iLoungeiLounge
  • News
    • Apple
      • AirPods Pro
      • AirPlay
      • Apps
        • Apple Music
      • iCloud
      • iTunes
      • HealthKit
      • HomeKit
      • HomePod
      • iOS 13
      • Apple Pay
      • Apple TV
      • Siri
    • Rumors
    • Humor
    • Technology
      • CES
    • Daily Deals
    • Articles
    • Web Stories
  • iPhone
    • iPhone Accessories
  • iPad
  • iPod
    • iPod Accessories
  • Apple Watch
    • Apple Watch Accessories
  • Mac
    • MacBook Air
    • MacBook Pro
  • Reviews
    • App Reviews
  • How-to
    • Ask iLounge
Font ResizerAa
iLoungeiLounge
Font ResizerAa
Search
  • News
    • Apple
    • Rumors
    • Humor
    • Technology
    • Daily Deals
    • Articles
    • Web Stories
  • iPhone
    • iPhone Accessories
  • iPad
  • iPod
    • iPod Accessories
  • Apple Watch
    • Apple Watch Accessories
  • Mac
    • MacBook Air
    • MacBook Pro
  • Reviews
    • App Reviews
  • How-to
    • Ask iLounge
Follow US

Reviews

Reviews

Review: Ultimate Ears Megablast Portable Wireless Speaker with Amazon Alexa

Last updated: May 16, 2021 11:18 am UTC
By Jesse Hollington
Review: Ultimate Ears Megablast Portable Wireless Speaker with Amazon Alexa

Over the past year or so, there’s been a strong trend toward voice assistant speakers, with a number of companies jockeying to provide their own takes on Wi-Fi capable speakers that offer support for Alexa, driving the popularity of Amazon’s voice assistant up to new heights. Ultimate Ears joins the party with it’s new Megablast, an upgraded and bigger version of the company’s 2015 Megaboom that delivers more powerful sound while adding support for Amazon Alexa and direct Wi-Fi streaming of Spotify and a plethora of other music services.

Advertisements

Review: Ultimate Ears Megablast Portable Wireless Speaker with Amazon Alexa

Megablast sports a similar design to UE’s earlier Megaboom, coming in at about the same size, but in more of a perfect cylindrical design, rather than being slightly tapered at the top and bottom. Megablast is available in four color options — graphite, blizzard, blue steel, and merlot — that are a bit more conservative than Megaboom’s plum, electric blue, and lava red colors, but also seem more appropriate for a speaker that’s aimed more at being used in the home rather than on outdoor adventures. In the box you’ll also find a flat USB to micro USB power cable and a USB power adapter for recharging the speaker’s internal battery, which promises 16 hours of playback on a single charge — a drop from Megaboom’s 20-hour time, but no doubt a result of the need to now power a Wi-Fi radio.

Advertisements

Review: Ultimate Ears Megablast Portable Wireless Speaker with Amazon Alexa

Located on top of Megablast, right in the centre, is a single button that’s used for power and Bluetooth pairing, along with a mic/button combination for triggering the Alexa voice assistant. As with UE’s other speakers, the prominent plus and minus buttons on the front are used to control volume. A micro USB charging port is found on the bottom underneath a weatherproof seal ring that can be flipped up for quick charging, or removed entirely by unscrewing the D-ring tethering bolt. The D-ring is screwed into a standard tripod mount, which provides additional options for setting up the speaker outdoors.

Advertisements

Review: Ultimate Ears Megablast Portable Wireless Speaker with Amazon Alexa

One other neat trick that Megablast has up its sleeve is support for UE’s new Power Up charging dock.

Although it will set you back an additional $40, Power Up lets you simply drop your Megablast onto it to recharge it when you’re not using it. The dock requires you to use the USB cable and power adapter that came with your Megablast, and includes a replacement silver tethering bolt that’s designed to pass through power from the dock to the speaker. We think the Power Up dock is particularly handy if you’re going to use Megablast as a speaker at home, especially considering the awkwardness of plugging a cable into the bottom of the speaker.

Advertisements

Review: Ultimate Ears Megablast Portable Wireless Speaker with Amazon Alexa

Megablast will function as a Bluetooth speaker right out of the box with no special set up required, so you can get up and going right away if you just want to use it to stream music from your iPhone or other mobile device. To get up and running with Alexa and take advantage of direct Wi-Fi streaming, however, you’ll need to download UE’s iOS app and go through a quick setup process from your iPhone that involves the usual steps of pairing the speaker with your Wi-Fi network, signing into your Amazon account, and checking for any firmware updates. It’s a pretty straightforward process, and we particularly liked that it uses Bluetooth to configure the speaker for Wi-Fi, saving you the hassle of having to visit the iPhone Settings app to connect to a temporary ad-hoc Wi-Fi network first. Further, if you already have Amazon’s iOS app installed on your iPhone, you can use that to authenticate, saving you the trouble of having to type in your Amazon password. About the only thing we wished UE had done here was take advantage of the iOS Wi-Fi network sharing options to skip making you enter your Wi-Fi password, but that’s a minor quibble from what is otherwise a pretty solid setup experience.

