The Sony XB72 Bluetooth Home Audio Speaker is a large powerful speaker that dazzles with great sound quality as well as customizable LED lighting, supports Bluetooth, and has a surprising number of features. In the box you’ll find the speaker, a power cable, and quick-start/reference guides.
The speaker itself has dimensions: 13 5/8” x 25 7/8” x 15” and weighs about 26 lb 16 oz. Thankfully the speaker comes with a carrying handle, which makes moving and positioning the speaker convenient, since the speaker can be oriented vertically or horizontally. The speaker itself can crank out the volume with three 2" tweeters and two 6 3/8” woofers. In addition to sound, the speaker also has built-in lights: a strobe light, LED lights outlining the speaker cabinet, and lights for each speaker. Note that these lights are on by default, though they can be turned off with a button on the top of the speaker.
The main controls are on the top of the speaker, including:
- Power button with a light indicating when the speaker is powered
- Volume + and - buttons
- Bluetooth, USB, Tuner, and Audio-In lights to indicate the audio input mode selected
- Function button to select the audio input mode or pair the speaker to a device
- Previous and Next buttons to select the next audio track or FM frequency
- Play/Pause/Call button to start/stop the audio track or allow you to receive a call–the speaker has a built-in mic you can use to take the call
- Add button/indicator to pair the speaker with another speaker
- W Party Chain button/indicator to wirelessly chain multiple speakers together or turn on/off the lights with a long press of the button
- Live button/indicator to select a “live” sound setting
- Extra Bass button/indicator to select noticeable extra bass frequency support.
The speaker plays audio from Bluetooth or NFC devices, USB devices, or from devices connected with RCA inputs. The speaker can be paired with another XB72 speaker to operate as two speakers playing the same music or as left/right channels in a stereo pair. The speaker has a built-in mic and supports taking or making calls. Multiple Sony speakers can be chained together via Bluetooth in a wireless “block party chain” mode – one speaker acts as the “party host” and the other chained speakers as “party guests”, playing the audio played by the party host.
The back of the speaker has the power and connection ports, including AC IN, one pair of RCA inputs and one pair of RCA outputs, a 1/4 inch line level mic input jack, mic volume knob, a wired Party Chain button, and a USB port (supports charging USB devices at 5V 2.1A as well as music playback for MP3, WMA, AAC, and WAV file formats). Also on the back is a telescoping FM antenna.
The mic port and volume control knob are meant for karaoke. This is a line level mic port–you can’t hook an unpowered mic up to the speaker directly, so you’ll need to plug your mic into some sort of audio interface or mixer and then connect your audio device to the mic input port. Similar to the wireless party chain mode, with the wired Party Chain button multiple speakers can also be chained together using the RCA input/output jacks, with one speaker operating as the party host.
In addition to all the features discussed above, there are more features accessible using the Sony Music Center or Fiestable apps for iOS and Android. For example, in the Music Center app you can customize the sound with an equalizer (there are multiple pre-saved EQ profiles or you can customize the sound yourself with a seven-band EQ) or add a DJ effect like a flanger. You can also customize the lighting by selecting a lighting mode, such as:
- RAVE: heavy strobe flashes
- CHILL: for relaxing music
- HOT: warm colors
- COOL: Cold colors.
You can also play songs from your song library and tune the FM radio. However, at least on iOS the app interface seemed dated and I frankly preferred just playing songs via the iOS Apple Music app–I really only use the Sony app if I want to remotely change the lighting settings. To make any app changes you often must work through multiple screens and the refresh-rate is slow, so making any one change takes some time.
All in all, I found the audio quality from the Sony XB72 Bluetooth Home Audio Speaker to be surprisingly good–the audio is clear even at high volumes and the extra bass mode gives those bass lines a surprising kick. So while there are more features accessible in the apps, the star is the speaker itself. With great audio quality and customizable lighting effects this speaker will shine at any party.
- Pricing and Availability on Amazon: Sony xB72 Bluetooth Home Audio Speaker
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