Customer Ratings & Reviews

This little guy is impressive. As a Bluetooth speaker it does its job and then some. The sound is well balanced until you turn it to the very highest volume, and then of course you lose clarity. Some cool features include usb, speakerphone and the coolest is the light system. Its like a little party in a pill/speakerbox. How water and sand resistant, I’m not 100% sure. A little rain maybe but the sand is just annoying. You can connect this speaker to virtually anything with Bluetooth. Or plug in via auxiliary. Make sure you read the instructions to get the full use of the speaker. Lastly, the speaker is nicely built and sturdy. Great size to travel with or keep in your home and move from room to room.

This is one of the highest quality electornic devices I have ever gawked over everytime I use it or even walk past it, touched, drenched in soap and water, beat like a drum, dropped, and otherwise pushed to its limits (which it doesn't even seem to have). It is SOLID in EVERY way. The sound is simply indicative we've moved into a new era of portable audio. The Aliens must have visited Sony and bestowed upon them some new clarity and technique at creating space age awesomeness. This thing will blow you out of your house and down the street -- and still play all day long on one charge. It also charges to 100% extremely fast. The app which controls the lights, equalizer, and chaining together of up to 100 of the same model speaker, and even multiple Bluetooth speakers of any brand, is a multi-room house's dream come true or a party's source of truly immersive sound and light to send everyone into wild eye and eargasms. The app is easy to use and easy to make the speaker sing bright and bassy, no matter the quality of the recording. Being waterproof is a shower jammer's (like me) major selling point. It has the most beautiful woven surface of some sort of rubberized poly-cotton blend, and it doesn't pick or move. It feels awesome in your hands and doesn't slip; very unique surface. The designers have taste and smarts. The Bluetooth phone function is lovely for talking to someone on the phone in bed or in the shower -- peoppe can hear you clear as a bell even if you're not speaking in its direction. Also, I like to stream my Roku's audio to the Roku remote app on my phone and then Bluetooth the audio from the phone to this speaker. It has no lag and makes the movie or show explode into surround sound, as opposed to listening to the lackluster TV's wimpy 10-watt speakers. What else? Well, as a percussionist, this thing really has a cherry on top with the fact you can play an array of percussion instruments on the speaker itself. You can assign (or use presets) instruments to different surfaces of the speaker and then you can play the speaker like a drum and add your own beats to the music. Crazy -- just absolutely crazy, sexy, cool; well worth the money. I have a feeling this thing will last a very long time and will be enjoyed by the discerning inhabitants of my houz for many, many years. This thing will hold it's value well and will never be out of style. Climb in the hooptie and make like a streak to Best Buy and procure one, five or .com 100 of these babies to the hizzy post haste. It is a quality of life issue... Just do it. You will LOVE it! #LifeChanged #BarRaised

I own several wifi speakers, maybe 10 different units. This unit is by far the best one of the bunch. There are two reasons why i like this one better than all others. Entertainment, Sound and App functionality all differentiate this item from the others. Entertainment - There are several features of this speaker that make it better than others. There is a built in party mode that transforms the speaker into a sound machine where every side of the speaker makes a different sound over the music that is pumping out. There is also dynamic lighting that changes, strobes, and pulsates to match the beats of the music. A littly gimmicy but overall pretty cool. These 2 features paired the the ability to have multiple speakers coordiated at once truely does make this speaker for the best party speakers. The companion app that is recommended to download has many featuyres. Switch sound profiles, party mode, and what mood of lighting effects you want to dfisplay. Super easy to use.... although there was some small nuance that created a duplicate speaker in the roster of eligible speakers. Still, though, not enough to negate my experience. Lastly, the sound. This unit bumps. Deep Super bass mode alongside crisp treble. No complaints. All in all, a very high qualiuty speaker with lots of bells and "party" whistles that will assure to be a top notch pick for those who like to entertain.

