Ultimate Ears WonderBoom: a real sound bomb

Ergonomics

The Wonderboom bears wonderfully the roundness of its name: between cylinder and sphere, the plump little girl with very nice looks displays perfect proportions to be caught with one hand.

Ultimate Ears declines it as always in a multitude of nuances, all more acidulous than the others, with the exception of the classic black color which offers better integration or minimal risk taking in the event of an offering. But don't be fooled by its apparent bonhomie: the Wonderboom is almost indestructible. IP67 certified, it fears neither sand, or other fine dust, nor aquatic immersion - if however you want to immerse it, the enclosure floating naturally - or falls of less than 1.5 m.

The upper surface, made of the same non-slip matte rubber found on the seat of the speaker, accommodates the main commands: power on / off (bottom), pairing (top) and finally the multifunction button signified by the brand logo allowing to put the music in play / pause, to go to the next song thanks to two short presses - but not to go back to the beginning of the listening track - and to couple two Wonderboom together without having to go through a dedicated application. To do this, simply press the two main buttons simultaneously for several seconds until a jingle sounds.

Speaking of jingle, note that each action is confirmed in an audible manner: switching on, switching off, pairing activation, the pairing itself (multipoint Bluetooth point), pairing, maximum level, etc. If the listening level can be adjusted with the two giant acronyms that are located on the fabric, unfortunately we can neither adjust the volume of these jingles or deactivate them.

The two volume adjustment buttons are also used to check the remaining battery level, not deployed on a necklace of LEDs but, again, signified by various rather vague sound jingles: for example, a full battery will be indicated by a major third upward (basically , a joyful thing).

Autonomy is promised to ten hours, an average value of portable speakers of this size. In use, we measured 9.15 to 75% of the maximum listening volume. Paired or not, the speaker switches off automatically after 10 minutes of silence; a very practical detail to save the battery. The Wonderboom is recharged via the micro-USB port, the only connection available. Ultimate Ears having followed the fashion of eradicating the mini-Jack input, it is therefore impossible to connect to the Wonderboom other than by Bluetooth. Note that it also does not have a hands-free kit.

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Audio

On the sound side, the whole point of a speaker with dimensions and geometry radically different from those of the Roll 2 lies in the frequency response. The volume of our protagonist being larger, it gives him a much better performance in the bass.

Indeed, when at 100 Hz the Roll 2 painfully reached -12.5 dB, the Wonderboom flirts with -5 dB. The bass is surprisingly powerful, as is the maximum volume, given the volume of the speaker. On the other hand, there is a certain overweight, and a significant distortion in the bottom of the spectrum. The treble is detailed, but at high volume (more than 75%), a distortion peak located at 4.5 kHz wakes up and can make certain acidic sounds (percussion, cymbals, harmonics of plucked or rubbed string instruments). The low mids are slightly behind and the acute, intelligible mids suffer from lack of precision when the song is a little too rich (metal, large orchestras ...), the details tending to drown in the mass of information frequency.

As specified in the paragraph dedicated to ergonomics, we can couple two Wonderboom together, but beware, the result of such coupling is not stereophonic. Never mind, the speaker offering an incomparable sound performance with the speakers of a laptop, one might be tempted to watch a movie with ... nay! The latency of 300 milliseconds and the absence of analog input make any video sound system impossible, because of too great a gap between sound and image.

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Conclusion

The Wonderboom offers a real intermediate solution between the excellent Boom 2 and Roll 2 from the same manufacturer: more compact than the first and almost indestructible, it benefits from a volume greater than the second which allows a better size / power ratio, almost controls - complete and childish use. It is criticized, however, for the lack of a hands-free kit and analog input, as well as an inconspicuous distortion at both ends of the spectrum.

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