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By Alex Harrington
Sports Contributing Writer
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Most portable speakers have a dirty secret: they list a battery figure measured at whisper-quiet volumes nobody actually uses, then die three hours into your tailgate. The Soundboks Mix, which launched on March 26 at $799, addresses that problem with some unusual honesty about what the numbers mean in practice.
Battery life is one of the more genuinely useful parts of this announcement because Soundboks talks about it with actual context. The company rates the included pack at up to 40 hours at mid-volume or around eight hours when the speaker is pushed to full output - and that difference matters, because it describes two completely different use cases.
Run it as a backyard soundtrack all afternoon and you're in all-day territory. Decide to wake the neighborhood and you're working with a long evening instead. Both are reasonable, and at least you know what you're getting.
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The battery itself uses lithium iron phosphate chemistry - the type generally chosen for stability and longevity rather than raw energy density. It's rated at 99.84Wh and can recharge in about two hours with the included charger. Importantly, it's also swappable, which means anyone planning to use the Mix regularly outdoors can simply carry a spare rather than hunt for an outlet mid-party.
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Soundboks also built in a 10-watt USB output, so the Mix can charge your phone while it plays.
Pretty considerate for a speaker whose main job is making things louder.
What the $799 Actually Buys You
The Mix reaches up to 121 dB of maximum output, which Soundboks claims is distortion-free. For reference, most portable Bluetooth speakers top out around 100 to 105 dB.
That headroom is genuinely useful outdoors, where sound dissipates fast and a speaker that's merely loud will sound thin past 20 feet.
The Mix uses the same rechargeable battery as the Soundboks 4. The speaker weighs 9.7 kg - a little over 21 pounds - which isn't featherweight but is manageable enough for one person to carry from the living room to the backyard or the parking lot before a game. It includes a carry handle and works with optional accessories like the brand's Strap 2.0 or Backpack, both sold separately.
It carries an IP65 rating, meaning it's fully dust-tight and resistant to water jets from any direction, though it's not designed for submersion.
Through the Soundboks app, you can adjust sound profiles, create custom equalizer settings, assign stereo roles, and manage the multi-speaker linking features. That system is called TeamUp, and it uses SKAA wireless technology rather than standard Bluetooth for the multi-speaker connection - designed to link speakers with less lag than typical Bluetooth chaining.
Soundboks says you can connect up to five compatible SKAA-enabled speakers, including the Soundboks 4, Soundboks Go, and Soundboks Mix.
The Mix sits between the compact Soundboks Go and the large flagship Soundboks 4, not only in terms of size but also in terms of performance. And Soundboks CEO Jesper Theil Thomsen argues the category has historically forced a binary choice: "The party speaker market has long been one-dimensional, forcing a choice between power and portability. With Soundboks Mix, we've eliminated that compromise," said Thomsen.
Whether it actually delivers on that in everyday use is something reviewers are still working through.
Even at 11 out of 11, the Mix sounded reasonably clear from both close up and about 30 feet away - though one reviewer noted it isn't the most impressive speaker in terms of pure fidelity, and you're not getting Sonos outside.
For a speaker being sold on volume, durability, and battery endurance rather than audiophile credentials, that's probably the right trade-off. At $799 - not including a battery charger, which adds another $59 - the Mix sits firmly at the premium end of the portable speaker market.
The price is exactly what you'd expect from a Danish audio brand that's never really competed on value. Pretty damn high.
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