Performance

The Sound BlasterAxx 200 Axx's closest competitor is probably the UE BOOM, although the two aim at slightly different markets. The UE BOOM and Axx perform quite similarly in terms of sound quality if you tweak the Axx. The UE BOOM has a slightly more textured midrange, but the Axx seems to handle bass a bit better. In terms of power, they both reach high distortion levels pretty much simultaneously. The UE BOOM has a slight advantage as its tonality is not affected as much by increasing the volume, but both are generally very very close.

Testing the two units side by side reveals that the Axx is a bit softer sounding without introducing any gross omissions in detail, and the UE BOOM sounds a bit more aggressive without being harsh on the ear. The UE BOOM does seem to be a bit more detailed, but the differences are minor.

When it comes to tweaking the sound to your liking, you get more options with Creative's unit, but several features are somewhat useless and are best disabled if good sound quality is your goal. Here, UE has done the complete opposite by only offering three different presets, which, rather surprisingly, turned out to be enough for even a relentless tweaker like myself.

Creative even included player capability with their device, which is a very cool feature to have since you do not have to connect your phone to play your favorite tunes. You just have to pop a micro SD card, a fairly cheap investment, in and use the controls on the back of the device. The list of supported formats is pretty comprehensive and worked flawlessly for the source files we used in our testing. Using this feature as opposed to playback via Bluetooth is also fairly easy on power draw.

The UE BOOM is hands down the more durable sound blaster of the two as it is clad in rubber and very durable fabric. The Axx is a bit more sensitive as it has the illuminated touch panel on top, the front grill out of steel mesh, and its plastic backend. If you only plan on using it around the house, the Axx is actually the better choice because the UE BOOM's design only really comes into its own outside and on the go.

The megaphone feature is a cute novelty. I do not see anyone recording anything serious with the device, but it could be fun with friends. The on-board microphone system performs well and voice intelligibility is better than on my phone in speaker mode. This feature can also, like every other feature, be adjusted on the Axx.