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Sony ULT Field 1: https://amzn.to/44Ct4nd

So Sony has been on a roll lately improving and refining all of their speakers… But perhaps the biggest improvements and refinements that Sony has done lately can be found on their new portable Sony ULT Field 1 which is the successor to the Sony XE200 and Sony XE300. And im going to be straight up, I think both the XE200 and XE300 were bad, like really bad. But this ULT field 1, this speaker is actually very good. So today we’re going to checkout the ULT Field 1 and we’re going to see how it compares to the XE200 and XE300.

Regarding pricing, the Sony ULT Field 1 has a retail price of $130, pretty standard for a speaker of this size. Now the ULT Field 1 is the direct successor to the Sony XE200… but its still technically a step below the Sony XE300… So personally I really hope that we see a Sony ULT Field 3 in the future. Nonetheless, if you want to pick this speaker up it’ll be linked down below, or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button.

So first we have to talk about the design of this speaker. One of my biggest issue with both the Sony XE200 and XE300 is that these speakers were just really big. And the XE200 wants all that much smaller than the XE300… so portability on these speakers just wasn’t all that good when compared to the rest of the competition. But then theres the ULT Field 1 which is just way smaller than both of Sony’s older speakers. Yes its long, but its a lot thinner. But also, the ULT 1 has a very nice built in carrying loop which you can use in one of two positions. So its makes carrying this speaker around very easy, but it also make it very easy to attached or tie this speaker to something else. Now when it comes to durability, the ULT 1 has a mostly fabric wrapped body with some very hard rubber end caps on both sides, and this speaker is IP67 rated meaning that its both dust and water proof. So overall, the ULT Field 1 is very durable, but its also a lot more portable than both the XE200 and XE300 cause its significantly smaller again.

Now when it comes to battery life, the Sony ULT Field 1 has an advertised battery life of 12 hours which is standard for a speaker of this size. But this advertised battery life of 12 hours on the Ult Field 1 is with this speaker playing at 50% volume, which is already a decent listening volume and its way louder than 50% volume on both the XE 200 and XE300, and thats with the ULT feature turned on which is good. And at max volume Sony says that this speaker is good for up to 3 hours of play back time.

But real world use with this speaker playing at 80% volume and with the ULT feature turned on,  its going to be good for about 8 hours of play back time, which is not bad at all. However, with this speaker you can always extend its battery life by using it with its ULT feature turned off. However, if you use this speaker with its ULT feature turned off then its bass is going to sound a little flat.

But when it comes to charging this speaker it charges via a USB C port as with it should, but this is actually the only port that you’ll find on this speaker cause it does not have an audio jack and the USB C port on this speaker is strictly used for charging this speaker.

Regarding connectivity, the ULT field 1 is using bluetooth 5.3 but more importantly it can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so that you and a friend can both be DJ, latency is not an issue for this speaker so you can use it to watch videos with on your phone, and when it comes to audio codecs, the ULT 1 has support for SBC AAC and LDAC which is Sony’s own in house hires audio codec. Just keep in mind that if you want to use LDAC you do have to be an android user cause iPhones top out a AAC and LDAC may take an additional toll on the battery life.

But with all of that out of the way lets talk about sound cause this is where the biggest upgrades can be found. Now when it comes to speaker set up, both the XE200 and XE300 have dual frontward firing drivers and dual passive radiators that shoot out sides, except with the XE2300 its a little bigger. But then theres the Sony ULT field one which has a single frontward firing woofer a frontward firing tweeter and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. Now its a big deal that the ULT field one has a woofer and tweeter set up cause this is still a relatively rare set up for a speaker of this size or price and its the same setup at the JBL Flip 6 and Charge 5. And the benefit that you get here with this set up is that you have your woofer which is going to handle the mids and low and you have your tweeter which is going to handle the highs. Like this.

Tweeter demo

So like you may have just seen, the woofer handles the mids and the tweeter handles the highs. And this is going to give you much better instrument separation and this is going to give you much better detail in the highs.

Now with all of these speakers you can go into Sony’s app and you can adjust their EQ’s to your liking. But more importantly the Sony ULT Field 1 has its ULT button which in new on Sony’s new line of speakers. However, the ULT Button the ULT 1 only has 1 setting unlike with Sony’s other speakers that both have 2 ULT settings. Nonetheless the ULT setting on the ULT 1 is going to increase your bass. But with all of that out of the way we’re going to jump into the sound test. All of these speakers are playing at 87% volume, both the XE200 and XE300 have their mega bass turned on and were going to use the ULT 1 with ULT turned on and off.

Sound Test

So first off, I think that you should always use the ULT 1 with ULT turned on all of the time like I do unless you want to save on battery life. But more importantly, the Sony ULT 1 sounds a lot more open than both the XE200 and XE300. My biggest issue with both the XE200 and XE300 is that these speakers sounded so muffled and had such bad instrument separation and they didn’t get all that loud and they were just so big… but the ULT field 1 has fixed all of these issues. And yes, both the XE200 and XE300 were running the latest firmwares. But more importantly the ULT field 1 now has much better clarity than these other two speakers and it sounds a lot more open and theres a lot more definition in the mid as well. And when it comes to max volume performance, the Sony ULT field 1 sounds louder and significantly fuller than than both the XE300 and XE200, Now in the measurements its says that both the XE300 and XE200 are getting louder than the ULT 1 but in real life the ULT 1 sound louder than the these other two speakers cause theres a lot more emphasis on the mids where as these other two speakers put a larger emphasis on the bass and other low ends. But overall, the Sony ULT field 1 sounds way way better than both the XE200 and XE300.

But now lets talk about pairing this speaker up to other speakers…  now overall I love the upgrades found on the ULT field 1. It smaller, it has good battery life and it sounds great… but where sony dropped the ball here is the ULT Field 1 does not have party connect. Now with the ULT 1, if you have 2 ult filed ones then you can wirelessly pair them up and get them to play in left and right stereo mode…

But since the ULT field 1 does not have party connect, you cant wirelessly connect it to other speakers that also have Party Connect like either the ULT Field 7 which is another speaker that I really like from sony, or the XG500, XG300, or to the XE300 or XE200, or to the XB43, XB33 or XB23… or to any of Sony’s larger box speakers that are also using party connect.

Personally I find it very odd that the ULT Field 1 doesn’t have Party Connect and I think its a shame cause it would be great to connect the ULT field 1 to the ULT 7 at the very least. So I hope that sony can add Party Connect to the ULT Field 1 through a future firmware update, but I doubt it.

But finally the ULT field one is one of those rare portable speakers that has a built in microphone so if you want you can take phone calls with this speaker. Now peronsally I never use the built in microphone on my speakers to take phones calls, but its there is you need it.

But with all of that being said, I think the Sony ULT Field 1 has some of the biggest improvements and refinements in Sony’s current speaker line up. From a sound quality stand point the ULT 1 sound a lot better than its predecessors cause it has much battery clarity, but it also gets louder and still has a ton of bass. I also really like that the ULT 1 has returned to its smaller and it has decent battery life as well. The only Sade thing about the ULT 1 is that its missing Sony’s Party Connect so you cant connect it to Sony’s other speakers. But nonetheless the Sony ULT Field 1 is a great speaker to consider for Summer 2024 if you need something small and loud.