Sony’s SRS-XB100 isn’t the most amazing Bluetooth speaker I’ve heard. At the size of a crushed beer can, how can it be? Yet, I’ve had more fun with this speaker than just about anything in my increasingly expansive arsenal. It’s accompanied me on some of my most beloved adventures; the kind of places I return to in my mind when the world sucks. It’s jammed Bob Marley in a Maui condo as the sun slowly sets on the water, a POG cocktail in my hand. It’s thrown down Fruit Bats in a rustic lodge deep in the mossy woods of the Olympic National Forest. Most recently, it helped me warm up some yacht rock in my San Diego hotel room as I prepped to see the surprisingly awesome Christopher Cross live on Coronado bay.
The XB100 comes along because it’s easy to pack and armed for the road. Its 16-hour battery is enough to rarely even wonder if it’s charged. It connects instantly, and its controls are easy to use. Most of all, it sounds damn good for a speaker this size, with a dispersion driver up top that shoots sound around the room, and a radiating bottom that uses whatever platform you set it on to round up admirable bass. Again, this is far from the best-sounding speaker I’ve heard (or own). But it does its job very well, and it’s light and compact enough to fit wherever I go, from flights to hikes. After all, isn’t that what a Bluetooth speaker is made for?
