- JBL’s dual BandBox speakers are designed for instruments and mics
- AI stem separation so you can play with your favorites
- $249 / £199 for BandBox Solo; $599 / £549 for BandBox Trio
JBL has introduced two new portable speakers and practice amps that solve a common musical problem: finding other musicians to practice and perform with. The new BandBox Solo and BandBox Trio feature an AI-powered system that should let you play guitar with Geese, rock with Rammstein, or, uh, play trumpet with Taylor Swift. Although, as JBL is at pains to point out, the features are intended for non-commercial purposes only.
It’s all about the stems. Stems are the individual tracks that make up a recording – the drum tracks, guitar track, lead vocals, etc. – and BandBox speakers can separate and adjust these stems from your playing music through the power of AI.
This means you can mute or isolate specific stems to play or sing with the band, or mute the rest of the band so you can hear a little more clearly when you’re trying to learn it.
Stem separation has been available in digital music applications for a while now, but stem separation live in an amp/speaker is really quite clever and could be genuinely useful for anyone learning new music. And the larger speaker could be very handy for bands who want to rehearse or play live without having to shell out for a sound system.
I think they’re fascinating, not only because they contain the kind of technology I would have killed for as a teenage guitarist, but because they combine JBL’s two worlds: although many people know him for making the best Bluetooth speakers and many legendary hi-fi speakers, he also helped shape the sound of rock’n’roll in Fender guitar amps of the 1960s, and was a major player (for so to speak) in recorded and live music for decades.
JBL BandBox Solo and BandBox Trio: main features and prices
The BandBox Solo is a wireless Bluetooth speaker that produces 18W of power and promises zero distortion (unless you play with a distortion pedal), and it comes with a selection of instrument effects, including classic amplifier sounds and pedals including chorus, reverb, tremolo and phaser. There’s even a looper so you can play along with your own playing, and of course there’s a tuner too.
There are more musician-friendly features, including a built-in metronome to keep time and a detuner that can make songs easier to sing or guitar parts easier to play. And you can connect the speaker to your laptop to capture performances on your favorite digital audio workstation.
As the name suggests, the BandBox Trio is designed for multiple musicians – although there are four inputs, not the three you might expect. It’s a larger, wedge-shaped speaker, and it’s much more powerful: 135 W. It’s designed for solo use but can be connected to other speakers for even more power.
The BandBox Trio has the same AI and effects as its little brother, but also adds a four-channel mixer and drum machine. JBL offers this one for small bands, open mics, and other multi-musician setups where you don’t want to lug around pedal boards and PA systems, and it comes with a replaceable battery that provides up to 10 hours of playing time.
The BandBox Solo costs $249.99 / £199.99 (around AU$395) and the BandBox Trio costs /$599.95 / £549.99 (around AU$1,085). Both models will be available from February 2026.
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