The likes of Sabrina Carpenter, CentralCee, and Girl on Couch aren’t just competing against the world’s top artists to be the sound of the summer, they have to face off against Ultimate Ears’ monster of a new speaker: the Everboom.
Ahead of its launch today (June 26, but Australian readers will have to wait until July 22), I’ve been putting it through its paces and I’ve been blown away by its performance – almost literally, because this thing is loud. Best of all, you can take it pretty much anywhere thanks to its surprisingly light weight and IP67 waterproof rating.
Though I should have expected something special considering the Ultimate Ears Everboom comes in at $249.99 / £249.99 / AU$349. If this is a little too pricey for you, then you’ll be glad to hear Ultimate Ears is also launching Wonderboom 4, Boom 4 and Megaboom 4 models – there’s more details on them further down. For now, let’s focus on the Everboom, a contender for our best Bluetooth speaker list.
Medium size, mighty performance
This 360-degree speaker (meaning it blasts sound outwards evenly in every direction) can reach maximum volumes of around 89 decibels. This is way too loud when using it at home – I usually run it at around a third of its maximum volume, which is still plenty powerful enough – but for an outdoor party these higher volumes are perfect for keeping guests entertained even if they aren’t standing right next to the Everboom.
And if you need to get a little more oomph out of the Everboom you can use the Outdoor boost mode. Rather than putting energy into creating pitches that don’t suit outdoor listening environments the speaker puts its all into only the frequencies that you’ll be able to enjoy, and as a result it gets a little louder – reaching 91 decibels.
It’s not just about power, it’s important for the audio to actually sound good. At the loudest volumes there is some loss in clarity. The bass will show signs of muddying – the soundstage loses some of its focus at the deep end – and medium tones can be a little cloudy too. But at the usual half-max volume you’ll be using the Everboom, it has no issues putting on a show.
Carpenter’s performance in Espresso is delivered with brightness and crystal clear clarity, CentralCee’s bombastic Band4Band is delivered with energy, and bass-heavy bops such as Glass Animal’s Tokyo Drifting will get your blood pumping without making you feel overwhelmed by the lower notes.
Plus if you want to tweak the Everboom’s performance to your liking you can use the Ultimate Ears Boom app’s EQ settings – there are custom modes, as well as presets to improve specific audio genres like podcasts. This app also allows you to unlock the new megaphone feature that allows you to talk through the speaker using your phone.
Annoyingly, because my tests took place before it officially released, I couldn’t add the Ultimate Ears Everboom to the app to give these features a whirl, but I’ll make sure to before handing out my full review of the speaker.
Party hard, adventure harder
Beyond audio prowess, Ultimate Ears speakers are applauded for their ruggedness and waterproof design – with the Everboom being no different. As we’ve seen with Ultimate Ears’ other models, it boasts an IP67 rating meaning it’s dustproof and can survive for up to 30 minutes submerged in water at depth of 1m, though because it floats the speaker shouldn’t ever go too deep underwater.
This makes it ideal for pool or beach parties because it won’t get wrecked by sand or accidental spills. Plus, with its useful carabiner and roughly 1kg weight it’s surprisingly easy to clip the Everboom to your backpack or a belt loop and carry it with you on a hike, or any other outdoor excursion.
Best of all, even if your party or adventure lasts a little longer than expected you can rely on the Everboom speaker to keep you entertained thanks to its battery life delivering 20 hours of uninterrupted music playback. I’ve been using it a lot, and it hasn’t needed many charges, so I can attest to its long battery life.
Other useful features include one-touch NFC pairing which allows you to simply tap an NFC-compatible phone to its top to pair your speaker to it, its 55m Bluetooth range so you don’t have to keep your phone next to the Everboom at all times, PartyUp which lets you create a wide speaker network with other compatible Ultimate Ears speakers all playing the same music together, and a new megaphone feature so you can talk into the Boom app to make an announcement through the speaker – with this feature coming to all Boom app compatible devices.
To top it all off it has a USB-C port for charging, meaning there’s hopefully one fewer cable types you need to carry around with you.
Ultimate Ears’ EverBoom alternatives
If the Everboom is out of your price range, Ultimate Ears is issuing new models for three of its other speaker lines – with them all also releasing . There’s the sequel to our current pick for the best waterproof speaker with the Wonderboom 4 (£89.99), as well as the Boom 4 (£129.99), and the Megaboom 4 (£169.99).
These all also boast the IP67 rating, USB-C charging, and a handful of upgrades – the Boom and Megaboom 4 feature “enhanced deep bass radiators” to deliver a bigger sound than their predecessors, while Wonderboom 4 has a podcast mode.
I’ve seen these speakers very briefly during an Ultimate Ears presentation ahead of today’s announcement, though that was far from long enough to get a true feel for their capabilities. We’ll have to test them out properly to know how they stack up; that said, given Ultimate Ears’ track record we expect they’ll all be very solid options.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
