Customer Ratings & Reviews

So glad I could review this years XB series speaker. I also have last years model XB31 and am still very happy with it. The differences appearance wise is the new XB32 has the same fabric front, but a soft touch rubber / plastic shell whereas as the XB31 was completely wrapped in the fabric. Personal choice here, I prefer the total wrap of the fabric. The outside of the XB32 shows fingerprints. The lighting design is slightly different on the sides of the speaker as well. The XM32 is a smidge wider. Nice added touch is the added ‘Live’ button to the top panel. This allows you to change the sound setting without having to go into the Sony app. Sound is as good as ever with rich bass and full sound. I still don’t get the party booster feature. This is where you can tap the speaker for different instrument sounds. Pretty corny if you ask me, however, it must appeal to some audience if they have brought it back. You again have the same type of light illumination feature that you can control via the Sony Music Center app or the new Fiestable App. This new app also allows you to change volume, track, play and pause by the movement of your phone. Battery life still great and With an IP67 rating, your speaker can be dropped in water, which I have done with the XB31 many times at the lake. (Okay, sometimes dip it in the water just to freak someone out :-)) Well, now since I have 2 similar speakers I can now take advantage of the ‘Party Chain’ mode. This allows you to connect the two speakers to play from the same device. The audio is sometimes a hair off in timing, but if you spread the speakers enough, you may not notice this. The other feature I was hoping I could use was ‘ADD’ feature. This allow you to add one speaker as a Left channel and the other as a Right channel. However, I could not use this since my models are a year apart which I thought was pretty lame. Apparently, you must have identical model numbers to use this feature. Overall still a great buy. Very portable, great sound, great battery, waterproof and you can even charge your smartphone from this thing. I highly recommend again this year.

The XB32 is one of the 2019 editions from Sony's XB lineup. It is similar to the XB31 in many ways. The shape is slightly different, along with the lighting pattern. The sound is really good, as you would expect from Sony. It has regular and Live modes. The Live mode gives a wider sound field to try and replicate the sound from a live concert. Both modes sound pretty good to me. The speaker weighs just over two pounds and is small enough to be carried easily. It has mostly a rubberized exterior but has a mesh front. Everything is sealed off and is IP67 rated for water and dust. You can drop it in the pool and it should be okay. The XB32 utilizes the Sony Music Center app to control things such as grouping several speakers in a party chain and to control the lighting mode and party booster mode. With Party Booster, you can beat on the speaker to make different sounds, although I don't think it works all that well. You can pair your phone via Bluetooth or NFC and use the speaker from whatever music source you want. You don't need to go through the Sony app. Battery life is supposed to last 24 hours or 14 hours on extra bass mode, although I haven't tested those numbers out. It came with a charge so I could play music right away, which was nice. I'm really happy with the strong sound from such a small speaker. I'm super happy with this speaker and I would recommend it to a friend.

