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Dave's Take: UE myBOOM 3 Custom Wireless Speaker


GolfSpy Dave

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Insufferable Originality

Sometimes variety can be exhausting. Seriously, how many different kinds of soup do we need, and does your order at Starbucks really need to be dialed into the half pump of a Stevia-based caramel syrup? Maybe it’s the old man in me rearing up, but lately I’ve been tempted to move into a choice-free lifestyle, where each day I eat the same meals, wear the same clothes to work, and watch only broadcast television.

Gotcha!

Those of you who have read everything that I have written here at mygolfspy during the past ten years (Hi Mom!), know that I am typically the first person in line for cosmetic customization, be it golf gear or otherwise. My twitter feed is perpetually peppered with pleas for plenteous in purple products.

Why blend in when you have the chance to stand out?

Custom Fit is the Sh*t

When it comes to the choosing to use custom gear, perhaps only the sumo wrestler has a greater appreciation for custom equipment than the golfer. How many of you reading this right now are playing pure stock gear, where you made no choices as to your preferences? Any of you? I bet that many of you have made choices beyond the playability in your gear as well, like choosing the blue grips over the red ones. The gear is dialed, but you want that little bit of aesthetic alteration to make it truly your gear.

The Golden Age of Wireless

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If we explore the category of Dave’s Worst Kept Secrets, right up there with my inability to ever break 80 is my perhaps unnatural affinity for all things portable audio. It’s not a new thing for me either. I wish that I had a photo of the huge boom box that I moved into the dorms with. It was just two mix tapes, and one piece of cardboard away from unleashing a traveling breakdance battle royal. Thankfully things have changed, at least on the portability front, and the battery front as that beast took ten D batteries.

Forgive me while I shake my liver-spotted fist a bit, but the younger generations just can’t relate to the amazingness of the technological advances when it comes to portable audio over the past twenty-five years. The fact that you can store every CD that you’ve ever owned on your phone, and then play the music wirelessly through speakers with better sound quality than creepy come-check-out-my-hi-fi guys tower speakers blows my mind every time I think about it. For you youngsters, CDs were small plastic plates that held recorded music.

Custom Creations with the UE myBOOM 3

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Forgive my previous rambles, but as you can likely see, the UE myBOOM 3 that I am sharing with you today hits multiple boxes on my bingo card. It’s a personal audio peanut butter cup, with the ability for customization getting mixed in with great audio. Needless to say I was pretty pumped when I saw that one could now create custom versions of the UE BOOM 3. Based upon my previous reviews, and head to head Most Wanted validation, the audio prowess of the UE BOOM line is basically unmatched in the category, and now you can design it exactly how you want it to look.

And so, what I have for you today is a comparison between what I saw on the myBOOM 3 design screen on my computer, and what actually arrived at my home. Spoiler Alert: There will be purple.

Making myBOOM 3

When you pull up the myBOOM 3 design online interface, you’ll see that there are six different aspects of the speaker that you can customize. Again, let’s take a look at the expected vs. observed.

Fabric Pattern

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Your first option, Fabric Pattern, is the big one. This selection will cover most of your speaker, likely establishing the foundation for your design. You can choose between simple solids, or outlandish patterns, selecting whatever suits your psyche. Initially, I went with the Ultraviolet fabric, but then in a reality ripping paradox, I chose Forest.

 

End Caps

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Once you lock in the fabric, you will get to choose from eight end cap colors. Nothing is actually locked in by the way. You can bounce back and forth between the options and see how changing one thing affects the interactions with the others. This is why I ultimately went with Forest for the fabric. I liked the contrast with the Ultraviolet end caps, and opposed to just going all in on Ultraviolet.

Volume Buttons

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Once again you have eight color options with the large volume buttons. What you don’t have is any commitment to make any of these colors match. I did, but that’s how I roll. Should you desire, you can just adorn you BOOM with your chaotic Neapolitan whims.

Spine

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Again you have eight color options, and again I chose to keep the Ultraviolet theme rolling. The more I think about it, someone who orders one of these with all of the colors different should probably be on a government watch list. You can see the spine in hand photo below under the text heading. Don't want to give away the text surprise early...

Loop

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Though also fabric, the loop options are not at extensive as those of the main body fabric. Still though, with eight colors to choose from, you’ll likely be able to pick one that matches, or clashes nicely with your design. The loop is a great feature by the way as you are just one carabiner away from attaching the speaker anywhere.

Text

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To put the custom cherry on your speaker sundae, you last option consists of twenty characters of text that will run along the spine of the speaker. Perhaps the best option here is a cell phone number should your speaker somehow go rogue. I went another direction as I wasn’t really interested in blasting my cell number out there when these photos hit the web.

But What About The Sound?

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At this point, it seems prudent to take a short detour into the land of performance. Looking pretty is amazing, but if the speaker can’t spit the tunes, it’ll live out its days unpaired.

Not too long ago, I reviewed the larger edition of this speaker the UE MEGABOOM 3. That speaker is sooooooo gooooood. Having owned and operated multiple generations of MEGABOOMS, I am confident in saying that the third incarnation is the best to date.

Feel free to just copy and paste that for the myBOOM 3 too. This is the fourth small UE speaker that I have run through the paces, and it too is the best to date. The great thing about the older versions though is that they too are awesome. The Skrillex first gen BOOM still pumps tunes like a champ, and you have not heard anything until you pair all of these, and the MEGABOOMS together with the UE app. Just go Party Up, and you will never need that component stereo system again.

