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JBL Flip 7
Club JBL London - 2025 Lineup Jurjen Amsterdam Interview
Harman Lifestyle Audio's director of product marketing EMEA talks us through the new or improved features the JBL Tour One M3, Flip 7, Charge 6, PartyBox Encore 2, and PartyBox 520 bring to the table, together with some insight on the use on AI in audio and what may come in the future from the manufacturer.
Audio transcription
"Hi friends, I'm at the Club JBL London. Party slash event slash, you know, reveal for your new product line-up for 2025. We already knew about the Tour One M3 from CES. Thank you so much for joining us, Jurjen. I want to ask you about that one first. We knew about it, but then we got to try it out today. It sounds fantastically. So what can you tell me makes it so different or so, you know, so revamped coming from the M2? There's a couple of things. First of all, what we did, it's a third generation, right? Third generation of a product. We improved, we improved. We're using new drivers. We're using 40mm mica drivers for the first time, which are extremely light. So they improved a lot the mid and the high frequencies. We're not only putting new technology inside, it's also a lot about the comfort level. So previously, the clamping force, super important, because the first time you put these ones on, you already feel, let's say, the passive, the passive noise reduction. Then when you switch on the active noise cancelling, then you really feel like you're in your own comfort zone. You're in your own, like, this is me, your me time. So what we wanted to do is more and more drive a premium and develop more and more a premium headphone using the right materials, using the right functionality. We're adding no less than ten microphones. If you want to become the number one in premium headphones, you need to concentrate on noise cancelling. So ten mics in here, eight on the outside, two on the inside. Continuously measure the surrounding signal and make sure that it's being cancelled out so that when you put these on, when you're in the plane, you don't hear the crying baby, you don't hear any of the announcements anymore."
"So that's what we really want to do, but we want to go one step further, because you want to become a market leader in this area, you need to innovate. And you may recall the Tour Pro 3, the in-ear version that we launched last year, your favorite, where we were the first ones to introduce a screen on the charging case."
"And we said, what if, what if we do the same with this one? Because a lot of people have a lot of devices that are continuously connected to, you're connected to your PC for Zoom calls or for any business calls.
And they don't talk to each other, right?
Exactly, you're connected to a phone, you're connected to a tablet."
"Yeah.
But when you are connected to so many devices, sometimes you're late for a Zoom call, you open your PC, you need to connect your stuff, it's connected to something else. So what we did is, we also deliver a transmitter with this headphone. A couple of use cases. This one is always connected to this one. So I can cable connect this to any device that I want, to always be able to seamlessly connect to my devices."
"So I connect it to your tablet, connect it to your phone, to your PC, to your TV.
Auracast.
Or Auracast, I'll get to it in a bit."
"All right.
And also long-haul flights. This one, you can connect to the in-flight entertainment system.
Okay.
You connect the little transmitter to the in-flight entertainment system by mini USB or the 3.5 millimeter."
"Mini jack.
Mini jack. This then transmits the signal wirelessly to your headphone. So no more cable clutter, no more when you're in a long-haul flight, you turn your head with your arm around with the cable. All of that is gone. So complete freedom, high quality audio. We put in 360 audio. We also put in head tracking. So when you move your head, the audio really moves with you."
"So it's really a power-packed, feature-packed, high-quality, noise cancelling headphone. Two versions. So we offer one version, just a headphone.
Yeah, which is Bluetooth already and you can connect over USB-C.
And then the second version with the transmitter included."
"Exactly. Three different colors. Of course, we do black. We also have this champagne mocha color with a very nice blue, a matte blue color, which I think is going to sell extremely well as well. You said mocha, but the drivers are actually made of mica, which is another new feature. And of course, there's some new improvements with AI, et cetera, which also you have on the new speakers."
"So we've taken a look at the Flip 7 and the Charge 6. This is getting loud.
This is JBL. JBL, we're JBL. We didn't expect otherwise.
So both the Flip 7 and the Charge 6 are using the AI Boost.
We're using more and more AI, simply because in previous generations of a Charge or a Flip, like the Flip 6 and all of the previous ones, there was always a limiter inside."
"And that limiter was making sure just that when you play too loud, it said, hey, I can't play that loud. I don't want to distort.
So what we now implemented in both the Flip as well as the Charge is the AI Sound Boost, which is literally something similar that we do in headphones, continually measure."
"So any incoming signal, we're continuously measuring it.
The AI knows what's coming next, what signal is coming next.