A great overall speaker. Fun to watch, great audio and works as a portable battery to boot! Unboxing: The product is in an informative box, it is straight forward what is inside. You will find the device (very portable size), some foam packaging, manuals, and a micro-USB cable. Pretty simple! Product: I love the quality of the speaker. I got the black model which looks pretty good overall. The grill is fabric, the body is a matte plastic rubberish feel to it. The connection ports in the back are covered by a flap made watertight with a rubber gasket so ensure to keep it closed when around water environments. The top has rubber buttons for power (doubles as pairing), volume, live audio (setting) and play stop button. The device is water and dust/sand resistant. You are supposed to be able to wash it clean after getting too dirty, haven’t had a chance to test that yet. I will be a vendor at a spartan booth this weekend though and plan on taking it as it will be raining a lot expecting lots of mud. I look forward to seeing how tough it is. It looks great, there is a light that goes around the speaker grill and around the sides of the frame, it is accented by strobe lights on the side. The default setting looks great and is bright in a multitude of colors when playing music. You can further adjust this in the “music center” app from Sony. Download the “Fiestable” app for even more color control, not necessary for either app though. Connectivity / sound quality: Pairing is easy, you can pair holding the power button or you can simply use NFC on android devices. Connections are great as it uses LDAC with Android for essentially lossless transmission. You can stream 24-bit audio at 96kHz transferring at 990kbps. This is so much better than SBC or AAC is you have any HD FLAC or ALAC files on your device at full resolution. Granted, the speaker is not high-end audiophile equipment so you might not get the full benefit, but is nice to know compression is not a factor in sound quality here. The sound initially was a little flat to me, I pushed the button that says “live” on it and the audio filled the room. For indoor use it is amazing, for outdoor it is more than enough but it might not fill the area with huge sound. I recommend the larger model for that. I sampled a few artists to see how the held up using LDAC and Pandora on high quality… -Michael Bublé: Great bass on the vocals, guitars and most acoustic instruments sounded crisp. Stereo separation was good but not too intense. Percussion instruments sounded a little muffled. -Steve Aoki: Turn up the volume here! Bass is thumping. This type of music sounds great but might be a little too complex for a speaker in this size. Though bass is great, lots of the other sounds don’t seem to have too much separation and detail felt lost. The faster it got, the less clear. Again, the main part I felt lacking was percussion, I found that if you turn on “clear audio” in the Music center app, it seemed to do a little better across the board. You can also tune the EQ to your liking here. Blink 182 – “I miss you” sounded pretty good across the board, vocals, guitars and percussion all stood out well. Bass was not too heavy and didn’t overpower the rest of the music. In “Aliens Exist”, I felt the general balance was similar. The speaker seems to do well with Pop-punk. Travis Scott – People will very much enjoy the bass here. It is very heavy, and you can feel the vibrations in a room at high volume the vocals got a little distorted but the rest stayed coherent. Overall, I feel people will enjoy this for pop music, rock and rap / R&B and acoustic. For Electronic or other music with lots of overlapping sounds it might get a little muffled. This is not to say it is bad, just not the clearest thing you will find. Keep in mind speaker size and number of woofers / tweeters will affect audio quality so make sure to demo the larger and smaller units as well to see what is to your liking. Other features: I did not get to try it out but you can hook this speaker up to other speakers of the same model (Not sure of other models). If you have more, you can hook it up in stereo or mono mode. The info on the site states you can hook up to 100 units as well. I am sure this is extremely cool, but I do not see many instances where 100 people have the same type of speaker unless you set up an event to ensure this is the case (and have a lot of money to spend). Battery life is rated at 24 hours, this was hard to test as it seems to never run out! You can use the USB-A port on the back to charge your phone as it will function as a portable battery. If you turn on “Extra Bass” which I believe is activated when you turn on “live”, this goes down to 14 hours of battery life. There is an audio in jack in the back as well. To charge you will use a micro USB port. This is annoying and I wish they used USB-C but at least you will not have to worry about any proprietary charging ports here adding to the portability. Summary: I felt this speaker is extremely well rounded. If you do a lot of outdoor activities, this is a great speaker as it is water, dust and shock resistant. It is appealing to look at and has a great build quality. Sound quality is great for its size and if you have any extra ones in the house you can make a crazy little sound setup with it. My only complaint is the micro-USB port but I still give it 5 out of 5 stars.

I have absolutely loved this Sony SRS-XB32 bluetooth speaker. This is the best sounding speaker I've had. The sound quality is clear and crisp, but also offers that deep bass. Sony has a great device here as this speaker looks svelte and perfect with an upscale design. This speaker has been used in the bathroom and fallen into a tub of water and worked perfectly fine afterwards. Truly is waterproof and dust proof along with being shock proof. I haven't had a chance to test it in salt water being that I live in a land locked state, but I'm positive Sony has made a great product that can be used in a salt water environment. Can't wait to get to the ocean to lay this down in the sand and jam out to my music. This speaker offers a really nice battery life. With the lighting effect turned off Sony states you can get 24 hours out of this. There is also a LIVE effect sound mode which alters the sound quality a bit, but provides a different feel for the music you're listening too. Sony also offers a Party Chain feature, which I haven't tried yet. This allows you to connect up to 100 of these speakers and truly bump your music and sound effect. I like the fact that you can also charge a device via the USB port. Fully charged speaker can charge up your phone while playing some music...genius move by Sony on this. This speaker feels great in your hand, as it's durable and also sturdy. Line lighting changes colors if you want to have this feature turned on, and also they have a strobe light feature. Pretty cool to enjoy this in a dark room environment while listening to music. Be sure to download the 2 apps Sony suggests to maximize your music sound and lighting effects. Music Center and Fiestable apps. By far, I would recommend this speaker and it is my favorite for taking with me on the go to work or out on the deck. PRO: Sound quality Great design Lighting effects SONY quality CONS: None...I can't say anything bad about this

Such a great quality, attractive looking speaker! Bluetooth works immediately, and so easy to use this portable speaker. A great buy!

