So over the last few months Sony has really been refining their box speaker and giving them a much more neutral and balanced sound signature. But JBL also just refined the upgraded their new Partybox Speakers. So today we’re going to compare the Sony XV500 to the JBL Partybox 120 and we’re going to see which small box speaker is right for you.
Regarding pricing, both of these speakers have a retail price of $400… not bad for small portable box speakers, but I do expect to see the Sony XV500 to go on sale for $350 on a regular basis. 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.
So first lets talk about the design of these two speakers. Regarding size and weight, these two speakers are very similar to one another and they both weigh in at a little less than 25 pounds. And portability wise, these two speakers are they same, they’re both relatively easy enough to take on the go with you and they both have built in carrying handles. But the centered mounted carrying handle on the Partybox 120 is a little more comfortable than the carrying handle on the XV500, but its not a big deal. And when it comes durability, these two speakers are the same too, they both have mostly plastic bodies which can get scratched very easily and they both have thin metal grill on the front which can get dented very easily too. But both of these speakers are IPX4 rated so a little bit of water isn’t going to hurt either of these two speakers. But the control panels on these speakers are fairly different. The 120 has a large dial for your volume and a large dial for your light feature and there are some DJ buttons up top… where as the XV500 is using capacitive buttons buttons that light up. Personally I’m indifferent about these buttons but something that I do like about the 120 over the XV500 is that it has an LED in the ports panel which makes it easier to plug in your microphone in a darker room. But another thing the 120 has over the XV500 is that it has a top hat mount on the bottom, so if you want you can put this speaker on a speaker stand mount if you want.
However, the major design difference between these two speakers is going to be their light features. Now the light feature on the XV500 is decent… but the light feautre on the 120 is just larger and a lot more dynamic. Obviously you shouldn’t make your speaker decision solely on the light feature, but you have to admit the 120’s is a lot more impressive than the XV500. However, if you do decide to use the light feature on either of these two speakers, that is going to take its toll on the battery.
Now regarding battery life, the XV500 has an advertised battery life of 25 hours where as the Partybox 120 has an advertised battery life of 12 hours. However, this advertised battery life of 25 hours on the XV500 is with it playing at 36% volume which is good for like ambiance, with the light feature turned off but with its mega bass feature turned on. And if you were to use this speaker with its light feature turned on, then its going to have an advertised battery life of 12 hours.
Where as with the Partybox 120, its battery life of 12 hours is with it playing at 20% volume, which is on par with 36% volume on the XV500, but with both its light feature and bass boost feature turned off. But real world use with the 120 playing at 65% volume which I feel is a decent volume when you’re with friends, the light feature turned on and with the bass boost set to deep, its good for about 7 hours of playback where as with the XP500… with it playing at 80% volume, with the light feature turned on and with its mega bass feature turned on, its good for about 8 hours of playback.
And the reason why the XV500 has to play at 80% volume versus the party box which is playing at 65% volume is cause the XV500 doesn’t get as loud as the Partybox 120 when its running off of its internal battery… And at max volume, the XV500 doesn’t get as loud as the Partybox 120, unless you have it plugged in. But we’ll dive deeper into this later.
So overall, I do feel that the Partybox 120 has the better battery life here than the XV500 cause you get much better performance out of it while it running off of its battery. However, another thing the 120 has over the XV500 is that it has a swappable battery. And this is great for two reasons, first if you get multiple batteries than you can just easily swap out the batteries on the 320 and keep the party going if you’re in an area where you can easily plug in… or if you get to a point where you battery can no longer hold a charge then you can just replace the battery instead of having to replace the whole speaker.
But with battery out of the way, lets talk about connectivity and ports. Now both of these speakers can be connected to two devices at the same time so that you and a friend can both be DJ, latency is not an issue for either of these two speakers so you can use them to watch videos with on your phone… and when it comes to audio codecs, the Partybox has support for both SBC and AAC where as the Sony has support for SBC, AAC and LDAC. Just keep in mind that if you want to take advantage of LDAC you do have to be an android user cause iPhones top out a AAC.
But then there are the ports on these speakers. Like I mentioned earlier the Partybox’s port panel on the back is illuminated which is feel is a nice touch… but more importantly, both of these speakers still have a USB A port so that you can either plug in your own devices and charge them up… or you can plug in a USB stick and play music off of it. Now I think its great and all that these speakers have USB A ports on them… but I still wish that they have USB C port so that you can charge your own devices and use them as a wired connection cause most phones these days now come with USB C to USB C charging cables.
But both of these speakers still have your standard 3.5 millimeter audio jacks so that yo can use them with a wired connection… but the party box also has an audio out jack so you can always daisy chain any other speaker to this speaker, regardless of size or brand and get them to play in sync. Where as the sony doesn’t.
But more importantly, both of these speakers have dual quarter inch inputs so that you can either plug in two microphones for karaoke, or you can plug in a guitar. And with the 120 you can go in and adjust the bass and treble of your microphone from JBL’s App.
