Big things coming… (Patreon)

I just got the Boombox 3 from Thomas today and I had ordered the go+play 3 again which also arrived the same day.

I spent the whole day to listen to them and did some tweaks to all my settings to make the response smoother and more comparable or even better than these Samsung speakers. One must confess that they know how to build speakers so it’s hard to really compete with this top notch hardware on both which are 3-way systems. But those how tuned them must have some skewed perception of sound especially the Boombox 3 has the weirdest bass I have ever heard. At low levels you can hardly hear any bass at all, at medium levels you only get some weird hum droning throughout the entire room with bass drums being played delayed as if they were off-beat with the high hats. I cannot take this seriously. It has no kick at all, at maximum volume you just hear this annoying delayed hum and it’s quite a bit softer than the Earfun at the same time. Yes it plays low but it would seem to me as if this was just some effect added, the subwoofer always plays 40hz regardless what is played at all just to add this hum. I could never become friends with any Boombox generation but hearing the Boombox 3 again now just proves that it’s some kiddies toy only.

The go+play 3 is a much more serious speaker although the bass is simply too booming, it’s too much for indoor use and also starts to drone even in our large living room.

That’s why I tried to improve my settings for the UBoom X even more and make it sound more natural than both the others in any mode.

I will try to shoot some quick video tomorrow although I cannot demonstrate all aspects of my tuning, I hope my efforts will be hearable. Neither the go+play 3 nor the Boombox 3 adjust their sound for the given listening level, they sound either too thin or too boomy, too bright or too muddy depending on the volume. I spent lots of hours to optimise low level listening and I hope I managed, as it’s not easy to make it spot on. I could have added more bass boost at low levels but I wanted to avoid it to appear boomy by all means and opted for a rather subtle adjustment which you can only notice when it suddenly not there.

Unfortunately the app still doesn’t show all my settings and needs to be fixed first, as originally I had only planned 3 settings. But the more I worked with the UBoom X the more i noticed that it needs way more settings to sound properly in various locations and situations therefore I would like to describe all my settings again which will be included in the final firmware. Please keep in mind that the shipped units will only have my original 3 settings as shown in my Partybox Mini video. You will need to do an update through the app to get my latest and hopefully improved settings.

studio: as the name suggests this should represent a more or less flat response similar to a studio monitor when listened exactly on axis. Please keep in mind that due to the speaker design etc it’s impossible to achieve a completely flat response as the proximity of both tweeters will always cause some interference depending on the listening distance etc. But I think the overall response should be pretty natural with no obvious coloration.

indoor: is similar to studio but has some dynamic treble and bass boost for low levels and some stereo enhancing added to give the sound some extra depth and dimension. It sounds pretty similar to studio just more appealing for everyday listening and due to some slightly increased treble it should also work better when listened not exactly from front. This setting should still represent a rather neutral response aside of the phase shifting trickery for the stereo enhancing and the added bass and treble for low levels which prevents the speaker to sound anemic at lower volume.

indoor+: this mode gives you a bit more bass and treble boost in the lowest and highest range and has also the stereo effect enhanced more. This may be the preferred mode for most as it never sounds boomy but makes the speaker sound more serious and more kicking. The bass boost here is far not as strong as on the Onyx series or go+play 3 which are all boomier. I wanted to prevent the UBoom X to sound boomy especially for indoor listening therefore those who prefer more bass overall should check the outdoor modes.

outdoor: has more bass and treble and should usually work well outdoors, but I am pretty sure many will use this indoors too. Bass amount is slightly more than on the go+play 3 but appears less boomy to me probably because I do not boost that much above 100hz or maybe I have a slight dip in this region which also allows for easier placement without the speaker staring to drone that quickly. This is one of the loudest and also cleanest modes as the bass is not that heavily boosted and remains pretty controlled up to maximum volume.

outdoor+ has again some stereo enhancing added in this case to a slightly stronger degree than indoor+ at the same time the lowest bass is boosted a tiny bit more than with outdoor. This is actually the most appealing mode for those who like bassheavy sound which is not overpowering and due to the stronger stereo enhancing it also gives the sound some nice openness. This could be the most universal setting as it sounds IMO better than the go+play with nicer clarity and more kicking bass which doesn’t have that hollow character of the go+play 3, together with the stereo enhancing it gives the sound some nice high quality feeling. Please keep in mind that at high levels this mode can play less clean than simple outdoor due to some issues with the stereo enhancing algorithm which apparently can cause some clipping. If you seek for the highest loudness while still remaining mostly clean I would say outdoor mode is the way to go.

ground O: this is in fact an O and not a 0 and stands for omnidirectional. This mode is meant to be used with the speaker placed directly at the ground facing upwards with the drivers. This way you should get some kind of omnidirectional sound while the stronger treble boost should still allow for a natural response when listened from the side. Lower bass is boosted more than with outdoor but upper bass is reduced to get advantage of the indirect bass boost with the speaker placed at the ground. This mode should give the deepest and most impresssive bass but can struggle a bit at high levels as the compressor has to do lots of work to keep the bass under control. For highest levels I would rather choose outdoor or BOOM xxX

BOOM xxX: this is all about bass and loudness. Bass is boosted just in total as much as possible. I wouldn’t say that BOOM xxX is much louder than outdoor but it’s pushed way more in all regards and due to the strong bass it should also appear fuller sounding than outdoor although with more compression and some possible pumping and some occasional dirtyness within mids. It was impossible to keep it 100% clean. With some songs it doesn’t seem to have that much issues while with other songs it can sound a bit scratchy. Usually it’s enough to reduce volume by some notches otherwise you can always choose another mode or even use Earfun’s default setting which usually remains perfectly clean up to highest levels but won’t offer you neither the same loudness nor that amount of bass even if boosted to maximum with the user EQ the compressor settings are way too aggressive for the default tuning to achieve the same bass response as with my modes.

In the end I decided to push the outdoor modes as much as possible without caring about the speaker to remain perfectly clean all the time. It should play clean with all modes up to 70-80% and then you can decide how much you want to turn it up. The go+play 3 remains perfectly clean but is far softer than the UBoom X at the same time. At a comparable volume level the UBoom X should offer a fuller and more powerful sound than the go+play while also playing similarly clean regardless in which mode.

The indoor modes are not pushed as much and should remain quite natural sounding throughout the entire volume range with very little bass reduction up to maximum volume. The outdoor modes are pushed more and get slightly out of balance due to stronger bass reduction compared to mids and treble. The cleanest mode should be in fact studio as it has no stereo enhancing added and bass has no boost at all.

I hope my sound modes will offer a natural sound in various situations and placements and can satisfy also more demanding listeners. I am not sure it can really satisfy those always seeking for maximum bass and loudness and I cannot guarantee the same phat bass the Stormbox Blast offers around half volume but the Blast can already distort at these levels. But this speaker was never about bass I rather aimed for a natural response and an appealing quality sound for those who really still care. I could have squeezed out more if I could adjust the compressor dynamically. At lower levels I could set the compressor less aggressive and increase compression for higher levels only but there was no way to achieve this unfortunately therefore I had to find global compressor settings which would allow for the least distortion at maximum volume while keeping bass as high as possible, but due to this the speaker cannot play its full bass potential at levels below maximum.

I tried my best and I think I am finally finished with my work. It was a long and exhausting path and I hope the final result pays off and will also make others want to listen to it just as much as I do.

Thanks for all your support. I will keep you updated once I have news from Earfun regarding release etc.