If you’re looking into getting a compact box speaker either for your man cave or for entertaining with… then chances are the Sony XP500 and JBL Partybox 110 are the first options that come to mind. Now even though the Sony XP500 is decent in its own right, performance wise the Partybox 110 simply just blows the XP500 right out of the water. But if you’re still trying to choose between either of these two speakers then keep watching. 

Now regarding pricing both of these speakers retail for $350. Now like I said performance wise the 110 simply outclass the XP500 sound quality wise especially when running off of its internal battery. Where as with the XP500… this is a speaker that if you want to get the most out of it you gotta use it while its plugged in. Nonetheless if you want to pick either of these two speakers up they’ll be linked down below. 

Now first lets talk about the design of these speakers. Now both of these speakers have mostly plastic bodies and a metal grill on the front. So if you plan on taking either of these speakers on the go with you they can be scratch magnets. But regarding durability, both of these speakers are water resistant cause you can seal off the ports on the back. So if either of these two speakers get caught in a little bit of rain they should be just fine just as long as their ports are sealed off. And when it comes to portability, both of these speakers are a little over two feet tall, the Partybox weighs in at 23 pounds where as the XP500 weighs in at just a little under 25 pounds and they both have built in carrying handles. So carrying these speakers around is too bad. However one major physical difference between these two speakers is that the Partybox has a speaker mount on the bottom if you need it where as the XP500 doesn’t. 

But then there’s the light feature on these speakers. Now either at night or indoors the light feature on the XP500 looks good. And I’ve also noticed that it has a neat back splashing effect. However plainly said the light feature on the Partybox just looks way better. Its more vibrant, dynamic, and you’ve got a lot more control over it through JBL’s Partybox app. Now you definitely shouldn’t be making a speaker decision just on a light feature… but come on just look at it.

But now lets talk about the battery life on these speakers. The Sony XP500 has an advertised battery life of 20 hours where as the Partybox 110 has an advertised battery life of 12 hours. But the XP500’s advertise battery life of 20 hours is with it playing at 30% volume, with its light feature turned off but with its mega bass feature turned on which is good. However 30% volume on this speaker is nothing. Its good for like ambiance but its not good for like actually listening to music. 

Where as with the Partybox its advertised battery life is with this speaker playing at a little over 20% volume, but with its light feature turned off and with bass boost turned off. However 20% volume on the Partybox is noticeably louder than 30% volume on the Sony XP500. And in general the Sony XP500 is a little quiet for its size while playing off of its internal battery. So personally I feel most people will be using the Sony between 50 to a hundred percent volume on a regular basis. Where as with the partybox 60 to 80% volume is a good listening volume.

So real world use with the XP500 playing at 80% volume, with its light feature turned on and with mega bass turned on this speaker is good for about 8 hours which is fine. Where as with the partybox playing at 65% volume which is the same loudness as the XP500, with its light feature turned on and with bass boost set to level 1 this speaker is also good for about 8 hours of play back time.

So even though at first glance the Sony XP500 has a much longer advertised battery life than the Partybox 100… since I feel most people are going to have to use the XP500 at higher volumes than what they would with the Partybox 100… thats going to cause their battery life to drain much faster… but also keep in mind battery life on these speakers really depends on how you use them. If you use them at higher volumes thats going to drain your battery. If you have their light features turned on thats going to drain their batteries… and if you have their bass features turned on thats also going to drain their batteries especially on the Partybox 100 since you’ve got 3 levels of bass to choose from. 

But now lets talk about ports on these speakers. For starters both of these speakers have 2 quarter inch mic inputs which could be a big deal for someone who either wants to do karaoke or for hosting small events. However with the Partybox you can add an echo to your mic. Now personally I would never use this feature, but its there.

Next up are the USB A ports on these speakers, the Partybox only has one where as the XP500 has two. Nonetheless you can charge your own devices if you’re out and about and you can play music off of a USB stick on either of these speakers. Now I thinks its great that both of these speakers have USB A ports but I still wish these speakers had a USB C port as well cause a lot of newer phones these days now come included with USB C cables instead. 

Next up, both of these speakers have your standard 3.5 millimeter audio jacks so you can use a wired connection with either of these speakers. However, the Partybox 110 has an audio in and an audio out jack meaning that if you’ve got a spare speaker laying around regardless of brand or size you can daisy chain it to the Partybox and have it play in sync.

