Review on Sony SRS-XB32 Portable Bluetooth Speaker: Compact Wireless Party Speaker with Multicolor Lights and Flashing Strobe - Enhanced Audio for Phone Calls - Waterproof and Shockproof Bluetooth Speakers - Black by Darrell Beecher

I use this as speakers for my desktop computer connected to the AUX port with an audio cable. I'm not interested in many functions. I was concerned about the colored light display but was happy to learn that it's easy to turn it off. I haven't downloaded the Sony Music Center app. I haven't tried the feature that lets you smack an object to make interesting noises. The build quality appears to be excellent. The product is a good solid weight even with a small rubber/plastic flap covering the controls and ports on the back. It's not tiny, but it's not too big either. User Guide: A short image is included that takes you to a well-made, fairly interactive website that you'll probably want to visit (no more than once or twice). ) to learn how to adjust some settings. I've found that when it's looking for something to pair with and you're playing audio through the aux port, there's a rhythmic buzz, like something isn't grounded. When it finally stops connecting, this is gone. I couldn't get it to stop pairing, so I just unplugged everything and left it alone until it turned off. Then to use it with a cable, I found the best order was to plug in the cable, then turn on the speaker and just ignore the blinking blue pairing-ready light. This thing has three playback modes: (1) Extra Bass (default) produces a commendable bass punch, but it can be intrusive and go beyond the mids and highs. You can switch to the (2) Live Sound mode, which seems to leave the bass alone and cuts off the mids and highs a bit. Finally (3) Standard mode pretty much kills the bass. This prevents it from overpowering the mids and highs like it does in Extra Bass mode. But no matter what setting I try, the mids and highs feel flat and a bit dull. I like the highs to sound bright and shiny and that to me is the weak point of this speaker and that's why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. Compared to the old Bose SoundLink Mini II it replaces, Bose sounds better to me. It has lots of (less obtrusive) bass, brighter highs and a nicer balance of bass and treble. But it also has a non-removable battery that has reached the end of its lifespan, and it doesn't come cheap to send the thing to Bose for repairs. If this were a new Sony compared to the latest Bose equivalent, I'd lean towards Bose, except Bose is sold at half Sony's price. I'm not sure if it's much better. As for the price: I recently reviewed the Oontz Angle 3 (latest model), which sells for about a quarter the price of Sony. Millions of great reviews, claims of great bass response, blah blah blah. I wanted to be impressed and fully expected to be impressed but found out why it's so much cheaper. It sounded like a cheap toy. This Sony is in a whole different class. It costs four or five times as much, and it seems to me that it should cost four or five times as much. So how much is too much for a portable Bluetooth speaker? How cheap can you go and still get something decent? I don't know where you draw that line, but this item at this price seems reasonable.