Sony SRS-XV500 Review: Portable Music Powerhouse

Sony SRS-XV500 is a portable party speaker that offers a lot to like. It’s feature-rich and, thanks to its high-performance drivers, can cater to even music enthusiasts. While it does enter a rather competitive market space featuring options from the likes of LG and JBL, the XV-500 does stand out from the crowd because of its impressive battery life and its generally good audio performance.

We at Guiding Tech have tested this party speaker in-depth to help you understand if it’s worth your money. So read on to find out everything you need to know about our time with the Sony SRS-XV500.

Sony SRS-XV500 Review: Design and Build Quality

Starting with the design, the XV500 keeps things simple, yet fun. Its overall design language features curves around the edges and is generally a compact form factor for a party speaker of its size. The build quality is quite good and, honestly, nothing short of what you’d expect from a brand like Sony.

At about 11.2kgs, it’s not a featherweight, and a pair of wheels to help move these would have been a welcome addition. However, that’s not to say it’s difficult to move. This is mostly thanks to just how it’s built which makes it rather convenient to carry around.

When switched on, one of the first things you’d notice is the party lights on the device. While these do end up taking a toll on the battery life — more on this later — they do definitely look good and add value to the speaker’s overall look and feel.

Apart from this, the other key design elements include a dedicated spot to hold the paired phone and crucially, if you plan to take the speaker outdoors, the promise of IPX4-rating to ensure these speakers can handle splashes of water without giving up on you.

The buttons here are capacitive and illuminated for improved ease of use. They cover all important functions, including device selection, light, and the Mega Bass. Importantly, they are also placed at the top of the speaker for easy access. One thing to note here is that this speaker doesn’t come with a dedicated remote control, which is a bummer.

Sony SRS-XV500 Review: Features and Connectivity

The SRS-XV500 also comes with a decent feature list for the price. Although it does steer clear of gimmicky features, there is a place for two mic inputs on it if you want to use the XV500 as a karaoke speaker.

Or you can even switch things up and connect one mic and a guitar to the speaker. We also get a USB-A port which depending on your use case may come in handy. However, connecting this to a device using an optical port is not an option, as the port doesn’t find a place on the speaker.

We also get access to features such as dual device connectivity, which allows the speaker to be connected to two speakers at the same time. Plus, there’s a nifty Stereo Pair function that allows the speaker to be paired with another from its kin and work either as the left or right dedicated channel in a stereo setup.

Sony’s also done a good job by adding wide support for codecs on this one. Thanks to this, you get support for codecs such as SBC, AAC, and LDAC audio codecs. Although the latter is not available on iPhone and is only available to Android users.

Sony SRS-XV500 Review: Battery Life

Hiding inside the plastic shell of the Sony SRS-XV500 is a big battery pack that promises up to 25 hours of playback on a full charge when used under ideal conditions. In our testing, we got closer to 16 hours of playback when using the speaker to play music from a phone connected over Bluetooth.

The volume was roughly around 50 percent for the most part, and the party lights were turned on for about 6 hours during the testing. Mega Bass also remained switched on for half the time we spent testing the device.

From our testing data, it was clear the volume levels and party lights on the device have a direct impact on the battery life of the speakers. So, if you want to get anywhere close to the advertised 25-hour playback on a single charge advertised by Sony, try keeping the volume down and the extras like the party lights off.

However, if you’re planning on playing music at full volume and with the party lights on, then know you’d be getting much modest runtimes from these speakers. To extend the battery life, you also get access to the Stamina Mode, which kills features such as the party light and the Mega Bass to ultimately give longer runtimes but flat-sounding audio.

Sony SRS-XV500 Review: Audio Performance

Talking about the audio performance, at the heart of the speakers are two front-facing woofers and two front-facing tweeters. These combined provide rich sound and an overall balanced sound. The soundstage is wide for a speaker of its size and more importantly, you also get very good sound separation to enhance the music music-listening experience.

Despite being tuned to favor bass, the audio remains clean, providing a good experience while listening to music. But there are some things to keep in mind here. First and foremost, the speakers adopt different sound profiles when connected to a power source than when they are running on battery.

For the latter, the sound is a little flatter and not as loud when compared to the speaker being connected to a power source. So if it’s deeper bass and loud music you want, we recommend keeping it connected to a power source and it is then that you’d see the SRS -XV500 truly come alive.

The Mega Bass is another nifty feature we enjoyed using, and we would recommend it to anyone looking to play bass-heavy tracks on the device. It automatically adds some extra oomph to music that requires it. But if you’re not a fan of the bass, then switch this off and see the speaker shine in handling songs that require a clear focus on vocals and treble.

Sony SRS-XV500 Review: Should You Buy It?

Well, the SRS-XV500 comes recommended if you’re looking for good party speakers that also provide the option of portability when you need it. It’s versatile and offers a rich feature list to help make this a compelling option.

The refined sound quality and deep bass that the speaker provides — especially when connected to a power source — is definitely a reason to consider the XV500. But what really helps it stand out from the crowd is its ability to bring parties to life with its mic inputs that turn it into a powerful karaoke speaker.

Its big battery life and IPX4-rated shell also ensure that if you decide to take it outdoors, the XV500 will thrive, providing immersive audio experiences to all.