The Klipsch Groove XXL is a stylish speaker for home use that's still portable enough to bring your music with you on the go. It's a larger, more premium cousin to the original Klipsch Groove, advertised to support a longer battery life among other upgrades. Thanks to its remote, it's easy to control its settings from the comfort of your couch. It's pretty bare-bones regarding features, though, as you can't customize its sound.
Our Verdict
The Klipsch Groove XXL is okay for music. It has a bass-heavy sound that adds extra punch and boom to the mix. Voices and lead instruments are reproduced with clarity, though they're a bit muddied due to the extra bass in the mix. While it's ideal for genres like EDM and hip-hop, if you prefer a different sound, unfortunately, there aren't any customization tools on hand. The speaker gets loud, too, albeit with compression when pushed to max volume.
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Gets loud.
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No multi-device pairing.
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Some compression at max volume.
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No sound customization tools.
The Klipsch Groove XXL isn't really intended for watching movies. However, if you pair it to a smartphone to watch a video, it can get the job done. Latency with Android devices over Bluetooth is pretty low, so you don't notice lip-synching issues. It's a little higher with iOS devices but still suitable for most. Dialogue is pretty clear in the mix, too, but you don't get the deep thump and rumble in the low-bass like with dedicated home theater speakers.
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Gets loud.
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Low latency over Bluetooth.
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Some compression at max volume.
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Lacks low-bass.
The Klipsch Groove XXL is decent for podcasts and other vocal-centric content. Dialogue reproduces pretty clearly, and while there's some muddiness from the extra bass, you can still follow along with the conversation in your favorite shows. Since it's a battery-powered speaker, you can take it from room to room as you listen to longer episodes. It gets loud, too, although there's some compression when you push it to max volume.
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Portable design.
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Gets loud.
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No multi-device pairing.
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Some compression at max volume.
This speaker doesn't support voice assistants.
The Klipsch Groove XXL is alright for outdoor use. It's a battery-powered speaker, so you can take it outside without worrying about plugging it into an outlet. It also lasts over eleven hours off a single charge, which is great for longer days outdoors. It doesn't have an advertised IP rating for dust or water resistance, so exercise caution if you plan to use it on a rainy day.
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Portable design.
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Over 11-hour battery life.
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No advertised IP rating.
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No multi-device pairing.
- 6.6 Music
- 6.1 Videos/Movies
- 7.2 Podcasts
- 2.6 Voice Assistant
- 6.7 Outdoors
- Updated Sep 18, 2023: Review published.
- Updated Sep 13, 2023: Early access published.
- Updated Sep 08, 2023: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Sep 07, 2023: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated Aug 29, 2023: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Klipsch Groove XXL portable Bluetooth speaker comes in Black, and you can see the label for the model we tested here.
If you encounter another version of this speaker, let us know in the forums, and we'll update our review.
Compared To Other Speakers
The Klipsch Groove XXL is a portable alternative to some of the manufacturer's wired-only speakers. It has a more neutral design compared to speakers like the Klipsch The Three II and the Klipsch The One II, which are more retro in style. It has a decent sound, and its remote makes it easy to adjust from your couch, but it doesn't come with as many features as similarly-priced Bluetooth speakers.
You can also see our recommendations for the best-sounding Bluetooth speakers, the best portable Bluetooth speakers, and the best Bluetooth speakers for bass.
The Klipsch Groove XXL is a more portable alternative to the Klipsch The Three II. The Groove is battery-powered, so you can take it around without worrying about plugging it into an outlet. It's not quite as well-built as the Three II, though, and it doesn't boast the same retro design. Plus, it doesn't get quite as loud.
The Anker Soundcore Motion X600 is better than the Klipsch Groove XXL. The Anker has a more neutral sound out-of-the-box, which some users may prefer. It's more customizable, too, thanks to the graphic EQ and presets in its companion app. That said, the Klipsch does get a little louder.
The Klipsch Groove XXL is a more portable alternative to the Klipsch The One II. The One is a wired-only speaker, meaning it must be plugged into an outlet to work. On the other hand, the Groove offers the flexibility of battery power, so you can take it with you on the go. The One is made of more premium materials, and its retro design may suit your tastes.
