JBL PartyBox Encore 2 vs Encore 1, no real upgrade in the sound

Encore lineup belongs to the JBL PartyBox series. Before knowing about the PartyBox Encore, I thought that the PartyBox speakers are big, tall, powerful and meant for parties. However, the PartyBox Encore makes it really interesting as it has a nice, cute and square-box kinda looks. It shares the PartyBox vibe but not tall and heavy like other PartyBox speakers, very good for small indoor parties. In 2025 JBL released their latest PartyBox Encore 2 and more budget oriented PartyBox Encore Essential 2 speakers. The Essential usually offer a very similar sound but doesn't come with other accessories like karaoke mics. In this article, I am going to do a deep dive to find out the upgrades in Encore 2 compared to Encore 1.

Both the Encore 2 and Encore 1 are 100 watts speaker. This kinda tells you that there will probably be no upgrade in terms of sound. A proper upgrade like in the Tribit Stormbox Blast 2 speaker, which has 110 watts of additional power on top of Blast 1's max-power rating. Both Encore speakers have a similar semi-stereo configuration. There are 2 tweeters and 1 big woofer on both speakers. So the tweeters play left and right channel separately but the single woofer can't play separate channel. So you can get a sense of stereo sound from the stereo tweeters, but the mids and lows will be always mono.

The big woofer is around 5.25 inch on both. The teardown of Encore 2 and teardown of Encore 1 show that the woofer's cone look slightly different form each other but their size is pretty similar. I think their power rating is also very very similar. However, the tweeters look significantly different on the new Encore 2 compared to the original Encore speaker. The old Encore 1 tweeters look like they have much bigger and heavy magnets. I think the new PartyBox Encore 2 tweeters have modern neodymium magnets, which is why they look much lighter and smaller but similar power. Both speakers are IPX4 splash proof. The new Encore 2 has Bluetooth 5.4 vs the old Encore 1's 5.1 Bluetooth version.

Even though look kinda similar from far away, there are many changes in terms of design. First, the Encore 2 has the new big bold JBL logo now. Then the new Encore 2 looks less boxy than the old Encore 1. PartyBox Encore 2 has an upward tilt design which is better for projecting the sound when the speaker is placed low in the ground. The soft handle feels much better now compared to previous hard plastic integrated handle. The button and control layouts have changed a bit. I really like the look of the new karaoke mics that come with Encore 2, but didn't like the old mics. There was too much orange on the old mics, looked kinda cheap. The build is pretty similar on both, which have a very decent quality but not any premium feel.

The official specs say that the PartyBox Encore 2 has a frequency response range from 40 Hz to 20 KHz vs the PartyBox Encore 1's 50 Hz to 20 KHz range, measured at -6 dB for both cases. By looking at the frequency response, at the same volume it looks like the new Encore 2 has around 2.5 dB boost in the deep bass but after normalizing to similar loudness the deep-bass advantage on the Encore 2 disappears. It looks like JBL is playing big tricks here because clearly there isn't any real hardware upgrade going on with the drivers. You are getting a bit more deep bass but also losing upper bass. This is just a bit of a different tuning using tricks. By the way, both have decent frequency response, but the new Encore 2's response doesn't look like a good upgrade.

The good thing about these speakers is the fact that they still play reasonably balanced even at maximum volume. It's not like smaller portable speakers where the bass limits after 80% volume. The bass increases linearly up to 100% volume on both the Encore 1 and Encore 2 speakers. From 20 to 80% volume, the Encore 2 has a deep bass advantage. The sound is slightly deeper and bassy with the PartyBox Encore 2. This is really hard to determine which one sounds better. They both sound very very similar and balanced. It is a very good sound on both speakers. You lose on upper bass slightly for a bit more deep bass on the Encore 2. This is like around 1 to 2 dB difference that we are talking about, slight difference not a significant difference.

