JBL Authentics 300 Review

There are so many speakers out there, so it can be hard to decide, especially when you consider that most of them do the job they need to do. Well, JBL has made this decision a whole lot easier with the JBL Authentics range, purely from a style perspective. I took the JBL Authentics 300 for a spin, and I have been pretty blown away by it.

Old-school style that works in a modern house

The JBL Authentics 300 is a beautiful speaker that is a throwback to the style of radios and speakers from the 1970s. Initially, I wondered how this would look in a house these days, and my god, it looks beautiful on the kitchen bench.

The front is a beautiful foam grill pattern, the outside of the speaker has a faux-leather material, and it is all lined with nice metallic edges. I am genuinely surprised as I write this, but its style is actually timeless. Fans of That 70s Show will immediately recognise the style, but seriously, it looks so bloody good.

Yet it’s modern

The speaker, of course, has Bluetooth support. This means you can connect your devices to it and get your music on, but even that’s old tech these days. You can connect this beauty to your Wi-Fi to use it as a smart Speaker. Whether you want to demand that Alexa tell you if Robert Muldoon is still the PM or you need Hey Google to order your latest pair of flared trousers, you’re sorted.

This beauty connects to Wi-Fi quickly through the JBL app on your phone, and then it’s a matter of a few prompts to be in business. Then using things like Apple Airplay or Spotify Connect is so damn easy.

The speaker is clearly designed to be used wirelessly because, despite having an Ethernet port and a USB-C port, it comes with a power cable. Speaking of power cables, this beauty, of course, can run on its battery. It took me over three hours to fully charge it, and then I got a solid six to eight hours out of it. I will note, though, that it doesn’t have a waterproof rating and is quite a heavy beast.  In other words this may not be the speaker you take down to the beach, but it will be amazing in the house or in the backyard when you’re barbecuing.  

What about the sound?

Despite it not having Dolby Atmos, I was still happy with the quality of the sound the JBL Authentics 300 pumped out. Whether I was jamming metal tunes or listening to podcasts, the sound was incredibly crisp. Using the app on the phone, you can play with some of the sounds, like the equalizer, but even out of the box, it sounded fantastic.

I even cranked the sound to uncomfortable levels and still thought it sounded fantastic.

So should you get one?

The biggest kicker here is the speaker’s price. At $700, it is far from cheap. What you are getting here, though, is decent quality in a freaking gorgeous box. If you don’t want giant RGB flashing speakers that look like they were designed for a sci-fi movie, then this might be the speaker for you.

It will sit unassumingly in your house, off to the side, before you decide to blast your tunes, at which point it acts and sounds in every way like a fantastic modern speaker.

9.0 Hell Yeah!

It may not have the most features, but it is the most stylish speaker you can get.

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