JBL Cove X1 review

Imagine the premium wireless multi-room speaker market is a saloon from one of those classic spaghetti westerns. You’ve got Denon’s revamped Home 2 series leaning on the bar, Apple’s HomePod 2 and HomePod Mini playing a round of Three Card Monte, while Sonos’ Era 100 and Era 300 supremos menacingly spin their pistols as they eyeball prospective newcomers with a steely gaze.

Then, the wooden saloon doors swing open, and into the smoky scene steps JBL, armed to the teeth with its new three-strong Cove range. The talented titan has been the fastest gun in the West when it comes to its Award-winning range of portable Bluetooth speakers, but now it wants a slice of the multi-room treasure, starting with the flagship Cove X1 wireless speaker we have on test here.

Given its impressive portable pedigree and former multi-room experience with the now-defunct Link series and stylish Authentics range, JBL seemingly has what it takes to be the quickest draw in this particular shootout. On paper, at least.

Price

The JBL Cove X1 is priced at £430 / $450 / AU$650, making it the most premium member of the Cove range, eclipsing the £200 / $230 / AU$300 RRP of the Cove M1 and £400 / $400 / AU$600 tag of the Cove P1.

At this sort of money, you can scoop up the five-star Sonos Era 300 for £449 / $499 / AU$749 at the time of writing – though discounts will often drop this to around £349 / $399 / AU$649 – or get yourself the excellent HomePod 2 for £349 / $349 / AU$549 if you want a simple smart speaker and remain devoted to all things Apple.

Build & design

If you are familiar with JBL’s extensive portfolio of portable Bluetooth speakers, you’ll know that eye-grabbing colourways and funky style quirks are very much par for the course. Camo finishes, rubberised bumpers, even on-unit lighting for some newer-gen models – these are speakers designed to look as fun as they sound.

The Cove range does things differently. JBL says the new lineup is conceived to slot far more subtly into a domestic setting, hence the more utilitarian styling showcased by the X1 and its companions. Forget bright pinks and bold reds – black or white are the only finish options here.

The Cove X1, then, is not a particularly fun thing to look at, but considering that this is a speaker around the size of a small bread bin, it just about achieves its aim of fading into the background rather than drawing your attention like a fizzing sparkler atop a small cupcake.

At the top of the unit you’ll find a series of touch-capacitive controls, including volume, play/pause and Bluetooth pairing options, as well as a heart-shaped favourites icon for giving you quick access to a preferred playlist or range of soothing ambient sounds.

The small, subtle symbols do help to complement the deliberately understated aesthetic, but the lack of physical feedback does make for a less satisfying experience. Our test unit also lacks an auditory response straight out of the box, but you can adjust this by toggling on ‘Feedback Tone’ via the JBL One app.

Inside, the flagship Cove X1 houses a six-driver array, with 200 watts powering four 30mm tweeters – including one upfiring unit – alongside a pair of 9 x 12cm woofers to produce what JBL describes as an “ultra-wide sound with incredible detail” that, with the help of Constant Sound Field technology, “remains clear across the room”.

Encircling the entire speaker is a wraparound grille to facilitate that more omnidirectional sound, complemented by a smaller top-mounted grille under which sits one of the up-firing tweeters.

Features

The Cove range has been designed to be as user-friendly as possible, especially with regard to its multi-room capabilities, touting a flexible and expandable whole-home audio ecosystem powered by JBL's in-house platform and managed through the JBL One app.

In this regard, the X1 is a success. Our two review samples are easy to set up and get working, with both speakers requiring barely more than the push of a button to get hooked up to the wi-fi and grouped together in a stereo pair. Given how temperamental some wireless speakers (even five-star models from Sonos and Audio Pro) can be when it comes to connecting to the network and forming a cohesive pair or grouping, this is already a big plus.

You're not short on wireless streaming options. As well as being Roon Ready and offering Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity with standard SBC and AAC codecs, the Cove X1 grants support for AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and Qobuz Connect. Dolby Atmos spatial audio is also on the menu. Wired listening via USB-C, meanwhile, is only available to US buyers.

