Sony SRS-XB43 review: Wireless portable speaker defies lockdown rule

There’s one thing we haven’t been able to do for a long time but one woman has found a way to get around this restriction without breaking the law.

REVIEW

We’ve got to make a lot of our own fun at the moment and something I personally miss is going out for a dance or seeing some live music. If you’re the same, I may have found a product that’s perfect for you.

The Sony SRS-XB43 is Sony’s latest bluetooth wireless portable speaker proclaiming to replicate that “festival sound” so you can liven up your parties. This is the high end speaker out of Sony’s current portable speaker range, which means it’s also the biggest and the heaviest.

However, you’ll find the extra weight is due to the quality of its build. Inside this speaker there are two woofers, tweeters and even side passive radiators.

Sony says this is a specially made X-Balanced speaker unit meaning it features an “almost rectangular diaphragm” which ‘maximises the area of speaker diaphragm, increasing sound pressure for more punchy bass’.

Behind all this jargon you’ll have to trust me when I say, you can just feel the sound quality in your body. You know that feeling you get walking past a pub or club playing loud music or live music? It’s that bass that goes through you as well as all the layers of nuance in the music that we can’t always replicate at home.

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The Sony SRS-XB43 bluetooth wireless portable speaker gives off that much-missed bass boom. Picture: Supplied.

This speaker immediately sounds great out of the box. Additionally it has a ‘Live sound’ button that replicates how the music might sound when you’re out. In my opinion, this effect differs from song to song depending on the genre of music. However, it had some impressive results on my favourite tunes with some sounding like a guitar was being played live in front of me.

If you want to tinker more closely with the speaker’s sound performance you can download the ‘Sony Music Center’ app and adjust the bass, middle and treble like you could on a full stereo system set up.

The extra ‘party’ bonus on this speaker would have to be its in-built lights. There are two coloured light strips left and right and a bunch of white flashy lights in the middle. These lights enhance the party atmosphere as they can be set to intelligently flash to the beat of your music. They can be customised in the app and if you’re not in the mood for lighting or flashes, these features can be turned off.

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With built in lights, Elly Awesome says the Sony SRS-XB43 enhances the party atmosphere. Picture: Supplied.

But wait … there’s more! This speaker is dustproof, waterproof and even salt water resistant. So you can have it by the pool or at the beach. If it gets covered in sand or dirt just brush it off or dunk it in freshwater.

The speaker boasts 24 hours of battery life but from my tests this is more true when using the speaker at lower volumes and no lights. If you’re partying, you would get around five to 10 hours with the volume up and lights going. But you can use this speaker plugged in/on charge if you’re at home. When I’ve used it casually as background sound while doing household chores, it was three weeks later when I finally had to put it on charge.

My only gripe is it isn’t the loudest speaker on the market, and some party goers might expect more out of it. However, there is a feature called ‘party connect’ where you can sync-up multiple Sony speakers – either the same model – or others in their current range (SRS-XB33, SRS-XB23). Then you can have your music playing from multiple speakers all over the house.

It is quite pricey at $349. However, considering the cost of a single festival ticket and with many live gigs now off the table for at least the rest of the year, with this speaker you can bring the festival to you while you’re partying at home.

Elly Awesome is an Aussie tech and lifestyle vlogger | @ellyawwesome | YouTube