I know that the inclusion of 8 +s to the A is a bit pompous and overzealous but that's how great and exciting this truly portable and tough bluetooth speaker is! I am heavily/greatly/beyond words impressed by this device, and you should have no hesitation whatsoever in purchasing this. There are other options of the XB30 and even the XB40, but in my opinion, you can't go wrong with the XB31 (and it looks the nicest of the 3 in my opinion as well). The sound is nice and crisp, the speaker looks sleek, and Sony wasn't kidding about the 3D immersive sound experience you get--it's surprisingly effective for such a device at this price range. Having a built in microphone as well is a bit overconfident in its abilities. Sony figured, "What else can we add? Let's add a built in microphone! I mean why not?" and they went with it, and it does what it should. Although unnecessary, it works! I am truly impressed by this device and recommend it without reservation. If it was a person, it would land any job.

I had purchased a SRS-XB40 for my daughter over a year ago. it sounded great and plenty of volume. Thinking I didn't need a speaker as loud, I purchased this one. Overall sound was good, good bass, easy blue tooth at a longer distance than the 40, and good battery life. After listening to it for about two weeks in different rooms of my home, I come to realize that I was playing it at mostly max volume. I returned it and purchased the SRS-XB41, which is the next model after the 40. The quality of sound is the same but there is much more volume and great for a portable speaker. I've linked it to my Samsung S9 phone, I-pod touch, and Amazon echo without a problem and it will receive the blue tooth signal anywhere within the house and even outside 25-30 feet and probably farther.

Sony has always turned out top notch audio gear. From headphones to components, Sony turns out great gear (in fact, their latest go at noise cancelling headphones the WH-1000XM2 are THE best NC headphones out there) and the SRS-XB31 is no exception. Sound-wise this thing turns out a great sound with an impressive amount of bass for something as small as it is (perhaps a little too much bass). That being said, the XB31 is supposed to amp up your party with a light show that gets at tad annoying straight out of the box. If bass heavy tunes that will literally rattle your desk and seizure inducing strobe lights are your thing, then this is a 5 star product with no qualifications. If, perhaps, you prefer your music to be a bit more pure sounding and don't want an 80's disco in your home, it would only be a 3.5. Where Sony clinches a 5 star rating is with the Music Center app. You don't like the strobes, turn them off. Want to change up the equalizer to dial back the bass a smidge, you can do that. Want to play with a ton of other lighting, power, and connection settings you have it all at the touch of a finger. On top of that you get an IP67 dust/waterproof rating which means this thing is dust proof and can be submerged for 30 minutes in water with no problem. The fabric cover is really nice and the fit and finish is superb (no seams or stray fibers). This is a solid bluetooth speaker with an impressive 24 hour battery that even has a port that can charge your cell phone at 1 amp. I couldn't find out the mAh rating for the battery in the spec so I don't know how much it can charge a phone. If you are looking for a great sounding, looking, and tough bluetooth speaker, don't look any further, just be sure to download the Music Center App, the increased functionality is a must. Sony has turned out another winner!

I will start out by saying I am a bit of an audiophile and have never really found a Bluetooth speaker that I loved because most of them have really poor sound quality and lack any kind of bass. I have owned other Sony speakers in the past and they have been the best ones I could find that were reasonably priced and still sounded acceptable. I have to say, this little speaker blew me away! Right out of the box the design of the speaker looks amazing. It feels very nice and solid and is clearly very well made! I love the added light show that comes with the speaker. There is a chain of LED lights that run along the front and sided of the speaker as well as 2 strobes that are inside the speaker. While it is a bit of a novelty, I think its pretty cool looking and will definitely make it stand out from other Bluetooth speakers. Another thing that will help it stand out is the great sound quality! This is a seaker where extra bass really does mean extra bass. I was shocked at how much bass this little speaker put out. While its not "rattle the walls" kind of bass. It is a very respectable and full sounding bass. Added in with nice balanced mids and highs and you have an all around great sounding speaker! IF you pair it with the Sony Music center app you get a little more control as well. You get a 3-band EQ as well as the ability to switch between normal, extra bass, and live sound modes. Normal sounds bland, but the other modes sound great! There are also settings in the app to change the kind of light show the speaker puts off too. IT also has what Sony is calling "Party Booster" which is where you can tap different parts of the speaker and it will emit different sounds like drums, cowbell, and different electronic sounding percussive noises. This is also kind of a novelty. I found myself playing with it right out of the box, but then didnt really use it much after that. Its also kind of hit or miss to get it to work well. Sometimes you really have to smack the speaker to get a loud sound out of it. Overall, this is a very solid Bluetooth speaker at a very respectable price for what it is. If you are in the market for a Bluetooth speaker, definitely give this one a listen!!

