You will come for the price and the set of lights, you will stay for the sound

The Soundcore Boom 2 has passed through our test bench. We tell you what we thought

Souncore is a brand I hadn’t had any previous experience with before, but a fellow member of the many media that gathered in Kvisgård for the presentation of the Harman Audiolab Denmark was kind enough to tell me about them and put them on my radar. So, when they offered me the chance to review their products, my curiosity got the better of me.

I have to say that I have discovered a very solvent manufacturer which produces excellent billing units. Although the appearance of the outer casing may seem cheap to some (for the price of the unit it is clear that they have had to cut back somewhere), the truth is that its construction is very solid and its design is very in tune with the tastes of the younger public.

In this case we find ourselves, in terms of performance and price, before a unit that could compete head-to-head with the JBL Xtreme 4 recently analyzed by me, although it is true that in terms of sound It seems that we are facing a larger speaker than what the device’s 80 W maximum power predicts. For that and for the play of lights, which made me think of the LG XBOOM Go X9G, which also passed through my hands.

But enough of the preambles and let’s get to the heart of the matter. Is the Soundcore Boom 2 worth spending the money on? Let’s answer that question.

Soundcore Boom 2 price and where to buy

The Soundcore Boom 2 is available through distributors like Amazon and of the Soundcore official store .

Soundcore Boom 2

See on Amazon.es: Soundcore Boom 2

Soundcore | Buy Boom 2 (€129.99)

Technical specifications sheet

Design

The speaker handle is a clear retro nod | Image: Sergio Agudo

Many of you who read me probably don’t remember what a few decades ago was known as a “parrot” in street circles (“ghetto blaster” or “boombox” in Anglo-Saxon countries). Basically it was a gigantic radio cassette that you could carry everywhere and that, especially in the break dance culture, it was used to be able to perform the complicated dance routines of the movement on the street. Well, if you search for an image on Google about what these devices were like, you will find some reference in the design of the Soundcore Boom 2.

The most obvious is the handle. At least it is impossible for me to see it and not think about those enormous devices that, obviously, we have here in a much more condensed (and less heavy) form factor. Apart from the handle that is impossible to miss, we have a grille with the manufacturer’s logo on the front.

On the sides we find the led lights that we can customize through the app (which we will talk about later), in addition to the output for the bass boost of the woofer. On the back we have the charging connector and the connector to charge our phone using the powerbank speaker itself.

On the front we find the control buttons, pleasant to the touch and responsive. Below the buttons we have the speaker grille, with the manufacturer’s logo in the center. This grille serves to cover the woofer and tweeters.

Sound quality

Detail of the side output of the woofers with a light effect | Image: Sergio Agudo

The sound quality, roughly speaking and for a common listener, it’s more than good. The bass is very present, the youngest will love playing their music with the punch that this speaker is capable of delivering. Although, let’s be honest, that punch is artificial.

And why is it artificial? For something that I already explained when I analyzed JBL Xtreme 4: the happy housing of the cones. We are looking at a medium-sized unit, which means that we are going to have a lot of midrange presence (which there is, especially in the 650 Hz range, which makes the music sound a little “nasal”). Due to the characteristics of the box, the bass response cannot be natural.

How does the Soundcore Boom 2 solve this? Well with a dedicated bass boost button called BassUp. And yes, the lower part of the frequency spectrum is somewhat fattened, but it is a boost to the equalizer that the hardware applies independently of what we can apply to adapt it to our taste in the app. The ideal for these circumstances would be a dedicated 8-inch woofer, something clearly impossible taking into account what product we are talking about and who it is aimed at. But this is being very picky, rather than a real complaint.

Taking into account what the unit, which has released several hardcore techno compilations, has to work with at the component level, To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar, many hours of Sleep Token, Leprous, a few thrash and death metal albums and that I have endured everything without blinking It is worthy of recognition. I consider that the trebles are not poorly treated, but the star of the unit is the bass without a doubt.

Now: the bass response changes a lot depending on the listening environment. This speaker has been traveling between my house and my studio for the last few weeks and, while in a perfectly treated room it was necessary to give that boost to the bass that I was talking about above, in a home environment even without the boost they were a bit excessive. .

This can be very good for a beach or outdoor party, especially if we take into account the lights that accompany the unit and its not inconsiderable 80 W of powerbut it may be a bit much for a run-of-the-mill home environment.

Software and controls

As I have already explained, this speaker has physical controls and an app that offers extended control. Buttons to play, volume up or down, pair the unit and turn it on they respond very well and I have no complaints about them.

When it comes to software, we have a app called Soundcore which I already mentioned before. It is, broadly speaking, a translation of what you can do with the physical buttons extended to customizing the EQ and selecting the set of lights that will be displayed while the speaker is playing.

The app, except for those couple of details, it doesn’t go much further. It knows what it is, it knows what it has been designed for and those responsible have not wanted to complicate things, which seems fine to me. And regarding whether it is mandatory to use it, the truth is that if you want a completely stock experience and you don’t care about customization, you can ignore it.

During my tests I left everything quite stock (because I wanted to know how this speaker behaves with the factory settings) and the lights disabled (because they waste battery foolishly, I only activated them for the photos that accompany the article), so I haven’t missed the app absolutely. If you are going to follow that same route you probably don’t need it either.

It is important to add at this point that, similar to JBL’s Auracast technology, Soundcore has its own proprietary system called Partycast 2.0which allows you to connect multiple speakers to play content simultaneously, creating stereo or listening groups among a “network” of the manufacturer’s speakers.

Battery and charging

Detail of the charging connector and the powerbank | Image: Sergio Agudo

The autonomy of the Soundcore Boom 2 is very good. I plugged it into the charger when he arrived to see how many hours I could go without paying another visit, and to this day I still haven’t had to plug it in again. It consumes really little unless you have BassUp and the lights working at the same time (its consumption in that case increases exponentially), so in general it could be said that it passes with flying colors here.

The truth is that It’s hard to expect less from these units.. Lately Bluetooth speakers come with very promising autonomy under the hood, so it’s always nice to connect the device to the speaker, start playing music and forget about everything else.

Best alternatives to Soundcore Boom 2

It is not in the same price range, but they are more or less on par in terms of features. A good alternative It’s the JBL Xtreme 4which for more money offers you a slightly more robust construction than this Soundcore Boom 2 and a slightly higher sound quality.

JBL Xtreme 4

See on Amazon.es: JBL Xtreme 4

Another speaker designed to play music outdoors, cheaper than the JBL Xtreme 4 and somewhat more expensive than the Souncore Boom 2, we find the Ortizan Party Boxwhich also has the LED light kit, subwoofer and a strap for easy transport.

Ortizan Party Box

See on Amazon.es: Ortizan Party Box

Conclusion

The Soundcore Boom 2 has surprised me for good. I didn’t expect to find the next evolution in terms of Bluetooth speakers and I haven’t, but I have found a sonically worthy competitor to other more expensive offerings. And yes, it has its shortcomings, but most of them are shared by the competition (others are brand names).

If you are looking for a speaker that will help you outdoor parties, especially and that it is waterproof (and floats, as if that were not enough), then the Soundcore Boom 2 is what you need. It has good sound quality and plenty of power, I don’t think you can find anything better for less money.

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This device has been analyzed independent thanks to a transfer by the brand. The article contains shopping links for which Andro4all may earn a commission. Join the Andro4all deals channel to find out about the best offers before anyone else.