Soundboks, a Danish company that started out by crowdfunding, says that it has built the world's loudest portable wireless loudspeaker, which it claims can deliver 126dBSPL.
When considering this measurement, it's worth noting that the company doesn't state the distance from the loudspeaker at which this sound pressure level was measured, nor the frequency at which it was measured, nor a bandwidth over which it might be delivered.
According to Forbes magazine, Hjalte Emilio Wieth, Jesper Theil Thomsen, Christoffer Nyvold and five of their friends built battery-powered speakers in a garage to satisfy orders ahead of the Roskilde music festival in 2015.
Afterwards they raised $870,000 on Kickstarter and $2.5 million from investors including Matthew Bellamy (Muse) and Tue Mantoni (a former CEO of Bang & Olufsen).
The latest '3' version of the Soundboks uses three Class-D amplifiers, each rated at 72-watts continuous per channel, to drive two 254mm bass/midrange drivers and a 25mm compression tweeter via a 2.5-way crossover.
The amplifiers (built by Merus Audio) are powered by a single 12.8V, 7.8Ah Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery that Soundboks claims will enable 40 hours of playback at mid-volume or five hours at full volume.
The company says the battery can be fully recharged in 3.5 hours. Extra plug-in battery packs are available so you don't have to waste time recharging. Bluetooth is 5.0 with Soundboks claiming "lower latency stereo performance" through the use of SKAA Audio's Pro SKAA circuitry.
“We have finally created the speaker we always wanted,” says Thomsen. “Over the past four years we’ve been integrating community feedback with the vision of the speaker we have always wanted to build; the result is the new Soundboks. We were very focused on creating an unmatched sound experience, wireless connectivity and battery life were critical for that."
Up to five individual Soundboks 3s can be interlinked, so there's a free app that allows you to specify whether a specific unit will handle the left or the right channel, or operate in mono. The app also allows you to equalise the sound to your own preference, or use one of Soundboks' own sound modes: Bass+, Power, or Indoor.
In addition to Bluetooth, there are two mic/line inputs (XLR, 6.35mm phone) and a 3.5mm stereo input. There is also a 3.5mm stereo output jack for physical linking to completely eliminate latency when operating multiple units.
Available now, the Soundboks 3 (also known as 'The New Soundboks') sells for £815, $999, AU$1599.
