Soundboks Mix Review: A Great Party Speaker
Courtesy of Soundboks $799 at Soundboks Save this story Save this story Rating: 8 /10 Soundboks is a company that puts performance above aesthetics.
The earliest models I tested were essentially big PA speakers with car batteries inside them.
They were unwieldy hunks of sound, but they did the job they were meant to do—play music insanely loudly in outdoor or off-grid indoor spaces.
Still, they weren’t something I’d typically recommend for your average backyard barbecue.
With its new Soundboks Mix, the Danish audio brand moves from targeting ravers and lifties to a set of normal folks who just want a durable, loud, outdoor Bluetooth speaker that is car-camping portable.
The Mix has massive battery life, is strong enough to last all year outside (as long as you cover it most of the time), and charges via USB-C.
It’s a surprisingly sophisticated and musical speaker, and things like replaceable batteries and the ability to pair multiple together make it a practical solution for folks who like to hold onto things a while.
A bouncy-cornered design and solid handles also make it a great option for people who tend to be physically rougher on gear.
The Mix doesn’t quite compare with the more distinctly PA-like models we feature in our Karaoke Gear Guide —largely in a good way when it comes to audio quality—but it also functions well outside the traditional Soundboks raver rabbit hole, and that actually makes this mono speaker one of my favorite large outdoor models of the moment.
Photograph: Parker Hall The hard-sided rectangle I've become familiar with from Soundboks hasn’t changed too much, but it has been upgraded with nice rubber balls on all eight corners, allowing the speaker to take some hilariously massive impacts without slamming into the ground very hard (see attached videos).
It also means that you get better isolation (and grip) from uneven or weird surfaces below the speaker itself, for improved overall sound.
In addition to the rubber balls, there's a nice physical interface on the side for adjusting volume and pairing multiple Mix speakers together if you have multiple on hand (I was only sent the single mono speaker).
Setup involves installing the Soundboks app , pairing to the speaker via Bluetooth on your phone, and picking whatever you want to play.
It’s all quick and painless, especially for my first-time pairing with a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra .
Otherwise, it’s all very pro audio.
