Our verdict
Two years ago, we tested Soundboks, a success story involving three Danish youngsters who needed a party speaker for the Roskilde Festival. They found none, so they built their own and launched it at Kickstarter, where it met with success. Now they’re back with an even more gruesome successor. Like its predecessor, it is designed to be used for festivals, and is thus built like an armoured vehicle. It can handle huge fluctuations in temperature, falling to the ground and having beer spilt on it. Despite its size and weight, two people can easily carry it around by its sturdy handles.
However, this is an unmitigated blaster that has no special features. You can stream music with Bluetooth or connect it using an Aux cable. That’s all. On the other hand, one can now choose whether to play indoors or outdoors, so that the speaker can be used all year round. The bass amplification can be muffled, and sound can be adjusted to more acceptable levels. The battery is more powerful and now also displays the charge level. At the highest volume, Soundboks 2 plays an impressive 40 hours, and for 100 hours without earbuds! You can also bring along extra batteries if that’s not enough.
Sound pressure and bass
We already described the predecessor as “a box of Danish dynamite”, and now the boys have increased the volume resources by 40 percent. This implies that it goes up to a rather outrageous 122 dB! It’s like standing in the front row at a rock concert, which guarantees sore ears. The volume control goes quite literally to 11! There is nothing magical about this either. It has a 3 x 72 watt Class D amplifier as well as double 10 inch drivers. Thus, it plays not only loud, but also cleanly and effortlessly. That’s why one is eager to break loose with some raw rock tunes and dance away to electronic dance music in front of Soundboks. You might end up with a nosebleed, but up until that point, everything is cool.
Conclusion
If you want to arrange a separate party for the festival’s camping grounds, there is nothing better suited than Soundboks 2. The speaker can handle rough treatment, unpleasant temperatures and be showered in beer. It is certainly not lightweight, but two people can easily carry it by its handles.these are also the only party speakers in the size class that have a battery that can last for several days. And if you have a spare battery, you can pretty much carry on infinitely. But above all, it plays insanely loud and has a bass that can make your clothes flutter. This doesn’t mean, however, that it sounds bad; Soundboks has enough horsepower to keep control of the music as well.
