So this is the Sony XV800, now personally I like this speaker cause I like its new more mellow sound signature, and it also has an optical port so you can hook it up to your tv which helps make this speaker a little more versatile. And it also has a decent real world battery life. But it is a little pricy and big. But today we’re going to compare it to smaller and super popular box speakers like the JBL Partybox 110 and the Sony XP500.

Regarding pricing, the XV800 has a retail price of $650… a little pricey, but I do expect this speaker to go on sale on a regular basis. But then there are the Partybox 110 and Sony XP500 which both have a retail price of $400, but they like to go on sale for $300 on a regular basis. Nonetheless, if you want to pick any of these speakers up they’ll be linked down below.

Now first, we need to talk about the design of these speakers. As you can clearly see, the XV800 its the largest speaker here. Now this speaker weighs in at 40 pounds, but for the most part, a single person can easily transport this speaker. And to make life a little easier, sony went ahead and added some wheels. The only problem is, these wheels aren’t the largest… so they aren’t going to be the best when on rough surfaces like asphalt. You’re still going to be better off just carrying this speaker. Where as with these other two speakers… they don’t have wheels, but they’re smaller and they both weigh less than 25 pounds. So these are you more portable options. Now durability wise, all of these speakers have a mostly plastic body which can get scratched very easily, but they’re all water resistant. So a little rained or if they get splashed on, they’ll be fine.

But then there’s the light feature on these speakers. Both of Sony’s speakers have their typical light bars up top and on the bottom. Overall these light feature look decent and they look good at night or in doors… but plainly said, the 110’s light feature is much more impressive. Its larger and its much more dynamic. But one thing the XV800 does have going for it here is that its capacitive buttons up top light up, and this is very useful either at night or in a dark room. But regardless, if you decide to use the light feature on any of these speakers, that is going to take its toll on the battery life.

Now when it comes to battery life, the XV800 has an advertised battery life of 25 hours. However, this advertised battery life of 25 hours is with the XV800 playing at 30% volume, which I feel is a decent listening volume. With the mega bass turned on which is good and with the light feature turned off. But real world use with it playing at 65% volume, which I feel is a good volume to use when you’re with friends, with the mega bass turned on and with the light feature turned on, its good for about 10 hours of playback time, which is very impressive.

But then there’s the XP500 which has an advertised battery life of 20 hours, but that’s with this speaker playing at 30% volume… which is very quite… its good for like ambiance, but its not good for actually listening to music… and in general, the XP500 is very quite for its size when its running off of its internal battery… and that’s with the mega bass turned on and with the light feature turned off.

But real world use with it playing at 80% volume… and at that volume its still going to leave you wanting more… and with the mega bass turned on and with the light feature turned on, its going to be good for about 6 hours of playback time.

And finally there’s the Partybox 110 which has an advertised battery life of 12 hours… but that’s with this speaker playing at 25% volume, which is noticeably louder than 30% volume on the XP500, but that’s with the light feature and bass boost feature turned off. But real world use with it playing at 65% volume, with the lights on and with the bass boost turned on… its good for about 6 hours as well.

But overall, battery life on all of these speaker really varies depending on how you use them… but the XV800 does have a longer lasting real world battery than these smaller speakers, which could come in handy.

Now regarding connectivity, all three of these speaker can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so you and a friend can both be DJ, latency isn’t an issue for any of these speakers, so you can use them to watch videos on your phone, but when it comes to audio codecs, The 110 only has support for SBC, where Sony’s speakers have support for SBC, AAC and LDAC which is Sony’s own high res audio codec. Just keep in mind that if you want to use LDAC you do have to be an android user cause iPhone’s top out at AAC… and if you do decide to use LDAC, that is going to take an additional toll on the battery life.

But if you want to, you can always just use wired connection with any of these speakers cause they all still have an audio jack. But something that the 110 has that Sony’s speakers don’t is that it has an audio out jack, so if you have a spare speaker lying around, no matter the size or brand, you can always daisy chain it to the 110 and get them to play in sync.

But something that the XV800 does have is that it has an optical port, and it comes included with an optical cable. So if you want, you can use your XV800 with your tv. Now personally I think this helps make the XV800 a little more versatile. And it can come in clutch if you just need a little extra something when you’re going to watch the game.

