Gadgetory

Sony's SRS x7 is a $300 wireless speaker that offers both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi streaming along with Apple AirPlay support in a compact classy package that should fit in well with most of course hi I'm David Carnot and I'm going to give you a quick tour of this model which sits in between the bluetooth only srs x5 $81 speaker and the flagship srs x9 which retails for a whopping $700 as you can see it's sleek looking in a minimalist way and has some nice heft to it weighing in at just over 4 pounds there's a bit of brushed aluminum on the sides and on the top where you'll find a set of touch sensitive buttons there's an almost mirrored finish that will track some fingerprints and need to be wiped down from time to time overall I like the speaker and think it sounds good for its size but it does have some potential shortcomings while I was able to connect using bluetooth without a hitch some people may find the Wi-Fi setup a bit challenging and I think Sony's companion song pal app could use some polishing streaming over Wi-Fi offers better range and additional flexibility but the boost in sound quality is only slight in a Bluetooth speaker this size around back there's a retractable wireless antenna which is supposed to improve Wi-Fi performance and a nice set of connectivity options that includes an Ethernet port audio input and a USB charging port for smartphones and tablets once you do get the Wi-Fi streaming set up you can do a few things one option is to airplay your music to the speaker from your PC using iTunes or your iOS device the other is to set up your PC as a DLNA server and stream your music to the speaker that way using the song pal app as a quote unquote remote this SRS x7 is one of those speakers that can sound excellent for its size with certain tracks but falls off a bit with others particularly at higher volumes with less demanding materials such as Norah Jones's come away with me and John Legend's all of me it sounds clean and vibrant and will certainly impress but play complicated tracks where lots of instruments are playing at the same time and it doesn't handle them as well the speaker did play loud for its size and should fill a small to medium-sized room with sound however it doesn't play as loud as the Bose Soundlink Bluetooth speaker 3 sound quite as smooth it also doesn't have as good battery life it's rated at 6 hours compared to the Bose is at 14 in the end as I said I like this speaker but I think the step-down SRX x5 which leaves off the Wi-Fi streaming may be the better choice for people who want a simpler speaker to use for less money I'm David Carr joy thanks for watching