The -ST PAIR- (Stereo Pair Mode) lamp glowing on the Sony SRS XB43 speaker.

Sony SRS XB43 Pairing Two Speakers

Pairing two Sony SRS-XB43 Bluetooth speakers allows you to form a stereo (L + R) set.  So in this piece, we show you how pairing two copies of this speaker together lets you enjoy more life like sounding music from them.  The only extra cost is that you must have two XB43s to get the stereo sound.  Now individually, the XB 43 is itself a stereo speaker.  E.g. It has four drivers, two for the left channel and two for the right.  And you can indeed get a decent stereo soundstage from one XB43 as long as you stay pretty close to it.  But when pairing two of these speakers together, you can spread the left and right channels further apart for louder and further reaching stereo.

Front view of the Sony SRS XB43 Bluetooth speaker, all lit up.
Sony SRS XB43 Bluetooth speaker front view, all lit up.

Sony SRS XB43 Pairing Two Speakers: How it Works

Prepare the Speakers

Picture of the -Power- button.
The -Power- button.
    1. Start with both speakers powered OFF.
    2. Power up both speakers, and watch for the Pairing lamp to begin flashing blue on each one.
    3. If either speaker connects with a nearby Bluetooth device, you need to break that connection.  So turn off Bluetooth on the nearby BT device or shut down that device altogether.
Picture of the Sony SRS XB43 speaker, showing the blue glowing Bluetooth status light.
Sony SRS XB43 speaker, showing the blue glowing Bluetooth status light.

Initiate the Pairing of Two Sony SRS-XB43 Speakers Now

Picture of the -ST PAIR- button.
The -ST PAIR- button.
    1. Press and release the ST PAIR button on one of the speakers, Then that XB43 beeps and the ST PAIR light starts flashing. Find the ST PAIR button in the back compartment. It’s the last button on the right.  At this point, both the Bluetooth and ST PAIR lamps on this speaker blink. Then after six (6) seconds, the ST PAIR lamp stops flashing and glows white steadily while the Bluetooth lamp continues blinking.
    2. Next, on the the second XB43, press the ST PAIR button.  Then  its  Bluetooth and ST PAIR lamps flash briefly.  Note that you have one minute to do this after putting the first speaker in ST PAIR mode.  Otherwise, that first speaker times out, and reverts to a single BT speaker configuration. If this happens, power down both speakers, and start over with the Prepare the Speakers section above.
    3. You’ll shortly thereafter hear a beep.  Then the ST PAIR lamps on both speakers glow steadily and the Bluetooth light on the second speaker goes out while that same light on the first speaker continues blinking. Your two speakers are now linked to each other.
Picture of the -ST PAIR- (Stereo Pair Mode) lamp glowing white.
The -ST PAIR- (Stereo Pair Mode) lamp glowing white.

Finally, when the two speakers pair with each other, each one announces which stereo channel it will be (left or right).

Pair your Source BT Device to this Sony SRS XB43 Stereo Pair

    1. Now connect the source device to the stereo pair set as you would to any single Bluetooth speaker.  E.g. Go to the Bluetooth settings page on your source device, and connect to the SRS-XB43 speaker set (should appear as “SRS-XB43” here). When you make the connection, the Bluetooth light on the first speaker begins glowing steadily, and you are now ready to enjoy stereo sound from your two XB43s.
-Bluetooth Settings- page on iPadOS, showing the Sony SRS XB43 as Connected.
iPadOS -Bluetooth Settings- page, showing the Sony SRS XB43 as Connected..

Note that the speaker with the glowing Bluetooth lamp is the primary speaker in the stereo set.  When you pair with it, it’s the one that announces, “Bluetooth connected.”  This speaker is the one you would work to answer a call by pressing the Play-Pause-Phone button.

Also, the speakers will remain in ST PAIR mode even after you turn them off.  This just means that the next time you turn one of them on, it will look for the other one in the ST PAIR set to connect with.  Furthermore, if both speakers happen to be running Bluetooth standby mode, then when you turn on one of them, the other will come on as well. And if either speaker does not find the other after one (1) minute, then it reverts to single speaker operation.





How to Swap the Stereo Channels

Briefly press the ST PAIR button on either speaker while the two are paired together, and the one that was the left channel becomes the right channel.  And the one that was the right channel becomes the left channel.  Appropriate voice announcements play from the speakers as well to let you know which speaker is now doing which stereo channel.

How to Break the Stereo Connection

To end this speaker tethering, while both speaker are powered up and connected to each other, briefly press the ST PAIR button on one of them and the ST PAIR lamps on both speakers go out.  Then you hear a beep. All of this means that the stereo pairing has now been broken, and both speakers each revert back to single speaker operation.

Related Posts to Sony SRS XB43 Pairing Two Speakers

    1. Pairing Two Sony SRS XB33 Speakers
    2. Two Sony SRS-XB12 Speakers Pairing Together for Stereo Sound
    3. Pairing Two Sony SRS-XB13 Speakers for Bigger Sound
    4. How to Pair Two Wonderboom BT Speakers Together

Other Posts About the Sony SRS XB43

    1. How to Bass Boost Sony SRS XB43
    2. Sony SRS XB43 Firmware Update
    3. Sony SRS XB43 Battery Life
    4. How to Connect Sony SRS XB43 to Alexa
    5. Sony XB43 Watts

References for Sony SRS XB43 Pairing Two Speakers

    1. Sony SRS XB43 Product Page at Sony.com

Revision History

    • 2022-10-03: First published.