Ultimate Ears - MEGABOOM Portable Bluetooth Speaker - Cityscape

Let me start by saying these speakers sound AMAZING! BUT they are the WORST if you regularly use more than one, or when you update them. Also, be prepared to return them at least once, the quality control at UE must be pretty terrible. I'm on number 5, yes, FIVE<<----!!! Having to return a faulty item every once in a while is a fact of life, but having to go through 5 of these is unacceptable. The first time I returned the device then went to Best Buy and bought another one. The second time I had an issue, I addressed it with UE directly. That is a HUGE mistake. UE took almost 6 months of my life that I will never get back. After writing multiple emails, then formal letters through U.S. mail, UE determined my speakers were non-fixable and had me ship them to their warehouse to be replaced. I have my new set, and I'm terrified whenever I see an update for them. If you've read this far, you're probably wondering why I'm on my 5th set. The batteries in these units are not very good quality. My very first Megaboom was exciting! I turned it on, played my first bit of music and was blown away by the quality of the sound. Then, the battery died. No problem, right? Wrong! The device didn't charge!! I don't know if it was a faulty USB connection, or a faulty battery. I replaced the cable first, but then determined it was the device. Fast forward to my second replacement, I bought an extra one to make a stereo pair. They worked very well together, albeit with lots of crackling if you play them around any other type of electronic device or anything with lots of metal (different issue that I've learned to live with). I got an update, so I updated both speakers. After updating, NEITHER speaker would connect to my phone! I did a factory reset of both speakers, repaired them multiple times, and I could never get them to connect to one another, nor my phone. This is where the 6 months of back and forth with UE came into play. After multiple support emails, phone calls, and a very nasty letter sent to Logitech (parent company of UE) I finally got authorization to send them back to be looked at. They had the speakers for a month. A MONTH! The techs at Logitech couldn't figure out the problem either, so they shipped two new speakers to me. My most recent problem with the speakers is that they will not update at all. I attempted three times to update one of them, and it wouldn't take. It kept telling me to plug into my computer and update manually. I don't have a PC, so I can't do that. Now I'm afraid to update them, so I'm going to keep the speakers running on outdated firmware. To back-track to UE's quality control, one of my speakers doesn't keep a charge. I have to charge it roughly three times longer than the other one, and I only use them together. I don't have enough patience to deal with UE, so I deal with it. (At least this one actually charges). So if you want to buy a Megaboom, don't attempt to update the firmware or you'll have a headache. Also, make sure you keep an eye on the performance of the batteries.

Has these great features - Auto shut off 1n 15 minutes, only device on market that has this, why waist power or not be able to listen to music while charging. I returned a competitive unit because it was dead when I wnt to use it. Auto shut off prevents this. - able to listen to music while charging. - fool proof charge plug-in there is only one way in, you can plug this in with eyes closed. - iPhone app auto shut off auto turn on from !00 feet - love the power voice telling you exactly how much power is left when simultaneously pushing the plus and minus buttons. Most other competitive choices on the market just have LED lights that are confusing, another reason to buy this. - secret features: {on power on side here are three hidden features, } - one tap - pause tap again play - Double tap - go to next song - Triple tap - go to previous song - Very durable - Can hide under car seat and turn on/off and contoll remotely via app. Good for anti theft of device. The long range blue tooth makes this possoble, other brands dont do this, forget JVS, Bose or other for this. - Case is best in market to store the device. Hands down impressive durable case, 20 foot drop test will protect unit, great for travel, in suitcase - sound is great but not excellent but other choices listed here make this the best overall choice to other competitive choices - base is okay but not as strong as others marketd device choices, blame waterproofing for this. - best choice for listening to audio books with enhanced antena 100ft range hide the device and listen from anywhere hidden in the car -can hid speaker and listen in a friends car to audio books or music, - gray model is best choice for anti theft bright colors attract thieves - test sound quality with Bourne soundtrack or other soundtrack, this unit does well on soundtracks. - plays stereo with one speaker when facing forward, you dont need two to hear stereo, but if you must use two speakers, two speaker stereo are supported in the App. - long last on charge, use daily all week vharge on weekends - can be used as an alarm clock Cons -who cares when was the last time you dropped you music player in the pool... 'Really?' However may be good for the rain - color versions very bright, should have label, steal me, steal me. - water proof seal limits base from working through seal - does not include handle in box - Charger does not match color of device - equalizer on application not helpfull, best sound is no changes, should be called mess up sound feature - if two devices re hooked up 1 must be turned off to add another bluetooth connection - customer support number not on manual or web? If one needs to return if the player is defective, one is left wondering how? - Expensive but you get what you pay for.

