Sony - High Power Xb60 Portable Bluetooth Speaker - Black Review

We test our fair share of small, portable Bluetooth speakers, just that doesn't hateful speakers need to exist small in order to be portable. Case in bespeak: the $249.99 Sony GTK-XB60, an imposing structure with built-in LED lights that almost looks more like a gaming PC than a speaker. Audio purists seeking an accurate audio signature shouldn't carp with this large bass behemoth, but if you're looking for a large speaker with extra bass depth to pump upward electronic, hip-hop, pop, and rock tracks, the GTK-XB60 won't disappoint.

Blueprint

When we say the GTK-XB60 is big, we're non joking. It measures 21.viii by ten.4 past 10.7 inches (HWD) and weighs 17.seven pounds. So while information technology might be bombardment-powered, it truly pushes the definition of portable, and it isn't rugged or waterproof if yous want to use information technology for an outdoor political party. If there's a design turnoff hither for some, it's probably the blueish or blackness plastic contour—it looks like the plastic on a large cooler. The speaker tin stand upright or on its side, with a command panel on the top (when its upright).

Our Experts Have Tested 35 Products in the Speakers Category in the Past Yr

Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help yous make better buying decisions. (Run into how nosotros examination.)

Beneath the huge front panel speaker grille, the GTK-XB60 packs dual ii-inch tweeters and dual 5.2-inch woofers, for a combined xxx watts of power (fifteen watts per channel). The speakers are ported (the port is located on the rear panel) for more efficient driver motion.

The control panel houses a ability push button, a play/pause button (which doubles as the phone call management and rails navigation push button), plus/minus buttons for book, and an extra bass button. Then, at that place are the less obvious buttons: Stamina (for saving battery life), Function (for switching between Bluetooth, USB, or RCA inputs), Add together (for pairing multiple GTK-XB60 speakers), and W.Party Chain (for setting multiple GTK-XB60 or XB90 speakers to play from the same source simultaneously). In that location's besides an NFC pairing field on this panel. All of the buttons flank a congenital-in handle for carrying the speaker from room to room.

Similar Products

The dorsum panel also houses a Party Concatenation button that works in conjunction with the other Party Chain button if your speaker is the "host" speaker. At that place'southward a trivial bit of button bloat hither, which most Bluetooth speakers avoid by using an app to pair and chain speakers together.

In terms of connectivity, the back console houses RCA inputs and outputs, likewise as a USB port for charging or playing MP3 or WAV files from a USB device. There's also a quarter-inch mic jack and mic level knob in case you wish to utilize the speaker for karaoke. (Microphone non included.)

Sony claims the LED lights bring an "EDM festival atmosphere" to your room. Oftentimes, I institute them jarring, so peradventure this is right. The lights are bright, and flash in several colors, sometimes with the beat of the music, sometimes at random. It'due south an impressive display, but information technology has some quirks: If the speaker is plugged into a power strip, for instance, the lights will wink every time the strip is powered up. The lights can be disabled by property downwards the W.Party Chain button for a few seconds.

Surprisingly, you can take calls through the GTK-XB60, making it 1 of the largest speakers we've tested to include this feature. The mic offers mediocre intelligibility. Using the Vocalisation Memos app on an iPhone 6s, we could understand every discussion we recorded, merely the sound was garbled and fuzzy, as is typical with portable speaker mics using Bluetooth.

Sony claims fourteen hours of battery life, merely that's what you get with the LED lights off and the speaker operating at less-than-summit volume levels. At maximum book, with the Stamina push engaged, it drops dramatically to 5 hours. Without the Stamina button engaged, you get iii.5 hours at height volumes, which seems far more in line with what yous'd expect from a speaker this size. Then, the speaker is indeed portable, but if you're wanting the light prove and loud book, keeping it plugged into an outlet is highly advised.

Operation

Without the Extra Bass push enabled, the GTK-XB60 is capable of delivering serious power. In fact, it could be argued that the speaker not only doesn't need an Actress Bass button, but sounds meliorate with it disabled. With the Extra Bass off, the GTK-XB60 delivers more bass than just about any speaker in this price range. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife'southward "Silent Shout," the bass power the speaker tin muster is at times too much for the plastic enclosure, which rumbles slightly at certain resonant frequencies.

In that location'due south no denying that the GTK-XB60 sounds like it has a subwoofer built in and that it can get uncommonly loud. This is real bass that you tin feel. Turning the Extra Bass on for a track like this feels borderline ridiculous—y'all're likely to rattle walls, and the balance feels disrupted. Therefore, we kept the Extra Bass disabled for about of testing—you lot know it'due south at that place if you ever actually desire to dial things upwardly, just without it, the GTK-XB60 still delivers serious, subwoofer-like oomph. It simply sounds tighter and more than balanced in regular listening fashion.

Bill Callahan'southward "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the GTK-XB60's overall sound signature. The drums on this track sound fairly natural in regular listening way—there isn't much added thunder; they sound circular, but not heavy. Add in the Extra Bass and the drums withal don't sound thunderous, so it seems articulate that when the GTK-XB60 pumps up the lows, information technology's pumping upwardly lower or sub-bass frequencies that typically don't occur on tracks like this. In regular mode, Callahan'south baritone vocals have a pleasant low-mid richness that is the most dominant audio in the mix, just is balanced enough by the loftier-mids that information technology doesn't seem muddy. The audio-visual guitar strums benefit from the high-mids, likewise, merely the lows and low-mids feel more than dialed up here than the highs, even in regular listening fashion.

On Jay-Z and Kanye W'due south "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop receives enough high-mid presence for its attack to retain it punchiness, but the sustain feels more beefed upwardly than it typically is, and the sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with some power. In Extra Bass mode, the thing that gets the most power is the pulsate loop, non the sub-bass synth. It seems that the area the Actress Bass targets is in the college sub-bass realm and the lower typical bass realm. At that place's enough of DSP (digital betoken processing) in play hither too, and it seems designed to accentuate the crush more than anything else.

The speaker is designed for lovers of EDM, so we won't spend too much time on orchestral tracks. The opening scene from John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary sounds a footling muffled in Extra Bass mode and slightly crisper in regular mode. In that location's plenty of lower frequency presence pushing the lower register instrumentation forwards. This is a sculpted sound signature regardless of genre—it favors very specific ranges of the lower frequencies, and boosts and cuts highs in a style that can sound overly sculpted. It works well for electronic music and pop with deep bass, but less so for acoustic or orchestral genres.

Conclusions

For $250, the Sony GTK-XB60 will appeal to those seeking a huge bass sound, but to market it as a portable speaker is slightly misleading. For all the effort you need to lug this beast somewhere, information technology will merely net you 3.5 hours of optimal audio playback at acme volumes—if yous're outdoors and trying to ability the political party, that could be a problem. The LED lights are well-implemented, so if that's your thing, they're another absurd characteristic to consider. In this price range, at that place are some other large, somewhat portable options to consider—the JBL Accuse 3, the Bose SoundLink Revolve+, and the more expensive Soundcast VG5 are all solid, and some of them have more outdoor-friendly, easily portable builds than the GTK-XB60. There's little to complain about here, but the GTK-XB60 feels quite niche.

Sony GTK-XB60

The Bottom Line

The Sony GTK-XB60 speaker offers bass thunder and an LED lite show, but limited portability.

Like What You're Reading?

Sign upwards for Lab Report to get the latest reviews and peak production advice delivered correct to your inbox.

This newsletter may incorporate ad, deals, or chapter links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Utilize and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.

vivancodosever93.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/sony-gtk-xb60