The Sony SRS- XB31 exceeded what I thought I would get in a mid priced Bluetooth speaker. The sound is phenomenal, but just like any other audio device it depends on how hard you push it. I’ve never reached, nor come close to a point, where I felt it “couldn’t handle it”. That’s why I bought the larger model. Why would I buy the smaller model to keep it set at 95% all of the time only to be surprised at shorter time between charging intervals, and a short speaker life? Don’t be penny wise and dollar foolish. Buy what will handle your needs. Sorry, I digressed with my .02¢ haha. Since the bass is the main selling point, I can say Sony has hit the mark. I have listened to alternative, classic rock, metal, funk, old school jazz, folk, bluegrass, and all sound phenomenal. My kids have put it through the R&B, dance music with the bass heavier grooves, and they think it sounds great too. We have not had an instance where distortion or cutting out has been a problem. (I got a couple Christmas presents all lined up. I just hope their roommates can still study, haha) As far as the light show is concerned don’t let that put you off. I almost walked away because of the lights, but a sales rep showed me that not only could you turn it off completely, you could also change it. (I was gifted a speaker with a “light show” that could not be turned off, and because of health problems we didn’t get along). With the Sony SRS-XB31 you can pick from multiple light shows, turn the lights off completely, or just choose to have a nice relaxing color along the outside of the speaker. I can’t remember the name of the one I prefer, but it might be cinnamon. It is super relaxing with all the lights off. The lime green is pretty sweet too. A couple more points, you can daisy chain this speaker with others of the same model. Which is nice as I actually use this with my tv in lieu of a soundbar. As others have said the app won’t blow your mind. It simply does what it needs to do. Who wants an extra $5 worked into the price for a slick looking app that does the same thing?Overall, this speaker is a total winner in my book, and just like anything else it’ll take some tweaking out of the box to achieve the sound you want/like, but I think that’s half the fun. Who doesn’t love pulling a new gadget out of a box, checking out all of the settings, features, and figuring it out? Great job Sony!

I love this speaker. The sound quality is awesome. I'm not an audiophile so I can't get into the highs and lows and all that other stuff, but I can say that between this and my Bose, I'll pick up this one every time and I'm a huge fan of Bose. It can get loud enough. I only have one right now so I can't say how it would sound linked up with another. Looks great. I have the blue one. It has a fabric feel to it which I like. The lights are a fun plus. Best portable speaker I've purchased and hope to purchase a second one soon.

This is a solid speaker that sounds great. I think kids might really like the flashing lights, and I have to admit they were kind of mesmerizing to watch pulsing and flashing in time to the music. But, if that's not your thing, you can turn the lights off and still have great sound from a plain old unlit speaker. Kids will probably also like the "Party Booster" function where you can tap various places on the speaker to add your own sounds to the music--including more cowbell! The speaker has a line-in port which is a nice touch. The 24-hr battery in the speaker also has a USB port so you can charge other devices from it, though it won't be water proof while you have the flap open for these connections. This is also where you plug in to charge the speaker, which takes about 5 hours for a full charge according to the docs. Another cool feature is the ability to "wireless party chain" multiple speakers together. If you're entertaining I could see how it'd be fun to have music synchronized everywhere with the flashing lights. According to the docs you can link up to 100 speakers together like that. So, if you've got $15K to spare you could have a pretty impressive sound system! Overall, it's a great portable bluetooth speaker that also seems like a good value.

I have had my eye on the Sony Bluetooth speakers for a while now. During the Christmas season, they dropped in price and were tempting! Sony has a winner with these products for sure....more about this later. I currently use JBL Charge 3 speakers, one connected to Google Home. The SONY SRS-XB31 sounds slightly better to my untuned ear. I am an audiophile of sorts without that technical knowledge that many people have. The bass sounds better, the speaker is louder with crisper sound, and "live sound" mode is amazing!! While the "strobes" may seem gimmicky....they were at first to me...I learned to enjoy this feature! Sound quality wise, feature wise, build quality wise, and otherwise, Sony has a winner!! The XB31 features an USB port for charging, wireless party chain of up to 100 speakers, long 24 hour battery life, and dustproof/waterproof housing.