The Megaboom sounds good and big enough that, rather than other bluetooth speakers, it may be better to compare it to full-sized speakers. I have many bookshelf and tower speakers I've spent a lot of listening hours with, and I hoped to buy a wireless speaker with sound resembling a full-sized speaker. And that it does! I planned to use the Megaboom mostly for podcasts and occasionally music, but it sounds so good that I'm enjoying music on it far more than I dared to hope. It fills up a room, and its wide sound dispersion makes it far less location dependent than most all speakers. The bass is incredibly full for its size and works for the vast majority of music I listen to (maybe 90-95%), but there are limits. It can muddle and distort when taken too far--avoid dubstep! For podcasts, it mostly sounds very good, but I'm surprised by coloration it gives to some male vocals. They can sound overly raspy or bassy, to the point of sounding muddled or distorted. This American Life may be the most popular podcast; it generally has very good sound quality (or so I thought), but Ira Glass' and some other men's voices seem to have some distortion like the speaker cannot clearly and accurately recreate their voices. This could be an issue with the recording or compression or certain frequencies; I've not noticed this in music or most other 'lesser' podcasts, even with bassier males. This is probably nitpicking, and the podcasts may be to blame, but it can be jarring. The sound did seem to improve from burn-in with use. I'd liken the Megaboom to a really good modern day boombox. It's far smaller than a boombox, and its bluetooth makes it a wonderful mate with smartphones, tablets, etc. With 20 hours' battery life, tough build quality, water resistance, small size, wide dispersion, and impressive sound quality and power, it's very easy and compelling to bring it wherever you go. I find myself taking it throughout my home and my world. $300 may seem like a lot for a mere bluetooth speaker; but it seems like it should have good longevity, and its features are so compelling that you may want to take it with you to a great many places. Even if you only left it at home, I'd see it being a sound companion (pun) to lovingly produce the sounds of your life.

UA Megaboom This is a great sounding speaker. This is being used in an Operating Room. Lots of other very loud equipment and this has no problem being heard over all that background noise. In fact where you put the speaker can affect the max volume (see below). Waterproof: This is being used in a surgical setting and it is wiped down 5-6 times a day without any effect to how the speaker sounds. Sound: The treble is great and the bass is good. The closer you put it to a wall the better the bass gets. A corner wall is even better. The 360 degree speakers bounce and the sound is even better. Battery: After 1 month the battery life is fantastic. My 1st charge lasted for over 30 hours. Not sure if it will keep that up. When battery needs to be charged it will actually tell you. You will hear a female voice say "battery critical". Nice touch that. I have not tried it with another UA speaker for the " 1 touch" stereo affect. If it as good as this one it will be fantastic though. It has a hook on the bottom that just screws in to the base on the speaker. That is my only concern. If it comes unscrewed while hanging from something at the beach or pool, ect ect. A better way to attach a D-ring to hang it would take that worry away. I see that there are cases that will also remedy this issue. Not sure if those cases will effect the sound though. Though the price $299 is expensive it feels to me well worth the money. It is well built and lives up to all of its descriptions and specifications. I highly recommend this speaker. You will not be disappointed.

