JBL, which is a division of HARMAN, has announced a slew of new products at IFA 2016 in Berlin this week. Although the most interesting is perhaps the JBL Playlist. This is their first Google Cast-enabled wireless speaker. This is not just a Bluetooth speaker, it uses WiFi as well, to connect to the device that is playing the audio you want to go through the speaker. This is better than Bluetooth because you can get higher quality audio over WiFi. It also means Google Cast and Spotify Connect are compatible. Allowing you to control what’s playing on the speaker from your smartphone. With Google Cast, you’ll be able to tap on the Cast button in the app and start streaming it to the JBL Playlist, it can’t get much easier than that.
The other big feature of the JBL Playlist is Spotify Connect. Allowing you to play Spotify through your laptop, TV, or speakers with the Spotify app working as a remote. Wth the “One Touch” Play feature on the JBL Playlist, you can play your favorite playlist instantly, without needing to fiddle around with your phone and get the playlist you want to play. Setup is pretty simple with Google Cast and Spotify Connect. JBL Playlist also sports dual band WiFi and 802.11AC. So that you can experience the fastest WiFi speeds available, giving you even better sound quality. Speaking of which, you’re getting 24bit/96khz sound out of the JBL Playlist. Finally, you can still play music over Bluetooth or a 3.5mm input, if you don’t want to use WiFi for music playback.
As far as availability is concerned, JBL states that the JBL Playlist will be available on their website and at select retailers starting next month (October), and will be priced at €179. There’s no pricing mentioned for other regions just yet. As an added incentive for buying the JBL Playlist, those that purchase the wireless speaker will also get a three-month subscription to Google Play Music for free. That subscription does include YouTube Red, making it a pretty sweet incentive for anyone that hasn’t tried either service just yet.
