The cylindrical Boom, at about 3 inches around and 7 inches tall, is a bit larger than a can and a half of Red Bull.Just in time to annoy the people on the neighboring beach blanket, Ultimate Ears has produced the aptly named Boom, a Bluetooth sound dock that is both compact and loud.
The cylindrical Boom, at about 3 inches around and 7 inches tall, is a bit larger than a can and a half of Red Bull. It weighs about 19 ounces â€" about the same as two Red Bulls.
The remarkable thing about the Boom is how much sound it can produce. Played in a roughly 10-by-10-foot room, it was almost o verwhelming. The quality of the sound, however, was not as remarkable. While it was loud and distortion free, it was also indistinct. There were no particularly notable highs or lows, just a general lack of clarity.
The reason for that could be - at least partly - that the left and right speakers are so close together. Although Ultimate Ears advertises “360-degree sound,†it doesn't say stereo sound. You can get true stereo by linking two Booms to one phone or tablet. It can be set so one Boom plays the left channel, the other the right. But at $200 each, it's an expensive solution. You can put a single Boom on the floor in a corner of a room so the reflections off the walls improve the stereo effect (and increase the bass), but you won't find too many corner walls at the beach or poolside.
The Bluetooth was easy to connect, and the Boom signals, with a whimsical bongo beat, when it is on or off and that it's connected to another device. It also has an oversize plus and minus on the side, so you know what to press when the neighbors are yelling at you to turn it down.
The Boom claims 15 hours of battery life, is available in black, blue, olive green, pink, red, and white, and is water resistant, but not submersible.
