Ultimate Ears has a history of making loud and sturdy portable Bluetooth speakers with features to simplify the listening experience. Whether it’s a party mode that supports up to 100 speakers simultaneously, or the ability to remotely turn off the unit from your phone, the company’s devices have always been among the best.
A new option from UE comes the Everboom ($250), which falls in the middle of its lineup in terms of size and power. Those handy features of Ultimate Ears are back, but the company’s lack of clarity and fidelity is back as well.
Design
The Everboom is a bit smaller than the midpoint of Ultimate Ears’ Bluetooth speaker lineup. 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 larger overall.
Aesthetically, the Everboom is very similar to the Epicboom: an oval-shaped, cylindrical device with a rubber base. Aside from the size, the difference between the two is that the Epicboom has a strap attached to the back while the Everboom has a loop.
You can use the included carabiner or opt for a clip or hook. And, like all recent UE speakers, large “+” and “-” buttons are part of the look, keeping volume controls right on the front of the speaker. Up top, there are buttons for power, Bluetooth, Outdoor Boost, and play/pause. That last control skips tracks with a double (forward) or triple press (back).
Like most recent UE speakers, the Everboom is pretty robust. The IP67-rated unit can survive being fully submerged in water, but you probably won’t have to worry about that since it also floats. While UE highlighted this aspect in the announcement, I should point out that the Wonderboom also floats.
The company says it tested the Everboom by dropping it from a height of one meter (about three feet), so the occasional bump shouldn’t cause any issues other than a scratch or bruise.
UE Boom app and features
To use the Everboom’s advanced features, you’ll need to access them in the UE Boom app. Once the speaker is connected, the main interface displays battery status above controls for power, Outdoor Boost, and Megaphone Tools. There’s also a volume slider, as well as tabs for Media Player and PartyUp and EQ.
Megaphone allows you to make announcements through your phone’s mic and PartyUp is Ultimate Ears’ name for linking multiple speakers together. You can actually sync up to 150 units in a single setup, as long as they’re Boom, Megaboom, EpicBoom, or Hyperboom models.
Even more useful tools appear when you delve into the detailed settings menu. There’s an option to add playlists from Amazon Music or Apple Music, so you can start them directly from the Everboom’s play/pause button (by long-pressing).
You can add as many playlists as you want and listen to any one of them without picking up your phone. When a collection is playing, you’ll also have access to the playlists from the media player inside the app.
There are a few more items in the settings I’d like to point out. You can enable so-called Sticky PartyUp to keep the speakers grouped together if you change locations, and you can also disable the ability for other people to add your device to their PartyUp arrangement.
Bluetooth standby is on by default, and this app is the way to turn the speaker on or off remotely. But it does impact battery life, so the company gives you the option to extend play time by disabling it.
Sound quality
One of the best things about the Everboom is that the driver arrangement radiates sound at 360 degrees. You can hear music clearly when you’re sitting to the side of the device, although the tuning there prioritizes treble over bass. My main complaint with Ultimate Ears speakers is that it seems like the company always prioritizes volume over fidelity. The speakers generally sound fine, and the Everboom is a bit of a departure, but lack overall depth and detail like other Bluetooth speakers.
Songs consistently sound compressed, with the midrange clearly lacking despite punchy highs and rumbling bass. The open, atmospheric instrumentation on Nickel Creek’s bluegrass tunes and Phantogram’s “Come Alive” lack overall clarity. Vocals are always clean, but the sound stage is limited to the two high and low extremes. Saosin’s Live From the Garden Amphitheatre is one of the best-sounding live albums I can recall, but Everboom saps the energy of the show with a lack of dynamics in its tuning.