Ultimate Ears HYPERBOOM – rock the room (BT speaker review)

The Ultimate Ears HYPERBOOM looks and sounds the part as its biggest, BOOMiest Bluetooth speaker yet with 3x loudness and 6x Bass of its predecessor.

Despite looking like a bruiser, the music is surprisingly sweet with lots of bass but so much as to overpower mids and with a nice crisp treble to round it out. It should be an excellent stereo pair, but at $599.95 each, there are better-matched stereo speakers.

It is portable – if you count a 364 (H) x 190mm (Square) x 5.9kg and has a claimed 24-hour battery and 2.6-hour charge time. Of course, the battery life depends on volume and content, so we test that.

Under the IPX4-rated, weather-resistant, woven fabric cover are 2 x 114mm woofers, 2 x 25mm tweeters and 2 x 89x190mm passive bass radiators. Ultimate Ears does not reveal Watts RMS.

On with the review

Australian Review: Ultimate Ears HYPERBOOM

Website	Home Page and Product page
Price	$599.95 (seen for <$500)
From	Ultimate Ears online or major CE retailers
Warranty	2-year ACL
Country of Manufacture	China
Company	Ultimate Ears (Est 1995) is a US-based company acquired by Logitech in 2008. It all started with studio-grade in-ear monitors. (Ultimate Ears) and aims to have the best products in the market.
More	CyberShack Ultimate Ears news and reviews

We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed. You can click on most images for an enlargement.

First Impression – Pass+

It is big, rectangular, heavy, and has a carry handle that makes it easy to heft around. The bottom and top are hard plastic with rubber feet underneath. The rear ‘spine’ has a rubber carry handle and a rubber-covered port concealing Optical In, AUX 3.4mm In, and USB-A in.

Power comes from a 19V/4.74A/90W brick and plug. Or it will run up to 24 hours off the battery.

It has a woven fabric cover and comes in Black or White. We recommend Black as it does not show dirt as much.

Placement – be careful – Pass

It looks like the Hyperboom is supposed to be oriented like a diamond along its rear spine. The speakers are forward-side-oriented, and the passive radiators are on the rear sides. It has four speakers and plays in stereo 2.0.

Placement makes a huge difference. The passive radiators don’t do much if you put it against a wall. If you put it in the centre of the room, you only get powerful music in the forward half.

The ideal spot is about 1 metre from a solid wall where it can bounce bass from the radiators, and don’t forget that it is a diamond – not a square.

BT – Pass

It has two BT 4.2 SBC channels but no multi-point. The two channels allow two connections, but you must physically use the buttons or the App to switch between them.

Ranger claim 48m but its closer to 10m

Ultimate Ears Boom App

Adaptive EQ uses a built-in microphone to read the room (patio or rooftop) and automatically balances the sound. It activates when moved.

EQ pre-sets include Bass Jump, Game/Cinema, or Podcast, a 5-band equaliser to tweak the mids, highs and lows. You can change the source and power off.

Battery – Pass+

Twenty-four hours is at 50%, which is closer to three hours at 100%. We played at 75% for 19 hours.

Pairing – Pass

PartyUp connect it with any BOOM, MEGABOOM, or another HYPERBOOM, but each speaker remains mono – it is not stereo pairing.

Controls – Pass+

Play, pause, and skip tracks from the speaker. Set up one-touch playlists for music control of  Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and Deezer Premium.

How does it sound? Pass+

Maximum volume (SBC) is 86dB. You can drive it a little harder with optical or 3.5mm inputs. There is no perceptible distortion up to about 85% (75dB).

With the proper placement, you get a stereo effect; the sound stage is wider than the speaker. But as the Left and Right speakers are so close together, it does not have that left/right separation that you expect, e.g., sound objects moving from left to right. Even with Dolby Atmos content, there is no 3D height or surround.

Bass starts at 40Hz (low bass is 20-50Hz), climbs quickly to 80Hz (Midi-bass is 50-1100Hz) and is flat (good) to about 7kHZ where it dips slightly to avoid treble harshness and is then flat to 20kHz.

Bass is just right and gives that unmistakable thump, not a wet whump, although some will want to tone it down in that App. Being a native Neutral signature, it neither adds nor subtracts from the original music. You can use the EQ to recess bass, mid or treble.

Read more: How to tell if you have good music (sound signature is the key – guide).

CyberShack’s view – Ultimate Ears HYPERBOOM is a great party speaker

No, it does not have flashing lights, Karaoke or DJ functions – just good and loud music. It gets our unreserved recommendation.

Competition

• At the elegant end, Sonos Move – big and bold BT/Wi-Fi portable speaker (review) has surprising 85dB party speaker chops. It is mono (stereo pairable) and has Wi-Fi making it a Google Assistant speaker.
• LG XBOOM 360 RP4B – Bluetooth mono speaker with light show (review) reaches 85dB, with a natural sound signature and a light show.
• Sony has a range of party speakers with flashy lights and more.
• BlueAnt has X4  and X5 party speakers with excellent sound and volume.
• Samsung has its Sound Tower range.
• JBL has a range of party speakers

While these may be competitors, the Ultimate Ears HYPERBOOM 2.0 has what you need and at a reasonable price.

Rating Explanation

• Features: 90 – A fully featured portable BT party speaker
• Value: 90 – It is a reasonable price for what it is
• Performance: 90 – excellent neutral sound signature and 5-band EQ
• Ease of Use – 90 – Plug and Play
• Design: 90 – Big but well-designed and made