Review on Sony SRSBTM8 Portable Bluetooth Wireless by Antoine Dean

First impression: Great build Most of the case is made of plastic, while the speaker grille is made of very strong metal. Not exactly acoustically transparent, but that's the norm for portable Bluetooth speakers. A knock test shows that this isn't super cheap plastic, and it's not thick MDF with spacers everywhere either. It appears to have a dual 2-inch full-range setup with some sort of bass port. It can be powered by 6V DC 0.5A adapter (included) or 4 x AA batteries (not included). If you only use it at home, choose a bookshelf speaker + T-amp. It makes no sense to limit yourself to case volume, case material, driver size, power and channel separation for the sake of convenience. Be sure to check out the bookshelf speaker reviews from noaudiophile and mediumjoeaudiophile. Performance is good (for a portable speaker of course) 6V * 0.5 amps = 3W max (if the amp somehow magically reaches 100% efficiency). Sensitivity isn't listed, so it doesn't matter. This is enough to adequately fill a small to medium sized room. They won't instantly deafen everyone near the speaker (stereotyped car audio logic), but the keyword here is appropriate. The sound is decent. High frequencies are too bright both on axis and slightly off axis. He has a bit of a problem with very low male vocals. This makes some of them unusually rough and almost abrasive. I don't know how to explain it. The bass really surprised me. It obviously has no sub-bass, but it covers the mid-bass quite well. I tried setting the high pass filter on the EQ to 150Hz (the manufacturer stated the lower limit) and listening with my normal gear to have realistic expectations. Either Sony published realistic measurements without unreasonable tolerances, or the filter was very steep, or it was a combination of both. The overall cost is excellent. This is a decent-sounding portable speaker with Bluetooth and NFC for $50. I doubt you'll find anything else in this price range.