Sony SRSXB23 Extra Bass Portable Bluetooth Speaker (Manufacturer Refurb) Expired

If you look on YouTube, there are these two fellows, oluv's gadgets and Alan Ross reviews, who review and compare many portable speakers. Just search for the one you're looking for on their channel page.

Warning though, it's an easy time sink comparing all of them.

Went to BestBuy today to check sound. Had Extra Boost on but no EQ. Ended up buying the XB43. Here's my quick review:

43 - was easily the best sound. Not just the extra bass which was legit, but just a lot more depth. Heavy 6+lbs. Not something you want to carry a lot or keep in backpack for long hikes, etc. I choose this b/c I'll move it around the house mostly, or put in my car to take someplace like a picnic, beach, etc. The weight won't bother me for how I'll use it. The sound was just exceptional.
33 - was OK but I personally wasn't impressed. Definitely portable. Looks cool. But frankly I didn't think the sound was much better than the 23. I've read that with proper EQ adjustments it sounds better. Bass was definitely better than 23, but little depth and sound wasn't very clear imo.
23 - I was surprised by how much I liked this sound. Bass was not strong but was very well balanced with the overall sound. Crips and clear. Tiny speaker extremely portable.

I ended up deciding between between the 23 and 43. 23 if I wanted it portable, 43 for sound. I decided that the sound for 43 was so good, loud, deep, clear, that I'm comfortable investing the extra money because I will use this for a long time. And at the size/weight, it is portable for 95% of the places I would like to use it.

I received my xb43 order this morning and have been listening to it for a few hours. Note that it comes in a plain brown box with an AC->USB C power adapter and nothing else. No retail packaging or any way to store, nbd for refurb but FYI. I will be looking for a carrying/storage case for it shortly.

First you will want to download the Sony Music Center app(same one for Sony BT headphones), which will update the firmware for you to version 3700 if the speaker needs it. I spent about an hour listening to it before I did this, and while using the "live" setting accessible with the button on top of the speaker made it sound fun, it wasn't my favorite but YMMV (it was "3d" but kind of hollow and unnatural, preference also depended on the kind of music, on some it sounded great and other music not so much). After connecting to the Sony Music Center and updating firmware its default sound signature improved dramatically, and now there was access to a new music setting (ClearAudio+) which is now my default setting, much better for most genres I listen to (everything except Tejano and most country, although I suspect it would sound fine with these too). There is a 3 band equalizer (low, mid, hi) which I played with for a bit and it did improve sound slightly with unique settings on a song per song basis, it disabled the ClearAudio setting. I found just leaving ClearAudio on was the best across most of my music without having to screw with anything.

It gets plenty loud IMHO (and being exNavy, a competition shooter, and having many loud concerts without hearing protection in my past, my hearing is probably not the best ).

The app also gives access to other features of the speaker including different lighting themes and a bunch of weird shit I will never use... like a thing where you can use your phone to play the speaker like a drum pad with different preloaded sound samples and other nonsense like that. I am thinking that Sony has some bored app developers or something...

I am not sure that it is the best you can do for $140 (after tax) given the plethora of BT speakers out there (several of which I have tried, but there must be thousands ), but I am happy with it so far. I have several of the Amazon/Chinese specials from SD over the years topping out at maybe $60 and I don't think any of them sound quite as good, get quite as loud, and none of them definitely have all of the features. The main issue with those has also been longevity, batteries that don't last long before not holding a charge, and issues with distortion as songs change since my library isn't volume normalized. This speaker seems to handle all music well at a high volume without distorting, who knows how long the battery will last, and I haven't checked but hope that I will be able to replace the battery in the future even if it takes some eBay replacement battery shopping and a bit of soldering.

I can post what I find for a carrying case if anyone here cares...