Coming from the Megablast I was a bit skeptical before purchase. For some odd reason, the Megablast stopped working out of nowhere and man was I sad. I had been keeping up with the new versions coming out, the one before this being super huge was not convenient for carrying around so I did not pull the trigger on purchasing it. I was even disappointed that I no longer had the Alexa feature to look forward to. But in the words of LL Cool J, “I can’t live without my radio” and the day came when I couldn’t take it any longer having no speaker to blast my tunes with. I was going to go ahead and get the big bulky blaster with the crazy price tag. I rushed to Best Buy with only a half hour left and looked on the shelf to play around with the big speaker. That’s when I saw this one, the Epic Boom with the perfect size. I checked the pricing and it was a bit cheaper than the monster version. I pressed the demo button to hear if the sound was comparable to my old favorite the MegaBlast. Oh my goodness it sounded crappy. I said to myself no way this is their new model and it sounds worse than the priors. I carefully started reading the box to find out about all these wonderful features but it just did not make sense. I had not much time left til closing time and said to myself “Well, I guess I will take it just to have something to listen to my music on”. I reached down to the shelf to find there was no more there. I wanted to shed tears at this point. A representative walked over to remind me the store was closing soon and I asked do you have this model in the back. She looked it up and yes, there was one left in the store somewhere. I hesitantly told her to go get it and I will make the purchase. After leaving the store I decided to open the box in the car to hear the model once more. The device was dead and nothing happened on the button press. I rode back home and sat the box on the bed thinking the whole time, that maybe I should just return it and get the huge one, at least it would sound better than what I had heard in the store. It took. me hours to decide if I was going to open the box and charge up the device. I talked myself into breaking open the package and went through the routine of setting up and plugging in chords for charging. The device made no peep nor did an indication of led lights show up. I was now upset, I paid for a defect I thought. I walked away from the thing and went outside for some cool off the anger time. A few hours went by and I returned to the room to see there was now a light. I pressed the on button and the familiar sound of it turning on just like the Megablast was what I heard. I may be wrong here but I could have sworn my Apple phone began giving instructions on how to download the device’s software and firmware updates. I jumped in every turn to make sure the setup was correct. Once finished I now had the opportunity to listen to the music and man oh man the sound was incredible. This device sounds way better than my old favorite. I do not know how the company made something that was this good, better than ever. I rocked out all night and did not even turn it off to sleep. This is one amazing speaker. The new features are pretty decent as well. I do miss the Alexa feature though it did not work correctly all the time. With Alexa, you were able to sit with friends and family and play games when you tire from music listening. That is the only reason I left out one star. Overall this speaker is worth the purchase. You can carry it anywhere, throw it in the drink, and let it auto-adjust sound to its atmosphere. The workers at Best Buy should be trained to set these features up on store demos because at first, I was going to pass it up because of the crappy sound. They did not adjust anything and just sat it on the shelf.

No styrofoam in the excellent packaging! Stated to be carbon neutral in the manufacture and shipping, with recyclable packaging. The product has been manufactured with sustainability in mind. Per their claims on their website, the Epicboom is made from 100% post-consumer recycled polyester fabric, a minimum of 59% post-consumer recycled plastic.
A USB-C to USB-C cable for charging was included, leaping into the more modern age. All UE speakers prior used micro-USB ports for charging, which seemed rather dated to me. For charging you need to provide your own power source. The company states a 15W charger will fully charge the battery in 2 hours. They noted that it needed to be more than just your laptop’s USB-C port, however.
The speaker was very simple to set up via the download from the Apple App store or Google Play for Android.
Easy to use iPhone app which walked you through the steps. I was quickly informed to download firmware update, which was quickly accomplished via WiFi.
The Epicboom is a substantial sound source. Hefty in handling, not a lightweight; weighing in at about 2 kg. It is twice the size of the 2018 released Wonderboom. It does sport the UE trademark large + and – volume controls on the front of the speaker, as do their entire line of portable speakers.
I felt it had astounding bass; enough to irritate neighbors if you live in an apartment. The bass even with the Bass Boost off was rather prodigious indoors. It could be a lease breaker in an apartment…
I was easily able to select Epicboom as a choice on my Peloton bike; having the workout music through a more robust speaker than over the built in Bike speaker made the pedaling to the beat even more enjoyable.
The Epicboom iPhone app was easy to use. You can link to AppleMusic or Spotify and it gives you one touch playing of your previously linked playlists. Using the “Magic” button, even if the speaker has been turned off, will turn on the speaker and starts playing your last chosen playlist. The app has a limit of 4 such stored playlists, which you can cycle through on the app or by repeatedly pressing the Magic button.
