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We review a wide cross section of headphones on KitGuru – from cheap, no frills sub £50 gaming products for the mass market to £4000+ monsters purely targeting the audiophile user. While headphones are indispensable they are useless for a small group of people wanting to share music on the move. That is where the Ultimate Ears MEGABOOM comes in. It is a tall, but compact and colourful speaker with a surprising amount of output power, smart Bluetooth connectivity and a rated 20 hours of battery life.
The UE MegaBoom is made by Ultimate Ears, a name few will immediately recognise. You will be interested to hear that Ultimate Ears are a brand of Logitech – a company who will certainly need no introduction with KitGuru readers. According to Logitech more touring artists use Ultimate Ears than any other brand.
UE MEGABOOM features:
- 360 degree sound: designed to sit in the middle of the room, the UE MEGABOOM outputs sound all around it.
- Deep bass: dual passive radiators means loud, deep and clear bass.
- Wireless double up: put two MEGABOOMS together to give you stereo sound.
- Highly portable and IPX7-rated waterproof means you can take it anywhere.
- 100ft wireless range and can connect two devices at once making music sharing that bit easier.
- 20 hour battery life, with a full charge achieved in two and a half hours.
The packaging for the UE MEGABOOM is very simple indeed, featuring just a white cardboard surround of a black case, with a few basic details printed in an easy to read, picture heavy format.
Once you slip the cardboard cover off, you realise that what is underneath is not the speaker at all, but its smart, handle equipped carry case.
Opening that up you have the product itself, which is housed very neatly in the centre. It is actually surprisingly hard. While the UE MEGABOOM itself is sturdy, the carry case should provide some basic protection during transit and the handle is certainly useful.
Removing the UE MEGABOOM from its protective shell gives you access to the little box behind it, which contains the yellow/green accessories that allow charging. Within you will find basic warranty leaflets and a universal plug adapter as well as a UK and US connector for it.
If you pull out the little plastic tab marked with the lightning bolt, you will find the similarly coloured USB to micro USB charge cable.
The actual speaker itself is a vertical design and is a little more than eight and a half inches tall. The particular model I have is the Electric Blue version, with contrasting red plus and minus buttons for volume control. It is also available in Charcoal Grey and Lava Red colour schemes, which have contrasting blue and grey buttons respectively. There is also a plum colour model in the works.
The front strip, and each end is coated with silicon, while the rest of the UE MEGABOOM's circumference is coated with a stitched fabric.
The only controls beyond the large volume control switches are two miniature buttons on the top which are rather difficult to notice. The illuminated button in the center in the above picture is the power button, which is activated by pressing and holding for a few seconds. The smaller button on the outer rim at the top is the Bluetooth indicator, which lets you know when the MEGABOOM is looking for a pairing or has successfully paired with another device.
This being a waterproof speaker, there are no obvious ports or connectors. Those are found on the bottom, hidden behind a little tab that has to be unscrewed to remove. There you will find the micro-USB connectors and a 3.5mm connector should you wish to hardwire a device that does not have a Bluetooth connection.
Testing a portable speaker is pretty straightforward. To test its auditory abilities, I listened to it for several hours a day throughout the week, trying out different genres of music, podcasts, radio etc. On top of this, I played around with its official application, tested its waterproofing and put it through its paces in terms of the Bluetooth connection range and some of the smarter abilities, such as remote power on/off.
Setting up the UE MEGABOOM is nice and easy. It shipped to KitGuru precharged with around half battery, so I was able to pair it up straight away and get playing without waiting for an initial charge. Pairing is very easy and the UE MEGABOOM will reconnect to the last device it had paired with, before shutting down … so it feels ready to go all the time.
The app has options for doubling up speakers to offer stereo sound
The UE MEGABOOM delivers stonking audio reproduction. Comparable even with some decent desktop speakers or a living room sound system in some genres. In terms of its profile, it leans more towards the bass heavy end of the spectrum. Subsequently it should appeal to the audience who love Rock, Electronic, Dub, and Dance music. Audio clarity is excellent throughout the frequency range.
It is perhaps at its most impressive at the lower end of the frequency spectrum, not because it will beat out kits with dedicated subwoofers – though there are some it would give a run for their money – but because it delivers such a thump for a portable speaker. This can be dependent on the surface you have it on, but for the most part it is very impressive.