My tune testing toolbox consists of three main songs:

While that list may seem a eclectic, it actually does a fine job of exploring the range of a speaker. With the myBOOM 3, you’ll be able to hear all of the subtle tones of Nirvana Unplugged, and turn it up all the way without distortion with Papa Roach. The only weakness with the speaker really comes with the 2 Live bass. Unlike the MEGABOOM 3 that will actually put some bump in your trunk, the much smaller MyBOOM 3 just can’t do justice to big bass only jams. 2 Live is really the outlier song here, where bass is everything. When you move just slightly from that extreme, you’ll find that the low tones are perfect for Primus, The Prodigy, and Peaches.

The myBOOM 3 SMASHES!

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After all of my clicks and decisions, the myBOOM 3 that I designed ended up with a very old school Hulk palate. Though a bit corny to say so, I think that the Hulk theme is definitely appropriate as this speaker is incredible. The ordering process is super easy, and it just took a couple of weeks to go from computer to mailbox.

The coolest thing is that the upcharge to go custom is either $30 or nothing. Some of the stock BOOM 3 speakers can be had on the ultimateears.com site for $119, but other limited colors will run $149, the exact price as the myBOOM 3 custom.

If you are going to spend $120 on a speaker, I just can’t fathom not dropping another $30 to make it custom. The results of my selections were definitely worth $30 in my opinion.

And so, Hulk and I will be blasting tunes and annoying neighbors of all form for the foreseeable future. Feel free to get your BOOM on and join us.

Just for fun, let’s see your designs. Go to the myBOOM 3 site and take a screen cap of your BOOM 3. And no, I won’t call the authorities should your design push the boundaries of decorum.

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Volvo Intorqueo

All the cool kids follow me on twitter: @GolfspyDave

If you are not a cool kid, following me on twitter will make you cool...

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14 hours ago, GolfSpy Dave said:

For you youngsters, CDs were small plastic plates that held recorded music.

That's funny.  When I retired in 2016 and was clearing out my office, one of the new engineers was asking me what the box of plastic square diskettes were... 😆.  Not having listened to one of these (or its competitors) products, I cannot say for certain but I would be surprised if they can match the sound of my 70's circa stereo system.  Not nearly as portable however, that's for sure.

:ping-small: G410 Plus, 9 Degree Driver 

:ping-small: G400 SFT, 16 Degree 3w

:ping-small: G400 SFT, 19 Degree 5w

:srixon-small:  ZX5 Irons 4-AW 

:ping-small: Glide 2.0 56 Degree SW   (removed from double secret probation 😍)

:EVNROLL: ER5v Putter  (Evnroll ER5v Official Review)

:odyssey-small: AI-One Milled Seven T CH (Currently Under Product Test)

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, fixyurdivot said:

That's funny.  When I retired in 2016 and was clearing out my office, one of the new engineers was asking me what the box of plastic square diskettes were... 😆.  Not having listened to one of these (or its competitors) products, I cannot say for certain but I would be surprised if they can match the sound of my 70's circa stereo system.  Not nearly as portable however, that's for sure.

CDs are the 8-Track of the modern world. In both cases, we thought that we had the most modern music delivery system ever.

Volvo Intorqueo

All the cool kids follow me on twitter: @GolfspyDave

If you are not a cool kid, following me on twitter will make you cool...

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I've been using UE speakers for years and they are consistently impressive. I picked up a Boom 3 a few months back to use in my office -- I wish I knew about the custom color options before buying it. 

The best thing about the brand is that they make them convenient for various outdoor activities -- the old UE ROLL had a bungee that would secure it to a bag strap or cart frame, they can chain together to put out some awesome sound, many of the Boom series speakers fit in a standard cup holder (or water bottle pocket for walkers), and they're waterproof, which is not something I've found with some of the more recognized name brands. The only odd thing is that there seems to be a different phone app for each speaker model/category -- you don't need to use the app to connect to a single speaker, but if you want to chain multiple speakers together, that's where the app comes in (so you can't chain a BOOM with a ROLL or a BLAST, but it looks like you can chain a BOOM with a MegaBOOM, and can chain with older models of the same category). 

Thanks for the review - it's got me thinking of going out and designing a new one for the course. 

Driver: :taylormade-small: Stealth Plus 8* (adjusted to 8.75*), Mitsubishi Diamana ZF 70 X Flex (New toy incoming!)

Fairway: :taylormade-small: Stealth2 Plus, 15* (adjusted to 14.25*) w/ Graphite Design Tour AD-IZ 7X

Irons:  :titleist-small: U505 1 Iron (16*), T200 "Utility Build" 3 and 4 irons, all with Graphite Design Tour AD-IZ 95 X Flex, :titleist-small: T100S 5-9 with Nippon Pro Modus 120 X Flex (2021 MGS Test). These things are monsters. 

Wedges:  :vokey-small: SM9 46.10, 54.12, and 58.08, all with custom etchings & KBS Tour Masters-themed shafts, X-flex (CHA Post)

Putter: Total headcase and Putter Ho. Down to two main options in the rotation (one mallet, one blade), but have 4-5 by the basement putting green that might make it in the bag at some point this year... Mallet: :L.A.B.: Mezz XL 36" Orange; Blade: :L.A.B.: Link.1 w/Accra White shaft & :garsen: grip

 

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The lack of pairing of the various models is a bit annoying. The wonderbooms pair together but the blast and rolls are solo operations. Maybe that feeds into their intended uses with the Blast being an Alexa interface and the Roll being small and portable. Totally agree though that I’d be nice to chain all of the UE speakers together.

Now with three booms and three megabooms paired, I typically don’t feel the need for more speakers


Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

Volvo Intorqueo

All the cool kids follow me on twitter: @GolfspyDave

If you are not a cool kid, following me on twitter will make you cool...

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