Sony's new Ult party speakers look industrial and powerful, and match that with sound

Sony's getting in on the pre-IFA action by announcing a revamp of its biggest party speakers, confirming that its Ult branding is very much how it sees the path forward for its audio business outside of the very biggest hitters (namely the WF and WH-1000XM series of headphones and earbuds).

The new speakers are all pretty big, but the biggest of them is frankly massive, so these are launches aimed very much at those putting on proper parties, raves, and events.

• Check out my full impressions of the new Ult speakers here, from a recent hands-on demo

All three speakers also share the same design language, and it's one that brings impressive unity to the previously various designs used by Sony's largest speakers. Each is fronted with a pretty transparent metal grille, and ringed by LEDs that can sync to your music or play pre-arranged lighting medleys.

They're all really industrial and modern-looking, stripped of much of the ornamentation that can make speakers look a bit overdone. Each also has an Ult-branded dial to the top-left of its drivers, letting you adjust through different sound modes (largely to decide whether you want punchy bass or chest-shaking ultra bass).

Crucially, they also all have the same array of connectivity options – XLR, RCA and USB-C, along with Bluetooth. That means they should be reliable in a variety of setups.

The smallest of the three is the Ult Tower 5, and it'll come in at €400 when it launches this month. It's clearly the most approachable of the three, but still brings pretty powerful sound for its size. Carrying handles make it easier to use than you might expect, and it gets 20 hours of battery life for flexibility.

Next in the lineup is the Ult Tower 7, which is a good chunk bigger and increases the number of drivers for a big boost in power and sound output. It costs €600, and might be the most sensible choice for event planning, since it's super powerful but still not the craziest piece of kit to move around. It has 30 hours of battery life, meanwhile.

Finally, the Ult Tower Max is a genuine beast, with wheels on one side so that you can cart it around carefully. It has power that needs to be heard to be believed (and I have indeed heard it), and it's no surprise that it therefore comes in at €1,500, a big jump that makes it far more of a niche option. It's also exclusively mains-powered, which makes sense given its size.

Sony says all three will be available later this month, but also that this is part of a strategy to take previously diverse branding decisions and make far more of its speakers Ult-branded. That might indeed be a winning play over time, since Sony's naming conventions have long been a little arcane.