REVIEW – Summer is here, and if you’re looking for a new portable speaker to bring along for your outdoor adventures, soundcore has a new model in the Boom 2 Plus. The bigger brother to the excellent Boom 2, the Plus has the wattage to earn it’s designation at the top of the Boom lineup.
What is it?
A portable, boombox format speaker, the Boom 2 Plus by soundcore packs 140W of audio power into a waterproof case. This speaker is suitable for indoors or outdoors, and also features LED’s to keep the party going into the night.
The Boom 2 Plus is the latest iteration of the Boom 2 line. Julian reviewed the Boom 2 back in April and enjoyed it, check out his review linked below!
Soundcore Boom 2 Bluetooth speaker review
What’s included?
- soundcore Boom 2 Plus
- USB-C cable
- Carry strap
Tech specs
Click to expand
| Output | 140W (100W Standard) |
| BassUp | BassUp 2.0 |
|
Drivers
|
50W Woofer x2 |
| 20W Tweeter x2 | |
| Lowest frequency | 40Hz |
| Playtime | 20 hours (50% volume, BassUp and LED’s off) |
| Waterproof | IPX7, floatable |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.3, AUX |
| Multi-Speaker | PartyCast 2.0/ TWS |
| Charge in | USB-C (30W), 3 hour charge time |
| Charge out | Yes, USB-C |
| Dimensions | 17.4″ × 5.94″ × 8.98″ |
| Weight | 8.38 lb |
Design and features
The soundcore Boom 2 Plus speaker has a classic boombox design (minus the tape decks) with a robust carry handle at the top. The handle is solid, with grooves to give a confident hold on the almost eight-and-a-half pound IPX7 case. Flanking the handle on each side are anchor points for the included carry strap, and these anchor points are notably large enough to be used with a carabiner should you need more flexibility in your carry or mounting needs.
On each side are the passive radiators which also house the customizable LED’s. Interface buttons are found above the metal grille, and the grille itself is adorned with the soundcore logo. On the back of the speaker is the full soundcore logo across the middle, with the USB-C and AUX ports protected by a watertight rubber seal.
The Boom 2 Plus uses two front facing subwoofers and two front facing tweeters to generate it’s 140W output with BassUp enabled, and can get up to twenty hours of battery life with LED’s and BassUp off at 50% volume.
Carrying an IPX7 rating it should be generally fine with short trips in the drink, though I’d probably not bring it to the beach as some of soundcores marketing suggest as it’s not rated against dust. If there’s any magnetic material in the sand or dirt that gets in the grille there’s a good chance that will end up stuck to something in the speaker itself, and could cause distortion.
soundcore offers the Boom 2 Plus in three colorways – blue (as reviewed), black, and green.
Assembly, Installation, Setup
Out of the box there isn’t a whole lot to get setup, and it’s all pretty intuitive. Power it on, press and hold the bluetooth button, pair with your device, and you’re off to disturbing the peace in no time.
Eight buttons at the top will get you through nearly all the functions for day to day use, but to dial in EQ or update the Boom 2 Plus, you’ll need the soundcore app. As far as companion apps go, it’s well designed and easy to navigate. Props as always to soundcore for not requiring an email to use it. Loading the app up for the first time you’re walked through connecting to your Boom 2 plus, and guided to update firmware if applicable.
Within the app, you have options to configure the LEDs, but most importantly, to set up your EQ to your liking. Other QOL options are also found in the device settings menu.
Performance
The Boom 2 Plus is loud and very, very bass heavy with BassUp on. It’s a great option for a party speaker to produce a lot of energetic sound across a large area. Mids and highs are there, though have a distant presence. With BassUp off it’s a different speaker entirely – bass is there but nowhere near as present, and mids and highs are a bit anemic in comparison as well. My assumption was that Bass Up was just a fancy EQ, but I’ve learned that it actually affects the wattage of the speakers. Credit here to soundcore in that the sound doesn’t become a distorted mess at high volume – it maintains relative quality even at it’s loudest setting.
I noticed looking over the specs that the output is at 100W as a standard, and several of the watt numbers are based on BassUp being on or not. soundcore explains BassUp 2.0 in their FAQ as:
On Boom 2 Plus, BassUp 2.0 not only boosts the bass, but also increases the speaker’s output to 140W.
This also explains why the battery life claims depend on this function being off. So without Bass Up 2.0 it’s basically underclocked, which is fine for more casual or ambient listening situations.
soundcore has a bridging feature which allows you to pair an identical product to create a stereo output, or up to 100 soundcore speakers to spread the sound around. I don’t have other soundcore speakers to test this with, though I’d love to see this be more broadly compatible with common smart home standards.
Switching gears to portability, and the strap/carry system for the Boom 2 Plus make it easy to haul around. At eight pounds, I wouldn’t want to take this on a long bike trip (and wouldn’t want to disturb literally everyone within a mile of the trail), but it would be fine for a short walk or ride into camp.
I wouldn’t say the LEDs in the passive radiators are a particular strength for the speaker. Sure, they look cool, but unless you’re in a small, dark room, I don’t see them adding much to the atmosphere. They’re not hurting anything, though, and it’s nice to be able to turn them off entirely if they aren’t for you.
If you read through the tech specs, you’ve probably been wondering, “Does it really float?”—it does! The IPX7 rating means it isn’t meant to stay in the water for long, but it’s nice to know it can withstand the elements or a quick trip into the pool if things get rowdy.
What I like about the soundcore Boom 2 Plus speaker
- Intense bass and wildly energetic sound delivery
- IPX7 waterproof, and sure enough, it floats
- Can pair with other products in soundcore lineup
What needs to be improved?
- Long charge time
- Only one USB-C port means you can’t charge the speaker while also charging a 2nd device
- Ability to integrate into a smart home system would be nice
Final thoughts
The Boom 2 Plus delivers a lot of sound, and is an excellent value at it’s price point. It’s not perfect, but the QOL issues I uncovered in my month of enjoying the speaker don’t detract enough to lose my recommendation. soundcore has been producing some great, value driven products that maintain a solid baseline of performance, and I’m really looking forward to what they come up with next.
Price: $249
Where to buy: soundcore, Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by soundcore. soundcore did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