Similarly the volume it produces for a battery powered unit is almost unbelievable and because of its 360 degrees sound you can put it in the middle of the room quite comfortably.
We did notice a few weak spots in the 360 degree sound coverage, but it is quite minor. This is a speaker that will work great as a party piece or just sat on the coffee table with something quiet playing in the background.
EQ profiles and custom tweaks are possible, as well as setting up a speaker alarm
The only downside to the massive volume that the MEGABOOM is capable of, is that – presumably because of protective measures – it scales the bass right back at the highest volume notches – so you actually get a lot more bass on three-quarters volume than at maximum. This is a clever design feature to possibly stop heavy distortion and even damage to the driver, but the reduction in lower frequency sound quality is quite noticeable.
One of the big claims of the MEGABOOM is that it is IPX7 waterproof rated, which means it can be submerged for up to 30 minutes at up to a metre without difficulty (no dust protection rating). Obviously I had to put that to the test.
While I made sure to complete all the other parts of the review before doing this test – I was pleased with the positive result. The MEGABOOM not only continued to work after being submerged but it operated sporadically while under the water. Water seems to have a much more limiting factor on Bluetooth connectivity than distance or solid walls, as the audio stuttered while under water.
The specifications say it is capable of distances of up to 100 feet. Putting this to the test, I was able to leave my house and walk 70 feet up the street holding the MEGABOOM, before it began to stutter.
Another feature which I found very useful – when it worked – was the Smart Bluetooth remote on/off function. Using the official application (and a smartphone that supports Smart Bluetooth), I was able to turn the speaker on at a distance. It would then automatically connect and I would be able to start playing music without even leaving my seat. Unfortunately, this feature did not work at all some of the time and I found that the closer I was to the speaker, the more likely it was to work.
There is a review on the Android app store echoing the same issues so this is something Logitech/UE is no doubt working on and may not be something experienced by everyone. Unfortunately, with my Sony Xperia Z2 this feature was not exactly reliable.
One final feature worth mentioning is that the UE MEGABOOM can hold up to eight paired devices and even better, it can be connected to two different sources simultaneously. This means that you and a friend can play dueling DJs or at the very least someone else can take over providing the entertainment if your song list runs short, and all without the need to disconnect before jumping in.
The UE MEGABOOM is an impressively versatile portable, wireless speaker. £250 is a serious investment compared to many other sound projecting devices available, however for a rough and ready speaker that can take punishment and provide great sound quality it is difficult to pinpoint an alternative that does as good a job as the UE MEGABOOM.
Even though you are spending quite a lot to get yourself a MEGABOOM, the sound it produces is surprisingly powerful while remaining crisp and clear – even when close to the audio output limit.
As we mentioned earlier in the review there is a noticeable drop in bass response when the audio output is close to maximum, however manually reducing the volume a little cures the issue. We do feel that the company should have shipped the product with slightly less maximum output rather than just negating bass response to compensate for amplification and driver limitations.
I rate the waterproofing and the rubberised, solid structure highly – I would have no qualms throwing this speaker in my bag while I was doing something active where it might be dropped. We can assuredly say that the UE MEGABOOM is a very tough speaker that will prove resilient to general mishandling and outdoor use in rough weather conditions.
Alternative colours look much cooler too
The software application proves useful in supplying an array of additional functions. These let you adjust equaliser settings on the fly and if funds permit you can even link two MEGABOOM's together for stereo sound on the go.
Ultimately the UE MEGABOOM is a high performance, solidly constructed speaker that will last a long time due to the level of abuse it can take. If you are looking for an audio solution to take with you into an inhospitable environment, it has the power, build quality and battery life to stick with you all the way.
The UE MEGABOOM is well priced in America, but punters in the UK will end up paying much more. It is available on the official site for USD $300. On the UK version of the site however, it is £250 (translating to around $380).
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Pros
- Unique look.
- Powerful sound, impressive bass.
- Waterproof, great range.
- Application allows remote on, alarm and EQ functions.
- Battery lasts 20 hours and charges within two.
Cons
- Pricey, especially in the UK.
- Bass drops out at maximum volume.
- Smart on/off function does not always work.
KitGuru Says: I am a big fan of the MEGABOOM. It looks great, delivers a punchy sound and feels like it could take a beating before giving up the ghost. It is expensive, but perfect for those that want high quality portable sound.
