The Sony SRS XG500 Boombox speaker has several buttons across its top panel. Plus, there are also a few more inside its rear port compartment along with mic/guitar, power input, and USB play and charge out ports. All this is behind the sealing cap.
The buttons on the top include the Volume, Play-Pause, Mega Bass, Power, and Pairing buttons. Plus in the back, we find the Light, Battery, Party Connect, and ST Pair (Stereo Pairing) buttons.
So here we give our version of these Sony SRS XG500 buttons details. Herein, for each button, we cover what it does along with how and when to press it. Find also below, descriptions of button combinations / codes / chords that initiate more speaker functions than a single button press does. Thus with this information, you can fully enjoy all the features of this excellent sounding wireless speaker.
In the port panel, sealed with a semi flexible cover, we also find a barrel style DC input charging port. There’s also a 6.35mm audio input port for either a microphone or guitar. Plus, we have two USB-A ports. The first lets you connect a USB storage device (thumb drive) to the speaker, and then play audio files stored on that device, through the speaker. The other USB-A style output port supports the power bank function, where you can connect a cord between here and a mobile device to recharge it.
But here, we focus on the use of the buttons, and not the ports. So let’s get to that.
First, there is one row of six buttons on the top of the XG 500, and all buttons there have a unique shape as we see in the next picture. Then there’s also the buttons in the back compartment, which we’ll get to later.
We begin our Sony SRS XG500 buttons tour with the Power button, on the far left edge of the buttons panel. We indicate this with the green arrow in the next picture. Note its round power symbol shape with the plum line through its top.
Press and release the Power button when the speaker is OFF, to switch it on. Press and release it again, to turn it back OFF. The Power lamp lights up when the speaker powers up, as we show in the next picture.
The speaker makes rising electronic notes sound when you turn it on. It also plays a sort of ding-dong sound if it automatically pairs with a device upon power up. Plus, the unit announces, “Bluetooth connected.”
The unit plays a falling sequence of notes when you turn it off.
So, to know for sure that this speaker has turned OFF, you must check the Power status lamp, mentioned above, or the party lights found on the sides of the unit. When the speaker is OFF, all lamps should be dark, unless you’re charging the unit. When OFF in that case, the CHARGE lamp still glows solid orange.
This button is essential when you want to connect the XG500 to a source device, and then stream music on that device to this speaker.
With the speaker powered ON, you press and release quickly the Pairing button. You then hear the speaker say, “Bluetooth pairing.” The speaker is now in pairing mode.
You need to do this anytime you pair the Sony SRS XG500 with a never-before-paired Bluetooth source device.
When in pairing mode, the pairing status lamp blinks in a pulse-pulse-pause, pulse-pulse-pause pattern. And while that’s going on, the 500 sends out its name and other connection handle info over the Bluetooth air channels. Then, this allows nearby BT devices to find and pair to it.
When a device subsequently connects to the XG 500, the pairing status lamp stops flashing, and starts glowing a steady blue. For more information see our pairing details posts here and here.
The multifunction Play / Pause button looks like a right-pointing arrow / triangle with two vertical lines to the right of that. We find it immediately to the left of the Volume DOWN button, and just to the right of the Pairing button, as we point out with the green arrow in the next picture.
Press and release the Play / Pause button quickly to pause audio play. Rapidly press it again to reverse the pause action, and resume playback.
Note that the Play / Pause button is not a mute button. That is, pausing play in this way stops playback on the source Bluetooth device to which this speaker is currently paired. It does not merely just cut the speaker volume while the stream continues going. If streaming, the play stops. So, you won’t miss any content when you pause the speaker, as the source device (your phone, tablet, or computer) remembers where the content was paused. Then it picks up playback where it left off, when you press the play pause button.
To skip ahead to the next song in the playlist you’re listening to, quickly press and release the Play / Pause button two times.
To start the currently-playing song over again, quickly press and release this button three times.
If you want to skip backward in the playlist to the start of the previous song, get to the beginning of the current song. Again, to do that, press the Play / Pause button three times. Then as soon as the song starts over, quickly press and release this button again three times.
The XG 500 also sports Volume Controls. On the right center portion of the button panel, just right of the Play / Pause button, the Volume buttons look like minus and plus symbols. We point these these out in the next picture.
When pressed, these lower and raise the output volume respectively, by reducing or increasing the volume setting on the paired source device. Moreover, you have 50 volume level steps on this unit.
Note that you can also change volume on this Sony boombox speaker by adjusting volume on your source BT device. And from there, you can also do it from within the Sony Music Center app as well.
No other accessibility sounds play when you adjust volume on the 500. But the green Power lamp normally blinks once, each time you press and release these controls. However it quickly pulses three times when the speaker is at maximum volume and you press the Volume UP button to raise the sound level further. The Power lamp also does this when the speaker is at lowest volume, and you try to turn it down further by pressing the Volume DOWN button.
With the speaker paired and playing, press and release the minus shaped Volume Down button to decrease its audio output level by one step. Press the plus shaped Volume Up button to increase audio output. Or, you can press and hold the buttons to rapidly raise and lower the volume.
Note that these loudness controls affect the volume level setting whether the unit is paired or not. Also, the volume setting may change from paired device to paired device. That is, each paired device remembers its own volume setting. So you might need to re set the sound output when you unpair the speaker from one source device and pair it to another.