Where as with the XV500 you cant change the sound of your microphone… but you can add an echo if you want through Sony’s app… or you can change the key of your music… you can make your music sound brighter and speed it up a little or make it sound deep and slow it down a little. Personally, I never use the key change feature on Sony’s speakers.
But something the Partybox does have are these DJ buttons which you can set though JBL’s app… and they can be a little fun if you have the right host.
Overall, both of these speakers are good options for karaoke cause they can both drive two microphones… but personally I wish that both of these speakers had more quarter in drivers and or I wish they had XLR inputs so that you can use these speakers with a mixer.
But with all of that out of the way lets talk about sound. Regarding speaker set up, both go these speakers have dual frontward firing woofer and dual frontward firing tweeters. However, the placements of the tweeters are a little different. The 120 has them on the top and the XV500 has them in the center. But more importantly, the 120 has a rear firing exhaust port where as the xv500 has a frontward firing exhaust port. And with both of these speakers you can always go into their app and adjust their EQ to your liking. But I like using the 120 with its stock eq and with its bass boost set to deep. And I like using the XV500 with its stock EQ and with its mega bass feature turned on. And this is how we are also going to be using these speakers while in the sound test… and they’re going to be playing at 87% volume and were going to be using these speakers while they are unplugged and plugged in as well. Cause when you use either of these two speakers while they are plugged in, you are going to get a performance boost out of them.
Sound test
So first, I think we need to address the max volume performance on these two speakers, like I mentioned earlier, the XV500 doesn’t get super loud when its running off of its internal battery when compared to the Partybox 120. So with the XV500, this is a speaker that you are going to have to use at a higher volume on a regular basis. However, if you were to use the XV500 while its plugged you are going to get a performance boost out of it. Its going to have more bass and its going to get louder. And when this speaker is plugged in, thats when this speaker starts to preform just as you’d expect. But when the Partybox 120 is plugged in, you also get a performance boost out of it… and when its plugged in the 120 still gets a little louder than the XV500 when they’re both running at max volume.
But when it comes to overall sound quality, first off the Partybox does have a slightly brighter sound signature than the Sony… But when it comes to instrument separation, these two speakers are very similar to one another. But whats really different here is the bass. The Partybox has more phsycialty in its bass than the XV500, also since its exhaust port shoots out the back, you can always amplify its bass by placing it up against a wall. Where as with the XV500 this speaker has a more neutral bass to it cause it exhaust port shoots out the front. Overall, both of these speakers sound good, but performance wise, the Partybox 120 easily out performs the Sony XV500 cause when the XV500 is running off of its internal battery it is slightly held back.
But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers up to other speakers. The Partybox 120 is using Auracast… and if you have 2 Partybox 120’s you can wirelessly pair them up and get them to play in left and right stereo mode… or you can pair the 120 up to to another aurocast speaker like a partybox 320 and get them to play in sync.
But unfortunately, you can not wirelessly connect the Partybox 320 to any of JBL’s older Partybox speakers like either a 310, encore, 110, or 710 and you cant connect your 120 to any of JBL’s smaller party boost speakers.
Now JBL’s app does mention that you can connect party boost speaker to aruacast speakers… but it seems like you can only connect auracast speakers like the clip 5, go 4, or Xtreme 4… unfortunately neither the 120 or 320 show up here.
But like I mentioned earlier, the 320 does have an audio out jack, so you can always daisy chain any other speaker to their speaker and get them to play in sync. So at least theres that… but in general not being able to pair you 320 with any of JBL’s older speakers does suck.
But then there’s the XV800 which is using Sony’s party connect and you can pair it up to other party connect speakers like lets say an XV900, XV800, XP700 or XP500 and you can pair up to 100 speakers together and get them to play in sync. Or if you have two of the same speakers, you can get them to play in left and right stereo mode.
But the cool thing about Sony’s party connect is that you can pair your larger box speakers to and of Sony smaller speakers that are also using party connect like lets say an XG500, XG300, XE300, XE200, XB43, XB33 or XB23.
Now even though Sony’s party connect is very accommodating, and it gets the job done, sometimes it can be a bit of a hassle to use. Sometimes it take awhile for your speakers to get connected. Sometimes all of your speakers don’t get paired on the first try so you’ll have to go through the pairing process multiple times… and sometimes skipping does happen. Now this doesn’t happen all of the time… but this is just a heads up as to what to expect.
But with all of that being said, both the Sony XV500 and JBL Partybox 120 are great small box speakers to consider. However if I had to choose one, the Partybox 120 is easily the winner here. From a performance standpoint, the Partybox 120 gets just as loud as you’d expect it to get when its running off of its internal battery, where as the XV500 can leave you wanting more. And when its plugged in the 120 is going to get a noticeable prefomnce boost as well. But also, the swappable batteries on the 120 are a huge deal cause either you can get multiple batteries and keep the party going or you can get a new one when your battery can no longer hold a charge. Also the 120 has that audio out jack making it more versatile… and finally theres the light feature on the 120… the light feature on the 120 is just a lot more dynamic than the one on the XV500.