JBL PartyBox Ultimate

The JBL PartyBox Ultimate is the largest speaker in JBL’s party range: a wheeled cabinet with a handle, lighting effects, microphone and guitar inputs, and enough output for an outdoor gathering.

It is not a hi-fi product and does not pretend to be. It is built for volume, durability and karaoke, and the AirPlay 2 support means it can also behave as a normal Wi-Fi speaker when the party is over.

What Apple Home actually does with it

This is an AirPlay 2 speaker rather than a HomeKit accessory.

• It appears in the Home app as a speaker you can play to, and as an AirPlay target in Control Centre.
• You can assign it to a room and group it with HomePods for synchronised multi-room audio.
• Siri can send music to it by room name.
• It can be the audio output in a scene or an automation.

You cannot switch it on or set its volume from the Home app the way you would a light. Those stay with the speaker itself and its own app.

Before you buy

Consider the size and the weight seriously. This is a piece of equipment you wheel, and it needs somewhere to live between uses.

Splash resistance is not the same as waterproofing on a speaker this size. Check the rating before leaving it outside.

For a portable speaker rather than a party system, the Boombox 3 or the Charge 5 are the sensible choices.

Specifications