For hands-free voice control, Alexa Plus is baked into the X1 and, once you’ve linked the speaker to your Amazon account, ready and willing to do your bidding. Just be aware that Alexa is tied into its own limited ecosystem, so while you can request playback from services such as Amazon Music and Spotify – and ask the usual questions about the weather and the meaning of life – there’s no voice control for Tidal and Qobuz.

To help you get the most out of your multi-room system, JBL’s own 'Constant Sound Field' automatically tunes the speakers to their given environment, while 'AI Sound Boost' further aims to optimise performance based on where and how you listen.

Sound

Just as the Cove X1’s mature aesthetic is at odds with the usually-funky JBL recipe, so too does the new model’s sonic presentation deviate from the one with which we’ve become so accustomed from the likes of the Award-winning Xtreme 5, Charge 6 and Flip 7 Bluetooth portables.

Instead of trading on that musical, fun and expressive nature that has earned JBL a small truckload of Awards for its portable roster, the Cove X1 favours a more subdued sonic presentation, one that leans further into weighty robustness rather than fleet-footed joie de vie.

To an extent, such a presentation plays into the JBL’s hands, and thanks to its considerable power and its omnidirectional driver array, the Cove X1 has no problems filling our test rooms with its big, weighty sound. If you’ve got a reasonably large listening space and need something that will fill it without much fuss, the X1 could be a suitable candidate.

That room-filling sound is reasonably detailed, evidenced by the fullness it brings to the opening cascade of drums on Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter or the soft, rasping vocals of Lana Del Rey’s delivery on Born To Die. The levels of clarity we hear are equally acceptable, with few hints of cloudiness or muddiness acting as an impediment to our musical catalogue.

Sadly, the Cove X1’s surprisingly unexpressive personality robs our tracks of any attention-grabbing spark. The Cove X1 has a direct and upfront presentation, but so much of JBL’s signature punch and dynamism has been replaced by a sound that lacks the potency to set pulses racing or hearts aflame. Hans Zimmer’s Dune soundtrack has a weighty presence, yet the music’s soul sounds subdued by this oddly flat approach.

Dynamic swings don’t land with the intent that we crave, in part owing to the lack of precision that the Cove X1 exhibits whenever things get too technical. Rhythms don’t have the brisk agility that we seek, either, a deficiency that’s made all too clear when we find ourselves desperately willing Eminem’s propulsive The Way I Am to kick into gear.

What really surprises us is how unbalanced the Cove X1 can sound. Top-end notes often exhibit a hardness that distracts us from the rest of the frequencies, while complex arrangements don’t tie together as convincingly as they do when we switch to the Award-winning Sonos Era 300. The Era 300 may have a smaller sound, but there’s no question that it sounds more agile, cohesive and satisfying than its JBL contemporary.

We tinker with the in-app sound settings to see if we can inject more life into our sample speaker, but we realise that this is far more a quality issue than one stemming from unbalanced tonality.

The Era 300 completely outguns the Cove X1’s attempts at spatial audio, too. Ludwig Göransson’s Sirens from The Odyssey soundtrack soars when played through the Sonos, benefitting from an airy and atmospheric presentation that bewitches us as a Siren song should. The Cove X1, by contrast, falls flat, failing to grant the track the enthralling feeling of space and scale as conjured by the superb Sonos.

Verdict

It’s hard not to be disappointed by the JBL Cove X1. Given JBL’s success in the portable Bluetooth market and its propensity to produce products that are both fun to listen to and own, we thought that the X1 had everything it would take to make the likes of Sonos and Denon quake in their respective boots.

Sadly, the Cove X1 misses the mark. Its seamless ease of use and heavy feature set lay some very decent groundwork, but the speaker’s unconvincing sound means it fails to capitalise on what is a very solid foundation. For us, this feels like a major missed opportunity.

Review published: 16th October 2026

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Build 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Sonos Era 300

Also consider the Apple HomePod 2

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