Choosing as Bluetooth speaker can be difficult as there are just SO many available. But, Sony has really done an excellent job with this one. Not only does it sound exceptional, but even looks incredible. The colored LED lights that surround the speaker are bright and truly add to the enjoyment of the music experience. And, surprisingly, the white strobe lights seem even brighter than the full-sized party speakers in the same product line (specifically the GTK-XB72). Up to 100 of these speakers can be linked together in a party chain – which would be truly amazing. But more realistically – if you sync two of them, they can play in stereo. I was Extremely pleased to find that the party chain can also include other Sony speaker models. I linked this SRS-XB32 with the huge GTK-XB72 (see pictures) and was absolutely blown away. The light colors synced up – there was no audio delay (or mismatch / echo) – It was absolutely spectacular. It literally put a smile on my face and I was dancing around until my 4 year old came downstairs to inform me that my music was too loud and to shame me for not inviting him to my 9:00 am dance party. As far as Bass goes. I feel as though they have bragged too much about the bass on this speaker. The bass is good, but a speaker of this size really cannot produce impressive bass. I don’t really think “EXTRA BASS” should be plastered all over the box in giant letters. If you want deep bass, you really need to buy a larger speaker. But again, for a speaker of this size – it is pretty good. If you are holding the speaker, or sitting right next to it- I think you will be truly pleased. But, if you are playing music in the kitchen, or the family room – you won’t be particularly impressed. The wireless range of this speaker is truly great! I left my cellphone on my kitchen table and carried my speaker all around the house. I honestly could not find any room within my 2,500 sqft house where the speaker stopped working. Even when I was on the 2nd floor! Outside I found that I could easily walk 50+ feet from the speaker (with perfect line of site) before the music cut out. It is important to note that our body seems to block Bluetooth signals the quickest (more so than interior walls). If you have the phone in your hand and you turn your back to the speaker, you can go about 30 feet before the music cuts out. The only failures of this speaker: 1) For some reason this speaker does not have physical buttons that would allow you to change the song/track. Sometimes this function shares the Volume + and – buttons, but that’s not even the case here. To change the track, you will need to use the source of your music. You can also use gesture controls within the Fiestable app, but this does not work well at all. 2) This speaker does not accept a Micro SD card, or playback from a USB memory stick. Generic Bluetooth speakers from china almost always let you play music from a Micro SD card. This is helpful when you are at the beach or the pool. Most of the time you want to keep your phone away from water. At the very least, controlling your phone with wet hands is nearly impossible. Since this speaker is essentially water proof (IPX7 which means 3 feet for 30 minutes) – it would be nice if it could play music from a memory card so that the user never has to worry about wireless range, their phone getting wet, or the chance the speaker will answer a phone call while they’re trying to play music. Weirdly this speaker has a drum kit sound effects mode (which they call “Party Booster”). To turn this mode on, press and hold both Vol + & - until the power light flashes. Then you can hit the top, bottom, front, left, or right of the speaker to hear different drum noises. The Party Booster mode doesn’t work particularly well as you have to hit the speaker pretty hard to play the noises. The harder you hit the speaker, the louder the sound effect will be. You can use this mode while music plays, but the sounds almost never fit well with the song playing. I honestly have no idea what the point of is, but I suppose it’s fun to have the feature as a bonus. (I just hope that this feature didn’t increase the price. It is definitely not worth paying extra for.) Overall this speaker is 100% worth purchasing. And, if you have the money, seriously - purchase more than one. They truly are amazing when synced together. It is awesome that the battery lasts a full 24 hours. I don’t even know how long it takes to charge because I’ve never drained the battery. I’ve been able to use it for days then simply plug it in at night. It’s a bit heavy, but the weight is totally worth it as the unit can be used as a back-up battery. Simply plug a charging cable into the USB port on the back and you can charge other devices. Oh, and using the speaker to answer phone calls actually works very well. I’m able to walk around the kitchen while talking to my wife and she said I sounded great the whole time. Truly an awesome speaker! Pros: + Great wireless range. With perfect line of site, range is about 50 feet. Otherwise, the range is just beyond the standard 30 feet. + Waterproof to 1 meter (3.28 feet) for up to 30 minutes (IPX7 rating) + Audio remains crisp & clear even at high volumes + Decent bass compared to the physical size of the speaker + Live Sound mode works well making the audio feel more wide and hollow + Can be used as a back-up battery to charge other devices (using the rear USB port) + NFC (Near Field Communication) feature makes Bluetooth pairing very easy + 3.5 mm audio input + Built in pin-hole microphone works decently for answering phone calls + Rubber feet on the bottom keeps the unit from sliding around and protects from scratches + LED lights are not hidden behind the speaker grill + All lights are bright and clear – they truly look fantastic + Lights are easily controlled via Sony Music Center App (both color & flashing options) + Multiple speakers can connect wirelessly via Bluetooth + Can connect to other Sony Speaker models. For example Sony’s full sized GTK-XB72. + Light colors sync up when multiple speakers are linked + Can play in stereo when synced to a 2nd speaker + When the unit is hit on different sides it makes drum kit sound effects (this mode must be turned on by holding Vol + & - buttons until the power indicator flashes) + Rubberized exterior for easy grip (even when wet) Cons: - Is NOT able to play music from a Micro SD card, or USB memory stick - There are no physical track forward/backwards buttons. Only Volume Up/Down. - Speaker’s grill is covered with cloth mesh. It looks nice, but can get dirty and is harder to clean. - No loops or clip points. There is no strap / no easy way to carry this speaker on the go. - Heavy (but the 24 hour battery (that can also charge other devices) is worth the weight) - The instruction manual does an awful job at explaining product features - Limited salt-water resistance - Gesture Controls within the Fiestable app do not work well at all - Fiestable App is fairly cumbersome and tricky to learn - Voice prompts are only available in English - Battery status only functions when the unit is powered on. - Battery status is verbal only (which is weird for a speaker covered in lights. It seems like a visual option would have worked well.) - Battery status can only tell you when the battery is Fully, 70%, 50%, 20%, or needs to be charged - Comes with a USB charging cable, but now power brick (to plug into a wall) - No optical, or component input

