28% of 376 verified JBL Charge 5owners don't recommend it, and 10 describe specific problems — based on real owner comments from Reddit, enthusiast forums, and YouTube.
For balance: 58% recommend it. This page collects the complaints so you know what you're signing up for — read the full owner report for both sides. How we score
“I have tried like 4 or 5 jbl charge 5s before buying the roam. It is smaller but so much cleaner sound. All the jbl had some weird resonating sound like vibrating plastics in some songs.”— Batuan_ on Reddit
“the audio keeps cutting off. When I'm listening to music,, in stereo mode, the audio suddenly starts cutting out for periods of 5 to 10 seconds until it settles itself”— Significant_Peach_70 on Reddit
“My JBL Charge 5 was paired and connected correctly with my Windows 11 PC. The Vol+/- and Play/Pause worked fine. But there was no sound.”— CptRotzbarbe on Reddit
“JBL charge 5 has terrible sound quality as a single speaker, literally worse than my $40 knockoff that's finally on its last legs. Just returned one”— mitternacht1013 on Reddit
“New computer JBL Charge 5 awful same issues and actually laying it on it's side it gets bettter until it doesn't. I'm done with JBL after this”— Beginning-Fish-6656 on Reddit
“I literally just bought a JBL Charge 5 (has no aux input) to use with my Windows 11 Desktop, and I have not been able to get them to connect.”— Plneapple on Reddit
“I have one of their typical Bluetooth speakers for casual music listening and I'll connect to my laptop sometimes for watching a show or movie and it also cuts out at low volume parts. It's the Charge 5”— Spectre_Loudy on Reddit
“Brand new JBL charge 5, no bass at all. I have other JBL Bluetooth speakers that work great, but this seems like the bass is just not connected. They probably sent me the one you returned ;). I'm going to try and return it.”— bulletmissile on Reddit
“It happened with my Charge5 without it ever seeing any water. When I washed it the first time all the rubbers were already missing.”— CairesTieNdie on Reddit
“More clarity in the mid range than charge 5. -Less screeching sound un the high frequencies than all the portable speakers of jbl.”— NetRepresentative303 on Reddit
“Charge 5 keeps crackling whenever I listen to my phone, and the laptop has bluetooth on.. but it's not connected to the laptop.”— Individual-Cream-581 on Reddit
“That piece of shit never worked well, it was always a pain in that I always had to re-sync it and there was a huge delay between when you press the buttons and when it powered up.”— joe-king on Reddit
Not complaints — practical notes from owners that didn't affect the score.
“My charge 5 is fine 😇”— Ambitious-Piece573 on Reddit
“I have the tomorrowland jbl charge 5 and they hadn't successfully connected in almost a year or more, but this reset trick finally got it working again”— Thin-Television-9256 on Reddit
“it takes multiple tries to get it to pair with my JBL Charge 5”— _b1llygo4t_ on Reddit
“JBL Charge 5 owner here, A low level of static is normal for Bluetooth speakers I think.”— John_paradox on Reddit
“as a charge 5 user, the bose has the lowest bluetooth latency than any speaker i had”— Speaker_Critic777 on Reddit
“Now I have upgraded to Bluetooth 5.3 the Charge 5 works fine with the JBL app.”— sarv007 on Reddit
“My JBL Charge 5 connects well with my phone and tablet, but I'm experiencing unstable connections with my laptop”— MathewNguyen235 on Reddit
“I also had the exact same problems when I connected both Charge 5 speakers to my iphone using party boost mode. They would crackle, and disconnect, reconnect, and act weird.”— TheMacintoshGeek on Reddit