Soundboks Go vs Soundboks Gen 4: which one to rent for a boat or beach week
Same brand, same IP65 shell, same battery claim — and seven kilos between them. Which Soundboks is right for a charter, a beach day or a villa terrace, and when a Soundboks is the wrong speaker entirely.
Soundboks is the one brand people arrive already knowing. Nobody emails us asking what a Soundboks is — they ask whether they need the big one. Given the gap is €60 a day, that is a fair question.
The short answer is that the two are far more alike than the price suggests, and the thing that should decide it is not loudness. Here is the long answer.
The table
| Soundboks Go | Soundboks Gen 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Per day | €115 | €175 |
| Per week | €565 | €860 |
| Loudness | 121 dB SPL | 126 dB |
| Weight | 9.2kg | 16.1kg |
| Battery | ~40h | ~40h at mid volume (~6h at full) |
| Water and dust | IP65 (dust + spray) | IP65 (electronics) |
| Drivers | — | 2× 10" + 1" CD |
| Linking | — | Up to 5 units (TeamUp) |
| Inputs | 1/4" + 3.5mm + Bluetooth 5 | — |
| Refundable damage hold | €300 | €500 |
Two of those dashes are honest rather than decorative. Our catalogue records what each unit’s own spec sheet gives us, and the two sheets do not cover identical ground — so where we have nothing for one of them, we would rather show you a gap than a guess.
Start with the seven kilos, not the decibels
9.2kg against 16.1kg. On paper that is a rounding error. On a charter it is the whole decision.
Here is what those kilos actually have to survive on a Croatian week: down a passerelle at an angle, into a tender that is moving, off the tender onto rocks at a bay with no jetty, up from a beach across loose stones, then back again at 2am with everyone tired. The Go is a one-person carry for all of that and does not need a plan. The Gen 4 is a two-person lift the moment the ground stops being flat and dry, and on a tender transfer it is the thing someone has to be responsible for.
If your week is boat-based — Pakleni islands, a Hvar bay, an anchor-out night, anything involving a tender — the Go is the right rent and the money saved is not the reason. Weight is.
The Gen 4’s weight is fine when the speaker gets carried once, from a van to a terrace, and then stays there. That describes a villa, a rooftop, a fixed beach setup with vehicle access. It does not describe a sailing week.
Then the decibels
121 dB SPL against 126 dB. That looks like a small gap and it is not, because decibels are logarithmic — five of them at the top of the range is real headroom rather than a rounding difference.
But headroom is only worth paying for where it gets used, and that means outdoors. Inside, or on a walled terrace, every surface reflects and both of these have more than enough. On an open beach with wind coming off the water there is nothing to reflect and nothing to help you, and the Go’s ceiling arrives sooner. That is the scenario — open ground, no walls, past about forty people — where the Gen 4 earns its price and the Go starts being asked for more than it has.
The Gen 4 also has the only genuine capability difference between them: Up to 5 units (TeamUp). Two Gen 4s linked and placed at opposite ends of a deck or a lawn cover a space properly instead of blasting whoever stands nearest the one box. That is €350/day for the pair, and for a beach party of a hundred it is a better-sounding answer than any single speaker at any price.
Its driver arrangement is 2× 10" + 1" CD, which is what is doing that work.
The battery figure, read properly
Both units are quoted at around forty hours and both figures are true, but only one of the two spec sheets tells you the rest of the story. The Gen 4 is listed as ~40h at mid volume (~6h at full); the Go simply as ~40h.
So take the forty-hour number for what it is on either unit: a mid-volume figure. Run any battery speaker flat out and the runtime collapses — the Gen 4’s own sheet is candid enough to print both ends of that range, and we would assume the same shape applies to the Go even though its sheet does not spell it out. We are not going to invent a full-volume figure for the Go that its manufacturer has not published.
What this means practically: for a day on the water at conversational-to-lively volume, either one outlasts the day and the day after it. For a full-tilt beach party, plan on the short end of the range and ask us for the spare battery when you book. Both rentals ship with a swappable pack and charger.
Neither of them is a microphone speaker
This is the failure mode we see most, and it is worth being blunt about.
The Go’s inputs are 1/4" + 3.5mm + Bluetooth 5 — no combo XLR, so there is nowhere to put a proper microphone. If there is a toast on the boat, a speech at the villa dinner, or anyone MCing, a Soundboks is the wrong box regardless of which one you pick.
The Bose S1 Pro+ at €85/day is the answer there: 2x combo XLR/TRS, Bluetooth, 3.5mm, 11h of battery, 7.2kg. Plenty of charter bookings take a Soundboks for the music and a Bose for the speeches, and that is a sane way to spend the money rather than a failure of planning.
What to run into a Soundboks
The Go’s 1/4" + 3.5mm + Bluetooth 5 takes a jack directly, which makes one pairing genuinely special: the Denon Prime Go+ at €180/day is the only DJ controller we carry that runs on its own battery — ~4 hours of it, on a 7-inch HD touchscreen.
A controller on its own battery into a speaker on its own battery is a complete DJ setup with no mains anywhere in the chain. That is the rig that makes an anchor-out night or a beach at sunset actually possible, and it is the reason people book those parties at all.
When a Soundboks is the wrong rent entirely
- You want the party to look like a party. Both of these are black bricks with no lights. The JBL PartyBox 710 at €110/day has Built-in synced LED show, and the 310 vs 710 comparison picks between those two.
- There is mains where the party is. You are paying a premium for a battery you will not use. A villa terrace with sockets has cheaper and better-sounding options.
- The group is under twenty and the budget is real. The JBL EON ONE Compact at €65/day covers a small terrace and weighs 8kg.
- A speech, a ceremony, a dinner. See above — the Bose S1 Pro+.
The three-way battery speaker comparison puts the Gen 4 head to head against the Bose and the PartyBox if you are still deciding across brands rather than within one.
Money, lead time and getting it to you
A week is not seven day-rates. The Go is €565 for the week against €805 at the daily rate; the Gen 4 is €860 against €1225. Across a seven-night booking the difference between the two units is €295.
Refundable damage holds are €300 on the Go and €500 on the Gen 4 — charged with the rental, returned once the gear is back and working, actual repair cost only. How it works sets that out.
Both are on request rather than on the shelf, with a lead time of at least 5 days. In peak season that is the constraint that decides more bookings than price does, so if a Soundboks is what you want, ask early.
Delivery is one fee per booking: €100 doorstep in Split, €360 to Hvar with the ferry both ways, €440 to Pag and Zrće, €520 to Dubrovnik. Free pickup from our Split base if someone has a car. Choosing a base works through that.
The short version
Take the Go if it is going on a boat, if one person has to carry it, or if the crowd is under about forty. Which, for a Croatian charter week, is nearly always.
Take the Gen 4 if it gets carried once and stays put, the ground is open, and the crowd is big — and if it is genuinely big, take two and link them.
Take neither if anyone is making a speech, if the villa has mains, or if you wanted the speaker to have lights on it.
Send us the marina or villa address and your dates at /reserve/. We are dry hire: the gear turns up cabled and tested, we show whoever is responsible how to run it, and nobody stays to operate it.
— Party Rental Croatia