The Mega Bass button alters the output sound. The SRS XG500 has three sound effect modes that you activate with this button, including the following…
Normally, the Flat and Stamina modes are both off, and Mega Bass mode is the default. So the red Mega Bass indicator lamp normally glows. The sound appears to emulate a flat response but with significant bass boost. Finally, Stamina mode seems to bring up the midrange and cut back on the deep bass and high treble sounds. Trimming the very low and very high response conserves battery power and thus, allows the speaker to play longer per charge.
To take the speaker out of Mega Bass mode and into Flat mode, quickly press and release the Mega Bass button once.
Now to get back to Mega Bass mode from either Flat or Stamina modes, quickly press and release the Mega Bass button once.
From either Flat or Mega Bass mode, you turn on Stamina mode by pressing and holding the Mega Bass button (for about three (3) seconds) until the red Mega Bass indicator lamp lights.
We find three buttons inside the port compartment on the back of the speaker, behind the port chamber door. They are the LIGHT-BATT, PARTY, and ST PAIR buttons.
This party connect mode function lets you join from two to a hundred compatible speakers such that both play the same program. Why do this? Because, as with the Connect Plus and Party Boost feature on JBL speakers, you get a wider coverage area when you have more than one speaker in sync, than when just one is playing. So you get more volume to spread around bigger party areas.
Now to create a party group, you can use any combination of XB23, XB33, and XB43 models. In party connect mode, unlike with stereo pairing, you can indeed mix and match different speaker models, so long as you do it with only the models listed here.
To form a party connect group of speakers, do as follows.
When you’re ready to break the party connect link, simply press and hold the Party Connect button on Speaker One for three seconds. A tone then sounds and the Party Connect light goes out, meaning that the link is now broken.
The Stereo Pairing function lets you join two XG500s such that one plays the left channel of the stereo program, while the other plays the right channel. But unlike some of the other Sony speakers that allow you to activate this function from their controls, on the XG500, this feature is only available by using the Sony Music Center app. So we won’t discuss it further here, since you cannot use the buttons on the speaker to get to it.
This button triggers the speaker to announce the percentage of charge left in the battery. It also switches between normal and Battery Care mode.
Quickly press and release the same button (the LIGHT-BATT button) any time the speaker is ON. Then the unit speaks that percentage number of battery power left to you in a female voice.
In this mode, the speaker only charges the battery to ninety (90) percent. It considers that a full charge and stops charging at that point. This is supposed to extend the battery’s service life somewhat. Note that you can also control this option in the Sony Music Center app.
With the speaker running, press and hold the Battery button until you hear the “Battery Care mode ON” announcement.
Press and hold the Battery button until you hear the speaker make the “Battery Care mode OFF” announcement.
The speaker has party lights that flash, pulse, and undulate in time with the music, making many multi-colored patterns for an enhanced party space. These are ON by default, but turning them off saves battery power. This is handy when you’re running the speaker in bright rooms or outdoors during the day, where you couldn’t see the lights very well anyway.
Turn these lights off by pressing and releasing the Light button.
Then to turn them back on again, simply repeat what you did before. I.e. Press and release in the Light button. At that point, the party lamps will resume their flashing, fading, and color changing patterns.
This speaker can serve as a PA system for microphones or an amplifier for electric guitars, keyboards, and such.
This button stops Bluetooth and USB audio sources, and then the speaker accepts input from the Mic / Guitar input connecter, pictured below.
Press and release the Guitar button to suspend all other audio sources, and bring the Mic / Guitar port online.
Once turned on, you can plug a microphone or guitar into the 1/4” Mic / Guitar port that we point out in the picture just above. The Mic / Guitar lamp glows when this mode is active, as we see next.
But before you insert a cord into the port, turn the level control to minimum to prevent being blasted out by loud static or program audio when you actually make the connection.
Then, use this level knob to set how loudly the speaker plays content received from this input.
Press and release the Guitar button. Then the speaker makes a sound, and the guitar indicator lamp goes dark, as we see next.
You can control how the speaker priorities its Bluetooth connections. Either it can favor connection stability over sound quality, or sound quality over connection stability. Now by default, the speaker favors sound quality over stability, and this is normally no problem, as long as you keep the 500 well away from sources of microwave interference.
Press and hold both the Bluetooth and Volume UP buttons until the Bluetooth lamp flashes blue three (3) times. At that point, the speaker then favors connection stability over sound quality.
Again, press and hold the Bluetooth and Volume UP buttons at the same time, until the Bluetooth lamp flashes blue two (2) times.
You can reset the XG500 to factory default settings and state. To do that, turn on the speaker. Then press and hold the Play-Pause and Mega Bass buttons, found on the top panel in the third and sixth button positions from the left, at the same time until all lights on the unit go dark. See these buttons pointed at by the green arrows in the next picture.
You may wish to reset the speaker to correct any weird behaviors you notice from it such as failing to pair, sound distortion, cutting out, failing to power off when you press the Power button, and so on.
Note that resetting invalidates any saved connection info about this speaker on your source Bluetooth devices. So you’ll have to forget those connections on these devices, and re pair the speaker after a reset in order to play your audio content through it once again.
Note that you can control many of these XG500 functions from your phone or tablet, instead of using the buttons on the speaker directly. For that, you need the Sony Music Center app. In that app, you can adjust speaker volume, turn it off, update its firmware, switch the party lights OFF and ON, and other actions. But how to use that app is beyond the scope of this post, though if enough of you want that information, we may develop a post that describes that later.
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