Ultimate Ears Hyperboom Portable & Home Wireless Bluetooth Speaker, Loud Speaker, Big Bass, Water Resistant IPX4, 150 Ft Range – Black

For background, I’ve been a picky audio enthusiast for 30 years and have several large component systems (large high performance speakers and subwoofers, AV processors, separate amplifiers, etc.) and use lossless content for music (FLAC rips from personal CD collection and Tidal FLAC streaming).Because of the above, my audio quality bar is pretty high, but there are times I want to bring music on the road (trips, camping, beach, etc.). The challenge has been finding a portable speaker that provides a satisfying-enough musical experience. I was given a Bose Revolve+ as a gift from my employer and also own the LG PK7. Both of these are “OK” for small portable speakers, but their small size limits bass capabilities (it’s just physics).So, recently I decided to try some of the larger portable speakers. First, I tried the JBL Boombox 2. I returned it. To my ears, the bass was overdone and thuddy, drowning out the mids and highs. Also, the sound was very directional, meaning that my ears had to be directly in line with the speaker (vertically and horizontally) to get some presence of mids and highs.Enter the Hyperboom…IMO, the Hyperboom sounds pretty darn balanced, with good bass and open and detailed mids and highs. It sounds more like a pair of decent bookshelf speakers pushed together. The location of the drivers also provides good dispersion, helping to provide the open and detailed sound. We have a Gen 1 Sonos Play5 in the kitchen, and I think the Hyperboom sounds better. I’m pretty impressed and believe it will be a keeper.I’ve tested it in several locations, inside and outside, and it sounds good pretty much everywhere (perhaps the Adaptive EQ is helping), but I will say that the overall sound signature does have some bass emphasis, especially if the speaker is placed on the floor/ground or near walls. So, the sound is not perfectly balanced to my ears, but it is not distractingly unbalanced, like I found the JBL Boombox 2 to be, with its overdone bass. Heck, I expect that many folks would prefer the JBL because of its bass, so YMMV.Also, the Hyperboom sounds balanced as the volume is pushed to near max. The loudest I’ve had it is a click or 2 down from max, and it is plenty loud and satisfying for me at that level. Of course, it is a moderately sized portable speaker, so it’s not going to have the output and dynamics of a “real” full scale system – that is just not possible.The caveat…UE could have hit a homerun if they had included the aptX and AAC bluetooth codecs, rather than just SBC. The Hyperboom is resolving enough to benefit form higher quality source streams. However, the inclusion of an optical input does provide options. For example, one could connect a battery powered Bluetooth receiver with aptX/AAC and optical output (like I did with the Monoprice unit in the attached pic), or even connect a Chromecast Audio via optical, which would not be portable, but would eliminate Bluetooth compression altogether.If UE made a Hyperboom with aptX/AAC bluetooth and wifi connectivity for $400, they would hit a grand slam, IMO.

OverallThis is a great sounding speaker with long battery life. I considered sending it back because it's not as loud as the JBL 310. HOWEVER, this speaker does way too many things right to disregard.Sound Quality -This is a great sounding speaker! The bass is deep and musical (it's not "boomy" for the sake of being boomy). UE has done an amazing job tuning this speaker to get the most out of it's enclosure. The gain stage is set so that you can play at full volume without clipping the amplifier (this is probably done to avoid damaging the speakers). The volume is more than adequate in most situations (indoors is GREAT, outdoors is really good though the bass takes a hit without having the benefit of being against a wall, to help the passive radiators). I also think you may not consider this speaker "loud" because it plays so cleanly at full volume. The EQ in the app is helpful but I find myself leaving it flat most of the time, this may be because the adaptive EQ is really effective. I have not tried the optical input yet. This speaker has a huge soundstage and easily fills a decent sized room - I think this can be attributed to having speakers on two sides - most speakers only utilize one face - this seems really effective.Bluetooth / Battery Life -The Battery life is GREAT. I play this speaker all week thru the day on a single charge (volume around 50%). The Bluetooth has awesome range as advertised, of course going thru walls cuts it down somewhat. It never loses connection. We have not tried the 2nd BT input.Form Factor -This is a decent sized speaker, though very portable and easy to move around (especially compared to the JBL 310 or the Sony XP500/700). The handle is a clever idea and works great. I think having a 2nd one paired in Party mode would be unbelievable - I will likely pick another one up when I get another $400 :) Idea - UE should create an 8" bluetooth sub that has an optical output that could feed a stereo signal to the Hyperboom (a 2' pole mount on both would be super cool).I had hoped to audition this speaker at the local big box retailer but of course their display wasn't working, I'm very happy though and would purchase this speaker again. If anything changes (quits working, battery life falls off dramatically, etc.), I'll post an update to this review.