UE BOOM SPEAKER COSTCO BLUETOOTH

The song, with its brilliantly choreographed drums, sounded rich and expansive on the Boom Box, much more so than on the similarly sized Denon Cocoon. Next, I went with a warmer, gentler, indie pop song, 'Heart Beats' by Hey Marseilles. But even the markedly superior-sounding Sonos Play:3 had trouble with this one. I started with 'Ecstasy' by Iceage, a heavily distorted punk anthem that made the Boom Box go weak in the knees.

I decided to stream a few different tracks to a handful of wireless players. Keep it on a table or a chair if you're using it near the hot tub. So don't splash it, and certainly don't douse it. And speaking of pools, I should note that unlike the more expensive Pioneer A3 and the less expensive UE Boom, the Bēm Boom Box is not water-resistant. That simple feature can be nice if you like to maintain strict control over the pool playlist. There's no way to advance forward or back one track directly on the Boom Box. It's worth nothing that there are only three buttons on the actual unit: play/pause, volume up, and volume down. One slightly unusual feature: The Boom Box comes with a 3.5mm output too, which means you can use it as an intermediary device to, say, stream audio from your iPad to your home stereo.

UE BOOM SPEAKER COSTCO BLUETOOTH

If you want to skip Bluetooth audio altogether, you can connect any gadget using the 3.5mm input. (Unlike on some newer Bluetooth headsets, you can’t press a button and switch between Bluetooth sources.) If you decide to pair a second device, you can – but the Boom Box only lets you stream from one connected connected source at a time. After that, it's simply a matter of going into your phone's settings and pairing. The Boom Box automatically goes into a Bluetooth discovery mode when turned on. It also lasts 10 hours on a charge, is made of a durable plastic with metal accents, and even has a 3.5mm audio out port for direct music connects. But the Boom Box does have plenty of bass, a lush sonic quality with distinct EQ, and a reliably steady Bluetooth stream for all your mobile tunage. And, yeah, it definitely can't compete with Sonos gear or any of the bigger speakers from Logitech UE. Sure, it kinda looks like a space-age toaster with a handle. That said, the $250 Bēm Boom Box has quite a bit going for it. When it comes to critical listening and streaming lossless music files, you'll almost always do better with a Wi-Fi-based protocol. But the 30-foot wireless signal is still more suited for copying contacts from your phone and syncing a headset to an iPhone. Sure, it's getting better thanks to higher bitrate ceilings and codecs like aptX.

Fact: Bluetooth was never designed to be an audio-streaming protocol.

Ue boom speaker costco