EarFun Uboom L review | Tech Advisor

Price When Reviewed

$79.99

Best Prices Today: EarFun Uboom L

You’ve more than likely heard of Sonos and JBL. You may most likely know of Anker, however will virtually without a doubt draw a clean relating to EarFun.

And you’d be forgiven for that. There are actually loads of audio manufacturers competing in your hard earned money: simply seek Amazon for Bluetooth speaker and also you’ll see web page upon web page of effects from manufacturers that sound like they got here from an automated call generator.

EarFun, you’ll more than likely agree, doesn’t fare a lot better on this recognize, however the excellent news is that the Bluetooth audio system it makes are outstanding.

Its first, the Uboom, wowed us with its tremendous sound and construct high quality for an incredibly low worth.

The follow-up, the oddly named Uboom L, improves in each recognize and even though a little dearer, it nonetheless makes rival audio system from the massive manufacturers glance ludicrously overpriced.

Features & design

• IPX7 water resistant & floats
• 2x 55mm drivers, 28W
• Bluetooth 5.0
• Up to 16 hours of battery lifestyles

A bit greater than the Uboom, the Uboom L measures 8.3 x 3.1 x 3in (210 x 78 x 72mm) and weighs 2.1lb (650g).

It has the similar black woven material masking and rubbery coating over the plastic body. Unlike the Uboom, and Sonos Roam, it’s designed for use horizontally and has two 55mm drivers and two passive bass radiators, one on every finish.

Buttons are on most sensible and are the similar as at the Uboom. That way quantity keep watch over, energy, Bluetooth, play/pause and the sound mode button.

The latter switches between indoor and outside mode, however we’ll get to sound high quality in a little.

On the rear is a rubber duvet with a three.5mm aux enter and a USB-C port for charging: a cable is incorporated within the field, however no longer a charger.

EarFun’s unusually named Sweatshield generation merely signifies that the Uboom L is successfully water resistant and, as it floats, it’s worthwhile to even put it in a pool and concentrate to it at the water. That isn’t beneficial, although, particularly when you care about sound high quality.

The level is, you’ll use it out of doors with out being worried it’ll be broken via the rain, or an unintended drop into the ocean.

EarFun claims a most Bluetooth vary of 15m, and this is applicable although you employ the Uboom L’s celebration trick, which is correct stereo playback. For this you wish to have two Uboom Ls, however in addition to costing not up to a unmarried Sonos Roam, it’s supremely simple to get stereo sound from them.

As lengthy as one is paired together with your phone, you’ll activate the second one and press the Bluetooth button on each audio system for 2 seconds. They’ll beep to substantiate and sound shall be right away performed in stereo (assuming no matter you’re streaming is in stereo, this is).

There’s yet one more characteristic: with a integrated microphone, the Uboom L can be utilized for hands-free calls.

Sound high quality

One of the massive sights is that EarFun has grew to become to Olaf Lubanski, an Austrian track manufacturer, to ‘track’ the Uboom L.

I hadn’t heard of him prior to, however he obviously is aware of what he’s doing. His temporary was once to create an “fair and herbal sound copy in all environments and in any respect sound ranges”, and that has without a doubt been accomplished.

If you wish to have to grasp extra, it’s value staring at Oluv’s 45-minute video.

Initially, I used to be disillusioned with the loss of bass, however enjoying the similar take a look at tracks at the authentic Uboom and Uboom L facet via facet proved that the newcomer’s low frequencies are no less than as excellent.

If you truly need thumping bass, you’ll want to go for a miles greater speaker than those small, moveable fashions.

What’s spectacular is the readability and separation of the Uboom L’s soundstage. And as Oluv states, the indoor sound mode has a pleasing, flat reaction this means that bass, mids and highs are similarly represented and none is emphasized over any other.

Even with a unmarried Uboom L, the soundstage is wider than the unique Uboom’s with excessive hats and different high-frequency sounds seeming to return from different portions of the room and indirectly from the speaker itself. This was once in particular noticeable in Le Flex’s rendition of Clouds around the moon, and is because of the truth that the 2 drivers are very somewhat angled outwards.

The bass radiators are, it seems that, tuned to 65Hz. This way there’s no sub-bass in any respect, which is most probably one explanation why it wasn’t as bassy as I had anticipated. But of the bass notes it may possibly ship, the Uboom L is terribly tight and well-defined.

There’s without a doubt no muddiness to the sound: vocals are bitingly transparent as is percussion, but with none scratchiness or harshness that makes a speaker fatiguing to hear. I in particular loved taking note of Moonchild’s The Cure at the Uboom L, the place Amber Navran’s dreamy vocal is entrance and centre, with backing vocals, keyboards and bass are simply as transparent and properly explained.

If you truly wish to push the boat out and use the financial savings (in comparison to the Roam or JBL Charge 4) to shop for a couple of Uboom Ls, you’ll love the additional quantity you get from 56W of energy from the 4 14W drivers.

But, truly, it’s the stereo sound that places a grin to your face. We’ve grown too used to listening to mono sound from Bluetooth and good audio system and feature, more than likely, forgotten how a lot stereo can give a boost to a work of track.

Listening to Toto’s Rosanna, as an example, demonstrates this properly. An additional measurement is added to the whole thing from the lead vocal to the piano and guitar. But Radiohead’s The National Anthem is most likely even higher with tools and vocals clearly coming from other aspects of the soundstage. Bass is strangely potent on this monitor, too.

So some distance, that is all in ‘Indoor’ mode. But press the sound mode button and a white LED will mild to suggest it’s now in Outdoor mode. This boosts bass and likely upper frequencies to make stronger the sound in noisier outside environments. It works, too, and even though the reasonably low energy output way it’ll sound highest when there isn’t plenty of background noise, the Uboom L once more excels in comparison to a lot pricier competitors with superb readability.

You can, after all, use outside mode whilst indoors when you like, and I liked the additional bass. But, truly, this isn’t what it’s designed for.

One of the bugbears of Bluetooth is latency. This is an issue if you wish to use a Bluetooth speaker to observe movies to your phone, say, for the reason that sound shall be out of sync with the image. Fortunately, EarFun considered this, and urgent the Bluetooth button two times permits ‘video mode’.

This shortens the relationship distance a little, however the primary problem is that stereo sound isn’t conceivable on this mode. It reduces latency to some degree the place movies are completely watchable and not using a noticeable lip-sync problems.

Price & availability

Officially, the Uboom L is going on sale on 11 July and prices $79.99 / £69.99 / €79.99. You should buy it direct from EarFun’s web site, however it is going to be bought via Amazon as properly.

If you learn this review prior to that date, you’ll save 25% off the ones costs via signing up for a bargain code on EarFun’s web site. That shall be emailed to you and you’ll use it as soon as the Uboom L is on sale both on Amazon or EarFun’s web site.

Even on the standard worth, the Uboom L is very good price and makes maximum of its big-name competitors appear hugely overpriced.

But if even that is too wealthy in your pockets, listed here are the most efficient affordable Bluetooth audio system, a few of which can be even less expensive, together with the unique Uboom.

Verdict

EarFun has accomplished it once more. The Uboom L punches well past its worth and will have to make you query why Sonos, Bose and others price considerably extra for the Roam, SoundHyperlink Flex and different similar-size and spec Bluetooth audio system.

If you’ll manage to pay for it, it’s properly value purchasing two and the use of them as a stereo pair, however simply keep in mind you’ll’t do that within the low-latency video mode.