The Go 1 JBL Bluetooth speaker by Harman Kardon is a low power, hand-held tiny unit with still enough RMS watts to fill a small area around a table with decent sounding tunes.
But what do the watts a little wireless speaker has, tell us about how good it is? Firstly, the watt is a quantity of how much power the speaker requires and outputs. Plus, this measure is a telling comparison measure. Why? Because generally, speakers with more audio watts tend to play louder than those with less.
While they do cost more, have larger, heavier, and costlier batteries and chargers, along with bigger drivers and magnets, they nonetheless offer some big plusses. They have more dynamic range, a deeper bass response, and the models that play in stereo offer typically a bigger soundstage and better sound imaging to listeners.
Thus in general, the more powerful the speaker, the better it sounds, even at lower volume. You get improved clarity due to higher accuracy reproduction of the bass, midrange, and treble parts of the music. Plus, more reserve power likely means less clipping distortion too, even at higher volumes. So, the speaker’s max watts output is a primary indicator of its quality and performance. And as such, this value is of great interest to audiophiles and novice listeners alike.
In this case, the Go speaker, as a very small personal model, is surprisingly loud for its tiny size. Its two plus watts can fill a small room with clear and full music. See below for details on its power output.
JBL Go Watts Details
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- Battery Capacity: 2.7 watt-hours (3.7 volts, 730 milliamp-hours (mAh)).
- USB Charger Power: 5 watts (5 volts at 1 amp).
- Power Bank Output Power: Not available on this speaker.
- Play Time Per Recharge: Up to 5 hours.
- Total Audio Output Power on AC (RMS): 3.0 watts.
- Total Peak Audio Power: 4.24. watts.
- Output Power per Channel: 3.0 watts RMS (One channel in this speaker).
Notes on JBL Go Watts
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- This speaker may not input enough enough power from a low power USB AC adapter (under 5 watts capacity) to keep the battery from discharging when playing at full volume, depending on what you’re listening to. So it could happen that even with the Go 1 fed from external power, you could still see the music shut OFF abruptly. Thus on the (rare) times that this occurs, just stop playing the unit for an hour or so, to let it build up some reserve battery power while charging. Then, fire it up again for continued party enjoyment.
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References
Revision Log
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- 2022-08-27: First published.