Advertisements

Review: Ultimate Ears Megablast Portable Wireless Speaker with Amazon Alexa

Once configured, the Megablast app can also be used to check and reconfigure settings — such as changing your Wi-Fi network or Amazon account — turn off the microphone to enable Alexa privacy mode, and access a five-band equalizer to adjust audio settings.

One thing that we did find conspicuously missing was the ability to pair more than one Megablast to create a stereo soundstage, a feature offered by UE’s other, non-Wi-Fi, speakers. For the most part, however, once the speaker is setup we don’t expect that you’ll be using the Megablast app that much; even firmware updates can be installed automatically over-the-air without requiring you to visit the app.

Advertisements

Review: Ultimate Ears Megablast Portable Wireless Speaker with Amazon Alexa

While we’re not surprised that Megablast has no direct support for Apple Music (although of course like any Bluetooth speaker you can stream audio from your iPhone), we were a bit disappointed to find AirPlay support missing, particularly considering that it’s something we’ve seen included on other less expensive Alexa-enabled speakers recently. That said, however, Megablast bakes in support for such a wide range of other streaming music services that the lack of AirPlay support may not be missed by many users. In particular, there’s direct support for Spotify Connect using the Spotify app along with full Alexa Spotify integration so you can call up your Spotify playlists using your voice —a first for third-party Alexa speakers we’ve looked at. In addition to Spotify, Megablast can also stream from Amazon Music, Deezer, Pandora, iHeartRadio, SiriusXM, and TuneIn.

Advertisements

Review: Ultimate Ears Megablast Portable Wireless Speaker with Amazon Alexa

In terms of sound quality, Megablast has all of the rich, dynamic, and detailed sound we’ve come to expect from UE — just a lot more of it. At 93 decibels, Megablast lives up to its name — it’s about 40 percent louder than the Megaboom, and yet UE has managed to pull this off without any distortion or harshness on the high end. While some tracks got a little bit muddy at absolutely maximum volume — especially those with really super deep bass — the Megablast still performs remarkably well considering how loud it gets.

Advertisements

Latest News
The 13-inch M4 MacBook Air 256GB is $150 Off
The 13-inch M4 MacBook Air 256GB is $150 Off
1 Min Read
The iOS Nook App Adds Purchase Links
The iOS Nook App Adds Purchase Links
1 Min Read
New Safari Technology Preview Version Released
New Safari Technology Preview Version Released
1 Min Read
CarPlay Video Playback Through iPhone Announced
CarPlay Video Playback Through iPhone Announced
1 Min Read
The iPad Mini 7 is $99 Off
The iPad Mini 7 is $99 Off
1 Min Read
Apple Watch Ultra 2 with Black Titanium Appears on Apple Refurbished Store
Apple Watch Ultra 2 with Black Titanium Appears on Apple Refurbished Store
1 Min Read
Mac Studio with M3 and M4 Chips Appears on Apple Certified Refurbished Stores
Mac Studio with M3 and M4 Chips Appears on Apple Certified Refurbished Stores
1 Min Read
Flag Spam Voicemails to Launch in iOS 26
Flag Spam Voicemails to Launch in iOS 26
1 Min Read
The 11-inch M3 iPad Air WiFi 128GB is $100 Off
The 11-inch M3 iPad Air WiFi 128GB is $100 Off
1 Min Read
Apple Debuts ‘F1’ Movie Haptic Trailer
Apple Debuts ‘F1’ Movie Haptic Trailer
1 Min Read
Package Tracking Feature to be Added to Wallet App
Package Tracking Feature to be Added to Wallet App
1 Min Read
iOS 26 Will Have Anime-Style ChatGPT in Image Playground
iOS 26 Will Have Anime-Style ChatGPT in Image Playground
1 Min Read

iLounge logo

iLounge is an independent resource for all things iPod, iPhone, iPad, and beyond. iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes, Apple TV, and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc.

This website is not affiliated with Apple Inc.
iLounge © 2001 - 2025. All Rights Reserved.
  • Contact Us
  • Submit News
  • About Us
  • Forums
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?