The season of colours is only a few days away and this year, you can have an extended weekend, meaning an extended party. What good is Holi without some amped-up music?! And that’s possible when you are using a big portable speaker.

Get set for a house party

As always, Sony is ready with a great product — the SRS-XV500, which is slightly different from the XP500. The XV500 is slightly smaller and more rounded than the XP500 and personally, I like it. On the top are the control buttons that are capacitive but, more importantly, they light up, which is useful for use at night. The speaker is very similar to the XP500. Both these speakers are relatively portable. From a durability standpoint, the speaker is IPX4 rated, meaning some water or rain won’t hurt it and the body is mostly plastic, which can be a scratch magnet but there is a metal grill on the front for protection as well as giving the speaker a premium look.

The buttons light up, making it easy to use at night

Perhaps the only thing I don’t like is the absence of a speaker stand mount on the bottom. It was perhaps left out because the speaker isn’t very heavy.

Party speakers without lights are somewhat like empty swimming pools. Thankfully, there are enough light bars on this speaker. There is one at the top and one near the floor. From Sony’s Music Centre and Fiestable apps you can control the full sequence. I would suggest you get the latter if you want to give the lights a “custom” feel. Also, Sony has kept the amount of light correct, without going over the top like many box speakers. But remember, if you are using the light feature, battery life will take a small hit.

Speaking of battery life, it’s around 25 hours, playing at around 40 per cent volume, which is perhaps the best feature of the speaker. Keeping it at 40 per cent is perfect for most get-togethers, especially if you want some ambient music playing. Of course, if you turn the volume up to around 70-80 per cent and keep the light feature turned on, besides Mega Bass, then expect eight to 10 hours. And if you are to go all out on volume and other features, then four-five hours is what you get. However, if you want to extend battery life, there is a Stamina mode.

Sound department

The speaker can be connected to two devices at the same time, so you and a friend can both be DJs and latency is not an issue, allowing you to watch videos from your phone. When it comes to audio codec, there is support for SBC, AAC and LDAC. However, if you want to take advantage of LDAC you need t have an Android device because the iPhone tops out at AAC. Further, LDAC takes a small toll on battery life.

The foot light can be seen clearly when the lights are turned down slightly

The speaker has a good set of ports. It still supports the standard 3.5mm audio jack so you can always use this speaker with a wired connection but unfortunately there is no audio out jack. And there is no optical port, so you cannot use this as a soundbar with the TV. However, there is a USB-A port to plug your devices and charge them up or plug in a USB stick to play music from it.

Connectivity ports allow you to plug in karaoke microphones or a microphone and a guitar. There is a good degree of control you can have over the microphone, like adding echo (it’s not going to affect the music). There is a ‘key change’ function, which is very useful when playing music to which you want to have some karaoke fun. Turning up the karaoke fun is the ability to add two microphones.

The speaker comes with dual woofers (140mm) and dual tweeters (around 60mm) to deliver punchy bass and clear vocals.

The volume performance is something worth noting. I prefer using the speaker plugged in because I feel the performance is slightly better than when it’s running on battery, offering more bass boost. Playing at 70 per cent volume, there is a clear soundstage. There is better balance than on other box speakers I have used from Sony, offering better instrument separation and the sound is far more open. The highs are detailed and this is because of the larger tweeters. If you want a brighter sound, use the custom EQ on the app.

There is space to keep your phone or other remote controls

Should you buy it?

You can easily connect this speaker to the many Sony has in its lineup, like the XV900. We are talking about connecting 100 speakers and playing in-sync or pair two similar speakers and play them in left to right stereo mode. With SRS-XV500 you are sure to get the music across a roomful of chatty partygoers. Even when cranked full-blast, this one sounds crystal clear.

The ports on the SRS-XV500

At a glance

Device: Sony SRS-XV500

Price: Rs 31,990

High notes

Excellent app support for sound and lights

Clear soundstage

Good set of ports

Muffled note

A set of wheels would have made it easy to move the speaker