I was asked by Sony to review their new super cool Sony LSPX-S1, and as a music loving family, I thought it would be a good opportunity to see what was type of wireless speakers were available. We already had a bluetooth speaker system but since we dropped it (!) the sound has never been the same again, funny that. We tend to listen to music throughout the day, in the morning, getting ready for work/school and most evenings.
We’ve long-lost our stereo separates and just listen to music by streaming through our phones or tablet and because of this, we needed a speaker that had easy usability for all the family, including my daughters. Like most bluetooth devices, only one person can be streaming music at one time and as far as we can work out, you can’t boot someone of the bluetooth, the person using it has to sign out before the other person can have access, which we like.
This particular model looks unlike any other speaker on the market right now and feels more like a contemporary art piece than a speaker. With its clear glass tube, solid metal base and unique exposed light filament, it wouldn’t look out of place in a hip east end coffee shop. I’m drawn to it. It sits on our sideboard and blends into the room taking up no space at all, it looks nothing like any speaker we’ve owned before.
What’s remarkable about this speaker is that the sound that it generates is completely 360 degrees from any angle due to the way the sound is transferred through the glass and out from the woofer in the base. This means wherever you are in the room, you hear the same quality of sound. We like this a lot.
It’s a beautiful crisp sound and suited for softer background music with delicate notes or vocals and acoustics. This is not a party speaker with ear deafening base but it does fill the room with a great quality sound that you can relax to and enjoy.
It’s easy to set up and is controlled through an app from your mobile using Bluetooth or you can plug your sound system into it directly. Once installed you can control the settings like light brightness, volume and apps that it connects to. There’s also a sleep timer so you can set the speaker to turnoff after a set time, such as when you go to bed. It looks like the other music apps on the phone are automatically added to the app for you to choose from but once connected to the speaker you can just select your music and play as normal.
The Sony LSPX-S1 is powered through the mains but also has a battery that should last for 4 hours play, maybe more if you turn the light down or off but we keep ours plugged in. It is handy to be able to move it around if you need to and weather permitting, move it outside when entertaining.
Let’s not beat around the bush, it looks and feels expensive and it’s not cheap at £800 but then you could justify the cost based on the unique look and quality of the speaker…
We have tried and tested this for 2 months now and are happy with the results. One thing to note is the delicate glass column, probably best to set an age limit on who is allowed to carry the speaker around the room!
