Sound quality: UE Boom's 2 had fair audio quality overall. Bass has decent impact and lower bass is lacking. Midrange is somewhat thin and hazy and bit congested. Upper treble is pronounced and sizzly. Doesn't do a good job recovering room ambience and is lacking in detail. Wired and Bluetooth sound quality are similar, except wired has subdued treble and is slightly "boxy" sounding. Can provide enough volume to be heard in a medium-sized room. When used as a stereo pair, it provides a very solid stereo image that seems to recover a bit more ambience from the recording. When two units are used as a stereo pair, sound quality remains the same, but since two separate speakers are used, the sound stage can be made wider depending on placement.
Ease of use: We found the system's ease of use to be good overall. While Bluetooth pairing was easy and is NFC capable, the UE Boom uses controls that either are unlabeled or have low-contrast labels. The wired input is unlabeled. Has tone bursts for various functions such as on and off; in quiet environments these sounds are not particularly loud but unlike other models in our tests, they can be deactivated via its associated mobile app. This unit lacks a remote; not an issue if it's being used within arm's reach or if it's being used with a mobile Bluetooth device, which can be used like a remote itself, but inconvenient in other situations.
