Sound quality: The Sony SRS-XB32 has Good overall sound quality. Bass has good impact but is somewhat prominent and boomy, and the deep bass is lacking. Midrange is somewhat hazy, grainy and harsh, and telephone-like. Treble is a bit subdued, somewhat smeared and sizzly, and the upper treble is somewhat muted. Does a so-so job recovering room ambience in the midrange but nowhere else, and the sound is somewhat congested and constricted. Bluetooth and wired sound quality are the same. Provides a decent volume level in a small to medium sized room. When two units are used as a stereo pair the bass becomes more prominent and boomy, it can get louder but since two separate speakers are used the sound stage can be made wider depending on placement and room ambience becomes more apparent but it has a hard, metallic quality; the overall sound quality remains fair. Note: The stereo pairing setup is a tedious, ambiguous process which required a combination of button presses on both units.
Ease of use: We found the Sony SRX-XB32 ease of use to be Very Good overall. The console volume controls are low contrast, there is nothing to indicate that it is a volume control except + and - symbols. We found Bluetooth pairing to be Excellent where the unit is in Bluetooth pairing mode the first time it is turned on; subsequent pairings requires the press of a low contrast labeled and multifunction button which is also the power button on unit, shows a pairing mode indicator. Unit provides an obvious indication that the unit is in pairing mode as well as when pairing has actually occurred. Unit also has NFC capability to aide with pairing for those who have the feature. Switching between Bluetooth and the line input involves plugging and unplugging the line input - The line input has priority over Bluetooth when plugged in with slight or no delay. The Aux input label is low contrast.
