Sony LinkBuds Speaker review

Sony’s LinkBuds line is made up of, as the name suggests, various pairs of wireless earbuds. Open ring designs, in-ear models, sporty types, there isn’t a set definition for what a LinkBud is exactly, but the single unifying constant has always been that they go into, or sometimes sit just outside of, the human ear.

There is, however, an exception. There’s one member of the LinkBuds family which, despite having the word ‘buds’ in its name, looks like it may have been adopted into the clan, as it isn’t a pair of wireless earbuds but a portable Bluetooth speaker. The Sony LinkBuds Speaker is the apparent anomaly in this expanding family, yet while it distinguishes itself by taking on a completely different form from the rest of its siblings, this is a product that’s clearly aimed at the same crowd that Sony was targeting with its Olivia Rodrigo-backed LinkBuds Fit: hip, trendy youngsters who want great sound on the go.

Sony has already attempted to break the JBL stranglehold at this level with its four-star ULT Field 1 (tested at £119 / $129 / AU$229), a similarly-priced performer that couldn’t quite topple the might of the JBL Flip 6 or Charge 5. It’s a tough nut to crack, so maybe the Japanese audio titan has found the winning formula – or dare we say ‘missing Link’ – with this latest attempt.

Price

Currently priced at £139 / $180 / AU$199, the Sony LinkBuds Speaker (SRS-LS1) has jumped straight into the lion’s den. This is the realm occupied by some of the best Bluetooth speakers on the market, speakers that are only getting more affordable as their respective prices drop with time.

The five-star JBL Flip 6 can now be picked up for roughly £90 / $90 / AU$150, while the all-time-great JBL Charge 5 now hovers around £130 / $150 / AU$199. The refreshed Beats Pill debuted at a little over the Sony’s price, but discounts are now dropping it down to around £90 / $130 / AU$249.

Build & design

Around the same height as a standard deodorant can, albeit a little fatter, Sony’s compact speaker is built to sit conveniently on your desk, perch on a nearby shelf or be thrown inside an accommodating rucksack as you take it on your travels.

If you’re planning on bringing the LinkBuds Speaker out with you, we have little doubt that its chunky, robust build will keep it intact. An IPX4 waterproof rating is a little disappointing when compared with the IP67 ratings of its rugged JBL Charge 5 and Flip 6 rivals, but it’ll do the job of keeping your speaker protected against drizzle and the occasional splash of water, but it won’t necessarily protect against dust ingress or full liquid immersion. Maybe not one for pool parties, then.

IP rating aside, we’re otherwise confident that, given our time with the LinkBuds Speaker, its solid, robust build will be enough to handle the bumps and scrapes that inevitably come with being a portable Bluetooth companion. The built-in carry loop, meanwhile, also feels as though it can handle the speaker’s 520g weight without losing integrity where the loop meets the main body.

Not that you’ll necessarily want to have the LinkBuds Speaker out and about with you all the time. The unit’s tightly woven exterior mesh does seem to harbour dirt if exposed to mud and grime, and we’d certainly recommend getting the Sony in black if you’re planning on using it as a frequent portable – we find that handsome off-white finish is fairly susceptible to stains and marks.

The LinkBuds Speaker keeps things relatively minimalist design-wise, opting for an all-over speaker mesh design with few embellishments or adornments. That said, you’ll find four main control buttons at the top: two plus and minus signs for volume adjustment alongside a play/pause control and a preset button for quickly accessing streaming services such as Spotify or Amazon Music. At the bottom of the speaker’s rear side sits a small power control and a covered USB-C port, although the LinkBuds Speaker also comes with a supplied wireless charging pad for faster juicing.

Features

A key benefit of Sony’s latest Bluetooth portable is that it’s designed to work with the extended LinkBuds family of products. One of the speaker’s party pieces is its seamless interconnectivity with the extended LinkBuds earbuds line, letting you flit between buds and speaker automatically as your tunes play. Put your compatible LinkBuds into their charging case and the speaker takes over musical playback automatically, but once the buds are out of their shelter and in your ears, the audio switches to the buds and the speaker takes a well-earned break. It’s a neat trick that works smoothly every time we try it with our LinkBuds Fit test pair via Bluetooth.