After owning the smaller UE Boom for a year, I saw that UE released another version of the product that was bigger, louder, more durable, and had better battery life. The second I saw the differences, I immediately got in my car and drove to best buy to buy myself what was labeled as the UE Megaboom. Right out of the box, I noticed the differences immediately. The bass is improved significantly over the smaller Boom, the volume was reasonably louder, and the software was much better. The ability to turn the speaker on and off without having to touch the physical speaker is much more useful than one would think. I should also note that I was able to pair my new UE Megaboom with my UE Boom for a stereo L and R setup without a problem. I've taken this speaker everywhere with me and it's durability has been tested at the beach, in the pool (yes, I literally put it on a float in the pool and it was sitting in water), and under the burning hot sun. This speaker has never had any overheating issues and truly is waterproof. The UE Megaboom has produced enough volume everywhere I have used it. The battery life is also fantastic; if it's charged overnight, there shouldn't be too much of a problem with the speaker getting through the whole day unless you're blasting it at 100% the whole time. Another amazing feature is the 360 degree sound which allows me to put it in places such as kitchen island and hear the same sound from anywhere around it. Overall, this is the very best speaker you can get for the money.

First, $300 is a lot of money. I thought long and hard about spending it on my Klipsch ear buds, and again before purchasing my Megaboom. I've had the Klipsch ear buds for a few years now, and every day I'm glad I bought them. I've had the Megaboom for only 2 days, but things are starting off the same way -- I'm glad I decided to buy it. I agree with the description of the sound quality from almost all of the other reviewers. It's bass isn't as deep or as strong as the Klipsch KMC-1 I purchased (and returned), but it is still very satisfying. I don't think you'll be disappointed in the bass output at all. The mids and highs are clear and clean with a very open sound and a surprisingly large stereo sound stage. I've listened to rock, pop, singer/songwriter, country,a little rap and a little classical. I'm quite pleased overall with what I've heard from the Megaboom. I also *really* like the extra features of this speaker -- it's extremely portable and suitcase-friendly (I travel a lot). I like the iOS app and the alarm feature. As a point of reference, I don't use any equalization on my iPhone, and I keep this unit set to "Standard", which seems to my ears to be identical to a flat custom EQ setting (all sliders at zero). It pairs easily with any of my Bluetooth devices, and it automatically re-pairs with the last device used. If you can justify the expense, this is a great portable Bluetooth speaker.

I purchased this speaker on 7/10/18. I received in 4 days later and straight out of the box, it would not charge. So I googled a fix to do a manufacturer reset and it worked ok for a few days. Then the app (which you must download to pair) wanted to update the speaker. And that was all she wrote. It would no longer pair or charge, no matter how many resets I did. This happened just one day after Best Buy's 15 day return policy. Of course, right? So I called ultimate ears and they did all of the stuff I already did and pronounced it defective and that they would send me a new one. That was on 8/3. Today is 8/16 and I have gotten nothing but the runaround from them . At first UE said they would send me a replacement and then I could send my old one back. A week goes by and I hadn't received anything from them so I emailed them back and they said that something had changed and I must first mail the speaker back and then they would issue a replacement and in 48 hours I would receive a return label. That was a week ago and I have yet to receive a label. I have emailed twice and heard nothing back. This speaker is awesome when it works but once it doesn't, you're pretty much on your own. I only got to use this speaker for one week before it went south. So I spent $200 on something that doesn't work and the company won't remedy. I knew I should have gone with BOSE. You should too.

First the good, when this speaker “works” the sound is great! now onto the problems i had with this speaker. First and foremost, the design of this speaker is really dumb, according to all the pictures and based on the overall sound quality being better this way, the speaker appears to be meant to stand vertical. The problem with this is you cannot charge and stand it vertical at the same time as the charging port (and aux port) are on the bottom of the speaker. I ended up getting around this by using an Oculus rift stand to prop it up higher (you can actually use any “tripod like” stand as it has the standard input port for using those. After the updates i was off to use this for the only thing i wanted to use this for, a speaker for my echo dot. For 2 days it worked and sounded great (hence the 2 stars and not 1) then the speaker would just cut out every other second while doing anything. Only way i could fix this was to disconnect bluetooth and reconnect which bought me another few days. By the way, side note...before this speaker I had a Bose soundlink hooked up to my echo dot for almost a year with no issues (its not the echo Dot) Anyway I eventually brought the speaker back after many different troubleshooting ideas i tried. Long story short the 2nd one did the exact same thing. Customer service was clueless of the issue and every response took about 2-3 days, I gave up and returned it for a whole different product all together. Pass on this one if you plan on using it with an Echo Dot, because clearly it wasn’t meant for that.