The difference in sound is a bit more noticeable at higher volumes around maximum 100% volume. The PartyBox Encore 2 still holds on to a bit more deep bass around 50 Hz but on the flip side there is more reduction in the upper bass that you might hear the difference. However, the new PartyBox Encore 2 is slightly stronger across the upper mids and highs. This contributes to the Encore 2 sounding a bit louder at max volume. It's just around 1-LUFS louder than the old Encore 1. Real-world tracks show a slightly different result than absolute frequency response. With the default signature sound profile, PartyBox Encore 2 measures at -13.7 LUFS vs PartyBox Encore 1's -14.7 LUFS score - according to Alan Ross Reviews. Considering other profiles like deep and punch modes, the new PartyBox Encore 2 is around 1 to 1.5 LUFS louder at max volume.

But most of the time it's like you get a bit less upper bass but a bit more mids and highs with the new Encore 2 speaker. In real tracks, it's not clear that one speaker sounds better than the other. The slight loudness advantage that the Encore 2 has doesn't make it an upgrade over the old original Encore speaker. This is mostly just tinkering the sound - crazy tricks JBL is playing. However, both speakers have app and custom eq support. Encore 2 has a more advanced custom eq with more bands to play with. Overall, I think if the new PartyBox Encore 2 sounds slightly better, it's just because it sounds slightly louder at max, which gives it a bit more headroom to play with, but nowhere near an upgrade.

There are default, deep bass and punchy modes to play with. Deep bass mode gives you a 4-dB boost in the bass region around 150 Hz and below. Punchy mode provides boost in the upper bass. These modes sound significantly different from one another, which is a good thing in my opinion. But they don't offer much of any kind of thoughtful tuning. I think in a thoughtful scenario, the deep-bass mode should have bass extension in the sub-bass area, punchy mode should have more mid-bass punch. I am just glad that those modes just have enough difference to serve different purpose.

Both the Encore 2 and Encore 1 have similar battery capacity around 7.4 Volts 4722 mAh. But their design is different. The battery on the new PartyBox Encore 2 is removable and hot-swappable. You cannot easily swap or replace the battery on the old Encore 1. The new Encore 2's battery is called JBL Battery 200. They both can last around 10 hours at around average 50% volume with lights off. They take less than 3.5 hours to get fully charged. Don't get it twisted with the more budget Encore Essential speaker. That Essential version has a way smaller battery that provides around 6 hours of playtime.

Check out those articles from above, you can click on those linked images to read the articles. A while ago I published a review of the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G smartphone, check that out if you are into budget phones. In case you are interested in portable speakers, I compared 3 Boombox type speakers from 3 different brands such as Soundcore, Tribit and JBL. So don't forget to also check out that detailed comparison article about the JBL Boombox 3 vs Tribit Stormbox Blast vs Soundcore Boom 2 Plus.

Even though the design and construction have changed with the new PartyBox Encore 2 speaker, the power output still remains the same. In terms of sound quality, both the Encore 2 and Encore 1 sound pretty similar. The difference is just that the Encore 2 is around 1-LUFS louder at max volume. And at lower volumes the new Encore 2 has a slightly more deep bass than Encore 1. The difference is pretty small that it is not obvious about which one is better. It's marginal difference in terms of sound quality.

JBL is playing tricks here with the PartyBox Encore 2 by just tuning it slightly differently. They didn't make it sound more powerful by adding a bigger and better driver. The Encore 2 is nowhere near a proper upgrade. You don't need to worry about the new one sounding much better as it really doesn't. The price is very different in different countries. You can get the Encore 2 for $440, which is not that cheap. But in other countries it's like $100 less, which is very good value. Overall, the speaker has a very good balanced sound and also serves very good purpose for small party - I like this speaker.

Also, please check out the JBL Charge 6 vs Charge 5 story for highlights.
IF you're interested in mid-sized portable speakers, check my JBL Charge 6 vs Bose SoundLink Plus article. The JBL Charge 6 did better in the head-to-head comparison.