Ultimate Ears launches two new voice control speakers

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Bang on trend, the California-based company's new smart speakers offer portability alongside Bluetooth streaming and Alexa voice control.

Hot on the heels of the new Sonos One smart speaker, Ultimate Ears has released its own pair of Alexa-powered speakers: Blast and Megablast.

Based on the existing Boom 2 and Megaboom speakers, the new speakers retain their portability, 360-degree sound design and rugged, waterproof build quality.

With Amazon's Alexa personal assistant and wi-fi built in, you can control your music, as well as elements of your smart home, using simple voice commands.

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You can stream songs via Bluetooth, too.

While the Blast mirrors the existing Boom 2's configuration, the Megablast has been redesigned with new active drivers, tweeters and passive radiators to give it a sonic lift. Ultimate Ears says Megablast is its loudest speaker yet, measuring a maximum of 93dB and being 40% louder than the Megaboom. It's bigger in size, too.

The Blast and Megablast have battery lives at 12 and 16 hours respectively, and come in six colourful finishes: Graphite (black), Blizzard (white), Blue Steel (blue), Merlot (red), Mojito (green) or Lemonade (yellow).

A new optional charging dock, called Power Up, is also available for £35.

The Ultimate Ears Blast and Megablast cost £200 and £270 respectively, and are available to buy from 26th October from Ultimate Ears, and from other retailers soon afterwards.

Stay tuned for a hands-on review very soon.

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Simon Lucas

Simon Lucas is a technology journalist, with a strong emphasis on the audio/video side of consumer electronics and home entertainment, and has been since 2003. He worked for more than 14 years at What Hi-Fi?, the last six of which were spent as the editor of the magazine and website. Since then he's written for Wired, The Guardian, TechRadar, Stuff, GQ and many more besides. 

In the course of his career he's developed a pretty deep understanding of the way both the publishing and the electronics industries function, as well as the sort of intimate knowledge of audio products (both specific and general) that can make people very wary of him at parties.