This is the Sony ULT Field 3… and just like the Sony ULT Field 5, sony has gone in and they have fixed and improved everything everything. And ill be honest, I did not like the Sony XE300 one bit. It was big, it was ugly and it sounded like a muffled mess. But now, we have the Sony ULT Field 3, yeah its a little big, but its also a great mid sized speaker for summer 2025. So lets see what the Sony ULT Field 3 is all about and lets see how it compares to both the Sony XE300 and the XB33. Its not even close. And thats good.
Regarding pricing, the Sony ULT field 3 has a retail price of $200… unfortunately this is a $50 price increase from both the XE300 and XB33 from when they first came out. But the Sony ULT field 3 isn’t the only mid sized speaker to get a price increase recently. Nonetheless if you want to pick this speaker up it’ll be linked down below or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button. And if you want to further support the channel then you can always pick up some merch.
So first theres the design of this speaker. Just like the ULT field 5, the Sony ULT field 3 has a very basic rectangular design to it. But obviously it is smaller and lighter, and its also way thinner. However, it is noticeably larger than both the XE300 and XB33. But nonetheless the ULT field 3 is a much better option than its predecessors if you’re looking for something portable cause this speaker comes included with a shoulder strap. And this shoulder strap is identical to the one that comes with the ULT Field 5. Its feels very premium and I like the embedded look. And just like the ULT Field 5, if you dont want to use the shoulder strap, you can opt for a clean design, or if you are going to use the shoulder strap, you just gotta flip these rubber stoppers. And again, the ULT Field 3 is super durable thanks to its mostly fabric wrapped body, and its also rocking an IP67 rating so water is not going to be an issue for this speaker.
And I also want to point out that the ports on this speaker are covered, so even if this speaker gets wet if you take it to the beach, lake or pool, you dont have to wait for this speaker to be dry before you can charge it. And this is a small deal cause some speakers just keep their ports exposed. And before you can charge them up, you gotta make sure that the ports are properly dry.
The only unfortunate thing is, no the ULT field 3 did not bring back the light feature like on the XB33, which I actually think looks pretty good. And no the Field 3 doesn’t have a light feature like the ULT Field 5, which I actually think looks pretty good. So heres hoping that the next version of this speaker has a light feature again.
Now when it comes to battery life, this is a very big upgrade. Now all three of these speakers have an advertised battery life of 24 hours… however, both the XB33 and XE300 have an advertised battery life of 24 hours while they are playing at 50% volume and with stamina mode turned on. So you’re not going to get all that much bass. Where as with the ULT field 3, it has an advertised battery life of 24 hours with its ULT feature turned on, so you’re going to be getting the most out of this speaker cause you’re going to have more bass and more sound pressure.
And at max volume and with the ULT feature turned on, Sony claims that the ULT Field 3 is going to be good for around 5 hours of playback time… but real world use with this speaker playing at 80% for me the ULT field 3 is good for about 12 hours of playback time. And 80% volume on the ULT Field 3 is way louder than these other two speakers, even with its ULT Feature turned off.
And like I mentioned earlier, this speaker charges via USB C port just like these other two speakers. But the really cool thing is that you can also use this USB C port to charge your own devices, which I think is super useful. However you cant also use this USB C port as a wired connection.
And sadly, you cant use this speaker with a wired connection period cause there is now audio jack. But when it comes to Bluetooth connectivity, this speaker can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so you and a friend can both be DJ, latency is not an issue so you can use it to watch videos with on your phone… and when it comes to audio codecs, it has support for
SBC and AAC.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Regarding speaker set up, both the XB33 and XE300 have dual frontward firing woofers and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. And this is a very OLD speaker set up for more premium brands. But now, the ULT Field 3 has a frontward firing woofer and a frontward firing tweeter and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. And the fact that the ULT Field 3 now has a woofer and tweeter setup is a big deal cause this is going to help your speaker sound more open and have better instrument separation, like this.
So like you may have just seen, the woofer handles the mids and the tweeter handles the highs, so this is going to help with instrument seperation and its going to help this speaker sound more open. And this woofer and tweeter set up is more common on more premium brands. And through Sony’s app, you can also go in and adjust the EQ on this speaker, but I just like to use this speaker with ULT turned on. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test. All of these speakers are playing at 75% volume and both the XB33 and XE300 have their mega bass and extra bass features turned on and we’re going to be using the ULT Field 3 with ULT turned on and off.
So like you may have just seen, the Sony ULT Filed 3 easily sound much better and gets way louder than both the XB33 and XE300, even with its ULT feature turned off. The problem with the XE300 is just that this speaker sounded super muffled, no matter what you did to its EQ, you just couldn’t get it to sound good. And the XB33 easily sounded better than the XE300. But now with the ULT field 3, thats a completely different story. First off this speaker gets a lot louder and it has a lot more bass than its predecessors… but more importantly this speaker sounds a lot more open and theres a lot better emphsiasis on the mids, so this speaker sounds lot fuller as well.
Now just like Sonys new ULT family of speakers, the ULT Field 3 has an ULT button, but unlike the ULT field 5 or ULT Field 7 which have two levels to their ULT button, the ULT field 3 just has one ULT level. And the main difference between having ULT turned on or off on this speaker is going to be the bass, you’re going to get more bass out of this speaker if you have ULT turned on. Overall, the ULT field 3 follows the same trend as the rest of Sony’s speakers and this speaker genuinely sounds a lot better than its predecessors cause it has much better mids, but it still delivers a lot of bass for its size. And I feel that this speaker is going to be good for like a 5 to 8 person get together. However just keep in mind, if you were to use this speaker while it is plugged in, you are not going to get a performance boost out of it.
But finally lets talk about pair this speaker with other speaker. Now with the ULT Field 3, if you have two of the exact same speakers then you can wirelessly pair them up and get them to play in left and right stero mode. But also, the ULT Field 5 is using party connect. So you can pair it up to other Sony speakers that are also using Party connect like either… an ULT Field 7, XG500, XG330, XE300, XE200, XB43, XB33, XB23 or to another ULT Field 5 or ULT Field 3 and you can pair up to 100 speakers together and get them to play in sync.
But also, you can pair your smaller Sony speakers to any of Sony’s larger speakers that are also using Party connect like either an ULT Tower 10, ULT Tower 9, or XV800, XV500 or to an XP700 or XP500. The only unfortunate thing here is, you cant connect your ULT Field 1 to an ULT Field 3… and I really think that this is unfortunate cause this is my favorite small portable bluetooth speaker…
Now no, the ULT Field 5 isn’t using aura cast… so if you plan on growing your collection of speakers, you are going to have to stick inside of Sony’s eco system. But personally I dont really mind, I think its a small amount of people that plan on getting multiple speakers from multiple brands. But more importantly, I have noticed that Sony’s party connect is more stable and easier to use compared to aura cast. Cause for at least right now, I have noticed that echos form very regularly with my aurcast speakers.
But with all of that being said, the Sony ULT Field 3 just continues this trend from sony where they are fixing and improving everything. From a sound quality stand point the ULT Field 3 gets louder than both the XG300 and XB43… but more importantly it sounds a lot more open and a lot more balanced. And the battery life on this speaker has been greatly improved as well, cause you can now get up to 24 hours out of it, and thats with its ULT feature turned on. And you can now use the USB C port on this speaker to charge your own devices, which is super useful if you plan on taking it on the go with you. Now this speaker is a little larger than some other mid sized speakers out there, but its still great to travel with cause of its included shoulder strap. The only thing is, yes the ULT Field 3 has gotten a price increase, but I still think this speaker is well worth it.