EXTRA BASS™ Series
SRS-XB10/XB20/XB30/XB40, GTK-XB5
Powerful bass and dazzling light in a single package
A music festival brings people together through musical and visual magic, with the pumping bass and dynamic lighting creating a sense of collective euphoria. The EXTRA BASS™ Series, an innovative take on portable wireless speakers, brings that experience closer to home and lets users share the unique joys of music together.
Replicating the full-body dynamics of the festival experience
Listening to music isn’t something that people just do by themselves anymore—as the growing popularity of electronic dance music (EDM) and music festivals shows, people are getting more interested in sharing their musical experiences in live settings. With the EXTRA BASS Series, we wanted to let people get a taste of that experience without having to go to an actual live performance. To capture that full-body musical experience, one that goes beyond audio, we infused the conventional speaker function—simply reproducing sound—with lighting and portable durability for a multisensory wireless speaker.
A solid, bass-centric form meets dazzling light technology
The design team had to figure out answers to two key questions: how to translate the distinctive bass sounds of the EDM genre into a visual form and how to make the products tough enough to deliver unique musical experiences in any setting. As we explored possible solutions, we eventually arrived at a “solid” configuration that would embody low-range frequencies with a dense, heavy look. In addition to giving bass sounds a thicker, stronger visual identity than the usual flat, box-type speakers can offer, the EXTRA BASS design also features rounded edges that make the configuration more durable. The solid design encapsulates the entire product experience, bringing powerful bass and durability together.
The illumination running along the periphery of the speaker unit, meanwhile, synchronizes with the sound coming from the speakers to give bass another visual dimension. By fusing a solid form with intelligent lighting technology, we created a design that takes the EXTRA BASS experience to an even more exciting level.
Giving people what they need to enjoy music together
Takuma, chief art director
Our idea was to condense the entire music festival experience—sound, light, and togetherness—into an active speaker product. Combining a dense, solid form with lighting technology gave us exactly what we were looking for: a speaker that could bring parties to life.
The functionality of a rounded form
We knew that creating a solid design with powerful bass performance and optimal portability would require the perfect shapes, materials, and other elements in between. To consolidate the different parts for the different functions into a dense, packed look, we worked with engineers to test ideas for cabinet structures until a smooth, rounded form emerged as the optimal choice. Once we had the basic form, we decided to give it a double finish: The top surface has a plain rubber coating, giving the exterior a simple, easy feel and a scratch-resistant design, while the bumpy texture on the bottom adds to the toughness of the look and gives the product a stronger grip, making it easier to carry around and set up in different locations. Accentuating the solid form with a touch of contrast, the two-tone finish tops off the design in functional style.
Visualizing bass through an amalgam of aesthetic elements
A big focal point for the design team was the speaker unit, which not only represented the most important piece of the deep-bass sound but also needed to have a visual impact. To bring that element into the foreground of the design, we lined the circumference of the unit with tracked tube lighting and gave the grill an open-hole pattern—a feature that not only lets sound pass through clearly but also lets users see the speaker vibrate as acoustic pressure changes, thereby accenting the punch of the bass frequencies in visual cues. The grill also has a convex contour, which expresses the force of the aural power radiating outward from the speaker. The “power” concept informs the body-color design, as well, as the bright hues of the BOLD COLOR family give the sound yet another visual identity. From top to bottom, inside and out, the design visualizes the bass experience in diverse, eye-catching ways.
Durability enables versatility
Hibino, design manager
The conception of wireless speaker systems as interior fixtures is fading—now, more and more people are looking for compact speakers that they can carry around and use in different places. Given the ongoing shift toward portability, we focused on developing a durable, mobile product that would cater to campers, partiers, and other consumer segments where versatility is vital.
Designing illumination patterns to capture the festival ambience
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In the EDM world, lighting is an essential part of the groove. To replicate the unmistakable buzz of the festival scene, we crafted the color scheme to reflect the soft-loud dynamics of the music. The tube-light illumination, which ranges between “cold” and “warm” color phases for chromatic contrast, synchronizes with the beat to deliver a pulsating palette of light—the perfect complement to the trademark highs and lows of the EDM genre.
Building on our unique beat-detection technology, we also developed an algorithm capable of identifying musical changes by the measure—and in real time. The result, an illumination scheme that adapts freely to the tone and flow of every song, accentuates the music with smart lighting capabilities. The unit emits white flashes on the beat, too, but not just in a straight, constant pattern: The pulses speed up and slow down depending on how the song develops, automatically recreating the dynamics of live stage lighting.
Lighting that can give you a major boost
Fujiki, designer
When you go to a music festival, the bass and the lighting hit you at a physical level. That full-body sense of excitement was what we were after. Beat detection and color scheming were obviously key parts of the lighting design, but we also knew how important it would be to help people derive real, instinctual excitement from the overall experience.
Showcasing the festival worldview through intuitive communication
No product can communicate its entire worldview on its own. That’s why communication design is so crucial. Fully aware of that need, the design team created an EXTRA BASS Series logo that encapsulates the deep-bass experience and reflects the overall series concept. The text of the EXTRA BASS name uses different thickness levels, employing a bold, heavy style for the “BASS” word to accent the product’s low-frequency muscle and pushing the characters closer together to capture the tightly packed density of the design. The graphic underlays play an important role, as well. Featuring elements that suggest the feel and sound of a live music performance, the graphics foster an intuitive link between the product and the music festival experience.
The packaging designers also applied dynamic product framing to create a high-impact, bass-focused layout. More than just the core of the product concept, the bass experience also shapes the features of the overall communication design.
It’s all about that bass experience
Matsuda, designer
Packaging normally puts the priority on highlighting the product form. For the EXTRA BASS Series packaging, though, we decided to put the bass experience in the spotlight. The whole communication strategy operates around that idea.
A thrilling fusion of thumping bass and smart, dynamic lighting, the EXTRA BASS Series goes beyond the traditional conception of an audio system to emphasize a new focus: enabling people to share the joys of music in larger groups, regardless of the location.
*Product availability may vary by region and country.
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XB10 EXTRA BASS™ Portable BLUETOOTH® Speaker
SRS-XB10