And finally, all three of these speakers can be used for karaoke… but Sony’s speakers are able to properly drive 2 microphones… where as the 110 can only properly drive 1 microphone… cause the second input is meant for a guitar… so your microphone isn’t going to sound as loud. But with the 110 you can adjust the sound of your microphone through JBL’s app. Where as with Sony’s speakers… you can only add an echo. But I think that if karaoke is very important to you… you might want to go with the Sony’s cause you can use two microphones.

But now lets talk about sound. Regarding speaker set ups, both the 110 and XP500 have dual frontward firing woofers with an exhaust port shooting out the back… and they both have dual frontward firing tweeters. But then there’s the XV800 which also has dual frontward firing woofers, but its exhaust port shoots out the front… and this thing has a total of 5 tweeters on it. 3 on the front and 2 on the back that shoot upwards. Now when this speaker is standing up right it’ll use these two tweeters and the two on the back… and when its on its side, it’ll use these two tweeters and it will continue to use the two on the back. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test, the XP500 is playing at max volume just so that it can keep up, the 110 is playing at 88% volume with the bass set to deep and the XV800 is playing at 75% volume with the mega bass turned on and all of these speakers are running off of their internal battery.

Now first, I think we need to address max volume performance on these speakers. Obviously since the XV800 is larger than both the Partybox 110 and XP500… the XV800 is going to get noticeably louder than these other two speakers and it should be good enough for up to 20 persons parties. Now the partybox 110 gets decently loud for its size when its running off of its internal battery and im willing to say that its decent enough for up to 12ish person parties. Where as with the XP500, this is a speaker that is going to leave you wanting more when its running off of its internal battery. However, with all of these speakers, if you use them while they are plugged in, you are going to get a noticeable performance bump out of them. They are all going to get louder and they are going to have more bass. And when you use the XP500 while its plugged in, that’s when this speaker starts to preform as you’d expect. Now when the Partybox 110 is plugged in, it performs very similarly to the XV800 when its running off of it’s internal battery. Overall, just as you’d expect, the XV800 is going to get louder than these other two speakers, but the partybox 110 does a good job of keeping up relative to its size, but then there’s the XP500 where if you use it while its running off of its battery, its going to leave you wanting more.

But when it comes to the overall sound quality of these speakers, the XP500 has a warmer sound signature to it. So its going to sound a little shallow and the vocals aren’t as emphasized. Where as the 110 has a brighter sound signature to it, so vocals are going to be even more emphasized. But then there’s the XV800 which has Sony’s newer more balanced sound signature to it. The vocals are a lot more emphasized than on the XP500, but they aren’t as emphasized as with the 110. Overall, I really like how the XV800 sounds… but the key thing to keep in mind about this speaker is its bass. The bass on the XV800 is more on the audible side and its smoother. And surprisingly enough, the bass on the 110 has the same amount of physicality to it when the bass boost is set to deep. But if you were to set the bass on this speaker to punchy and if you were to raise the bass on this speaker as well… the 110 is going to be able to rattle your walls more than the XV800. Overall the XV800 goes you a more balanced listening experience and its going to get louder… but if you want as much bass as possible here, then you’ll might want to go with the 110.

But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers up with other speakers. Now with the 110 you can wirelessly pair it up with one other partybox. So if you have a 110, you can pair it up with an encore, 110, 310 or 710 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 most important thing to remember here is that you can’t wirelessly pair any of JBL’s Partybox speakers to any of JBL’s smaller speakers that are using JBL’s Partyboost.

Now personally I think that only being able to wirelessly pair two speaker together is limiting, but like I mentioned earlier, the 110 does have that audio out jack so you can always daisy chain it up with one other speaker regardless of size or brand.

But then there’s the XV800 and XP500 which are using Sony’s party connect and you can pair them 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.

Where as with JBL’s pairing protocol, even though its a lot more limited, and you can’t wirelessly connect to your smaller JBL speakers… I have found that it just works better. Paring your two speakers is easier, faster and skipping isn’t as big of an issue.

But with all off that being said, yes if you were to spring for the XV800 its going to be noticeably louder, its going to have a longer lasting battery life, you can connect it to your TV and you can use two microphones with its for karaoke. Honestly, the XP500 has a very hard time even keeping up with the XV800. But then there’s the Partybox 110… now this has been one of my favorite box speakers to recommend cause it sounds good, it has as much bass as the XV800 and it has an impressive light feature. But this speaker doesn’t have as good of a battery life, its not going to get as loud and it can only properly drive one microphone. But still, the 110 is great, but it is worth springing for the XV800.