This is the review comparison between Tribit StormBox and Sony SRS-XB12 which are the speakers of two well-known and popular brand i.e. Tribit and Sony. Both speakers have different features, but both sound amazing. Design-wise also both are totally different. Both speakers offer different colours too. The difference between both speaker’s price is not that much still, it depends on the colour you choose. Both the speaker has pros and cons too. To make it easy that which one is best for you, do go through this detailed review comparison, as it will make it easy for you to decide.

Tribit StormBox	Sony SRS-XB12
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Water-resistant and Waterproof. Budget-friendly Dustproof – great for hiking, biking, and more. Great bass for a small speaker. Small and lightweight. Extremely portable. Excellent sound. Bass Boost. USB-C charger.	Good sound quality. Tough IP67 build. Ruggedized body. Shockproof. The app includes EQ.
CONS	CONS
No app for EQ. Short battery life. Sound distortion at high volumes. Available in only two colours orange and black. No End charger. No 3.5mm port, only Bluetooth.	Built-in mic too muddy. Using the button-combinations can be confusing. The low end is too strong for my taste. Large and heavy.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

Tribit StormBox

The Tribit StormBox is a waterproof, portable, Bluetooth speaker that packs quite a punch for its size and price. For under $62, the storm box provides a lot of sound out of a speaker that easily can fit in your DJ bag. The Tribit storm box pairs well with something like a smaller channel controller and laptop setup. The StormBox has two input sources both Bluetooth and a 1/8 inch jack. A lot of Cheaper Bluetooth speakers may not include this additional input source, so it’s nice to see it included on the StormBox. For DJing, you’ll most likely be using that 1/8 inch jack connection with a 1/8 inch to RCA cable.

Sony SRS-XB12

The new sony XB-12 is a small single transducer speaker that has a built-in strap that’s small enough to take with you anywhere. Overall even though it is pretty decent that too for 60 bucks, it is a hard sell. The XB12 is basically half the size of the Sony XB22. This speaker is IPX7, so it means that it’s got a dust resistance rating of 6 and a water resistance rating of 7. So, it’s not just water-resistant but you can submerge this thing in the water. The weight of this speaker is 244 grams. The Bluetooth connectivity on this speaker, just like all of Sony’s other speakers the XB12 is using Bluetooth 4.2. Generally, Sony speakers typically work better with Android devices, even the XB12 even though it doesn’t have NFC pairing or LDAP support.

DESIGN:

Tribit StormBox

The design of this speaker is good and it is cylindrical in shape. The speaker is small and lightweight too. The speaker’s body is made of black mesh and their volume plus+ and volume minus-  buttons in big mathematical symbols in white rubber. It is available in 4 colours black, blue, camo, and, red but generally red is never available. On the front of the speaker, you can have your plus and your minus for your volume control and you get a multi-selection button in the centre, so you can play and pause your music, you can also use it to answer phone calls. On the back of the speaker, you get a strap to carry it around a power button as well as a battery indicator and a pairing button for a second device and also has a button for x-bass for the extra bass response.

Sony SRS-XB12

The design of this speaker is good. The speaker got a nice feel, it also got a matte satin finish, it got a smooth metal grille on top. Down with firing, base radiator at the bottom. Got the buttons on speaker the power button, volume controllers, play and pause, a button to pair left and right if you get the second speaker. Got a microphone there and a charging LED on the back you’ve got the port for charging, reset button, and, audio in with the rubber plug that seals it up. There is the Sony symbol on the side which is nice and big. Rubber footing at the bottom which makes it a soft place down stops it from sliding around, it’s quite sturdy there it’s not moving. The carry strap is already connected which is nice and it feels tough. Just like Sony’s newer speakers, the XB12 has a mostly soft-touch rubber body. Even though build quality wise the speaker feels and looks great but as it has the softest rubber body so maybe it can get a scratch magnet.

