Ultimate Ears is updating their super-successful Boom lineup with the new 3 series Boom and Megaboom. Some really nice upgrades to the lineup worth taking a deep dive on. Let’s look!
The Look
In my opinion, UE has always led the pack with its designs. Simple lines, cool materials and colors, and smart button layouts. The new Booms have 2 toned fabric colors that just look awesome and really stand out from the other speakers out there.
The fabric wrap is durable as well as sexy, and as has become the norm on all their speakers.
The Sound
Boom has done some work to improve the sound on the 3 series. Not to be a snob about it but they needed to. At their root, UE is a marketing company, and they do that part really well. On the sound side, not so much.
From a sound quality and performance standpoint the JBL products are vastly superior. That’s not to say the Booms are bad, just not as good. To be fair, JBL is an audio company, UE really isn’t. Bose and UE are pretty close in terms of sound, with a slight lead to Bose.
The Booms do have a 360 degree sound stage (more or less) and that’s pretty cool.
Megaboom 3 specs: Max Sound Level: 90dBA. Frequency Range: 60Hz – 20kHz. Drivers: Two 2 ” drivers and two 2″ x 3″ passive radiators.
Boom 3 specs: Max Sound Level: 90dBA. Frequency Range: 90Hz – 20kHz. Drivers: Two 2” drivers and two 2” x 3” Passive Radiators.
You could argue that the sound quality isn’t as important as look is to many folks who are buying a Bluetooth speaker and I would tend to agree. And honestly, UE’s incredible sales of these speakers are a testament to that. They are #3 in the market, just behind Bose.
The Controls
The Boom 3 and Megaboom 3 have a button on the top they call the Magic Button. Not the most creative name in the world, but the functionality is pretty sweet.
A 2 second long push gets you to your playlist if you’ve set one up in Apple Music or Deezer via the Boom App. Subsequent pauses switch between playlists. Quick taps to play/pause.
There is also a Bluetooth button, and a power button. They light up which is cool. No way to really know what the buttons are without the manual or trial and error.
The volume up and down buttons company standard and are pretty easy to figure out, if not a little bit religious..
The Battery
The Boom 3 claims 15-hours, while the Megaboom 20-hours. Pretty awesome ant pretty comparable to what their competitors are doing.
UE has done something cool with charging. The Boom series do have micro-USB chargers on the backside but they also have the ability to use the (also oddly-named) Throw Power Up charging dock. No more fiddling around with the waterproof covers on the back.
You do have to buy the dock (for about $40) but that’s not bad if you have multiple Booms around. Maybe one day we’ll see Qi charging in these things…
The Price
The Boom 3 will set you back $149. The Megaboom is $199. All told not terrible but is the main reason they are not the number 1 selling Bluetooth speakers. When you compare the price-to-performance ratio of UE to JBL products, the JBL products will be about $50 cheaper and sound better.
That said it’s still not as bad as the Bose tax, but is a problem for UE on apples to apples comparisons.
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Where to get them
Boom 3 from $99.99 on BestBuy.com
Boom 3 form $99.99 on Amazon.com
Megaboom 3 from $199.99 on BestBuy.com
Megaboom 3 from $199.99 on Amazon.com
Conclusion
UE makes awesome stuff. I think they deserve acknowledgment for being one of the first mainstream electronics companies to make cool-looking speakers, causing others to follow-suit.
Could you poke holes in some of their products, yeah sure, if you are a twonk like me. If you are in the market for a speaker that you can take with you anywhere and love, then you could do much worse than the Boom or Megaboom.
Man, those do look seksy!