So for the lest few months Sony has been updating their box speakers with their new XV family of speakers. And for the most part these speakers are refined and they have a more balanced sound signature to them. But today we’re going to compare the Sony XV800 to the Sony XV500, and mainly this is going to come down to sound performance and portability.
Regarding pricing, the Sony XV500 has a retail price of $400 where as the Sony XV800 has a retail price of $650… however, the XV800 likes to go on sale for $550 on a regular basis and I expect the XV500 to go on sale on a regular basis as well. Nonetheless, if you want to pick either of these two speakers up they’ll be linked down below, or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button.
Now first when it comes to the design of these two speakers, both of these speakers look very similar to one another. They both have a sleek rounded design to them, they both have capacitive buttons up top that light up, they both don’t have speaker stand mounts on the bottom, they both have mostly plastic bodies that can be scratch magnets and they both have thin metal grills on the front that can get dented easily. However, when it comes to their size, the XV500 is significantly smaller and lighter than the XV800. The XV500 weighs in at 25 pounds where as the XV800 weighs in at 41 pounds. So taking the XV500 on the go with you is much easier. Now you can also take the XV800 on the go with you, and it has built in wheels, but these wheels are a little small. So these wheels aren’t going to be super useful if you’re rolling them on asphalt or grass. But both of these speakers are IPX4 rated so a little bit of water won’t hurt these speakers so they’ll be just fine if you live them outside over night.
But then there’s the light feature on these speakers, and the light feature on these speakers is okay but its not as dynamic as other light features out there. But from their apps you can choose from a few different lighting modes, and if you use the separate fiestable app, then you’ll be able to customize the color of these light features. Overall these light features get the job done, but just remember if you deiced to use these light features, they are going to take a toll on the battery lives.
Now when it comes to battery lives, both of these speakers have an advertised battery life of 25 hours… however this advertised battery life of 25 hours is with the XV800 playing at 30% volume, which is a decent listening volume, but with the light feature turned off but it the mega bass feature turned on, which is good. And for the XV500, that’s with this speaker playing at 36% volume which is good for like ambiance.
But if you were to use these speakers with their light features turned on, they’re going to have an advertised battery life of 12 hours… but real world use with the XV800 if you use use this speaker at 65% volume which I feel is a decent volume for when you’re with friends, with the light feature turned on and with the mega bass feature turned on, its going to be good for about 10 hours of playback time.
And with the XV500, with it playing at 80% volume, which I feel is adequate when you’re with friends, the light future turned on and with the mega bass feature turned on, its going to be good for about 8 hours of playtime. But just keep in mind, battery life on these speakers really varies depending on how you use them.
Regarding connectivity, both of these speakers can be connected to two devices at the same time so that you and a friend can both be DJ, both speakers don’t have latency issues so you can use them to watch videos with your phone and when it comes to audio codecs, both speakers have support for SBC, AAC, and LDAC, just keep in mind that if you want to use LDAC you do have to be an android user cause iPhones top out at AAC and LDAC does take an additional toll on the battery life.
Now when it comes to ports, both of them speakers have a 3.5 millimeter audio jack so that you can use them with a wired connection, however they don’t have an audio out jack, so you can’t daisy chain these speakers with other speakers and get them to play in sync.
However, one major difference between the XV500 and XV800 is that the XV800 has an optical port so you can connect it to your TV and use it as a soundbar… and peronsally I really like this optical port on the XV800 cause it just gives this speaker more versatility, and it can give your TV an extra umff when you need it.
But both of these speakers still have an USB A port so that you can either plug in your own devices and charge them up, or so that you can plug in a USB Stick and play music off of it. Now I think that this USB A port is great for international markets, but I’m still waiting for a box speaker to come with a USB C port cause most phones these days come with USB C to USB C cables.
But both of these speakers have 2 quarter inch inputs so that you can either plug in a microphone for karaoke or you can plug in a guitar. And with both of these speakers, you can plug in 2 microphones for karaoke. Now with both of these speakers you can add an echo to your microphone, or you can change the key of your music. But you can’t really adjust the EQ of your microphones. Nonetheless, both of these speakers are good options if karaoke is very important to you cause they can both be used with 2 microphones.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Now when it comes to speaker set ups, the XV500 has dual frontward firing woofers with an exhaust port that shoots out the front and dual frontward firing tweeters. Where as with the XV800 it also has dual frontward firing woofers with an exhaust port that shoots out the front, but it has a total of 5 tweeters. 3 on the front and two that shoot out the back. Now when this speaker is standing upright it’ll use these two tweeters and the 2 on the back, and when its laying down it’ll use these two tweeters and the ones on the back.
Now before we jump in to the soundtest, we do have to talk about max volume performance on these speakers. Now with the XV800, when this speaker is playing off of its internal battery, it gets decently loud for it size and it gets as loud as you’d expect. Where as with the XV500, when its running off of its internal battery, it gets decently loud, but it doesn’t get as loud as other speakers of the same size when its running off of its internal battery. So with the XV500, you have to use it at higher volumes. However, if you use either of these two speakers when they are plugged in, they are both going to get a performance boost. They’re both going to get louder and they’re both going to have more bass. And when the XV500 is plugged in, its preforms as you’d expect. Now the XV800 also gets a performance boost when its plugged in, but the performance boost that you get with the XV500 is much larger than the performance boost you get on the XV800. But now we’re going to jump into the soundtest. Both of these speakers are playing at 75% volume while unplugged and they both have their Mega Bass turned on.
Soundtest
Now when it comes to sound quality, since these speakers are from the same family they are going to sound very similar to one another. They both have a very balanced sound signature to them and their bass is not overpowering at all. And as a result the mids and highs are able to standout here and both of these speakers have better instrument separation and sound more open than their predecessors. However, with the XV800 its highs are a little more defined specifcilly cause this speaker does have more tweeters on it. But like I mentioned earlier, both of these speakers have a balanced sound signature to them, however you can always go into their app and change their EQ to your liking. But overall, with both of these speakers, they sound a preform the same, the main difference here is mainly going to be volume and bass. With the XV500 this speaker is going to be good for around 10 people where as the XV80 is good for about 20 people.
But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers up with both of these speakers. Now both of these speakers are using Sony’s party connect and you can connect them to other Sony Party connect speakers like either an XV900, XV800, XP700, XP500 or to an XV500… and you can either have up to 100 speakers paired together and get them all to play in sync, or if you have 2 of the exact same speakers you can get them to play in left and right stereo mode.
But the cool thing about Sony’s Partyconnect is that you can pair your larger box speakers to you smaller Sony speakers that are also using party connect like and XG500, XG300, XE300, XE200, XB43, XB33 or XB23. So Sony’s speaker paring protocol is a lot more accommodating cause you can your smaller speakers to your larger speakers.
The only thing that I do want to mention here is that I have noticed that if you try to connect more than 4 speakers together, sometimes there can be some skipping issues, but less than that, party connect works well.
But with all of that being said, both the Sony XV800 and Sony XV500 are refined upgrades from their predecessors and they have a very balanced sound. And for the most part, the XV500 is a solid option, but if you want to get the most out of this speaker you’ll might want to plug it in. But if you do decide to go with the XV800, obviously this speaker gets louder and it has more bass… but the XV800 also has that additional optical port so if you want you can hook it up to your TV making its a little more versatile than the XV500.