Multiroom speakers and portability don't exactly go hand-in-hand, as they rely on a Wi-Fi connection to the rest of your system in order to keep the music pumping - something which typically comes at the detriment of battery life. That hasn't stopped Sony from combining the two, however; the SRS-X77 is the company's first portable speaker to join its multiroom speaker range, and amazingly there's been no compromise in terms of features to make room for a battery that will last you long enough to enjoy a full day of British summertime.
The SRS-X77 naturally has integrated Wi-Fi, for connecting to your local network and pairing with other Sony multiroom speakers, but it also has DLNA and Airplay support for wireless streaming from an iOS or Android smartphone, PC or NAS device, plus Google Cast and Spotify Connect compatibility for playing music from online streaming services. You can also take the speaker away from the house (and your Wi-Fi network) but keep the music going with Bluetooth and NFC for direct playback and quick pairing of compatible devices. There's even a 3.5mm audio jack for hooking up wired devices, yet Sony still expects ten hours of continuous music playback.
Better yet, it sounds great too. It might not be certified for Hi-resolution audio playback like the rest of Sony's multiroom speakers, but the proprietary Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE) DSP boosts the high frequencies that are typically lost when compressing audio to MP3 or streaming quality. During our short demo at a Sony event earlier today, acoustic tracks and classical compositions sounded impressively rich and detailed. This is partly due to the technology, but also down to how many speaker drivers Sony has squeezed inside the diminutive chassis; it has two 46mm full-range speakers, a 62mm woofer and dual passive radiators, producing 40W using Sony's S-Master digital amplifier. Naturally we'll reserve final judgment until we've had the chance to get one into our labs for proper testing, but we still walked away from our demo impressed.
The angular design, with rounded off corners, glossy black sides and a silver (or white) metal speaker grille makes the SRS-X77 look like a smaller, thinner version of last year's SRS-X9 speaker. The entire multiroom range shares a similar look, meaning you can mix and match across the range without clashing. The touch-sensitive controls make another appearance here, although the reflective finish looks like it will be a magnet for fingerprints.
Also like the rest of the range, the SRS-X77 can be controlled using Sony's Songpal app, which lets you create groups of speakers for multiroom listening. You'll even be able to add a 2015 Sony soundbar, sound base, micro Hi-Fi or home cinema receiver as an extra speaker, as the entire range will be gaining multiroom additions from June onwards. The app is simple to use, with icons representing each speaker that you can drag and drop to create groups, tap to select and queue up songs. It also adds shortcuts to apps compatible with Google Cast or Spotify Connect, letting you jump between each one as you look for tracks, then back to Songpal to control volume on each individual speaker.
We're still waiting for an official UK price from Sony, but based on American prices we're expecting the SRS-X77 to cost around £250-£300 when it launches in June.