FEATURES:

Tribit StormBox

When you will open the box, with the speaker, you get some thank-you cards, a user’s manual, it comes with a micro USB charging cable but no power brick. Using the Tribit StormBox is very straightforward. You just need to plug in your DJ controller to the input on the speaker, power it on, and you’re ready to go. This speaker projects sound 360 degrees around, giving it a better sound coverage than more directional speakers. Behind the cell door, you also get an auxiliary input and your charging input. 

The storm box also features two passive radiators at either end that has a bass boost function that provides a surprising amount of low end for such a small package. One drawback about its design is the placement of those two passive radiators. Because the passive radiator is on each end of the StormBox, if you stand the speaker up, you lose some of the power of one of the passive radiator. So to get the maximum amount of sound out of the StormBox, it has to be placed on its side. While this isn’t a deal-breaker, it does take up some extra space compared to standing it upright, so, that’s something that you might want to take into account.

To pair your phone to your device is very easy, all you need to do is press and hold down the power button on the back of the speaker, your Bluetooth menu will open you should see a para pop up on the screen of your phone and then it’s connected. Then you can play or pause the music, just press the centre on the speaker and to move to the next track you should press the centre button twice and go to the previous track Press the centre of three times. You also have your plus for your volume up, your minus is for your volume down. The speaker claims to have a 360 degrees sound and the speaker can also trigger a voice command like Siri.

Sony SRS-XB12

When you will open the box with the speaker, it comes with user manuals, basic information about the speaker, cards, etc and mainly a micro-USB cable for charging. It’s also worth noting that this speaker has a 16-hour battery life which is awesome, the previous one had I think it was a 6 hour or 10 hours whereas 16 is massive especially for something this size. It also charges by micro USB, it’s got a carry strap and the cool thing about this one is you can take two of them and pair them together to create stereo sound, which is fantastic. It’s also got the speakerphone or voice assist function which means you can use Siri or Google and give it commands and it works through this speaker.

The battery life of this speaker is 16 hours, but that’s when the volume is set at 50% and realistically when the volume is set at 80%, we’re looking at a battery life of around 7 hours, which is great as per the size of the speaker. As soon as the XP12 gets down to 20% battery it will not let you play music past 50% volume until you charge it again. This is one of the biggest disadvantages of sony speakers in general but the good thing is the XB 12 doesn’t constantly interrupt your music by saying, please charge every few minutes. There is a micro-USB port on the back of the speaker to charge it and an audio jack too if you want to use a wired connection. It would have been nice if the speaker was upgraded to a USB-C port, but at least good to see that there’s an audio jack because some companies are starting to do away with audio jacks on their smaller single transducer speakers.

The XB12 doesn’t have NFC pairing or LDAC support like Sony’s other speakers. Instead, the speaker is going to be defaulting to AA sim on both Android and Apple devices. Performance-wise the Sony claims that the XB12 has a 30-foot wireless range, but according to testing, I got a range of about 90 feet, which is also good. The good and important things about the speaker are that it has a stable wireless connection that has no problems going through multiple walls in the house, which is what really matters. You will notice that there is going to get zero latency across the board whenever you will watch the videos on your phone if you will use the XB12 with an Android device. And if you use the XB12 with an Apple device you’re gonna notice that there’s going to be a lot of latency, whenever you’re watching YouTube videos and a slight latency, whenever you’re watching Netflix. 

SOUND QUALITY:

Tribit StormBox

The sound quality of Tribit StormBox is really good and personally, I took a break from the studio and decided to get some practice outside and the StormBox was a perfect companion. Instead of just using a pair of headphones, I was able to have the master output play through the storm box, while using my headphones to cue, like it would in a real gig environment. So provided it with an even better practice session outside, than if I was just using headphones. Because the speaker is battery-powered, my practice time was only limited by the amount of battery life that I had on my laptop.

The StormBox makes me want to get out of the studio space more often, because of the quality and amount of sound that I was able to get without having to worry about powering that small Bluetooth speaker. And as it has two passive radiators and it gives 360 degrees sound, which means the sound is really amazing and even it has an X-bass option too. The Tribit storm box is a great Bluetooth speaker, especially for the price. Add in the fact that it includes a 1/8 inch Jack input, and it becomes a useful tool for DJ’s that may want to take the party outside or for spur-of-the-moment gigs at a friend’s house. 