There is a prodigious BlueTooth reach from phone to speaker. Using wireless earbuds as a comparison, my earbuds’ Bluetooth range fades to poor audio at about 25 feet, and disappears completely if you leave from the living room into the garage. But if I take my phone about 50 feet (out into the backyard, and into the shed) from the speaker inside the house, with several doors closed between the two), the sound quality doesn’t fade a bit. UltimateEars states that the Bluetooth range is 180 feet (55 meters).
There is on the top an Outdoor setting marked as a little tree, one touch, to optimize the sound for non-enclosed rooms, etc. I think this generally mostly boosts the bass.
Also on the top of the speaker is a NFC button, to one touch connect to a NFC-compatible smartphone with Android 8.0 or later. As an iPhone owner, I did not trial that feature.
Waterproofing to an IP 67 rating for protection from pool side splashes or even short term immersion up to a depth of 1 meter. It actually floats, a feat I did not test out. There is a fabric loop on the top back of the speaker, which uses a magnet to snap in place when released, keeping it tidy but available.
The EpicBoom uses 2 mid to high range speakers (1.5” diameter) with a single 4.6” woofer. The oval design promises 360° bass rich portable sound that’s surprisingly big for its size. The output can be cranked up to stated 94 dB, about the loudness of a gasoline lawnmower. I always use ear plugs for noise protection when mowing the lawn, so I didn’t test the maximum volume of the Epicboom, but took their word for it.
You can pair two EpicBoom speakers for stereo. In the UE Boom app, “Party Up” chains up to a total of 150 compatible speakers in an array, so that all corners of the setup hear the same output. The speakers so enabled include Epicboom, Boom, Boom 2, Boom 3, Megaboom, Megaboom 3, and Hyperboom speakers. The Wonderboom is absent from this list.
Battery life is claimed of up to 17 hours of playtime, with a USB-C charging port that has a water-tight flap sealing it off when not plugged in.
A series of pre-sets for tonal menus were easily switched via the app, to vary for the spectrum desired. The pre-sets were named as : “Signature” (which was a flat curve, not boosting or dampening any portion of the spectrum), spoken/podcast, gaming/movie soundtrack (suggesting to me that this could be a TV soundbar surrogate), Bass Boost, and Deep Relaxation mode. The speaker has “Adaptive Equalization” which claims to sense and match changes in the setting’s acoustics, so that the output remains similar if you move from one room to another.
In conclusion, I felt this was a very fine speaker. A pair would nicely create a fine soundbar, and not need a separate subwoofer given its bass output. The options for outdoor and party time music will be perhaps its greatest feat.
The only downside, compared to non-portable speakers that I currently own and use, is the lack of WiFi and voice control. Since this is Bluetooth only, there is no ability for voice assistants, searches, etc. The Epicboom must use some microphone capacities to automatically adjust the equalization to the room’s acoustics, but not to process or respond to speech commands.
What it lacks in that facility, it makes up for in music fidelity, output, durability, battery life, and portability.

Hello friends, This is my quick review of the Ultimate Ears Epicboom! I picked up this Bluetooth speaker for my back patio that is covered and I wanted to try a speaker that’s waterproof. This Ultimate Ears Epicboom seemed like just the thing, so I grabbed it. First off it’s big and beautiful. It comes with a cool little carrying strap that’s got a magnetic hold-down when not in use. It’s fairly heavy and it seems to me to be well-built.
Since Ultimate Ears Epicboom is selling this unit as a waterproof speaker that can play underwater, I decided to test that. I can say with total confidence that it is indeed waterproof. I tossed it over into my hot tub while it was playing and it kept right on playing music while in the water. With that said there is a small problem when you do that, it sounds bad in the water. The speaker is waterproof but I wouldn’t suggest using that method for playback because it’s too muffled sounding.
OK, so does it sound good out of the water? Yes, it does this Epicboom speaker sounds fantastic! For me, I had great success putting the speaker near a wall but not up against it. This made the soundfield really big. I think it helped the 360 sound bounce around my patio. However, you can sit this in the middle of a room or in the yard and it will sound great all the way around. Due to the fact that this unit has speakers all around the outside of itself allows sound to shoot out from every direction. As for the sound quality, I like the punchy bass and clear highs and I like the midrange as well. It’s balanced nicely with the rest of the bandwidth. Overall just a great Bluetooth speaker. Just what I needed out back to help me relax!
Would I recommend this Ultimate Ears Epicboom to a friend? You bet it’s great for outdoor spaces and indoor spaces alike. It sounds great with big bass and carries easily. I haven’t reached the end of battery life yet and have been playing it for 3 days now so battery life is great too. I will include pics of it running in the water.

The Ultimate Ears EPICBOOM is an amazing and versatile Bluetooth speaker that can easily function as the life of the party. During my testing, I was blown away by its performance, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a powerful speaker to pair with their favorite media.
