But the Rider isn’t just loud—it’s clear. Across all volume ranges, it sounds great. While it can produce big bass, it isn’t overpowering in the mix. The sound profile matches the speaker’s understated, PA-style aesthetic—clear, strong, and detailed.
The speaker can output up to 118 dB SPL. That’s well within painful levels, and similar to a rock concert. I’m honestly not sure when or where I’d need to push out that much audio, but if you ever do, the Rider is game.
Fine Tuning
Video: Harry Rabinowitz
Video: Harry Rabinowitz
The app is similarly streamlined and unfussy. You can control basically every speaker function remotely, including volume, sound profiles, EQ modes, and even turning it off.
Connecting, however, was a little finicky. I had to pair, unpair, re-pair, power off, and power on a few times before the app and speaker would actually start talking to each other. That was even more irritating because, after a firmware update, the app told me to forget the speaker and re-pair all over again. I’ve tested hundreds of wireless audio gadgets—Bluetooth connectivity issues with brand-new products are less surprising than you might think and often get sorted out within a month or two of software updates. Still, it made the whole experience feel decidedly less premium than the Rider’s $600 price might suggest.
Is It Overkill?
The Soundboks Rider is an excellent speaker. In terms of loudness, durability, and battery life, it runs circles around most of the competition, including larger party-slash-karaoke speakers like the Sony Tower 5 and JBL PartyBox Club 120.
But as a larger, portable Bluetooth speaker meant to stand all on its own, it’s a bit niche, especially for $600. I do think it’s overkill for a lot of people—I can’t think of many folks in my life who need this combination of loud and bombproof in their speaker. You can also get plenty of portable Bluetooth speakers for less (the aforementioned $500 Sony ULT Field 7 and $330 JBL PartyBox Encore Essential 2 come to mind) that might do the job just fine.
Soundboks says this is a portable party speaker built for spontaneity and outdoor adventure. For my spontaneous adventures, the Rider is overkill. But if your adventures include a lot more people (and a lot more space) than mine, it might be the perfect fit—big enough to bring to any party and durable enough that you never have to worry about it.
