The burly Epicboom is a well-made and eminently likeable plus-sized portable, yet we have our doubts as to whether it can compete sonically with the market’s best.

The Ultimate Ears Epicboom has a sophisticated rather than 'epic' sound, but features could be stronger at the price.

Frankly ... there are a lot. The Epicboom is a portable Bluetooth speaker that sounds solid and is super-rugged, but it's on the big and expensive sides. Two similarly sized speakers that I have are the JBL Pulse 5 ($250)and Sony SRS-XE300 ($200). Both are relatively straight-shooting portable Bluetooth speakers that are also a good deal more affordable than UE's newest offering.

When you need a well-rounded Bluetooth speaker that fits many scenarios, the Epicboom makes a great candidate. It's pretty enough to be a fixture in your home, but durable enough to work outside in all weather conditions. It sounds good enough and loud enough for regular everyday use, but it's small enough to carry around and take on road trips. It has an app that offers many EQ options and streaming service connections but leaves out some technological bells and whistles like Wi-Fi and voice control to keep the price reasonable. Ultimate Ears' nod to recycled materials and recyclability doesn't hurt either.

The new EPICBOOM fills another slot in the Ultimate Ears BOOM speaker lineup, offering a large and highly capable portable speaker that’s still rugged, waterproof and easy to carry around.

The Epicboom does what it says on the tin - it's a new impressively powerful speaker from Ultimate Ears that's really easy to use and sounds great. That $350 price is a bit of an issue right now, though - there are better options out there for the money.

The Epicboom is a portable Bluetooth speaker with respectable sound and the capacity to entertain even large groups. It’s also nicely designed and easy to carry around. But the price tag is hefty.

The Ultimate Ears EPICBOOM is satisfactory for music. This speaker has an Adaptive EQ tool that optimizes the sound based on your room's unique acoustics. With it on, it reproduces a little extra warmth in the bass range and some extra sparkle in the treble, which is ideal for genres with lots of highs and lows, like rock and pop. Still, its graphic EQ and presets allow you to change its sound if you want something different. It also gets loud enough for most rooms, though there's some compression at max volume.