A package turned up from Sony earlier this year, and inside was an SRSXB40 portable Bluetooth speaker, $299, with a Dear Reviewer note headed "With compliments from Sony Australia."

I guess they wanted me to keep it so my discerning friends would see it in the man cave and rush out to buy one. With an "Extra Bass" button and flashing coloured lights, boy, did they ever misread me. But then I had an idea. David.

David develops websites for corporate customers by day, and by night plays in a band when most people are asleep, barring those within about a kilometre of where he and his mob are playing. He has a good ear and gives me feedback with test equipment, but our musical tastes are polar opposites. I'm into symphonies, he's into grunge.

He has a long history with Bluetooth speakers, mostly in blowing them up. Could there be any better reviewer for one with an "Extra Bass" button and flashing lights than David? Sony may be inviting my views but I suspect my readers would be far more interested in David's. So I showed it to him and he started it up with metal, heavy and profound, and liked what he heard. I showed him how to turn off the flashing lights but I think he likes them, and he likes being able to control it with his phone.

So it became officially his with compliments from Sony Australia, and he immediately took it camping with family and mates, where it provided the beach camp's only musical entertainment for two weeks. So how did it fare?

On the plus side: It didn't blow up. Minus: David will never travel with it again. He likes its sound and its software but it needs a specific charging cable and he's sick of carrying a bagful of charging cables, let alone finding the right one when he arrives. "If it charged through a mini USB then we'd take it with us wherever we go," he said.

Otherwise, all good. It was put into service in his home and is still working six months later. It has enough horsepower to keep him happy and it delivers deep, thumping bass accurately without sacrificing mids and highs. David did notice increasing distortion as the volume went higher but it's not enough to upset his less fussy mates. "A good speaker for home," he concluded.

The SBSXB40 is in a tactile, water-resistant casing in red, black or white and carries two six-centimetre full-range drivers with a couple of passive radiators built in. Passive radiators aren't actually drivers – they're cones that are driven by air pressure changes created within the cabinet when the real drivers pump in and out. Set up correctly they enhance bass quite successfully. The "Extra Bass" button doesn't make the sound any louder or lower to any great extent, but does add a good dose of body.

As with many Bluetooth units this one can be turned loud enough for dancing, but as the volume maxes there's a good deal of distortion fuzzying the edges and making the sound untidy. At lower volumes the sound quality is quite acceptable for $300.

Two can be set up as a stereo pair, and, big point this, the battery can last up to 24 hours between charges, although it doesn't stretch this far at the volume levels David prefers.

And at 30 x 10 x 11 centimetres  (WxHxD) and 1.5 kilograms  it's compact enough to win a permanent spot on David's crowded kitchen bench.