The Sony SRS-XB31 Portable Bluetooth Speaker is a very good addition for a family. It's almost like having a ready to go party in a small package. With the light show and sound, it will easily make itself the life of the party. I don't claim to be an audiophile, but the Sony SRS-XB31 is pretty darn good. I enjoy clear vocals and a good base thump depending on what I am listening to. It's not near as good as some other high end pieces that I have in the house, but it's easily better than most. One of my favorite things to do is to connect it to my Amazon Echo Dot to increase it's sound. I can do this through the 3.5mm jack that is there. This along with the NFC/Bluetooth connections make this very easy to pair with phones and other devices to stream audio. Some of my other favorite things are: -The button to turn off the lights (this same button also will tell you what your battery level it at) -USB out for charging a device -The rubber feet on the bottom for grip -How light it is to carry around -It can be paired with others -A somewhat rubber sealed cover for the button and plug areas -Identifiable NFC locator on top -The Sony Extra Bass Some things that I wish were better: -A button on the speaker to control the bass -A light near or back-lit area for the buttons -The "Party Booster" option is kind of gimmicky and it doesn't work the greatest

This Speaker sounds great, the bass was decent. My daughter loves the option for the colored lights that synch with the beat. It is pretty rugged and water resistant so it can be provide on site for the for the home remodel we are doing.

This portable speaker sums up the true sound and clarity. Quality of build is outstanding and in terms of sound quality; this speakers features clear and deep punchy bass. The feature I liked most is the party booster that makes me feel I’m in the middle of party with light bar around the speaker beside the ability of tapping on it to get DJ sound. I loved it!!!!

I got this for my girlfriend for Christmas and she loved it. She listens to music and audio books and uses this frequently. Has a decent battery life and great sound. She was surprised by the bass. Easy to use.

This speaker is small, but the sound is clear and loud, and if you love bass in your music, this is the speaker to have. Very cool at night with the lights.

This sounds great! The battery lasts a long time. I love looking at it because the lights are so pretty. It’s small and I take it everywhere.

Great gift for teenages and adults, terrific sound and volume, fantastic light show to beat, and easy to transport, waterproof!!

Great sound nice clarity powerful extra bass loud volume perfect to carry around waterproof.......