The Tribit StormBox Blast is better than the Klipsch Groove XXL. The Tribit is a slightly larger speaker with built-in RGB lights, which you can customize in their companion app. Unlike the Klipsch, the Tribit's sound is customizable, too, thanks to its graphic EQ and presets. It has a longer-lasting battery life as well.
Test Results
The Klipsch Groove XXL has a unique design. It's mostly rectangular with rounded edges on top. The build is mainly plastic, with a metal grille in front to protect the drivers inside. It also comes with a small remote to control its settings from the comfort of your couch.
The speaker is pretty portable. You can use it wired or use its battery to take it with you on the go. The handle isn't the most comfortable for larger hands, though. This speaker's larger than others on the market, but you can still carry it in one hand.
The Klipsch Groove XXL is mostly made of good-quality plastic. A metal grille covers the drivers to help protect them, which is nice. It feels solid and durable as a result. The glossy plastic on the control strip mimics glass, which adds a more high-quality feel. However, this part of the speaker is prone to collecting fingerprints. The rubber pad near its handle adds some grip when you move it from room to room. The manufacturer markets it for indoor and outdoor use. However, there's no indication of an IP rating for dust or water resistance. There's no slot for the remote, either, which can make it easy to misplace.
There are a couple of touch-sensitive buttons on the speaker. They're all backlit to help you see them in a darkened room, and they flash and pulse to let you know which settings you've adjusted. The volume buttons are even separated by a light strip that fills up to show the volume level. It can be confusing at times, though, because the brightest light doesn't follow the volume bar level, as you can see in this video here. The buttons are responsive, but if you tap the volume buttons continuously, some of the presses don't register. Also, the Bluetooth button has no feedback to let you know as you switch inputs, which can be confusing.
- Power button: Press once to turn on. Press and hold to turn off.
- Bluetooth button: Press once to switch between inputs (AUX, USB, Bluetooth). Press and hold for three seconds to enter Bluetooth pairing mode.
- Volume buttons: Tap accordingly to increase/lower the volume.
The remote offers the same features as the buttons on the speaker itself, with some notable additions. Here, you can play/pause your audio and skip to the previous or the next track. You can also mute the speaker.
- User manual
- AC adapter (10.2 ft / 312 cm)
- 3.5mm AUX cable (4.9 ft / 148 cm)
- Remote Control with battery installed: L: (1.57 in/ 4 cm), W: (.27 in/.7 cm), H: (3.38 in/8.6 cm)
- Klipsch Groove XXL Speaker
This speaker has a bass-heavy sound profile. Out-of-the-box, there's a lot of extra emphasis in the bass range that adds punch and boom to the mix. It carries over into the mid-range, slightly muddying voices and lead instruments in the mix. It's ideal for genres like EDM and hip-hop that have a lot of bass mixed in. Unfortunately, if you prefer a different sound, no sound customization tools are available, like an EQ.
There's no real difference in the frequency response when you use the speaker over a wired connection or on battery power, as shown in the graph here. Similarly, you enjoy the same sound regardless of whether you're connected over AUX or Bluetooth, as seen in this graph.
This speaker can playback stereo content without downmixing it into mono, which is great since most music is mixed in stereo. Its directivity isn't the best, though, so you don't get a consistent sound all around the speaker. However, if you just plan to set it on a shelf or a countertop to use it, it's not a big deal since you wouldn't stand behind the speaker anyway.
This speaker gets plenty loud. You have no trouble filling larger and more open spaces with sound. Compression at max volume influences the clarity of audio reproduction, though.
The manufacturer advertises a battery life of 22 hours. In our tests, the speaker only lasted a little over 11 hours. Different settings, like the volume level, can influence a speaker's battery life, which likely accounts for this discrepancy. The speaker also turns off after 15 minutes of inactivity to help save battery life.
This speaker doesn't support voice assistants.
There's no companion app for this speaker.
You can wire your devices to the speaker using the AUX input or the USB-A audio port. The USB-A port doubles as a charging port for your devices. There's USB key playback, too. While the manual says the speaker supports .wav files through this connection, we could only play mp3 files in our tests.
You can pair your smartphone, laptop, and other devices to the speaker via Bluetooth. You can only pair to one device at a time, making switching to another audio source a little more cumbersome. Latency is relatively low with both Android devices, so you don't notice lip-synching issues with videos. It's a little higher with iOS devices. Some apps compensate for latency differently, though.