As a music nerd on a strict budget, I’m intrigued by the EarFun UBOOM X speaker. You’re telling me it’s loud, powerful, and bassy, and also just $189? Sign me up! Could it be one of the best Bluetooth speakers around?
Yes, and no. There’s nothing massively wrong with the UBOOM X. It is loud. It is powerful. It is bassy. But that bass volume does curdle the mids and trebles and swallows them on its mission to be the loudest at the party. Does that mean it’s a bad speaker? No, it just has a very particular use case.
I wouldn’t use this speaker as my main listening device — I’ve got wired desktop speakers for that. For just $189, I would probably grab this speaker in a pinch for a party. Is it the right speaker for your needs, though? Find out in this EarFun UBOOM X review.
EarFun UBOOM X review: Cheat sheet
- What is it? A budget speaker halfway between boombox and portable
- What does it cost? $189 / £189
- Who is it for? If you need a speaker that’s as loud as it is portable
- What should you use it for? Soundtracking beach parties, camping trips, or just house parties
- What are its weaknesses? The loud bass can make mids muddy
EarFun UBOOM X review: Specs
EarFun UBOOM X review: Price & availability
The UBOOM X is $189 at Amazon U.S. and £189 at Amazon U.K., although it’s often on sale for about $160. This budget price makes it about half the cost of the excellent JBL Xtreme 4
($379) and almost the same MSRP as the Soundcore Motion Boom Plus ($179), which we lauded upon its release. More luxurious brands like Bose and Sonos have their own versions of rugged party speakers in the $399 SoundLink Max and the $449 Move 2 respectively. I’ve also personally tested the $299 Tribit StormBox Blast 2, which, whilst bigger and heavier than the EarFun UBOOM X, is over $100 pricier.
EarFun UBOOM X review: Design
- Grill only on one side
- Fine aesthetics
- Carry handle
The UBOOM X sits between the massive floor filler design of the Tribit StormBox Blast 2 and a more portable party speaker like the JBL Xtreme 4. While it’s 10 pounds lighter than the StormBox Blast 2, it’s also 4 inches bigger than the Xtreme 4. The UBOOM X is firmly a mid-range party speaker: not particularly hefty, but not exactly compact either.
It’s obvious that portability was on purpose here: there’s a carry handle like the StormBox Blast 2 and the Motion Boom Plus and a provided carabiner strap. The weight makes it much more user-friendly than the 19-inch-long and 14.7-pound-heavy JBL Boombox 3 ($499). With the lighter weight and smaller size, you’re missing some killer design specs that could’ve made this speaker epic.
The speaker grill only inhabits one side of the UBOOM X, so if you’re facing its reverse, you won’t be able to hear it as well. Unlike the Tribit StormBox Blast 2 with its all encompassing grille.
EarFun UBOOM X review: Connectivity
- No multi-point connection
- Bluetooth 5.3
- 50-foot range
I was really disappointed to discover that the UBOOM X is not capable of multi-point connection. I tried to connect with my iPhone 11 and MacBook Air M2, but soon discovered it was impossible. I understand most people will use features like Spotify Jam sessions instead of connecting to the same speaker these days, but for those who perhaps use different music streaming services, this would be a major con. If you’re hosting a party and you have Apple Music but all your friends have Spotify, you won’t be able to create a collaborative playlist.
Although you can’t connect to multiple devices, the UBOOM X is compatible with iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows. It runs off Bluetooth 5.3, which means its range is around 50 feet.
EarFun UBOOM X review: Features
- Party Mode with up to 50 speakers
- Custom EQ
- IP67
The most attractive feature of the UBOOM X is ‘Party Mode’. While this is standard on most Bluetooth speakers now, ranging from JBL’s use of Auracast to Tribit’s ‘Party Mode’, EarFun claims you can link up to 50 speakers for the ultimate party experience. I’m not sure you’ll be able to find 50 people with an EarFun speaker and congregate them in the same room, but hey, if you manage that, it’s possible.
There’s also the EarFun app, which lets you customize things like EQ and set up firmware updates. This is only available on iOS and Android so you’ll need to ensure your speaker is connected to your phone to utilize these features. You probably wouldn’t take a laptop out and about with you, so this compatibility makes sense for a portable speaker.
Speaking of portability, the UBOOM X has a great durability rating: IP67. This rating means it can withstand submersion in water up to 1 meter and is dustproof for an ‘extended’ period of time, making it an ideal speaker for outdoor pursuits like beach parties and camping trips.
