Jawbone is a privately held audio technology company headquartered in CA, USA. This company founded in 2006 is a serious mover and shaker in the arena of developing and selling headsets, portable audio devices, including the popular Jambox and Big Jambox wireless speakers, the Jawbone Era and Icon Bluetooth headsets, and their NoiseAssassin technology. They own over 230 patents, and they have won a gaudy number of awards for such a young company, including three awards for Big Jambox. The so called established strong brands like Bose or Sonos better not sit back and be idle in the wireless speaker arena, because this wireless speaker is fantastic, read our review to see why we rate this as a must have product.
Portable or Bookshelf
Table of Contents
The sound is certainly good enough to be a bookshelf speaker, but given the playful look, fun attractive design, the many color options, and the fact it can be enjoyed without any wires at all, we say take it with you. It is a little to big for your purse or laptop bag, but Jawbone does sell a separate carrying bag for the Big Jambox.
Power Source/battery life
This speaker comes with a rechargeable built in lithium ion battery that delivers 15 hours of play time. The battery takes approximately 2.5 hours to recharge. The battery is charged using the supplied AC charger only, as the USB cable is only used for firmware upgrades. You cannot use the USB to charge your devices such as you smartphone.The speaker will turn itself off after 10 minutes of no Bluetooth pairing, on battery mode.
Wireless Standard Bluethooth
The specs say compatible with most Bluetooth 2.1 smartphones This is a very common version used by most smartphone manufacturers. The 2.1 version was built to be more secure, make pairing to devices easier, automatically, and it also allows for multiple connections at the same time.
This speaker will connect/pair to two devices at the same time but it will only play music from one, but if you pause the music on one device, the other device that is connected will play right away.There are currently say around 10-12 subscription music services: Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody, Slacker Radio, Beats Music, Napster to name a few and if you currently enjoy these on your devices, when you are paired up to the Big Jambox you can continue to enjoy your subscription.
Controls
On the top of the speaker and clearly visible are large rubber controls, six total for easy use. Facing the speaker from Left to right you have a circle button with a J stamped into it, that is the Jambox button that is used to check battery status, re-connect to a paired device if needed, and when pushed with + and – buttons will play an audio demo. That is for general use, it also has several uses when the speaker is being used as a speakerphone. It has a play/pause button, previous and a next button, volume up and a volume down button.
On the right side, from top to bottom are the power button & LED light a pairing button, the line in, the USB, and the DC power In.
Speakerphone
Type 1-compliant speakerphone is simply the technology that delivers excellent sound quality and enables noise free and echo free, crystal clear conversations that are as natural as being there.
Your conversations will come through clear and concise and the built in microphone should send the same quality back to who your chatting with.
The microphone is newly designed with a 360 degree omni directional input that combined with the Type 1-compliant technology should allow for a business environment quality.
So this allows for hands free phone calls as well as using this speaker on video chats such as Skype, Google Hangouts or Facetime.
Note: Your speaker is paired with the device you are having a video chat with.
The controls are the Jambox button, press to answer or end a call. Hold this button to activate voicedial/dial Apps Switch between calls press Jambox button End call, answer incoming press x2
mute/unmute microphone press play/pause buttons Redial last number press Jambox button 2x
Do you have an iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or Windows phone with voice functions? Voice Control is a dial app that optimizes the experience of using Siri, Voice Actions, and other voice applications on your phone with your Jambox. Available now for free at MyTalk.
Ease of Set-up
Very Easy you simply download the latest software, features and apps at mytalk.jawbone.com
The Apps also include one for iOS. The Apps are easy to use and one of the features allows for you to personalize the voice on the speaker, this voice tells you things like battery life and caller ID.
When turned on for the first time Big Jambox will automatically go into pair mode. To pair you go to the Bluetooth settings on your smartphon, tablet, computer or device and connect to to Big Jambox by Jawbone . Enter 0000 if asks for passcode. You press the pairing button untill the LED flashes red & white, just a few seconds.
If you are going to plug & play with the 3.5 audio jack, that is simple as well, simply connect to any device with the headphone jack or line out using the enclosed 3.5 mm audio cable. With the cable though you control play/pause and previous/next with your device not the speaker controls.
Stereo Separation
Stereo separation is merely the separation of sounds through a right and left speaker. When listening to a performance you may hear the drums through the right speaker and the guitar from the left speaker, this separation mimics the spatial separation within the studio where the music is recorded. Yes you can enjoy stereo sound from this speaker, however is not as wide as speakers that are separate of course.
This speaker does enjoy a LiveAudio Feature though, see below.
Wireless Range
Bluetooth is listed at 30’ however some have said this unit has a range of 40-50’.
