Customer Ratings & Reviews

Bass stopped working, could only sync one device..

While I was taking this speaker out of the box I was impressed. Solid build quality, some decent heft to it, pretty looks. After that I'm kinda disappointed. While this does have some advanced features, I'm sure some of them you won't use. Features: Fancy lights that you can customize using the app. While pretty, they don't provide much use. When they are following the music, they are always a half beat behind so it looks a bit off. Party booster: You slap (literally) your speaker to make wiki-wiki DJ noises. I'm pretty sure you won't be using this at the next smores fire. A few inputs, its waterproof (nice). Battery seems to last a while. Sound: OK, time to review what a speaker is used for....sound. If I had to use one word: Muddy. If I had to use more than one word, very muddy. It defaults to "extra bass" which sounds awful. Very boomy muddy sounds with muffled highs. When I played around with the EQ, I could never get it to sound very good. Still ends up muffled or tinny. The sound on some of my other branded cheaper speakers are much better. Overall, I would probably skip this. Too many gimmicks with pretty bad sound quality.

Speaker is great when it’s above 50% battery, when its below 50% it plays the music very quietly and goes into a reserve mode. This speaker actually isn’t worth the money and is really quite terrible.

Cool looking speaker, average sound quality at best

It was loud and clear but first the wireless feature didn’t work and then the acoustics failed. Maybe just defective but leery of trying it again

I've barely had them for 8 months and the battery dies out quick, the Bluetooth connectivity is not stable, and you cannot play charge them as they play.

The 'bass mode' seems to do boring more than cut the treble. Almost no mid tones to speak of and the bass leaves a lot to be desired. It's not a very balanced sound or even a very good one. Took mine back.

My speaker does not perform like the old one did. It dies without warning. It does not keep a charge as long as it should. It takes for ever to charge to full capacity. It really isn't worth the buy.

This speaker is incredible! It is packed with features like NFC, lighting, water resistance, and the live sound option. The sound quality is genuinely amazing, with rich bass along with clear highs and mids. The live sound feature is my favorite; with the push of a button, the speaker fills the WHOLE room with sound that seems to be coming from every direction. I'm not sure how Sony is able to pull this off but it is truly a feature worth buying this for when comparing it to other speakers without this ability. The built in NFC makes connecting to the speaker very easy, the lights add a sense of fun as well. If you are looking for a high end, feature packed home and portable speaker with amazing sound you found the right one!

The product was severely disappointing. Battery life was no where near what is advertised. Battery life seems to only be the “peak” performance, not actual. At 60% battery life, the speakers auto drop the volume to a whisper. When you try to plug in the wall charger it will not convert to that power source to operate. So you are stuck with a speaker that won’t play louder than a whisper. The demo u it at the store also gives a false sense of range. This product does not provide the sound quality of other products in the same price range. Not worth the $$ at all for this. Buyer beware!!!

Not the best I have 2 of them 1 small and the 1 for this review the almost sounds the same when they have 50% battery the volume doesn’t go over 50% it works weird

This is my second SONY XB series speaker and my favorite so far. The feel of it is solid. Seems to be built well. Sound is fantastic. Battery life is very good (but not 24 hours worth). To me, this is the perfect speaker for using out on the back deck for BBQs and entertaining. It is also light enough to use on road trips, sporting events, etc. The nice long battery life also makes it great for camping and hiking trips. Connectivity is straight forward and like every other device you've owned. I really don't have any negatives, maybe it's a little pricey? Very nice speaker though, with great sound.

I have low expectations for these speakers but this didn't meet that standard. It was on sale so I tried it but wouldn't recommend it.

This speaker had limited range and the bass quality wasn’t good.

The Sony SRS-XB41, like its smaller sibling the SRS-XB31, is a portable party bluetooth speaker - and both speakers tend to have sacrificed sound for gimmicks. The larger size of this model speaker surely contributes to an improvement in overall sound and Sony’s trademarked ExtraBass technology can push-out some impressive and clean sounding bass - but the boosting ultimately makes the music sound incomplete and out of balance. Reproduction of music is strong and clear but comes across sounding off and not quite right. The speaker is designed as a party speaker and it sports a colorful line light around its perimeter and includes a couple of strobe lights that flash from the face. The brightness of the lights seems to be tied to the loudness of the music - and according to Sony's promotional information, the lights are supposed to sync to the beat of the music as well but I didn't find that feature to work exactly right. Fortunately, this lighting display feature can be toggled off. One real curiosity with this model is that you can create sound effects through the speaker by interacting with it physically - by tapping or hitting various spots on the speaker, you can generate sounds of a scratch, a snare, and a kick drum. You have to be a little forceful with the speaker to bring-out these sounds but this feature worked reliably - but this feature also presupposes that you will be carrying the speaker around in your hands while you are partying to the music (is that a thing?). As with many devices designed for parties, a big selling point is the ability to chain multiple units together to play from a single music source. This speaker is designed for that as well - and is being marketed accordingly - hoping that all of your friends will show up with their own unit to join in the party. The SRS-XB41 also allows you to add a second identical unit in such way that the pair will work stereophonically. The unit is solidly built and heavy enough to give really good support for the bass, though - it feels well made - solid enough to withstand the percussion it is designed to respond to. It is also waterproof enough to rinse vigorously. And it sports a battery life of up to 24 hours (even though that would be under ideal circumstances, that still suggests that it has an outrageously good battery inside).

Sound like they just boosted the mid frequencies to add "more bass". Actually makes it sound bad. Definitely liked the previous model.

Dont buy. Has a weird function that will sometimes turn on and turn it into a drum so if you bump it it makes a sound. No thanks

The bass I was looking for but lacking in my other wireless bluetooth speakers. I like the color changing pattern. The battery life is great. Connectivity is great and I haven’t had any issues with drop outs. Not that I have a need for it, but it’s nice they provide a line in jack, should you be rocking an older device. The only thing I don’t like is the button combinations you have to go through for Extra Bass. It would have been nicer to just have a button for it. There’s plenty of space on top to accommodate a dedicated button. When using it with Siri, she sounds like she’s trapped in a tin can. That seems odd given how good the speaker sounds with music and podcasts. I think the marketing for the speaker is a little cheesy, but maybe people really plan to hang out and party that way. Guess I’m just boring.

It's a nice speaker but play time isn't the best. Also it's not as loud as I expected. I returned to the store.

Returned speaker because it kept cutting out and it isn't really that loud of a speaker