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Pocket-sized Euphoria: a review of the Eupho wireless speaker

By Marcus Wong - 28 May 2015
Launch SRP: S$89

Pocket-sized Euphoria: a review of the Eupho wireless speaker

Introduction

The Eupho by UB+ is one of the latest Bluetooth wireless speakers to hit the market, and UB+’s first speaker is certainly compact. Measuring just 53mm across and 76mm high, the Eupho weighs no more than 120g, making it highly portable.

Impressively, the speakers have an internal battery that’s rated for up to 20 hours of music playback, and the ability to create true stereo sound via the BuddyStereo function, which automatically splits the channels between speakers when you connect two Euphos together.

Using a UB+ Mega Party cable to connect two speakers automatically puts them in stereo mode.

The expansion casing also works to protect the speaker during transport.

The Eupho comes with an expansion casing which works as both a protective cover and a way to affect the sound. With the expansion casing on, the Eupho gets a fuller sound, and the volume is amplified, which helps because we found the sound to be lean.

UB+ says the Eupho uses a patented ORCHAS (Orchestrated Acoustic Structure) design to produce life-like sound, by making the speaker components (a driver and two passive radiators) vibrate in unison with pressurized air movements. This allows the vibrations to balance each other out, turning unwanted vibration into reinforced sound.

In practice, we found this meant that the Eupho could easily play at loud volumes without breaking up, and that the sound spread evenly in all directions. As might be expected for such a small speaker, we found the bass to be slightly lacking body, but using the expansion casing gives a fuller and slightly louder sound.

Performance and Scores

From our testing, we’d say the Eupho has all the characteristics of being a bright speaker that gives good detail in exchange for a full-bodied sound. For example, on a recording of Cloverfoot Reel featuring Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Mark O’Connor, the Eupho does well on the high end but lacks the low-end to give a faithful rendition of Ma’s cello work. Adding the expansion casing brings back some of that low-end while adding some body to the performance, making for an enjoyable rendition.

Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody was where the BuddyStereo function really helped, as you could get a proper sense of the stereo imaging. The mids to highs were the best rendered audio section; the vocals on this track rendered nicely, with just about enough weight on the vocals to allow the voices to stand out from each other.

We went back to a single speaker configuration, but with the expansion casing attached – essentially, we wanted to test the best sound you could get from a single unit as that’s how most people would start. With Hotel California by The Eagles, we found the speaker gave good detail in the mids to highs – essentially the strings and the vocals. There’s a good sense of naturalness, and good clarity with this speaker overall. The vocals were fairly well defined, but the solo could have done with a bit more detail. Still, this was a fairly enjoyable performance from a single unit speaker.

Moving on to Tiesto’s Elements of Life however, we found that the bass was lacking body, and the speaker struggled to keep up to the attack of this piece, making it less dynamic than it should be. Buckethead’s Sail on Soothsayer turned out slightly better, as Buckethead’s electric guitar work falls within the sweet spot of what the Eupho is able to produce. There’s a nice ring to each riff, and you can really feel the energy in his playing.

Adele’s Melt my Heart to Stone brought the Eupho’s strengths back to the fore. Adele’s vocals were clear and well-articulated, with only the slightest hint of sibilance detected. The backing instruments were also fairly well rendered, with enough warmth to the bass.

UB+ Eupho - Performance Report Card
MP3 Testing Score
Melt My Heart to Stone - Adele 8.0
Sail on Soothsayer - Buckethead 7.5
Elements of Life - Tiesto 7.5
Hotel California - The Eagles 8.0

 

Conclusion

The Eupho is a fairly impressive speaker that deserves consideration if size is a major concern. It handles vocals and instrumental pieces well, and you won’t feel like you need the speaker to be playing at maximum volume just so you can hear your music. As with all single unit speakers, the stereo separation is lacking some, but this is easily negated with the inclusion of a second unit (or even multiple units with the purchase of additional UB+ Mega Party cables).

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8.0
  • Design 8
  • Performance 7.5
  • Features 8
  • Value 8
The Good
Very compact; good for travel.
Good battery life.
Protective cover does indeed help improve bass.
The Bad
Stereo imaging limited by the fact it is a single unit speaker.
Bass tends to lack body if used alone.
Getting additional units to improve sound adds to the cost.
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