Tech Review: Sony SRS-BTM8 Wireless Speaker

The good people of Phones4U sent me a Sony SRS-BTM8 Wireless Speaker to try out and let me begin by saying that I love it.

It was actually good timing as my previous stereo had packed in so I had been looking at other stereos and speakers to get back in the game. The wireless ones were something that intrigued me. The idea was great, but I just was not sure whether the sound quality and link would be any good.

Then the Sony speaker arrived.

Taking it out the box I noticed how stylish it looked although it does have a bit of the hand bag vibe to it. That is mainly due to the handle which makes it so easy to carry around wherever you want it.

There was a mains adapter, but I went for the full wireless thing and put in the 4 AA batteries required. They give approximately 20 hours of playback which is not too shabby.

A quick scan of the instructions and I had linked up my iPhone with the speaker via Bluetooth. Between taking it out of the box, hunting for batteries and pressing play it had taken about 5 minutes.

I was immediately struck by the quality of the sound. Extremely clear with a satisfying bass from the Bass Reflex and 4W (2W+2W) power output. Pushing the volume right up worked well, with hardly any distortion.

Then my Dad turned up and, liking the look and sound of it, asked how it worked. I quickly showed him how to sync up his phone with the system and he was playing some of his tunes. Needless to say he loved it and was seriously considering getting one for his office.

One nice touch is that it also doubles as a speaker for hands free calls. If you get a call while the music is playing you simply answer it, the music goes off, and you chat away like one of Charlie’s Angels. The quality on the calls was not that great, but that seems dependent on the phone rather than the speaker.

My 6 year daughter had one of her friends round. Her friend had an iPod touch so I showed them how to link it up. This was a mistake as it meant we had Gangnam Style playing on repeat for a long time, but they enjoyed it.

The speaker works well while watching videos on the phone or bits and pieces on YouTube. A lot better than having to rely on the speakers on the phone.

The fact it is so light and easy to carry means you can have it in any room of the house or wherever you happen to be. There is also a 3.5mm audio line-in jack so you can hook up other devices.

All in all I can highly recommend the SRS-BTM8 speaker and can honestly say it has got me listening to a lot more music than I had before.