So when you know that for a certain time, you can actually unleash much more energy because you know if there's going to be a big drum."
"You also know that after that drum, you need less energy.
So literally the AI Sound Boost helps us to really use the speaker to its best without needing a limiter. So we know the incoming signal.
We know what are the signals that are coming next."
"And we're using that AI by continuously measuring the incoming signal and say, okay, there's going to be a passage for which I need a little bit more energy.
I have the energy because after that, I need less energy.
So that is one."
"It's like predicting.
Yeah, it's exactly. We know. We know what's coming.
And that's why we can use the drivers to its best.
So that is one of the AI features that we have built in."
"We're also using another little feature of AI that helps extend the battery life.
So when you're outside, you don't necessarily always need heavy bass.
These have a 14-hour lifetime.
But sometimes when you get towards the end, you're not home yet."
"You want to continue to party.
The other AI function that we have helps us to, say, reduce the bass a little bit, increase a little bit the mids and the high frequencies that take less energy.
And then you get two hours extra playtime."
"So from 14 hours, you get all the way to 16 hours.
Yeah, those are interesting AI uses.
Because when you think AI and sound, normally you automatically think about noise cancelling or Stems."
"Yeah, I know.
But those are smart uses for smaller speakers.
There are smart uses.
I think we're only at the start of what AI can really do."
"A lot of people talk about AI and what it can do in communication.
No, there's a lot more that you can do with AI.
But that's for the next generations.
Of course."
"But all the improvements don't have to be super techy.
Don't have to be computer-based.
Oh, we're also looking at how people, You know, From the Xtreme 2 with the bottle opener."
"I love how you guys think about the physical solutions.
And both the Flip 7 and the Chart 6 have new features that, There's a little bit of a new design.
New ways to sort of carry them with you."
"And to release the...
What goes into this? How do you study...
A lot of research to study the audience.
Yeah, we study the audience."
"We have a very big design team.
They're based in China.
But there's 30 different nationalities that look at how people interact.
How do people carry a product with them."
"And the Flip is relatively easy to carry around.
But the minute you get to a Charge and you have smaller hands, it becomes a little bit more complicated to carry.
So the previous versions of this one, they had an integrated band."
"Which a lot of people actually didn't really want.
But it was difficult to detach.
So what we actually came up with now, not just one, but two different ways."
"Two modes.
So either you can take the carabiner.
It easily clips.
Not sure if you can see that on the camera.
Easily clips."
"And then you can hook it up to your backpack.
Hook it up to whatever you want.
You can easily release it with one press.
And then we also have the normal, regular bracelet."
"Typical.
That you tip in.
And then you carry it around with you.
Like this.
So it's these little things that add to, Yeah, how do I carry the product?
How do I carry the product with me?
If we look at the Charge, the Charge was always a product that came without a handle."
"So it's relatively big.
What we did this time is we really looked at handbags.
A lot of the big brands, the famous brands, the Louis Vuitton, they always have a big logo."
"People are proud to carry that.
We do the same.
We do the same since a couple of years.
We're using the big JBL logo.
With the horn."
"With the horn in it.
Which now also comes...
There's two ways of carrying this.
Either it's handbag style.
You can also unleash this side of it."
"Which is like a button of a shirt.
Yeah, so literally you can take this one off.
And then you put this one on here.
So that you actually carry it with you like this."
"This offers also additional opportunities for us.
Because this part is relatively easy to be personalized.
So you can very well imagine that if we do a specific festival.
Or if we want to tailor make this."
"This is something that you can decide how you would like to have it.
You can potentially order it online.
And it really becomes your own portable speaker.
Other than that, the features that we just mentioned."
"So the AI is on the same.
I'm looking forward to listening to them.
Because of course today...
It's a bit noisy.
We can listen to the Tour One M3, but not to this one."
"But we are listening in the background to the new PartyBoxes.
You have two new PartyBoxes.
One of them is the...
I'll start with the small one."
"The PartyBox Encore 2.
Encore 2 is just...
It's the successor of...
It's a cube.
It's a cube, but it's less a cube."
"The original version was really a cube.
This one, the new Encore 2.
Really follows the design language that we started with the Partybox.
The second generation."
"So a little bit more compact.
Using the big JBL logo as well.
So people can show off.
It has a new light show.
It has more power."
"It has IPX4.
It has a handle that is now really nicely positioned.
That when you carry it.
You can really easily carry it with you."
"It has this tipping point.
This automatic tipping point.