But when it comes to bluetooth connectivity, both of these speakers are using Bluetooth 5.1 but the important thing here is that both of these speakers can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so you and a friend can both be DJ, they both have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device… But when it comes to audio codecs the partybox only has support for SBC and AAC which is perfectly fine… where as the XP500 has support for SBC, AAC and Sony’s own LDAC which really only matters if you’re an android user.

But now lets talk about actually listening to music with these speakers. Both of these speakers have a pair of frontward firing woofers. And they both have a pair of frontward firing tweeters. And with either of these two speakers whether you’ve got them laying down flat or standing up right you’ve still got your left channel and your right channel. These speakers don’t turn into a mono speaker if you’ve got them standing up right. Now regarding mega bass and bass boost. With the XP500 if you’re going to be listening to music you want to have mega bass turned on cause if not this speaker sounds very flat… where as with the Partybox 110 even with its bass boost feature turned off it still sounds pretty good. However the bass boost has 2 levels to it. Now personally I think bass boost level 1 sounds best but if you want more bass you can always crank it up to bass boost level two. But finally with both of these speakers if you were to use them while they’re plugged in you are going to get a performance boost out of them. However the performance boost that you get out of the Sony XP500 is way more drastic than the performance boost that you get out of the Partybox 110. Now I’ll dive a little deeper into max volume in a minute… but for now lets just jump into the sound test. Both of these speakers are playing while unplugged but the XP500 is playing at 90% volume with mega bass turned on where as the Partybox is playing at 70% volume with bass boost set to level 1. 

So sound quality wise I feel that both of these speakers have the same instrument separation. However when it comes to sound signatures the Partybox does put a little more emphasis on the mids which brings the vocals out where as with the XP500 it does sound a little warmer. But with the XP500 if you wanted to you can always go into Sony’s app and bring out the mids a little bit where as with the Partybox, JBL still doesn’t allow you to directly adjust its EQ. Nonetheless I think the Partybox sounds great just the way it is… where as with the XP500 I can never get it to sound like the Partybox no matter how much I play around with its EQ. But for my bass heads that are watching… I do gotta say that the Partybox can have more bass than the XP500 if you’ve got it set to bass level two. Now personally I don’t like bass level two cause I feel that its too much… but if you’re a bass head maybe thats what you're looking for. 

But now we really need to address max volume on these speakers… the partybox 110 gets decently loud for it size while running off of its internal battery. If you’re trying to jam out 80% volume is more than enough. Where as with the XP500… this speaker is very quiet for its size when running off of its internal battery. Even if you’ve got this speaker cranked all the up to max volume its going to leave you wanting more. But if you use the XP500 while its plugged thats when this speaker wakes up and starts to perform like what you’d expect. Now you’re also going to get a performance bump out of the 110 if you use it while its plugged in… but the performance difference on the 110 when its plugged in versus unplugged isn’t as dramatic as the XP500. So overall both of these speakers sound good… but the 110 is simply the better option here. Personally I like its slightly brighter sound signature, but more importantly this speaker get decently loud when running off of its internal battery, and if you want it also has more bass than the XP500. 

But now lets talk about pairing these speakers up with other speakers. The XP500 is using Sony’s Party connect. Meaning that you can pair it up to other sony party connect speakers like lets say a Sony XP700, another Sony XP500, and you can even pair it up to Sony’s smaller more portable speakers like either the Sony XG500, XB43, XB33 or XB23 and you can pair up to 100 speakers together. Which is obviously over kill. 

Where as with the Partybox 110… you can only pair it up to one other Partybox 110 or one other Partybox 310. And unfortunately you can not pair a partybox to any of JBL’s smaller Partyboost speakers. So if you’ve got a Boombox 2, Xtreme 3, Charge 5, Flip 5, or JBL Pulse 4 they wont sync up to your partybox. 

Now I think its awesome that you can pair a lot more speakers with the XP500 than you can with the Partybox 110. However I do gotta say that Sony’s party connect isn’t my favorite speaker pairing protocol. Its not as easy to pair your speakers, sometimes not all of your speakers get paired up on the first time, and sometimes there could be some skipping. Where as with JBL’s TWS it just works. 

So with all that being said… the Sony XP500 is a decent little box speaker. It sounds good and I really like that you can pair it up with Sony’s other Party Connect speakers making it very versatile. But performance wise its very hard for me the recommend the XP500 over the Partybox 110. From a sound quality standpoint I think the 110 sounds better and it gets louder when running off of its internal battery. But also the 110 does bring extra goodies, for starters just look at that light feature. But also the 110 has that audio out jack which can come in handy and it also has that speaker mount if you need it. Overall you really can’t go wrong with the Partybox 110.