EarFun UBOOM X review: Sound quality
- Great bass performance
- Lacks clarity in mids
- Boom xxX EQ is amazing
Considering this speaker is only $189, I was pretty surprised with its sound quality. No, it doesn’t have the detail of big-name speakers like the JBL Xtreme 4 or the Bose SoundLink Max, and it doesn’t have the thumping bass of boombox speakers like the Tribit StormBox Blast 2, but that doesn’t mean the UBOOM X is an inferior speaker. If one side of the road is an earth-shaking floor-filling boombox (like the $500 JBL Boombox 3 or $579 Marshall Woburn II) and the other side is a portable, compact yet powerful speaker (like the JBL Xtreme 4, or the Bose SoundLink Max), then the UBOOM X sits comfortably in the crash barrier.
As this is predominantly intended to be a party speaker, I started my testing with some club-classics-adjacent tracks. The punchy ‘90s-inspired piano house track ‘Heat’ by Tove Lo and S.G. Lewis pulsated confidently through the UBOOM X, but lost a little definition in the bass-heavy chorus.
Hmm, I thought to myself, so it’s got great thumping bass, but at the cost of audio clarity? So I played some more bass-heavy tracks to test my theory.
Concerned it could be a mixing issue, I switched to a different artist for the next track. I played ‘Forever Baby’ by Carlita and Janet Planet, which is a house track constructed with samba-tinged piano and horns instead of synth-heavy keys. In this song, there wasn’t the same muddy issue as with ‘Heat’. The bass is a little lighter in this track — but don’t worry, I played a squelchy bass tune after, to triple-check the UBOOM X’s bass performance.
‘Flight fm’ by Joy Orbison is my go-to bass-testing tune, seeing as it’s almost entirely bass. Save for a slicing hi-hat and rattling drum-machine hiss, ‘flight fm’ is a bass-fest gone wild. I was a little disappointed with the track’s performance, though. The bass still rumbled along, but it didn’t vibrate the floor. I couldn’t feel it in my bones like I could with the JBL Xtreme 4 — a much smaller speaker.
To try and get more out of the UBOOM X, I used the EarFun Audio app to customize my EQ. I had to update my firmware to do this, which took an hour, so be warned. I enabled the ‘Boom xxX’ EQ preset, which did, in fact, shake the floor. So if you want all the bass the speaker can muster, you’ll need to customize your EQ.
Next, I shifted to indie and rock to test the speaker’s versatility. ‘Rain’ by Wunderhorse has a scratchy guitar riff woven throughout the track that sounded amazing, but overshadowed the vocals a little. ‘Burn Alive’ by The Last Dinner Party is a theatrical rock song with orchestral percussion and powerful vocals, which was handled deftly by the UBOOM X. I switched up to psych with ‘Paint Me Silver’ by Pond, and felt the wobbly bass in the floor, although, as with the Wunderhorse track, the vocals where a little overshadowed.
In essence, the UBOOM X is a fantastic speaker for bass. The sonic detail is a little muddled and unclear, but if you’re using this for its intended purpose (soundtracking epic hangouts), then you’ll get on great with it. Just don’t expect high fidelity.
EarFun UBOOM X review: Battery life
EarFun claims the UBOOM X has 30 hours of battery life, but I would take that statistic with a pinch of salt. If you listen without the light show, at low volumes, playing non-bassy tracks, then you’ll probably wrangle 30 hours out of it. But I listened for about 5 hours at medium volume, with the light show on and playing very bassy tracks (with custom EQ cranking that bass up even higher), and it went down to 60%. Realistically, you should get up to 20 hours. But it charges with USB-C in under four hours, which is a lot quicker than the 12 hours required by the Tribit StormBox Blast 2.
There’s a dedicated ‘output’ USB-C port for on-the-go phone charging, which is a nice feature.
EarFun UBOOM X review: Verdict
If you’re after a party speaker for less than the going rate of a boombox speaker, the EarFun UBOOM X is a great choice. However, if you want a main speaker with good detail plus bass, I’d recommend a different type of speaker entirely. For detail listening you might want to invest in some desktop speakers like the Majority D40Xs or try out a higher-end brand like the Bose SoundLink Max.
The UBOOM X performs well with bassy tracks and exceptionally well with custom EQ enabled, for its budget price. The battery life is decent, nothing to write home about (considering the 30-hour mark is with all of the features that make it great disabled), and the appearance is fine. For $189, you’re getting great value for money though.