So that's a straightforward one-to-one replacement of what we already have.
We also saw through research."
"And specifically from some of the countries in the Nordic area.
That they were looking for a Partybox that had more power.
But that was battery-driven at the same time.
So at the current range."
"You have the Partybox 120 to 320.
They come with built-in batteries.
But above that.
The 720.
The alternate."
"So you needed a middle step.
Yeah.
The 710 is great.
But it's too heavy.
And you can't really drive that on battery."
"So we said we need to come up with something in between.
So that's why we developed the new Partybox 520.
In between the 320 and the 710.
400 watts of power."
"New design.
A little bit more bulky.
A little bit more powerful.
When you look at it.
That's a powerful speaker."
"And the great thing is.
Made out of recycled plastics.
Because we are the brand.
The market leader in this area.
We need to give a good example."
"There's a lot of new European guidelines coming on.
That say.
You need to use.
You need to try to limit as much as possible."
"The raw material.
And also with the batteries.
And also with the batteries.
This was introduced, if I'm correct, last year, that you were, from then on, you were introducing like removable batteries."
"We have removable batteries for the smaller PartyBox, for the 320, for the 120, the Xtreme 4.
So you're sort of taking that in a smart way.
Like I have to, I have to do it anyway.
We have to do it because of the EU, but now I'm including one, but you can buy a second battery."
"So it's 15 hours.
It's 15 hours. It depends on, yeah, it depends a little bit on which product.
What we try to do is do a smart way and say, we have three battery sizes, a two-cell, a four-cell and a six-cell.
All right."
"The two-cell is used in various products.
Yeah, such as this one that we just mentioned is a two-cell, right?
The PartyBox, the small one, the Encore 2, the 320 has a four-cell, and the 520 goes to a six-cell.
And you can buy a second one."
"And you can buy a second one, just to double the party lifetime.
For an Extreme, for instance, yeah, double the party.
For an Extreme 4, it's more used towards the end of the life cycle of the product.
After four or five years, you buy a new battery, then you can use the product for another five years."
"All right.
For PartyBoxes, it's more to add another 15 hours to the party.
Okay, okay.
Well, that's the product lineup.
So final question is, I've seen your CTO commenting on what's next or what, how the future could be for sound."
"How do you, as JBL, think we're going to be listening to music in, let's not say 10 years, but perhaps next year, next couple of years, what are you guys cooking?
That's a tough question.
Okay."
"Because, of course, we know what we're working on, which I cannot say to you yet, but I will discuss about it next year, perhaps later in the party.
No, not even, not even.
I think for us, if you're a market leader in a certain category in PartyBoxes, in portable audio, we need to continue to innovate."
"So you've seen that from the past.
We started with IPX4, then it became IPX5, IPX6, 67, now it's 68.
We need to make sure that we continue to innovate, continue to look at market data, continue to look at how do people really use our products?
Is there a gap in the portfolio?
What else can AI do for us?
What can we add?
We also don't want to add too much AI because for a lot of people, AI is a scary thought."
"We use it to our benefit, but some people say, yeah, AI, I don't want to talk too much about it.
So we started with battery life for six hours, then it became eight hours, then it became 20, then it became 24.
How much battery life do you need to have?
So I think we've reached that level."
"Of course, as JBL, we want to continue to improve the audio performance.
We always also want to make sure that we keep the retail price stable.
So we always, for the same retail price, we try to offer more features, more power.
So yeah, it's a tough question."
"We see Wi-Fi, we see Bluetooth.
We see that Bluetooth is more and more converging to do a lot of things.
The new Immerse Audio format. We'll see many things.
Exactly, exactly."
"It depends also on the streaming services.
We're waiting for some of the streaming services to go high definition.
What does that mean for us in terms of product development?
All right, all right."
"We, of course, we're also very strong in the automotive.
So in automotive, we're talking to a lot of the car manufacturers that sometimes come to us and say, what do I need to add into the car in five years from now?
We don't know."
"We don't even know yet what we need to do in two years from now.
So it's a very interesting question.
But yeah, it depends on a lot of smart people in the organization.
Next, Club JBL Berlin, London."
"Next, Club JBL Spain in Madrid or Barcelona, you tell me.
It could be Madrid, it could be Paris, it could be anywhere.
But yeah, as you see, you see a lot of happy faces here tonight.
I definitely am looking forward to doing this again."
"All right.
Me too.
Thanks a lot for your time.
You're welcome.
It's been lovely."
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