Ultimate Ears has a history of construction loud and rough portable Bluetooth speakers with features to simplify the listening experience. Be that as it may party mode the company’s devices have consistently been among the best, with support for more than 100 speakers at once or the ability to turn off the device remotely with your phone. Enter it Everboom ($250)a new option from UE, which sits in the middle of its range in terms of size and power. Those essential Ultimate Ears features return, but so does the company’s lack of clarity and fidelity.
Ultimate Ears
Small enough to carry easily, but loud enough to rock the party, the Everboom UE speaker checks a lot of boxes.
- Sturdy and waterproof
- 20 hours of battery life
- Excellent features
- True 360 degree sound
- The audio profile lacks midrange
- Expensive for a speaker of this size
- No aux port
- Playlist functionality is limited to two services
Design
The Everboom is slightly smaller than the midpoint of Ultimate Ears’ line of Bluetooth speakers. The compact Wonderboom and cylindrical Boom 4 and Megaboom 4 are smaller options, while the Epicboom and Hyperboom are larger. The Megaboom 4 is actually taller than the Everboom, but the latter is wider, making it bigger overall.
Aesthetically, the Everboom is most similar to the Epicboom: an oval-shaped, rubber-based cylindrical device. Other than size, where the two differ is that the Epicboom has a belt attached to the back, while the Everboom has a loop. You use the included carabiner or choose a clip or hook. And, like all recent UE speakers, large “+” and “-” buttons are part of the look, placing the volume control directly on the face of the speaker. At the top, there are buttons for power, Bluetooth, Outdoor Boost and play/pause. This last control also skips a track by double-pressing (forward) or triple-pressing (backward).
Like the latest UE speakers, the Everboom is very robust. The IP67-rated unit can survive being fully submerged, but you probably won’t have to worry about that, since it also floats. Although UE emphasized this aspect in the announcement, I should mention that Wonderboom is also floating. The company says it’s tested the Everboom up to a meter (about three feet) high, so an accidental trip shouldn’t be an issue other than a scratch or scrape.
UE Boom software and features
To use Everboom’s advanced features, you must access them in the UE Boom app. Once the speaker is connected, the main interface shows battery status above controls for power, Outdoor Boost, and the megaphone tool. There’s a volume slider, as well as icons for the media player and PartyUp and EQ. Megaphone lets you make announcements through your phone’s microphone, and Partyup is Ultimate Ears’ nomenclature for connecting multiple speakers. You can sync up to 150 units in the same setup as long as they are Boom, Megaboom, Epicboom or Hyperboom models.
Entering the advanced settings menu reveals more useful tools. There’s an option to add playlists from either Amazon Music or Apple Music so you can launch them directly from Everboom’s play/pause button (long press). You can add as many playlists as you want and cycle through them without picking up your phone. When you’re reading a collection, you’ll also have access to playlists from the in-app media player.
There are a few more items I’ll mention in the settings. If you change locations, you can enable a feature called Sticky PartyUp to group speakers, and you can also disable other people’s ability to add your device to PartyUp arrangements. Bluetooth Standby mode is enabled by default, and the app can turn the speaker on or off remotely this way. But this affects the battery life, so the company gives you the option to extend the gaming time by turning it off.
Sound quality
One of the best things about the Everboom is that the driver structure beams 360 degrees of sound. You can hear the music clearly when you sit on the side of the device, although the tuning there favors treble over bass. My main complaint with Ultimate Ears speakers is that the company always favors volume over fidelity. Speakers usually sound great, and the Everboom is more of the same, but lacks the overall depth and detail that other Bluetooth speakers muster.
Songs consistently sound compressed, with a noticeable lack of midrange, despite highs and booming bass. There’s a general lack of clarity about bluegrass melodies from Nickel Creek and the open, atmospheric instrumentation of Phantogram’s “Come Alive.” Vocals always cut through cleanly, but the sound stage is limited to two extremes, high and low. Saosin Live from the Garden Amphitheatre one of the better sounding live albums I can remember, but the lack of dynamics in the Everboom arrangement tames the energy of the show.
Among the EQ presets, Bass Boost is the only one that improves everything, but not dramatically. Unlike most bass-heavy profiles, this doesn’t make the sound quality worse. However, for some genres, such as the alt-rock of Balance and Sincerity, the extra low-end makes steady, rhythmic bass lines stand out.
In wide open spaces, Outdoor Boost can help improve the listening experience. According to the company, this increases the volume by one decibel (from 90dB to 91dB), and that’s it. However, if you activate it indoors, you’ll be able to hear the tuning change slightly as well. Outside, though, all you’ll notice is slightly louder, better projected sound. The feature makes a noticeable difference when you’re no longer indoors, and solves a problem that usually plagues Bluetooth speakers when used outdoors.
Battery life
The Everboom has enough juice to keep the tunes going for a long time. Ultimate Ears promises up to 20 hours on a charge, enough for a full day of music. After my tests, I can confidently say that unless you run it at full volume for hours on end (you, trust me), the speaker will excel. After 12 hours, the UE app still showed 70 percent battery left. These tests were carried out mostly indoors, where the sound was very loud, about 40 percent. Also, I didn’t notice that Bluetooth standby to turn on the speaker with the app had any effect on battery life, as the company warns.
Competition
As I’ve already mentioned, if you’re looking for similar features in a slightly different package, there are plenty of alternatives in the Ultimate Ears lineup. However, here is my recommendation Marshall Middleton ($250), is our pick best portable bluetooth speakers listing for a speaker of this price and size. You can currently get it for the same price as the Everboom, and it has a number of useful features that the UE speaker doesn’t offer.
First, there is a joystick control button at the top with a visual indicator for battery and volume. You can also adjust bass and treble on the device, and there’s a 3.5mm jack for wired input. Of course, you get all the styles of the iconic Marshall guitar amps, and Stack Mode lets you use multiple units as a more robust setup. The Middleton is IP67 rated for water resistance and offers 20 hours of battery life. Both of these features are the same as the Everboom.
Also, don’t sleep on the new year Beats Pill ($150). Sure, it’s a smaller speaker, but it still sounds big. Bass performance can vary depending on the album or genre, but overall there’s a nice low-end tone from the compact unit. Plus, the angled drivers sound better than previous versions, and you’ve got the option of lossless tunes via a wired USB-C connection. And perhaps best of all: you’ll save $100.
Collection
While the best value is in the company’s smaller speakers, Ultimate Ears is usually a solid bet for the price. Medium size Everboom Brings the best features of UE into yet another new design, protects against dust, moisture and drops. All the conveniences are offset by a deafeningly loud but unpolished sound profile for detailed, immersive listening. For all the highs and deep bass, the overall sound effect is poor with dark and lack of mids. Still, speaker float and dedicated open sound amplification make this a worthy choice for adventures. And something to annoy people in the next camp.
