UE — also known as Ultimate Ears — builds some of the world’s best Bluetooth speakers. How good are they? Two years after they were launched, the UE Boom and UE Mini Boom still outperform most or all of their competitors.
Now comes the UE Megaboom, a much bigger, 50 percent more costly version of the UE Boom waterproof speaker.
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In these days of surprisingly good $50 Bluetooth speakers, the UE Megaboom looks pretty pricey at $299. But it delivers a lot. It’s IPX7-rated, which means it can survive being submerged under 1 meter of water for 30 minutes. The battery’s rated at 20 hours of run time, which is about double the norm. And the Megaboom uses multiple speaker drivers to create what UE calls “360 degree sound.”
At 9 inches long by 3.2 inches in diameter, the Megaboom’s small enough to bring anywhere you could lug a 22-ounce bottle of beer, except that you wouldn’t need to conceal it in a paper bag.
Because it’s Bluetooth, it’ll work anywhere, too — something you can’t say of Sonos wireless speakers and most AirPlay products, which require a Wi-Fi network.
UE claims a 100-foot maximum Bluetooth range, but that’s for when your phone's within the speaker's line-of-sight. Still, I got 42 feet of range, and that’s through four walls. The nice thing is, the sound won’t drop out if you take your phone into the next room, or even the next-to-next room.
Spiffy app
An iOS/Android app lets you turn the Megaboom on and off remotely, and pair two Megabooms (or a Megaboom and a Boom) for stereo sound or sound in two adjacent rooms.
The app gives you a choice of four sound modes (The Standard, Bass Jump, Cramped Spaces and Voices) plus a custom mode with a five-band graphic equalizer.
It also gives you an alarm clock option that plays any tune stored on your phone at your chosen time of day at whatever volume you choose. It even fades up the volume gently so you don’t get blasted out of sleep by Soundgarden.
Room-filling sound with punchy bass
Good as the Mini Boom and the Boom sound, the Megaboom is a lot better. The best things about it are that it has a decent amount of bass and plays good ’n’ loud. Thanks to the 360-degree sound, the Megaboom really filled my big listening room when I played John Legend and Common’s “Glory.” I did need to turn it down one notch to keep it from distorting Common’s voice, but that still left plenty of volume. At full blast, it played about +3 decibels (dB) louder than the Infinity One, another $300 waterproof Bluetooth speaker I like a lot.
The bass goes down fairly low and has a nice amount of punch to it. Rhythmically driven rock tunes like R.E.M.’s “Wolves, Lower” (from the Chronic Town EP) sound great through the Megaboom; you can hear each bass note distinctly and cleanly. On jazz and lighter rock such as Steely Dan’s “Aja,” the bottom end seems a little too punchy, almost as if Steely Dan hired Gene Simmons to play bass. Which I seriously doubt would ever happen.
What the Megaboom doesn’t do as well as some others (like the Infinity One or the $199 Denon Envaya) is sound smooth; voices sometimes sound coarse and sibilant. Even James Taylor, maybe the smoothest-sounding singer ever, sounds a little rough and edgy on the Megaboom.
Full, loud sound is definitely the Megaboom’s forte. Combine that with its waterproof design and its excellent control app, and you’ve got a great speaker for the beach, the park or the pool.
UE Megaboom
The Good
Waterproof up to 1 meter
Plays loud
Excellent battery life and Bluetooth range
Cool and useful control app
The Bad
Bass can get a little too punchy
Voices don't sound super-smooth
Pricey
The Bottom Line
The UE Megaboom isn’t the smoothest-sounding Bluetooth speaker you can buy, but its waterproof design and loud, full sound make it a great choice for lovers of the outdoors.