The first thing I noticed about the EPICBOOM was the size and weight of the box it arrived in, which is pretty substantial for a Bluetooth speaker. Ultimate Ears did an excellent job of packaging the product, and unboxing is an enjoyable and straightforward process. In the box, you’ll find the speaker, a USB-C charging cable, and various bits of paperwork with instructions and warranty information.
Build quality is very nice with the EPICBOOM, as the majority of the speaker is a durable dark grey/black fabric-like material, with sections of plastic and rubber. The bottom of the EPICBOOM is rubberized, and is a different color and texture. On the top are the main controls, along with big “+” and “-“ signs on the front that control volume. On the bottom of the speaker are some grips for standing, and printed information on the underside panel. There are also 3 LED lights above the volume controls, that light up to let you know the charge level.
While the EPICBOOM is on the heavier side for a Bluetooth speaker, it’s still light enough to easily be considered portable. There is a carrying loop on the rear of the speaker as well, for when you want to take your speaker with you on the go.
The controls are simple enough, with a power button, a button used to pair the speaker, an “Outdoor Boost” button, and a play/pause button. There is also a Near Field Communication (NFC) icon, yet this only works with Android phones (and I was testing with Apple products). Connecting to my phone was done in seconds, and there is an Ultimate Ears BOOM app that I downloaded to further customize the EQ and sound settings of my speaker. Pushing the power button will quickly turn the speaker on or off, and automatically connect to your device’s Bluetooth. The pairing button is used by holding it in until the light starts blinking; this means that the EPICBOOM is now discoverable. The play/pause button is used to start or stop music playback, as well as skip forwards and back to different tracks.
When I used the EPICBOOM in my backyard, it seemed that the Outdoor Boost button slightly lowered the bass frequencies, making it easier to max out the volume. While the EQ on the app is not very complex, I thought it was more than adequate for finding the best possible sound in every situation.
This model also has adaptive EQ that tailors the sound based on your environment, and it seemed to work well. I admittedly did not notice a huge difference between leaving this setting on and then turning it off, but I would imagine that this also depends on where you’re playing the speaker.
To test the EPICBOOM, I played a variety of music, from hip-hop, electronic, rock, classical, country, and reggae genres. I also connected the speaker to my TV and watched an action movie with the EPICBOOM as the sole audio source, to see what it could do. While the EPICBOOM has an amazingly clear and well-defined sound, it truly excels at reproducing bass in music and movies. On bass-heavy genres like hip-hop and electronic music, the low end was impressive, and remained strong even with the volume nearing 100%. The mid-range frequencies were also stunning, and really shined on rock, metal, and classical music that I listened to. The highs were crisp and clear, and were never impacted by the bass or mids. I do not know how many speakers are actually used inside the EPICBOOM, but it sounds as if it has dedicated high and low drivers. Also, the EPICBOOM gets loud! It’s rated as a max volume of 94 decibels, and I do not doubt that this is accurate after spending some time with it. What impressed me was how good the sound remained even at high volumes – even when pushed, the bass was powerful, and every frequency came through beautifully. When I watched an action movie, I could clearly hear dialogue when quieter scenes were playing, and during action sequences, the impact of the EPICBOOM provided a great theatre-like sound.
Other things about the EPICBOOM:
– Charging is relatively quick with the included USB-C cable. I love that the 3 lights let me know how full the charge is.
– It is rated as IP67 water and dust-proof, and can spend 30 minutes submerged in water.
– You can use a “Party Up” feature to connect to other Ultimate Ears speakers, and play music in sync at even crazier volumes.
– The battery life is rated at 17 hours, which I found to be a REALLY long time! I have been able to charge it, and then use it for hours before I even need to think about recharging it. I also like that the app has a battery life gauge to keep me informed as well.
– The EPICBOOM has cool little sounds for when you turn it on, connect it to Bluetooth, etc. These can be turned off in the app.
– Updating the firmware is also done using the app. I found that it took about 10-15 minutes to apply an update shortly after I first started using the EPICBOOM.
– EQ has 5 presets, and is a 5-band EQ system.
Overall, I have been astounded at how well the EPICBOOM has performed with anything I’ve thrown at it. The only possible downside I can think of is that it may be a bit on the larger side for a Bluetooth speaker, but it’s still compact enough to be put into a backpack, in my opinion. Even though it’s not tiny, it feels extremely robust, well made, and could easily be used to entertain a group of people. Additionally, the Ultimate Ears BOOM app is responsive and easy to use, and makes customizing the sound of your EPICBOOM even more streamlined.
If you are looking for a Bluetooth speaker that can deliver on huge, impressive sound, I would definitely recommend the Ultimate Ears EPICBOOM!