect the included power cable to get it to a full charge, power it on and install the JBL PartyBox app for Android or iOS and you’re good to go. I didn’t even need to Bluetooth sync the Club 120 with my mobile phone first; the app took care of that.

The only quirk there was that after initial setup on my Google Pixel 7 Pro, I got an annoying and constant sync reminder on my Samsung Galaxy Tab S7. Outside of that, initial setup was a breeze, including a prompted software update via the PartyBox app.

As for the Club 120’s overall design, it’s incredibly intuitive. If you install the companion app, you really only need to use the power button and it’s a wireless experience. Admittedly, I would’ve preferred if I could power on the Club 120 from the app as well as the physical button. As for the rest of the physical design, the other buttons on the top are all replicated in the app, and there’s a foldable carry handle, which only just allows for dual wielding with my giant mitts.

On the back is a few sealed ports: one for the power port, another for a removable battery, and the third is for extra versatility.

Even with a flat preset, the JBL PartyBox Club 120 offers decent audio that comfortably filled my apartment at one-third volume. Switching to the JBL Signature preset pumped out well-balanced sound, which can be further enhanced with ‘Bassboost’ set to either deep or punchy. Deep was the better pick for my tastes.

There are also movie (boosted lows), vocal (boosted highs) and chill (boosted mids) presets, plus a full equaliser if you want to create your own. During my hours of testing, I only found one instance of short speaker distortion during Hans Zimmer’s ‘Mountains’ from the Interstellar soundtrack. Everything else I threw at it impressed me without issues, from rock anthems and synthwave to bass-heavy tracks and hours of movie soundtracks.

I opted for mostly orchestral music during the battery tests, mainly because of how loud the Club 120 gets. Even at 50% volume, I was measuring mid-80 decibel readings for playback a couple of metres away from the speaker, and it was in the mid-60s outside my apartment fire door. I’m not usually a fan of speaker lighting, but the lights did a great job of mostly reacting dynamically with what the music was doing, so they felt more like a value-add than a battery drainer.

I got a new appreciation for songs I’ve heard hundreds of times before, from the layered beauty of the Mask of the Phantasm main theme and ‘Watch the World Burn’ from The Dark Knight soundtrack, to the spine tingles of ‘My Name is Barbossa’ from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and the cinematically epic Brothers in Arms from the Mad Max: Fury Road soundtrack. I stopped my 50% volume battery-life test after a couple of hours because, honestly, my ears were hurting. By my longevity estimates, expect the Club 120 battery to last around 13 hours.

As a Bluetooth speaker, the JBL PartyBox Club 120 isn’t designed as a set-and-forget audio pumper. Instead, it’s built to go with you. I found the weight manageable relative to the size (and subsequent power) of the party speaker, but I can also appreciate that the 11-ish kilos of heft would be a detractor depending on how far you have to lug it.

Unlike an Esky, the carry handle is designed in such a way that it’s effectively for solo carrying only. Still, I was surprised to see an easily replaceable battery, even if the replacement batteries weren’t listed for sale in Australia at the time of writing. But it’s the rest of the versatility that truly impresses, albeit at an additional cost.

The Club 120 can seamlessly sync with another compatible speaker, plus there’s on-the-go karaoke support if you have compatible microphones. One of those microphone slots can be used for an electric guitar with the flick of a switch, which is a nice touch. Those ports are tucked behind a splashproof rubber flap alongside an aux-in port, a daisy-chain in and out ports, and a USB-A port for charging external devices.

If you’re in the market for a Bluetooth party speaker that has well-balanced sound and volume to spare, the JBL PartyBox Club 120 is worth considering. The power of the party speaker is wasted in smaller places (like my apartment), but if you’ve got a hall or outdoor space to fill and don’t mind running the risk of noise complaints, there’s a lot to love about the Club 120.