Some party speakers blend in while others dazzle with lights. Sony has a solution that does both and that too when the world is getting in the groove for new-year parties. Called SRS-XV900, the Bluetooth speaker comes with 26.6kg of heft but with a cause — booming sounds. It’s not the only box/party speaker out there but it certainly sounds surprisingly good for a Bluetooth-enabled speaker.
It’s very large, it sounds good, it has a built-in battery and the light feature on it is different from that on a JBL speaker. Not just for parties, in case you’re looking for a larger box speaker for your man cave, but at the same time, want the flexibility to use the speaker outdoors and not have to worry about a power outlet, then the XV900 should be right up your alley.
Design and durability
What you are paying here for is the sound and also the built-in battery, which is meant to last up to 25 hours, depending on your listening habits. Touching upon the design, it’s a massive speaker standing at two feet and 10 inches, however, it doesn’t have a huge foot print because it has a base that is 16 inches by 17 inches.
The in-built battery is obviously quite large but that doesn’t hamper portability… at least to some extent. Sony has thrown in a couple of built-in wheels, which allows the device to be rolled on smooth surfaces. There’s a quibble: The wheels are very small and they have very little clearance, so unless you’re going to be rolling this speaker on a smooth and flat surface, it’s best to pick the speaker up holdings its handles. Second, a handle on the side of the speaker (instead of the top) would have helped.
In way of durability, the speaker has a mostly plastic body with a metal grille on the front. The plastic is of good quality and it didn’t pick up scratches while moving the speaker from one part of the house to another. The touch control panel on the top looks snazzy and simple. You can control the lighting from the top panel itself and be it day or night, the readings are bright enough. Second quibble: there’s no IP rating, which means no protection from accidental water splashes. The port and charging panel on the back have no rubber seal protection.
All that razzle-dazzle and battery life
You can listen to music from any streaming service and if you have an Android phone, take advantage of the LDAC codec, which the speaker supports
The floor lighting makes a difference to how the speaker looks — even from the back — when music plays ÓYou can connect microphones
You can connect microphones to the speaker or your guitar. It is also possible to hook the system to your television
Sony has got the lighting aspect spot on. JBL speakers look good but Sony wins with its floor lights that give a much larger area of affect. Changing to the beats, the lighting works best in dark rooms and even when the room lights are turned on, there’s no issue. With other companies the lighting is restricted to the front panel.
From Sony’s app, you have a few different lighting modes to choose from. Or, you can do most of it from the touch panel itself. To take lighting to a different level, use Sony’s Fiestable app.
How far does lighting affect battery life? The XV900 has an advertised battery life of 25 hours and that is very impressive. There are a few things to remember. The advertised battery life is achievable if you listen to the speaker at around 40 per cent, which is a decent listening volume, and that too with the mega bass feature turned on but the light feature turned off. I would choose sound over light any day.
However, if you were to use this speaker with its light feature turned on, you should get around 12-14 hours. But if you are the kind of person who wants it all — lighting and max booming sound — then expect around five-six hours.
In general, battery life on this speaker varies a lot depending on how you use it. The XV900 also has a stamina mode where it will turn off the light feature and turn off the Mega Bass feature, helping to extend battery life a lot. Given the sheer size of the speaker, even if you turn off Mega Bass, you’re still going to get a lot of bass.
For a quick charge, plug it in for 10 minutes to get up to three hours of audio.
Connectivity and thumping beats
For connectivity, there are a few options. The Bluetooth speaker can, very importantly, be connected to two devices at the same time. I think this is important because such speakers are mainly used during parities and that means you and a friend can both be DJs. In case you want to use the speaker for enjoying films, there are no latency issues. For those who will use the speaker only for listening to music, there is support for SBC, AAC and Sony’s own LDAC, which is a high-res format.
You can always just use a wired connection with this speaker; it still has a 3.5mm audio jack, but unfortunately the XV900 doesn’t have an audio out jack. However, the XV900 does have an optical port and it also comes included with an optical cable. So if you want, you can connect it to your TV and watch a movie with it.
The device also has a USB-A port so that you can charge your devices and you can also plug in a USB stick and play music off of it. Finally, the XV900 has dual quarter inch inputs, so if you want you can plug in a pair of microphones and do karaoke or plug in a guitar. From Sony’s app you can adjust the sound of these microphones.
And we arrive at the listening experience. In terms of speaker set up, the XV900 has a giant frontward-firing subwoofer with exhaust ports that shoot out the front. It also has dual frontward firing midrange drivers and there are six tweeters on this thing. Two you can easily find on the front panel, but there’s also one on each side and there’s a second pair on the top of this speaker that shoot out the rear and upwards.
Mid-range and vocals cut through because of the dedicated stereo drivers, and it’s all backed up with punchy bass, thanks to an X-balanced speaker unit woofer and Jet Bass Booster port.
Overall, I like how this speaker sounds. The sound quality changes quite a bit when you have Mega Bass turned on and I hardly used Stamina Mode. Given the speaker’s size, you’re going to have a considerable amount of bass. When it comes to max volume, the XV900 gets very loud but there’s no distortion. This is the kind of speaker one needs to enjoy Queen and their arena anthems.
The XV900 has another winning feature — you can adjust the EQ on this speaker through the app. If you want to make its sound louder for outdoor use, you could raise the mids and treble.
When it comes to pairing this speaker with other speakers, the XV900 uses Sony’s Party Connect, with which you can pair the speaker to other Sony Party Connect speakers.
Overall, what you get on Sony SRS-XV900 are big, bold sounds that will certainly shake off all the blues and get the party started.
At a glance
Sony SRS-XV900 come with wheels to drag the 25kg-plus speaker around the house
Device: Sony SRS-XV900
Price: Rs 79,990
Speaker size: Front tweeter — approx 50mm diameter, side tweeter — approx 40mm diameter, rear tweeter — approx 40mm diameter, midrange approx — 120mm diameter, woofer — approx 320mm x 320mm
High notes
- Bold bass
- Excellent battery support for a party speaker
- Floor lighting makes a world of difference
- Good app control
Muffled notes
- A handle on the side of the speaker would have helped
- No IP rating