JBL Flip 6
Tribit Stormbox 2
The Design
Both of these speakers have a similar design with their respective company logos embossed right across the front of each speaker. Although the Tribit also has a very Ultimate Ears-esque design to their control buttons on the front of the speaker.
Both are surrounded in a fabric grill which helps to keep both speakers protected from the elements.They also both have a lanyard which makes it easy for hanging these speakers of anything (with the help of a carabiner).
They are similar in size too with both measuring around 7” long and 2.5” wide. The Flip 6 is the lighter of the two though as it weighs 550g vs the 699g of the Stormbox 2. There is a reason for that extra weight though which we’ll get to later.
Neither are the kind of weight that I’d have hanging off a bag if I was going backpacking though. It’s useful for hanging up on a tree or something like that though. Most of the time these speakers are going to be spending their time on a table, the deck, or the ground.
With both speakers provide buttons to control volume up/down, and a main button for play, pause and skip tracks. It’s the Stormbox 2 that allows you to skip tracks both forwards and backwards with either a double or triple press. Whereas the Flip 6 only allows skipping tracks forwards. Both have the standard on/off switch and Bluetooth pairing button, with the Stormbox 2 adding an X-Bass button for extra bass boost. Both come with a ‘pairing’ button too, although how each pairs does differ which we’ll get to later.
Weathproof
Both speakers offer some protection against the elements as they are both rated to the same waterproof rating. So both can be submerged in a meter of water, for up to 30 minutes, and they’ll both be fine. However, only the Flip 6 is dust proof, whereas the Stormbox 2 isn’t. So it’s an IP67 rating for the Flip 6, and an IPX7 rating for the Stormbox 2.
That’s a shame as you really do want an outdoor speaker to be dustproof otherwise I’d be hesitant to take it down the beach or similar places! As a plus for the Stormbox 2 though, it can float whilst the Flip 6 sinks! So if you’re going to be taking a speaker out on a boat, unless you want to be swimming to the bottom of the ocean to pick this up, the Stormbox 2 is a better option.
Connectivity
Both speakers support multipoint. So they can be connected to two devices at the same time. However neither of these have a mic so I’m not too sure how useful that is. Unless you’ve got two people wanting to fight over which playlist they want to be playing on the speaker!
They also both support stereo pairing. This enables you to pair two speakers to get true stereo sound. The Flip 6 however also supports JBLs Partyboost feature. So you can pair it with up to 100 other Partyboost speakers, such as another Flip 6 or Charge 5, and then play the same music from them all at the same time. That’s something that the Stormbox 2 can’t do.
One thing that the Stormbox 2 has that the Flip 6 doesn’t though, and that’s an Aux-in port. This allows you to connect the speaker to a wired audio source over a 3.5mm cable. This is a feature not often found in speakers anymore.
Battery Life
Whilst the Flip 6 has 12 hours of battery life , which is pretty good, the Stormbox 2 blows this out of the water with a battery life of 24 hours! That certainly helps explain why the Stormbox 2 is the heavier speaker. 24 hours of battery life in a speaker this size is insane. The downside is that it takes 4 hours for the speaker to charge from zero to full. Whereas the Flip 6 will charge in 2.5 hours. Still, with 24 hours of battery life, you’re not going to need to charge it that often.
The Sound
Both of these speakers comes with two drivers, and have similar volumes as well. The configuration, design, and how they sound though couldn’t be more different.
The JBL Flip 6 comes with an 80mm woofer, dedicated to the lower frequencies, and a 16mm tweeter dedicated to the higher frequencies. There are also two passive radiators on either side, and with a maximum volume of 30w, this can go pretty loud.
That dedicated woofer helps the Flip 6 suppport a wider frequency range of 63Hz to 20kHz. Combine that with a max volume rating of 30w and you have a speaker that can go pretty loud, and low, for it’s size.
The Stormbox 2 come equipped with two 48mm full range drivers, and two passive radiators on either side. There’s no dedicated woofer here. This results in a lower frequency range of 80Hz to 20kHz. That is still lower than a number of other portable speakers on offer though, just not as low as the Flip 6. The maximum volume of this speaker is 34w. So it is a little bit louder than the Flip 6, at least on paper.
In tests, the Flip 6 definitely sounded the bassier out of the two. That’s no real surprise given its dedicated woofer. However, you are only getting mono sound from this speaker. It’s also a very directional sounding speaker and so sounds its best when you’re sitting right in front of it.
Conversely, the Stormbox 2 had slightly less bass but has a larger room filling sound thanks it’s 360° sound. This meant that it didn’t matter where you placed the speaker, it still sounded good.
Both these speakers, from a volume perspective, are easily going to fill a room. I wouldn’t recommend pushing either to maximum volume though. At high volumees the sound on both starts to compress and thin out. The sound just doesn’t sound good at max volume. I find that’s the same for most speakers. At low to medium volume these sound good. If you want a louder sound, get a bigger speaker.
Mobile App Support
Both speakers offer mobile app support with which you can get firmware updates and change the EQ to change how they sound. There’s only a 3-band graphic EQ for the Flip 6 though so you don’t have too much control over how it sounds. The Stormbox 2 provdes more options though with six different EQ presets, and a 9-band custom EQ. So you can definitely customize the Stormbox 2 more on how it sounds.
Verdict
So which should you buy?
Well the $130 JBL Flip 6 sounds bassier, with more detail in the sound thanks to its separate woofer and tweeter. It does however sound quite narrow and doesn’t provide room filling sound as well as the Stormbox 2. Neither does it have as good a battery life.
Neither are bad speakers, but the Stormbox 2, at only $60, represents fantastic value for money.