Big Jambox Design
The design is one of the things that undoubtably has this speaker flying off the shelves. You can get up to nine solid colors, or you can get a unit with one on the 9 colors in the grill, mixed with one of 13 colors on the cap ends and the buttons on top. You could do school colors or favorite team color combos if you wish. The wire grill has a slight corrugated design, which gives it a three dimensional look that matches the sound. The speaker feels dense and solid. The speaker also has eight rubber non skid pads on the bottom to prevent scratching or to keep this from vibrating across the table perhaps.
The manufacturer is pretty quiet about what is inside the box, only revealing in the spec sheet that the speaker comes with a pair of proprietary drivers for stereo, and they are backed with proprietary dual passive bass radiators.
A speaker driver is an individual transducer that converts electrical energy to sound waves, typically as part of a loudspeaker….not going to speculate only to say whatever they are using they deliver crisp, clear sound.
A Bass Radiator, which is a simple device that increases the low frequency response (Bass) of a speaker system. When used properly, a passive radiator can give a speaker system the comparable performance characteristics of a much larger system and that is very evident with these.
Sound Quality
This can be used in a party, it is loud and not easily talked over. It does have surprisingly loud, clear sound. The Bass and Treble work great together and you might be hard pressed to have a need to turn this all the way up.
The LiveAudio even enhances the listening experience even more.
You will be using this speaker to be your sound source playing games on your device, watching movies or videos, and of course listening to your music mainly because it does such an impressive job.
Dimensions
Length 10’ Width 3.1” Height 3.6” Weight 2.7 lbs
Big Jambox Features
LiveAudio Sound:
Live Audio is a feature that enhances the sounds of your movies, games, and music. When the recordings are heard they have a right and left channel and the distinction is clearly heard with headphones. When you listen to two speakers as the sound waves from each mix together you get crosstalk.
LiveAudio playback eliminates crosstalk and you experience a bigger, more detailed sound experience.
This sound experience works best with LiveAudio recordings, but it can also improve traditional stereo recordings, especially movies and games.
Below are some neat examples of what LiveAudio Sounds like, simply listen to these with your headphones, and experience this 3D like immersive sound.
Video Game
Music in LiveAudio
Movie/Real life sounds
It should be noted that this feature works best when the Big Jambox speaker is at ear level and right in front of you, and you will feel immersed in the music, of course some music does sound better than others. The max volume is also a bit less when in this mode
One of the features of the Jawbone App is to access LiveAudio optimized music tracks and video. There is a limited number of tracks and genres that are recorded in LiveAudio, but some users like the feature and leave it on , some do not, seems like a personal preference.
Upgradeable Firmware:
This speaker is like a tiny computer that can be updated and some of the recent updates have been to tweak the pairing to make it better or to fix the glowing LED which really annoyed some users now dims after 10 seconds.
Portable:
This unit is durable, rugged, stylish and engineered to be on the move. So as you move, you can enjoy great sound on the go, wirelessly. So no matter what you are doing phone call, video chats, watching movies on your laptop, video games, listening to music…this unit is your big sound source.
Speakerphone:
This feature is just another big difference between Big Jambox and it’s competitors with similar size wireless speakers such as Sonos or Klipsch. With a push of a button you can have a hands free conversation, anywhere. Kids love to group text, with these they can group chat, when that is over they enjoy their favorite music.
Accessories
60” USB Cable 36” 3.5mm Stereo Cable Wall Charger Quick Start Guide
Pros
stylish, firmware updates, Impressive sound, Easy setup, easy to use controls, truly portable, rechargeable battery, LiveAudio, Easy to use Apps, speakerphone, can pair two devices
Cons
Cannot charge devices with USB wire, Once the lithium battery dies it is not replaceable, much the same way as in an ipod, or ipad, however it should last for years though.
Big Jambox Consumer Reviews
There are many hundreds of reviews and overall this Big Jambox gets near perfect reviews. There is a cool to hostile attitude towards the customer service folks at Jawbone, but the awesome customer service at Amazon more than makes up for it. Overall the satisfaction with the quality of the design and sound of music is very high.
Big Jambox Price
The sound quality of The Big Jambox as it compares to the Sonos PLAY:1, Klpisch KMC 3, or Bose SoundLink are pretty close. However the SoundLink III just took a big leap in sound quality. All are very good, great actually as the sound quality, pureness of the music at loud and soft volumes is impressive. These are small speakers that totally deliver. The greater differences among these brands are found in the various features and designs. The price for the Big Jambox is a competitive one, and the features and design make this a solid great choice. There are simply too many neat features/Pros’s packed in this little speaker to fret over the price.
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