At IFA 2023 today, JBL announced Authentics as a series of three speakers with a “timeless retro design” – it’s the first new Google Assistant speaker in recent memory and the first that works simultaneously with Amazon Alexa.
Design-wise, inspiration was drawn from the 1970s-era JBL L100 speaker, specifically the grid pattern on the grill. There’s a “premium” aluminum frame and “custom synthetic leather-wrapped enclosure.” Physical controls on the top surface include play/pause, treble, bass, and Bluetooth.
On all three models, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa can be active at the same time – just invoke with their respective hotword. JBL sees this as giving customers “the choice and flexibility to communicate seamlessly with both voice assistants and take advantage of their different capabilities, and switch between them for different activities.” This was something Google previously opposed during the height of the smart speaker battles.
Google says you ask “Assistant or Alexa to stop certain tasks — like timers, reminders and alarms — no matter which one started the request.”
And with access to both voice assistants, you’ll get responses sourced from Google and Amazon’s most popular services — like information from Search, shopping results from Amazon, and songs from YouTube Music or Amazon Music.
Other shared features across the line include Wi-Fi for AirPlay, Alexa Multi-Room Music, Spotify Connect, and Chromecast built-in, as well as Bluetooth and Ethernet. You have access to customizable EQ settings in the companion app, while there’s also automatic self-tuning.
The most interesting speaker is the portable JBL Authentics 300 with an 8-hour battery life, which is “consumer replaceable,” and handle for $429.99.
The others are just home speakers, with the $699.99 JBL Authentics 500 featuring three 1-inch tweeters, three 2.75-inch midrange woofers, and a 6.5-inch down-firing subwoofer. You get 270 watts of 3.1 channel sound and Dolby Atmos.
There’s also the JBL Authentics 200 for $329.99 with two 1-inch tweeters, a 5-inch woofer, and a down-firing 6-inch passive radiator.
The JBL Authentics lineup is launching on September 17 in the US.
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