Ultimate Ears EPICBOOM  Speaker Review

The Ultimate Ears EPICBOOM is a stylish speaker with a minimalist design that comes in 'Charcoal Black' or 'Cotton White.' It has two large volume buttons on the front, similar to the Ultimate Ears MEGABOOM 4 and other offerings from the manufacturer. It's sleek enough to blend in with your home decor and rugged enough to take outdoors.

The Ultimate Ears EPICBOOM is pretty portable. In terms of size, it's between the Ultimate Ears EVERBOOM and the Ultimate Ears HYPERBOOM, but you can still carry it with one hand thanks to its built-in strap. However, the strap is not adjustable, so the speaker might be harder to hold onto depending on how big or small your hands are.

The speaker's build quality is excellent. It feels sturdy and durable, with a 100% recycled polyester mesh fabric wrapping that doesn't seem prone to rips or tears, controls made of good-quality rubber, and a solid-feeling magnetic strap that sticks to the speaker when not in use. It's also rated IP67 for dust and water resistance; it can withstand some exposure to the elements. According to the manufacturer, the rubber base contributes to the speaker's ability to withstand drops of up to one meter. There's also a cover for the USB-C charging port with a tight seal, which is nice.

The controls are simply marked, easy to use, and allow you to directly control playback without relying on your device to skip ahead or replay a track. They offer good feedback, too, with audible cues when you turn the speaker on/off, activate Bluetooth pairing, and connect to a device. There's feedback for max volume and when the speaker's battery is low. However, there's no audible feedback when you switch to Outdoor Mode, so you're limited to the LED light signals to keep track of that. You can also press both volume buttons simultaneously to have three LEDs display the approximate volume level.

• Magic button: Tap once to play/pause, twice to skip a track, or three times to go back to a previous track. Hold to play a preset playlist, which you can set up in the Ultimate Ears app.
• Outdoor button: This tree-shaped button lets you activate Outdoor Mode, which offers a more expansive sound for listening outside.
• Bluetooth button: Press to enter Bluetooth pairing mode.

• User manual
• USB-C to USB-C charging cable (1.08 m / 3.54 ft)
• Ultimate Ears EPICBOOM speaker

This speaker has a decent stereo frequency response. It doesn't have as much low-end rumble as the Brane X, making genres like hip-hop and EDM fall slightly flat. However, it provides extra warmth in the high bass, which gives the sound a fuller quality, although this can also muddy voices and lead instruments a bit as it carries into the mids. There's also a slight boost in the treble, adding brightness and detail. You can always switch up its sound with the graphic EQ and presets in the Ultimate Ears app.

This speaker has a room calibration tool called Adaptive EQ that automatically adjusts the speaker's sound based on the unique acoustics of your space. We tested the speaker with this feature turned on without using any preset EQ modes. If you want to see how the different presets perform, look at this graph of comparisons.

This stereo speaker has an outstanding soundstage. Thanks to its 360-degree design, it can reproduce consistent audio from all angles. It's a stereo speaker, so it won't downmix music into mono like the Sony LinkBuds Speaker.

This speaker gets loud, though not as loud as the Ultimate Ears HYPERBOOM. There's more compression when you push it to max volume, too, which impacts the clarity of audio reproduction, especially in the low frequencies.

The manufacturer advertises a battery life of 17 hours, and this speaker achieved a similar duration (just under 16 hours) in our tests. Battery life can vary depending on a range of factors, though, so your real-world experience will vary. The charge time isn't too long, and the speaker will shut off after 15 minutes of inactivity to help save power. The battery is also removable, meaning users can replace it themselves. However, the manufacturer recommends against this as it could impact the speaker's waterproof performance.

If you're looking for a portable speaker that can withstand a full week of evening campsite hangs, consider the Lodge Solar Speaker 4 Series 2. It's solar-powered and lasts around 80 hours on a single charge.

The Ultimate Ears app is a handy way to control the speaker from your phone. It offers access to various features, like a graphic EQ and presets, which are available as long as Outdoor Mode isn't enabled, and Adaptive EQ, which is what the brand calls its room calibration tool. You can also set a preset playlist from compatible apps like Amazon Music, Spotify (Android only), and Apple Music (iOS only). Plus, you can set alarms and pair the speaker with other compatible devices from the manufacturer. The Sticky PartyUp feature even lets you group compatible Ultimate Ears speakers so they automatically go into Party Mode when you turn them on, eliminating the need to connect them each time. Connecting a stereo pair is possible, but you'll have to ensure they're both the same model. You can see a video of the app here.

This Bluetooth-compatible speaker is easy to pair with your device. If you have an Android 8.0 device or higher, you can use NFC pairing to connect seamlessly—place your phone near the 'N' icon on top of the speaker to get started. Latency falls within good limits on iOS devices, but it's a little higher with Android devices. However, some apps and devices compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience may vary. The manufacturer says you can pair it with up to two devices at a time, but during our tests, it disconnected the first device when we attempted to connect to a second one.