Thunder in the sky, boom in your soundbox. Sony ULT Tower 10 will probably be the flavour of the festive season. It’s made for parties, meaning it’s loud and fun. The portable tower speaker is built to rock a crowd and fill larger spaces with good vibrations. It’s not something you will upgrade every year and consider this only if you plan to throw parties often.

Sound is king

When you first look at Tower 10, it is obvious why one can call this a beast of a speaker. Unless you have enough space in your apartment, it will be a difficult fit. It stands at just under four feet, it’s about a foot and a half deep and a foot and a half wide. It has a matte-black finish, a hard plastic exterior, two retractable slots on either side of the speaker for housing wireless karaoke microphones and a metal “grille” protecting the lower subwoofer. There is a full array of controls on top, an integrated handle and built-in wheels to help you move this thing around, which you will need because it weighs slightly under 30kgs.

The flat, squarish control panel on the top is the only part of the speaker that's splash resistant. It carries an IP67 rating against dirt and water ingress

The number of speakers on the machine is mind-boggling — two tweeter units, one woofer unit, two midrange units and two rear tweeter units. The tweeter unit is around 40mm, the woofer unit is around 320-320mm, the midrange unit is 80mm and the rear tweeter unit is 40mm.

The ULT Tower 10 is being marketed as providing 360-degree sound in part because of the rear tweeters, which are supposed to help fill in the highs in the space in which you’re using the speaker. That is going to make a difference when you’re using the speaker indoors and you have to fill a larger space but I did find the Tower 10 to be directional when you’re using it in an open space, like around a swimming pool. You will experience the full effect of the speaker when you stand before it.

On top of the speaker is where you have all the controls. There is a physical power button and a ULT button, and you have touch-based controls for everything else, including RGB lighting, selecting input source, Bluetooth and volume.

You’re also going to notice a sealed compartment for a 1/4-inch audio input, which sits alongside a volume control knob and a guitar toggle button letting the speaker know when a guitar is connected instead of a mic.

The Tower offers a Bluetooth 5.2 connection with multi-point connectivity for better range and signal stability with support for SBC, AAC, and LDAC audio codecs. The LDAC audio codec is going to allow you to stream higher resolution audio over Bluetooth. Well, Bluetooth and high-resolution don’t always go hand in hand but the speaker tries to get the most out of your streaming service. I used it with Apple Music and the sound was top-notch but is it truly — and the emphasis is on “truly” — high-res? Probably not in the conventional sense of the word.

There is one USB-A port on the back of the speaker which can be used for audio playback but it also provides power to charge your connected device. That way you can keep the party going even if your phone battery starts to get low. There is an “Audio In” port and an “Optical In” port which will allow you to use the Sony device as a “TV Sound Boost” speaker.

There is the ability to pair two Sony ULT Tower 10s to make a true Stereo pair. And you can use the Sony Party Connect feature, which allows to pair up to a 100 Party Connect-compatible speakers to keep the music going across multiple speakers in multiple locations. All this is topped off with a karaoke function that allows you to easily connect the included wireless microphone to the speaker at the touch of a button with dedicated volume control and support for up to two wireless microphones to be used with the speaker.

Karaoke fans will love the included wireless mic. It pairs seamlessly with the ULT Tower 10 and lets you sing along with your tunes

Let’s talk about sound

The speaker is part of the “ULT” line, which is an audio range that intends to provide the “ultimate” music listening experience. The ULT button allows you to toggle between “ULT Off”, “ULT 1” and “ULT 2” modes. The first option is the default sound setting, whereas “ULT 1” is going to deliver a deeper, lower and more rumbly bass while “ULT 2” delivers more perceivable power and punchiness.

There is the ability to set custom EQ from within the Sony companion app, but do keep in mind that if you happen to press that “ULT” button at some point, it more or less overrides custom EQ settings and goes back to toggling between the different “ULT” modes.

Simply put, the music is deep and punchy. It probably is the best-sounding party speaker that I’ve experienced. Part of the reason why the Tower 10 sounds so good is in part because of the optional “Sound Field Optimisation” setting that I have turned on... the speaker can automatically detect the noise around it and then adjust its sound output to give it the optimal sound quality.

If there’s one thing that’s impressive as sound quality, it’s got to be the beautiful 360-degree party lighting that surrounds the entire speaker itself. It does a good job of not only down-lighting the floor but also illuminating itself. You can also select the specific illumination mode that you want from the Sony Music companion app.

When it comes to karaoke, the machine comes with one Sony wireless microphone that allows you to instantly connect to the speaker at the touch of a button. You can also adjust the key of the song that you’re listening to in real-time, taking your singing capabilities to the next level.

Sony hides some of the inputs behind a rubber hatch on the back. These include a USB-A port, an optical port and a 3.5mm stereo jack

Should you buy it?

The Tower 10 is bass-focused but it still manages to deliver clarity. Songs with deep bass — say something from Queen — sound impressive and at a modest volume setting indoors, the speaker is enough to rattle the china in the house. If you need to fill a hall or your backyard with good vibrations, Sony ULT Tower 10 is the machine to turn to.

At a glance

Device: Sony ULT Tower 10

Price: ₹89,990

High notes

China-shaking bass

Enough wired inputs

Comes with wireless mic

Supports AAC and LDAC codecs

Excellent RGB lighting

Muffled notes

Costly

It’s very heavy; needs two people to get it out of the box

Only the control panel on the top is splash resistant