I think that finding a perfect Bluetooth speaker is a bit of a white whale. And, even if I found my white whale, it may be entirely different from anyone else’s—and that makes reviewing these things both difficult and sometimes frustrating. For instance, last June I got my hands on a speaker that from a company, little known in the audio world, that I thought was going to blow my mind—and it was, in large, a total dud. It’s no secret here that I get a good amount of stuff that I don’t have to pay for, so for me, reviewing them doesn’t carry any inherent risks; from my point of view, my reviews might help you decide whether or not you want to try something out, which is really, really awesome. That said, I also think that I am (just like anyone else) invariably influenced by the speakers that I use most, and I use them most because they are the best of what I need them to be. Nary a room in my house isn’t, or hasn’t, been adorned with some kind of speaker technology that I use on a pretty regular basis; my love for technology aside, I LOVE listening to music. And for me, the best all around speaker I have used is the Bose SoundLink Mini II, which I bought a couple years ago. The SoundLink has become my measuring stick for all other speakers; I put it up against similarly sized and priced speakers from the same market, and it dominated in every matchup; I even compared it to speakers in a completely different market, namely a $400 Samsung Soundbar and the latest Apple HomePod. And, while it certainly is not a better sounding speaker than either of those, this little guy has held its own well. At this point, I’ve set up two big things that you might be thinking I’m headed towards: first, the wireless speaker white whale, and second, the speaker that can unseat the current undefeated champion. Spoiler alert—I will make neither of those claims in this review, at least not in that way. Sony is no stranger to the audio market, and I really like their stuff; my first “nice” on-ear headphones were a pair of $20 Sonys that I had for many, many years (wasn’t it nice when prices for good audio gear weren’t so inflated??). A year after I got my SoundLink, Sony released an obviously competing product that had a good sale going, so I picked it up. Sad to say, I was massively disappointed and had to return the product which couldn’t hold its own against the SoundLink. But the audio market has changed a bit since then, and for Sony and their line of Extra Bass headphones and speakers, another product has emerged which I was curious enough to try out. The product is the SRS-XB31, an incredibly Sony-esque identifier. This speaker sits in their Extra Bass line as a competitor (at least in size) to my aging Bose SoundLink Mini II. It has all the minimum bells and whistles—long battery life, the ability to connect multiple devices (up to 100 of them, which seems to be something that no one would ever use), USB power out for charging your devices if necessary, auxiliary input jack, and it’s IP67 certified for water resistance. If the thing looks good and sounds good, we might have a winner. First, the design—Sony jumped on the all-mesh body bandwagon with this one, and it looks great (I have a feeling that many other manufacturers are going to copy this design language). The model I have is all black, but it also comes in blue and white. The black is a classic look to me, very clean. It has a rounded back and a flat front, and there is no question about which direction this thing is supposed to face—so keep in mind this is not a 360-degree speaker. The bottom of the speaker has 4 small rubber feet to keep it stationary while in use, but I would have liked to see an option to set this thing on its side for a more vertical placement as well (since its directional, this should have very little impact on the sound). And if that’s all there was to this speaker, I’d give it a solid thumbs up on design. But, sadly, it’s not everything. This speaker is intended as a party speaker—its goal to apparently liven up the group of rebelling teens who took their Sony SRS-XB31’s down to the beach, to dance around a campfire. No, but seriously, that’s the image they portray in their video. And what rebellious teenage beach party is complete without a strip of LED lights across the top and bottom of the speaker, which animates to the beat of your music? No, I’m not sure either. The light strips are a huge gimmick to me, so distractingly awful that I had to turn them off—which, thankfully, you can do with a button on the back…so you don’t need to navigate through the frustratingly-menu-based app that Sony puts out there for you. Honestly, I was trying to listen to the audio quality and couldn’t stop watching the blinking lights…it was annoying, to say the least. But, for what it’s worth, using the app you can change the light strips to be more or less annoying, even solid colors if you want—so that’s kind of nice, I guess. I’ll get to the app more later. But on to the important stuff: the sound. If you’ve ever used any of Sony’s XB gear, this device will not surprise you at all. Yes, it is a bass-heavy device but that functionality can be turned off to completely flatten the sound profile. But straight out of the box, it’s a device that seems to compete well in the space, as there were definitely songs that I think the XB31 handled better than my tried-and-true Bose speaker. But to be clear, you’re not going to pick this up because you love listening to vocal tracks or orchestral music (although the software-enabled “Live Sound” feature did a good job accenting some of the mids and highs that a typically bass-heavy speaker will leave as garbled mush. For hip-hop, pop, and even some classic rock and roll, this thing is a great little speaker. What makes it better is the Music app from Sony, although I have my complaints about it as well. The user interface is not great. There is a portion of the app that basically impersonates your existing music app, which makes no sense at all unless you really hate the native music player on your device. The menu system is overly complicated, and the mixer (possibly the most important part of the app) is hidden a few menus deep. All that said, functionality like adjusting the lighting, creating quick-launch links to apps like the default music player, Netflix and Youtube, and other small tweaks are all there to help enhance your experience. It’s not a great app, but it gives you access to a mixer, which is always nice to see. Back to gimmicks, I have to mention one portion of the app which is probably worse than the LED light strips—the “Party Booster,” which enables you to turn the speaker into a mini drum kit, adding your own percussion to already professionally-produced songs. Because why not. It really helps that beach party atmosphere. Otherwise, it’s a Bluetooth speaker. There are controls on the device, allowing you to play, pause, adjust volume. It is NFC-enabled, but it doesn’t have the latest Bluetooth 5.0 and doesn’t have USB Type-C charging. It retails at $150, which is really, really accessible for this good of a speaker, and even though it has some tremendously gimmicky features, it does the other stuff well enough to be worth the price…and maybe, MAYBE just a little bit better than my trusty Bose.