CES 2017

First, let’s make sure everyone knows who Franz Mesmer was. Ok – good. Now, let’s consider the JBL Pulse 3. I wanted to post a video of the Pulse 3 in action, but S&V’s crack legal staff wouldn’t permit it. It’s just too darn mesmerizing, and hence poses a liability issue for the magazine. Instead, you’ll have to be content with a photo, and my wholly inadequate description.

Frankly, I am not really a big fan of speakers with colored lights. They are just too easy to make fun of, and I am a sucker for a cheap shot. But, I must confess, JBL’s Pulse 3 looks pretty cool. The light display surrounding the cabinet has a kind of seamless, flamelike effect. You know how fascinating it is to stare into a lighted fireplace? Same thing here.

The Pulse 3 is said to be completely revamped from earlier versions. In this case, this IPX7 waterproof Bluetooth speaker provides 360-degree sound from its bottom portion, and a LED lightshow from above. Battery life provides up to 12 hours of audio/lightshow time. The sonics are provided by three drivers and dual passive radiators. You also get a noise and echo-cancelling speakerphone functionality.

You can connect up to 2 phones or tablets. In keeping with the times, you’ll find that it’s easy to stream music to the Pulse 3 from your phone or tablet, and with JBL’s Voice Assistant Integration feature you can control things with voice commands.

Just for fun, the Pulse 3 has JBL’s Connect+ technology onboard; this lets you customize the light show. Also, the downloadable Connect+ app lets users connect more than 100 Connect+ enabled speakers; surely it would be the wildest dream of the Harman sales department if you purchased 100 Pulse 3’s to test this claim. I, for one, could just not withstand that much mesmerizing. I’ll take their word for it.

The Pulse 3 will retail for $200, and will be available in the Spring.