Every time Sony launches a Bluetooth speaker, I’m just generally more excited than most people here. That’s partly because I absolutely love listening to music on speakers, and mostly because I’ve found Sony’s Bluetooth speakers to offer better sound quality when compared to what other brands have in the market. So naturally, when the nice people over at Sony sent us the SRS-XB32 for a review, I was hyped. After all, I’ve been a fan of the SRS-XB20 that I purchased around a year or so ago, and I loved the SRS-XB12 that I reviewed a while back, and I expected the XB32 to do just that — and it did. All of that, and way more. So if you’re wondering what the new Sony SRS-XB32 is like, and if it’s worth the asking price of Rs. 10,990, here’s my review:

Before we jump into the review, let’s take a look at the specifications of the Sony SRS-XB32.

Design and Build

Sony’s Bluetooth speakers have always had amazing build quality, and the XB32 is no different. It comes in a rubberised finish that adds to the grip, it features a design that makes the speaker handy, even though it’s a pretty big Bluetooth speaker, and also, at around 900 grams, a heavy one.

It’s also shock proof, and apparently conforms to the MIL-STD 801 F Method 516.5-Shock tests, so you can probably drop it from 1.22 m height on plywood of 5cm thickness, but I did not. Jokes apart though, it’s nice that the speaker will be able to tolerate random bumps and the occasional drop.

Audio Quality

Speaking of things I want more brands to do — the Sony SRS-XB32 have amazing sound quality. Just dead on-point, especially considering the price they’re coming in at. Now I know, at Rs. 10,990 these aren’t exactly ‘budget’ Bluetooth speakers, but they aren’t that expensive, either, and the sound quality that these will bring along can justify the price tag pretty well. That, and the features, but we’ll talk more about them in a different section.

  • Live Audio: With this mode, the speaker tries to create a concert like feel with a wider soundstage so you get a more natural sound. When this mode is on, the Live button LED is also on.
  • Extra Bass: This mode is meant to be used when you need the thumping bass for your EDM playlist. When this mode is on, the Live button LED is off, and the power button LED is white.
  • Standard Mode: In standard mode, you basically get neither the extra bass, nor the wider soundstage, but you do get a huge bump in battery life, which is great. When this mode is on, the Live button LED is off, and the power button LED is green.

I usually don’t have a dedicated section for ‘features’ in a Bluetooth speaker review, but the SRS-XB32 comes with an absolutely insane amount of features to be ignored. Honestly, it took me the better part of a day to use and figure out all the features Sony has baked in here. Let’s take a look at the features offered by the SRS-XB32, all of which are offered via the Sony Music Center app (Android, iOS) and the Fiestable app (Android, iOS):

  1. ClearAudio+

Inside the Sony Music Center app, within the settings for the XB32, you’ll find a section for ‘Sound’ and inside that, is ClearAudio+, and the description for this simply states “Sony’s recommended sound settings for music listening with one simple operation.”

Inside this category, there’s only one setting — Lighting Mode. However, once you tap on Lighting Mode, the app surfaces so many lighting modes that it’s sort of overwhelming. However, it’s a lot of fun playing around with these, and I’d definitely recommend you go ahead and take a look at this.

To be honest, when I first read ‘Party Booster’ I don’t know what I expected, but I did not expect this. However, this is a lot of fun, and it’s even more fun to suddenly blast a bass drum near someone who’s not expecting it — like Rupesh.

The Fiestable app is, well, sort of fun, depending on how much you like playing with the lights on the SRS-XB32.

Other than that, the app brings motion control, where you can perform gestures with your phone to control things like skipping tracks, the brightness of the speaker’s LEDs, and more. That sounds cool in theory, but it’s difficult to use, and I don’t think you’ll use it after the one time when you’re just trying it out — I didn’t.

Anyway, moving on from the features, let’s take a look at the various buttons and ports offered on the XB32. On the top panel, you’ll find 5 buttons, some of which perform dual functions, and some of which can be pressed in combination with others to perform a completely different function. I wouldn’t have found this out without reading the manual that Sony doesn’t give with the speaker, but mentions as a link that you can head over to (SRS XB-32 manual). To save you the trouble, I’ll be explaining all of that as well.

  1. Live

  2. Play/Pause

The Volume Down and Volume Up buttons are fairly straightforward too — they let you control the volume of the speaker. However, you can press the volume down button in combination with the Play/Pause button for 3 seconds to switch between Standard Mode and Extra Bass Mode, if the Live mode is not enabled.

  1. WPC

Ports

Those were the buttons, now let’s take a look at the ports on the SRS-XB32. There are a total of 3 ports on the speaker:

  1. USB-A Port

In terms of connectivity, the Sony SRS-XB32 comes with Bluetooth 4.2, and I still don’t understand why we’re not getting Bluetooth 5.0 on these things yet, but that’s fine. There’s NFC here, which is great for quickly connecting your phone with the speaker, and the speaker supports a bunch of codecs. There’s no aptX support here, but the speaker does come with LDAC support which is great, and can optimise connection priority to provide the best audio experience with your phone, provided your smartphone also supports LDAC.

Battery

Moving on, Sony’s speakers have always had pretty impressive battery life. In fact, even the tiny SRS-XB12, I got a battery life of around 14-15 hours regularly, and the SRS-XB32 are no different. Sony has rated these for 24 hours of playback time, and that holds true. I took these speakers on a recent trip to Neemrana and they held up extremely well. I have easily gotten around 20 to 22 hours of battery life from these speakers with a variety of settings (Extra Bass, full volume, and other things).

Pros:

Cons:

  • No USB-C port
  • Using the button-combinations can be confusing
  • No Bluetooth 5.0
  • No aptX support

Sony SRS-XB32 Bluetooth Speaker: Worth The Price?

At the end of the day, the question we need to answer is this — is the Sony SRS-XB32 worth its asking price of Rs. 10,990? The answer to that, in my opinion is a loud and resounding “Yes, it is.” The SRS-XB32 offers everything you’d want from a speaker, and some things you probably didn’t know you wanted. It has excellent sound quality, amazing build that’s shock proof and IP rated, it offers a really good battery life along with support for charging your phone if you need it, it offers lighting effects that are controllable with the smartphone app, and it offers a bunch of quirky features like Party Booster. Really, the only complaints I have are the lack of a USB-C port, and Bluetooth 5.0.