Sony srs-x99

SongPal app is well thought out and easy to use.

Mar 2016

The SRS-X99 is the largest speaker in Sony’s wireless speaker line-up, and has the clean modern look that’s shared throughout the line-up. Certainly, apart from size, there is little to tell between the SRS-X99 and the SRS-X88 speakers, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The gloss top matches well with the brushed aluminum finish on the sides and back, making for a classy looking speaker overall.

Looks aside, the speaker certainly boasts an impressive number of drivers, with one main woofer flanked by two passive radiators for deep bass, two mid-range magnetic fluid speakers for vocals and crisp mid-range performance, plus four super tweeters for “ultra-high frequencies”. These super tweeters are split evenly between upward facing and front facing, allowing for better dispersion of sound across the room.

Sony has long been a proponent of HRA, and it certainly shows as the SRS-X99 offers full support for eight of the most popular music formats in both compressed and uncompressed form (AAC, WMA, AIFF, ALAC, DSD, WAV, MP3 and FLAC). Further to that, it also takes advantage of Sony’s latest LDAC codec to transmit data at three times the rate of existing wireless technology, ensuring that your audio isn’t down-sampled during transmission.

It also gains Sony’s latest audio codecs like S-Master HX, DSEE HX, and ClearAudio+, which together promise optimal clarity and separation with minimal distortion and noise for full-bodied sound. DSEE HX in particular is an interesting technology as it’s said to upscale existing music to near high-resolution quality

Like the Bose Sound Touch 30, the SRS-X99 also comes with a remote control, though this is a long and slim affair that offers you basic play back controls and the relevant source buttons and nothing else. The multi-room magic obviously happens via Sony’s SongPal app, which is thankfully a pretty well designed affair. Speakers and music sources are assigned to groups you can name, and you can easily switch speakers from one group to another. Having the entire group play to same song is as simple as assigning it to one source, and overall this was probably one of the easiest ways to manage speakers and sources.

Setup was also a fairly simple, as the app quickly picked up the SRS-X99 once it was on the network, leaving us to just follow the on-screen instructions.

SongPal app is well thought out and easy to use.

Soundstage could be wider.