Review: Sony BTX500 wireless Bluetooth speaker

If you?ve ever wanted to coax big sound from some tiny MP3 player on the go and without wires, you?ve got to love your growing wealth of options. What once seemed like a niche space ? really, how often does anyone need a completely wireless speaker? ? has blossomed into a surprisingly thriving market.

Anyone desperate for a speaker they can take to a picnic or a cookout, or even an small impromptu house party, suddenly has a wealth of options. There?s the Big Jambox from Jawbone and Bose?s Soundlink and Pioneer?s new line of portable speakers. And now there?s a smartly designed new kid on the block in Sony?s SRS-BTX500.

At $299, the BTX500 sits at the high end of a host of mobile Bluetooth speakers from Sony. The smallest is the SRS-BTV5, and a step up from that there?s the BTX300. Both are solid speakers in their own right, but the BTX500 is easily the most impressive of the three. It?s a bit of a space eater and it?s hardly suitcase-friendly (leave that to the BTX300), but aside from that, it can hold its own with any device in a suddenly crowded market.

Sony gives you a Bluetooth speaker that does everything, and it likely needs just about every one of its four-plus pounds to do so. Sony bundles in a speakerphone, USB charging capabilities, and ever-increasingly popular NFC technology for easy, one-tap Bluetooth connections. Some devices ? most notably, the iPhone ? aren?t supporting NFC, but Sony?s making a big push for it in 2013, and the early results certainly seem solid.

The sheer size of the BTX ? it more than a foot long and a half-foot high ? makes it seem unappealing as a travel item, but Sony bundles in a cloth carrying case (unlike Jawbone, which sells a separate case for its Big Jambox), and yes, despite its size, the speaker can fit into your luggage.

The implication is clear: This is a do-it-all speaker, the kind that should be able to meet a variety of needs.

RELATED: REVIEW: SONY'S SRS-BTV5 WIRELESS SPEAKER

I?ve seen other devices take this similar approach, of course, and it truly challenging. Too many gadgets chase this ideal, falling into a jack-of-all-trades trap. But Sony maintains its focus here, and it starts with quality sound, which Sony delivers in abundance here.

The BTX500 delivers impressively powerful and impactful sound, starting with the bass. You?ll hear some solid thump in Jay-Z?s ?Can I Get a What What,? far more thump than you?d get from the Soundlink. Clarity doesn?t suffer, though, and you won?t get any sense of crackling or distortion until you approach something around 90% of full volume. Even then, for music at least, it?s not noticeable enough to be truly distracting.

I found listening to music to be a joy on the BTX500, and movie viewing was equally impressive. The BTX500 also did a tremendous job of enhancing my gaming experience, pairing easily with the PS Vita and delivering clear and great voice reproduction (with the slightest hint of latency, as usual) in Soul Sacrifice.

Sony?s ability to nail the sound quality in the BTX makes the other features that much more enjoyable. First off, the unit looks attractive with a solid black speaker front and brushed aluminum along the sides. The buttons are well-placed, and pairing and other features such as MegaBass are intuitive. A glowing blue light bar completes the design, and the entire look exudes understated, sophisticated polish.

On the back side sits an easy flipstand, a charging port, an audio in jack, and that USB charging port. The USB charging port?s usefulness is limited since it?s only usable when the speaker is plugged in, but it?s a nice touch nonetheless.

There are a few downsides, but none are dealbreakers. The cloth carrying case is a brilliant protective touch, but Sony leaves no room for the charging adapter in that package. That little omission is made slightly more noticeable by the BTX500?s battery life. You can get 6 to 8 hours out of it, but if you?ve taken it on a road trip west, you?ll wish you could easily package charger and unit in the same space. No such luck. And while the speakerphone gets the job done, it?s hardly Jambox-level.

Then again, nearly every one of these new Bluetooth speakers has a handful of flaws, so you can?t dock Sony too much. If you value ideal sound over size, though, this is the Bluetooth speaker for you.

Source: http://feeds.nydailynews.com/~r/NydnRss/~3/XuDGiXar_mw/story01.htm

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