Tribit StormBox Blast 2 Bluetooth Speaker Review: Bigger and Louder

Tribit is one of the more popular brands of Bluetooth speakers and headphones, typically delivering solid value and sound quality. They’ve got a huge range of devices, too, from tiny earbuds to massive speakers, and today we’re getting to check out one of those incredibly big, incredibly loud Bluetooth speakers.

The StormBox Blast 2 is an upgraded successor to the original StormBox Blast, offering massive sound to fill up your parties and gigantic, empty warehouses.

But is this massive speaker worth the price and losing the portability of your standard Bluetooth speakers? Let’s find out.

Commanding Design

It wouldn’t actually matter how Tribit designed the StormBox Blast 2, because the first thing you’re going to notice is that it’s just big. It won’t fit in a bag and it’s probably going to need its own seat when you travel, but that’s the point, right?

You’ve got a very large handle to help move the speaker around built right in the top, above a handful of large and easy to read buttons and indicators.

That row includes a battery indicator, power button, Bluetooth button, volume up/down and play/pause buttons, a toggle to change the LED lights on the speaker, and a sync button for linking up another StormBox Blast speaker for true stereo sound.

The dust flap on the back covers the charging port (you can use the included AC adapter or a USB C charger), a USB A output for charging other devices, an AUX input, and two microphone inputs for karaoke night. You’ll also get individual volume controls on those mic inputs, plus a reverb knob for fine-tuning. MicroSD card readers on speakers have somewhat fallen out of fashion, but that’s the only thing that seems to be missing here, and that’s a very small nitpick.

The front of the speaker is really where you get to show off. Tribit has tossed in quite a few LED lights that sync up with the music that’s playing, with light bars on each side of the speaker, plus smaller lights on the tweeters, drivers, and subwoofer underneath the speaker grille. The lights are reactive to music that’s playing, and you can tweak them a bit with the Tribit app.

Huge Sound

Alright, it’s a big speaker. It should sound big too, right?

Yeah, it’s loud. I won’t bore you with the wattages of the individual speakers, but Tribit says its a 200W speaker that hits over 100 decibels at full volume. You will not have an issue filling up even the largest room with this speaker, or forcing your next door neighbor to enjoy Nickelback’s new album with you.

And you know big speakers love big bass. The StormBox Blast 2 has an absolute enormous amount of low end, with a toggle for XBass in case you need more (you won’t need more).

The Blast 2 does fight against the laws of physics with giant speakers that have loads of bass, unfortunately. At low volumes that bass is almost overwhelming, even with the XBass mode turned off. You’ve really got to turn the speaker up to give the drivers and tweeters a chance to compete and fill out the sound profile, which is admittedly fairly good, although bass-heavy. At no point did I ever feel like I needed to turn the XBass mode on; it thumps at every volume level.

It’s definitely a party speaker, though. The thump is going to overpower most critical listening sessions, but I imagine most people looking for extremely accurate speakers probably aren’t buying the giant boomboxes with LED lights and karaoke mic inputs. If you’re trying to fill up a room with party music, though? Tribit nails it.

Extra Features

The StormBox Blast 2 has no shortage of extra features to fill out the bullet lists. It’s fully IP67 rated, so toss it on the beach and bring it to pool parties without worry. You’ve got Bluetooth 5.4 for the latest in low-latency connections, customizable dynamic lighting, the aforementioned karaoke mic inputs and control knobs, and a bunch of customizable EQ modes.

The app that controls many of these features is also generally pretty good. A lot of companion apps these days are absolutely terrible, and while Tribit’s not going to win any design awards it’s not actively hostile to try and navigate, and that’s more than we can say for some competitors. You’ll use the app to change the dynamic lighting and change up the EQ on the speakers, and can even change the XBass button to toggle between your own customer EQ modes, which I think is a much better use than the actual XBass profile. The app also handles firmware updates, and I’ve already had two since playing with this speaker, so additional points for Tribit actively supporting this speaker post-launch.

Tribit says you can get up to 30 hours of battery life with their monster speaker, assuming you keep it at a reasonable volume without XBass turned off. You won’t be hitting that full 30 hours at party volume or singing karaoke, but the speaker has enough battery to last through your regular weekend get together. You’ll probably want to bring the charger along if you plan on using it as a portable battery for your phone, though.

Worth it?

At $299, the StormBox Blast 2 isn’t cheap. You can get really good speakers for $100 or less these days, but those speakers won’t make an actual effort to blow your windows out like the Blast 2 will.

And compared to similar speakers? The latest JBL Boombox 3 is $499, and Sony’s big party karaoke speakers float around the same price points. Tribit manages to undercut those big names by $200.

If you’re in the market for this and want quality, Tribit makes a very compelling offer. It’s expensive without breaking the bank, but it’s also not a cheap speaker that will blow out trying to play at high volumes. And hey, that app’s not bad. Give this one a serious look.