If there’s one thing you can always count on, it’s Sony propping up its bass-heavy ULT speaker range pretty regularly. The last we saw, the company expanded the punier ULT Field range, while the ULT Tower 9AC only got a small look-in. Yesterday, Sony unveiled three new behemoths to the Tower family — the ULT Tower 5, Tower 7, and the ULT Tower Max. The trio are currently headed for South African shelves sometime in October.
Sony just ULTed
The arrival of this threesome means Sony will be saying goodbye to some older models to make room. It may well be worth the farewell. They’re all well-equipped to handle just about any DJ gear you throw at them, with ports like XLR, RCA, and USB-C. They’ll also hook up with Sony’s ULT MIC1 if the karaoke mood ever strikes.
That isn’t their only party trick. Sony’s made a big stink about its ‘Party Chain’ feature, and rightfully so. Using Bluetooth Auracast, the ULT Tower bunch can all connect to form one massive speaker. Not quite like Power Rangers, but it will massively expand their reach ’round the house. If you can afford ’em all. Trouble is, that functionality is limited to the newcomers of the ULT Tower family, so your older models won’t get to play.
At the top of the food chain sits the ULT Tower Max, replacing the ULT Tower 10. It’s… big, to say the least. Sony’s tacked a couple of “upgraded wheels with wider treads” that’ll supposedly help it cover more ground. Sony reckons this is the most sonically pleasant of the Tower range, packing four tweeters, three woofers, and a mid-range speaker. It’s also got Sony’s ‘Party Sound’ technology, which projects “powerful audio all around the space.”
Read More: Sony ULT Field 5 review – Hearing you loud and clear
Next up is the ULT Tower 7, which shares much of its DNA with the Max. It’s got that Party Sound tech, for instance, and also a new pair of the upgraded wheels. A battery lives inside, which should net about 30 hours on a single charge. The IPX4 rating means it’s probably best suited to the party-goers unafraid of some vitamin D.
As for the ULT Tower 5, it trades up that bigger battery for a more lightweight form factor. It’s still going to make you put in the work getting it someplace, but decidedly less than the rest of the bunch. It’s still got a 20-hour battery and an IPX4 rating, though. It replaces the XV500, while the Tower 7 assumes the role of the XV800.
While we know that all three are due on shelves sometime in October, Sony’s still holding onto official local pricing. American pricing tells us that the ULT Tower Max should turn up for around R24,000 ($1,500). The ULT Tower 7 and ULT Tower 5, on the other hand, arrive for R10,400 ($650) and R7,200 ($450), respectively.
