Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsIs this REALLY the best bluetooth speaker on the market? Yes. Read more...
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2014
The title of my review says it all. I can offer a few reference points to draw some boundaries around what this thing is/does for folks who are looking for an audio companion that doesn't just blurt out a lot of noise, but actually makes very compelling, high quality sound.
First is this thing relative to other bluetooth speakers. Although I can't say I've tested the other bigger brothers of this guy, SRS X7 and SRS X9, and similarly expensive, larger "portables", I have tested a long, long list of them, including UE Boom, Dre Beats, Philips, Jawbone Jambox, and a whole array of other smaller-brand speakers. I owned a Creative Soundblaster Roar, briefly, and returned it because the sound was just awful. The only real competition for this speaker is the Bose Soundlink III and Soundlink Mini. None of the others are worth considering. There's no bass, no soundstage, most of them have serious problems with phase, and of course, the real cover charge for considering a decent speaker is whether it produces bass. Good bass, bad bass, little bass, big bass, deep bass or shallow bass. Some produce SOMETHING down below 100hz worth listening to; most do not. And that leaves us with exactly three contenders we even need to discuss: Bose Soundlink III, Bose Soundlink Mini, and Sony SRS-X5.
All three use passive radiators to move some air mass outside the brick and reach well below 100hz. None of them will project a bass chord, let's say, in the 20-40hz range, so forget that. They can make the noise, but you can barely hear it on any of these little speakers, whereas when you're sitting in front of a decent powered 10 or 12" sub, the same chord will fill your ears and world, and "press on you", that there's a nice big, rich note there. That's only particular tracks, in particular types of music, where there's something that low, that is a prominent component of the music. I happen to listen to a lot of that music (electronic, alt rock, sadcore, Bristol sound, Ibiza, and so on). Some that will beat any of these three and leave the low end just petering out and unfortunately underrepresented would come from Esthero, Massive Attack, Yeasayer, Glass Animals.
That having been said, there is a pecking order between the three. And before I make such bold claims, please let me issue an author's apology: they are all VERY, VERY good, absolutely competent and frankly incredible products. Don't not buy any of these on my account alone. But, the way it shakes out is this:
#3: Bose Soundlink III. The lowest "projected", audible notes may even be a bit deeper than the SRS-X5, but bass-heavy tracks lead to really regrettable distortion even at reasonable listening levels. The distortion from lowest bass made this one a pass for me.
#2: Bose Soundlink Mini. This is an absolute engineering marvel. If you want to get people at a party to say "wow", buy this one. It's small, it's slick, the enclosure is hard metal, gorgeous, feels great to hold, heavy, and SMALL. I may yet buy one just because the tuning is a little warmer, and as other professional reviews have cited, has a more pronounced mid-bass around low instruments and vocal depth that gives this an instrumental quality that absolutely should not be discounted. The phase is very broad for such a tiny box, soundstage is modest but present and really shines with something like accoustic guitar. I recently read a review that says, very aptly, that this speaker's sound bears the least resemblance to its size of any other speaker out there. True, true. It is a phenomenal feat. The very, very slight edge to the Sony is as follows: The Soundlink Mini does not include a speakerphone (irrelevant, when considering pure sound quality), and the bass peters out perhaps a bit higher, in the 70-80hz range.
#1: Sony SRS-X5. This thing is the best of the best. The battery lasts all day. The treble is crystal clear and truly, when you listen to something, a movie or music that "sparkles", will make your jaw drop. And the bass is actually very, very good. It probably tapers off quite a bit after about 50hz but at and above that general range, it really has a good level of depth and projection, of "voice". Again, it absolutely isn't comparable to a powered subwoofer, but when you sit it on a kitchen countertop or bookshelf and play something, the reaction you'll get is: wow. Woah. Wait, that's coming out of THAT thing?? It plays loud and it plays distortion-free.
Even then, it's not perfect. The unit goes quite a bit louder in the midrange and treble than the small subwoofer and passive radiators can keep up with; it's very good in that, if you want it loud, it goes loud. Not gymnasium-prom-loud, but louder than you'd want it at a party in your back yard. At some point, the itty bitty drivers just can't move enough air mass to make an equivalent dent in the space-time continuum with big, boomy bass. That's OK by me; wrong tool for the job. I want this for nice listening volume inside and outside and as such, it does just spectacularly well.
It has a speakerphone that actually works very well, no echo, and is absolutely usable inside and outside. Not the way you'd USUALLY take a call, but it's in there, and it works.
Lastly, it has reasonable sound quality, including depth of bass, when it's sitting out on the driveway, or on the railing of the back porch. When you really want to emphasize the amount of bass that comes out of it, the rear passive radiators are best about a foot away from a solid vertical surface to "reflect" the bass back at the unsuspecting listener. But, as an audio companion to, for example, go out on the driveway while you work on the car, or do some carpentry, or what have you - it actually sounds pretty decent. Wide open, outside, no reflection, but it still manages to produce quality sound.
Now, lastly, I'd like to touch upon comparing this to another Sony product, the bigger brother's bigger brother, the Sony RDHGTK37IP "Party Speaker". It is big, heavy, it has blinking LED lights, it's a 2-way 2-speaker device with two piezo tweeters and two 8" woofers in a sealed enclosure. It's big, it's neat-looking, and you'd think it's a beast with the bass just looking at pictures of it - kind of like a Ferrari looks fast sitting still. Well, I bought one. I thought it may have a kind of deep bass oomph comparable to a larger speaker system with the big drivers and ample amplifiers, where maybe I could sit it outside and enjoy home-theater type of audio while I'm working on a barbecue or turning wrenches. Oh, no. No, that didn't turn out to be true. It's a good device for loud listening, but... read my review for the rest. What is relevant here is that I did a side-by-side comparison between that monster, and the SRS-X5. The SRS-X5 won. It wins, comfortably. Inside and outside, this little brick produces deeper, more pronounced bass at low to moderate listening levels, more rich, full sound, better soundphase, better soundstage, and all-around, better sound quality. That is nothing short of miraculous engineering, and taken from Sony's own product line. Bigger is NOT better; unless you plan to fill a gymnasium with blaring-loud, thumping, blaring bass and dodgy treble and distorted midranges, you don't want a big thing like that, or like the Behringer Eurolive speakers. This little speaker wins, it simply wins.
Those couple of things make this better than any competitor, even better than any other Sony. Someone may invent a better bluetooth speaker, and I certainly hope they do - we will all benefit - but right now, having listened to all of the best, listened to the rest, and even stood it up against something that should have blown it away, it wins. You simply don't need to buy anything else to be absolutely guaranteed an incredible listening experience in any space, any time, all day long.
I'm an impartial consumer, not paid by Sony (or anyone else mentioned here), but after having written all of this, I feel like I should be! Anyway, I hope I've delivered a useful benchmark-based review. Target has these set up on a display, you can pair your phone and listen; Walmart, Best Buy and others may carry it. Sound quality is so subjective, I encourage you to go give a listen, but if you want to take the word of an amateur audiophile (who used to design and build speakers by hand!), and maybe wouldn't miss the price of the unit, you simply can't be disappointed by this SRS-X5, unless you'll be disappointed by ALL bluetooth speakers; this simply is the state of the art, as good as it gets in 2014 and heading in to 2015. Reputable professional reviews, fortunately, do agree with my conclusion.
Happy listening!