Sony SRS-XB12

The speaker setup of the XB12 has a single upward-firing 46-millimetre diameter transducer and a single downward-firing passive radiator. As the XB12 is an upward-firing speaker you’re not going to be getting the full effect as you would with a full-size speaker that’s actually aimed at you. The sound quality-wise, you will notice that the XB12 has a slightly brighter sound signature than Sony’s newer extra bass speakers. After having a decent amount of bass for its size in Sony XB12, still, it does feel like it’s emphasizing the vocals. When it comes to max volume, the XB12 is only worth using if you’re using it at 80 per cent volume and up. The XB12 is a great little indoor speaker because overall it does sound pretty good and decent. It sounds full and Distortion isn’t a problem at higher volumes. I also noticed that the XB12 manages to get slightly louder than the JBL clip 3.

The Sony SRS XB12 Bluetooth speaker gives great sound. This one’s bigger, it’s meant to be better than the Sony XBA-1, this speaker is not only water-resistant but it’s also dust resistant. The XB12 can be paired up with another XB12 speaker, so you can get left and right stereo sound going. But the XB12 cannot be paired up with Sony’s other speakers like the XB22, XB32, or, XB41. It would have been great if the XB12 could pair up with Sony’s larger speakers. And also, unlike Sony’s other speakers, the XB12 can’t connect to Sony’s music centre app, which means you can’t directly change its EQ. If you want to change its EQ you’re going to need to use a third-party app.

WHICH ONE IS FOR YOU?

When it comes to the Tribit StormBox, I really recommend this speaker the fact that it’s only $62, this sounds so good for the money and is IPX7 too. It has a USB-C charger too.  So, if you’re looking for something that pairs well with a super portable small setup, the StormBox might be just what you’ve been looking for. This little spooky Sony XB12 is awesome and it actually exceeded my expectations even under the water it played music, and this thing retails at $60 which is fantastic for what this thing can do.  And if you’re looking for a little tiny speaker to use in the shower or a clip-on you while you’re out on a hike, I think the XB12 is pretty decent. Especially since it does get fairly loud and its real-world battery life of 7 hours is pretty impressive.

Both speakers are almost of the same price, but according to my opinion you should go for Tribit StormBox, but it’s totally on you which one is suitable for you and what are you looking for, in a speaker.

Expert Reviews of Tribit StormBox:

By reviewgeek
If you want a relatively no-frills portable Bluetooth speaker that genuinely delivers some impressive sound, then the Tribit StormBox should be flying into your shopping cart as…

By nerdtechy
At the end of the day, the Tribit StormBox is a great value for the money. It provides a balanced sound profile, even if it’s a little short on bass. But the main attraction is the durable case, which is tough enough to handle…

By andriodguys
One of the best selling points of the StormBox is that it comes with an 18-month warranty. Not only that, but you can extend it out to 30 months at no extra cost. This process…

By outeraudio
I’m always impressed when a new, more affordable brand can compete with the big boys. I feel the Tribit StormBox has certainly managed this feat. The StormBox offers much of the same features as its premium…

By Biareview
Tribit StormBOX possesses all the elements of a great product: beautiful design, good finishing quality, technology, and invested features. Most importantly, the sound of…

Expert Reviews of Sony SRS-XB12:

By techgearlab.com
Though the Sony SRS-XB32 is a good speaker overall, in our opinion it fails to find any sort of balance that makes…

By Sound Guys
While the Sony SRS-XB32 won’t be knocking anything off our best waterproof speakers list, it still has its place. Particularly if you like the idea…

By beebom.com
The Sony SRS-XB32 is a Bluetooth speaker that packs in almost everything I was looking for in a Bluetooth speaker…

By Indian Express
Sony is very serious about its party speakers lineup. It has just refreshed its portable offerings in this space…

By Tech Radar
As a portable Bluetooth speaker with a ruggedized frame and powerful drivers, the Sony XB32 does the job of being a versatile playback…