There’s more to the LinkBuds Speaker than its eagerness to cooperate with its Sony stablemates. A healthy battery life is vital for portable units of this kind, and the small Bluetooth speaker duly furnishes us with 25 hours of playback time, a monster figure that overshadows the 12 hours granted by the JBL Flip 6 and 20 hours provided by the more substantial JBL Charge 5.

You can use the LinkBuds Speaker to handle incoming voice calls, a feature that’s noticeably absent from the rival Flip 6. Sony’s champion does an admirable job, with voices coming through clearly on the part of the recipient while being reproduced ably on the other end thanks to the speaker’s built-in microphone.

Sony has clearly made efforts elsewhere to make sure that the LinkBuds Speaker is easy to use and capable of keeping up with its competitors. Stereo pairing allows for two speakers to be hooked up together simultaneously, whereas quick access is genuinely handy for getting music playing from your favourite app at the touch of a button. Wireless connectivity is handled by Bluetooth 5.2, though the LinkBuds Speaker only supports SBC and AAC codecs – there’s none of the LDAC compatibility you’ll find with most of Sony’s wireless earbuds.

Setting which music service you’d like to delve into is done via the newly revamped Sony SoundConnect app, the same platform you’ll use for handling most of the brand’s new wireless speakers and headphones. It’s still not the most intuitive service you’ll find, but access to a customisable five-band equaliser, plus control of features such as quick access (to help you jump straight into your streaming service of choice) and stereo pairing, help the SoundConnect app earn its stripes.

Sound

Sony’s wireless wonder uses a two-way speaker system consisting of a 16mm tweeter and a 48x56mm balanced mid/bass driver to produce what its maker describes as “impressive bass and clear vocals with less distortion”. Passive radiators work in unison with the mid/bass for more powerful bass reproduction, whereas Sony’s ‘Sound Diffusion Processor’ aims to ensure that the sound produced is spread out evenly rather than simply fired in a single direction.

While it’s not the most expansive listen, Sony makes good on its promise of omnidirectionality, and you’ll receive a consistent quality and timbre of sound no matter where you stand in relation to the speaker itself. Textural quality abounds, with perhaps the LinkBuds Speaker’s strongest card to play being its impressive levels of midrange detail. When going up against the JBL Flip 6, we discern a noticeably more authentic reproduction of the sombre guitar on The Killers’ Christmas In LA through the Sony than we do with the JBL.

The LinkBuds Speaker also evidences a talent for vocal reproduction. It’s easy for a speaker of this size to make voices – be they Corey Taylor or Camilla Cabello – sound generic or drab, a trap the Sony does well to avoid. Michael Stipe’s charmingly reedy singing on REM’s Nightswimming is a heartfelt performance through the Sony, while Stephen Fry’s narration of PG Wodehouse’s Right Ho, Jeeves is packed with playful élan.

The Sony’s knack for detail is tempered nicely by a restrained, well-organised character that gives tracks a mature, even-handed flavour. There’s no flabby bass to be found at the bottom or screeching trebles ready to loosen a couple of your fillings, and while a tad more punch and rhythmic drive wouldn’t go amiss, the LinkBuds Speaker treads lightly to avoid spilling sounds into areas they don’t belong. Play Muse’s Madness through the Sony and you’ll notice just how clean and fuss-free the composition is, an impressive feat for a relatively small speaker.

That love of order and refinement does leave the Sony feeling just a tad restrained, however, with most of the sonic sacrifices coming at the lower end. There’s not a great deal of punch from a speaker that prefers to keep things relatively clean and lightweight, and bassheads especially may become frustrated by a lack of lower-end oomph from heavier hip-hop and rock tracks. This is where the five-star Flip 6 and Charge 5 rivals pull ahead, offering the punch and power that the slightly lean Sony lacks. The JBLs certainly go further dynamically – the crashes and bashes amid the pandemonium of Hans Zimmer’s The Battle arrive with more weight and gusto than they do via the Sony. If you like punch and verve to your tracks, the LinkBuds Speaker may not be to your taste.

Verdict

The Sony LinkBuds Speaker has its charms. It’s a portable, feature-rich and nicely-made Bluetooth speaker which digs out plenty of detail, even if the class leaders grant you a good deal more sonic punch and lower-end clout. Those rivals are perhaps better suited to getting the party started, but the Sony’s refinement and knack for organisation means that it shouldn’t be dismissed as a mere stick in the mud.

First reviewed: December 2024

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Build 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the JBL Charge 5

Also consider the JBL Flip 6

Read our Beats Pill review

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