Great speaker, has good bass and I like that it has water resistance (even salt water, although I haven't tested that). So its a great speaker to have a round pool parties or to take to the beach (just make sure are ports flaps are closed!). I like that it can be daisy chained with more of these speakers, to increase the sound! It has some flashing lights, there is an app too, to control this; if that's your thing it can light up your party haha, not my thing though. The battery lasts long, it says may last up to 24 hours but I have not used it that long. I used it for a couple of days and it was still going strong, oh, and I topped off my phone too with it (can charge any usb phone) and still was going strong.

I was very surprised by the sound that came out of this little blue tooth speaker. This is great for having sound at the beach, picnics or working around the house and wanting quality sound with you. With the water proof housing this is great for around the pool or beach. The sound is full and clear and fills a small room with no problems. Like other Sony portable speakers this one to has lights around the perimeter of the speaker grill that flash to the music beat. The lights can be shut off or left on with a push of a button. This is a very good speaker for those on the go.

I own the XB31, the previous model of this speaker. While doing a comparison side by side, I have come to the conclusion that the XB32 Is a step backwards. First you'll notice that the XB32 has that wonderful cloth covering on only the front now. The XB31 was completely covered with it. Not only did this make the XB31 look fantastic, it hid a lot of things, like finger prints, scratches, dirt, etc. The rubberized coating on the XB32 is prone to show finger prints and scratches which will stand out like a sore thumb. Next, the sounds is completely different. The XB32 sounds hollow and faint compared to the XB31, which has a punchy, in your face sound to it. When I linked the speakers up in a party chain, I had first thought the XB32 was not playing any sound, but it just doesn't have the presence the old XB31 has. Also, they are still using micro USB to charge it. A lot of companies are starting to use USB-C. This was a minor disappointment. Please don't get me wrong. It's a decent speaker, but in comparison to Sony's previous version, it feels like they took a step backwards.

I have had numerous JBL speakers, Ultimate Boom and some larger Vizio 360 systems in the past. I've listened to them all and I think this is the best sounding Bluetooth speaker. Don't waste your time on the XB33... Sounds the same as the XB32. I love this speaker because the bass, overall sound quality, volume, size and battery life are awesome. The Sony SRS-XB32 is priced around a hundred bucks which is another awesome feature. I've dropped mine numerous times and it seems really durable. The only thing I don't like is that you have to control everything through an app. This is a Sony thing... Super difficult to "re-pair" or connect to the device if you are someone else is connected to it. I had to Google it about 50 times. Every time I wanted to pair to the device again I had to look it up. It's really annoying.

I've owned a few bluetooth speakers including the XB30 and XB31, the predecessors to this speaker. Sony gets it right when it comes to the audio codec used. Some manufactures overlook that and in turn it results in audio that tends to sound digitised with some horrible sounding artifacts in the upper end of the frequency spectrum...almost like playing a low quality mp3. The sub bass is amazing and well-rounded, which is the norm with sony. The speaker is sort of waterproof which is a plus. People complain about the rubber surface that replaces the cloth of the previous version, but personally its great. Great lights...nuff said there. The step back is the tuning of the speaker...which has surprisingly gotten slightly worse with each version. The XB30 was great, hardly needed any eqing on any device, the XB31 was great, but lacked the snap with hard hitting drums and other transients, the XB32 has a nasally and hollow quality about it. Songs tend to sound like they're being played through headphones that are being blasted...distorted guitars sound shrill, synths pierce through in a bad way, vocals are indistinguishable and it all gets worse as you drive the speaker louder. Fortunately all that is done away with if you know your way around a parametric eq. Boost anywhere from 125hs to 500hz to restore some punch and body to the sound, and dip around 4 to 5k to remove the harshness and maybe add some top end anywhere from 8k to 20k but don't. It doesn't require drastic adjustments just a 1 to 3db in either direction but after that the speaker comes right to life. I've owned speakers that were great right out of the box, and speakers that required some tweaking. It's always better to have a product just work the first time you power it up, but it's understandable if it needs a little love, and I would still recommend this to anyone despite its VERY minor sonic drawbacks.

Best Bluetooth purchase!!! Bass felt great audio quality! Batt life seemingly longer w/o lights. Has two speakers, I like the option of using one or both. Just a great buy over all! The upgarded model cost more and has less features, guess if you like the lights then the upgraded model would be the way to go, if that's no never mind then you will enjoy this model just fine. Great sound, deep bass, optional party lights, what's not to love!

I loved this speaker, until the charging port got kind of worn out. Maybe I used it too much, I dunno. But it gets really loud, I love the bright disco lights on it. I’ve carried it everywhere, on trips to the lake, to the beach, it’s gone on vacations, in my car. I don’t love the extra Sony platform, but meh. It’s easily bypassed. I also like that I can charge things FROM it, i.e., you can charge your phone from it. (BONUS!!!) But like i said, the charging port got really loose, so when I plug it in I sort of have to prop it against something so it will keep charging. But as you can probably tell from my review, I’d dragged this thing all over the country. Well, even the world. I think it’s traveled to three countries with me. Good job, world traveling bluetooth speaker!

perfect size love how it lights up deferent colors excellent sound very loud for a small speaker great bass sounds very clear sounds perfect for when you’re working in a garage or out riding around on a bike Definitely an A+

Excellent speaker for wet environment. Had my office bathroom remodeled to add a steam unit to my shower due to Covid shutting down the steam room at the gym I go to. I was going to add a waterproof sound system to the steam shower but I had already spent way more than expected so this waterproof bluetooth speaker was the only way to go. It works perfectly, has super long battery life, and has really good deep bass. Plus, the lights change with the beat of the music which is really cool. I would definitely purchase again!

I recently bought this to suppliment another bluetooth speaker, but it plugs in, and I wanted this battery powered unit. This speaker is compact, easy to use, the blue tooth is flawless, but most importantly, it has a deep bass sound from such a small package. I use it out by my pool to stream music and NPR.....I love it. You will too....PS, battery life is great also.

Full sound, a bit bassy with the boost enabled. Connects up via Bluetooth easily to phones, tablets, even my PC! Holds a charge well, has USB output for charging other devices which is great for charging headphones. The lights are more fun than I thought they'd be. Now my wife wants one to... lol

I LOVE THIS THING!!!! The sound, the lighting, the bass, the connection... everything is as easy as it should be. I got it half off with a Best Buy gift card and let me tell you... it’s such a good investment. The thing is waterproof, dustproof and I CAN CHARGE MY PHONE WITH IT. please buy it :)

Great sound, easy connectivity and you can take it anywhere. The lights are an option - seems like if you’re in need of that, they’ll offer some fun. Haven’t tried out the waterproof aspects yet - will probably let that test come about organically - but it’s nice peace of mind when listening on the water.

SONY Hit it with this portable speaker. Very good bass and volume, Bluetooth connectivity easy but the instructions are a bit sketchy - Illustrations that are not clear, a few written words would REALLY help - Thanks for Youtube, I had to look up hot to pair 2 speakers together but it worked Great.