Hey guys. A few weeks ago I got an email asking me if I’d like to review some mini-speakers on my blog. My philosophy on this is that if it’s a product that I would realistically use, I’ll review it. (Thus explaining the lack of tampon reviews…) But don’t worry, I got permission from the company to write whatever I want. If it sucks, I’ll let you know. I hope this disclaimer will prevent any thoughts of ‘Mike is selling out. BURN HIM DOWN!‘ because I really don’t want to be on fire.
Introduction
Mini speakers, the middlemen of headphones and full size speakers, have always been a bit, well, rubbish. Once you lose the size of the sub woofer, the bass either disappears or ends up really tinny, resulting in your finely-honed collection of tracks all end up sounding like they were produced by teenagers in their parent’s garage.
A company based in Singapore called Xmi Pte have released a series of small speaker solutions to solve this problem. They all revolve around the same sort of idea – part of the device when turned lifts to reveal a concertina section that traps air and uses it to create a bass sound. At least, that’s the science behind it. Now to see if it works!
The Product
Today I’m going to be looking at two products. The Capsule Speaker 2nd Generation, which is the little black and red speaker in the photos below, and the Max 2 Portable Series, which are the two white speakers. (Although they do turn into one large speaker in a very Transformers way).
All of them attach to your computer/mp3 player/games device/dog with a standard headphone 3.5 jack, so you shouldn’t have any trouble using them. One other great feature they have is the ‘Buddy Jack’ function. Despite sounding like a bizarre sexual term, it simply means you can plug X-Mini speakers into each other, and end up ending the world when 500 speakers all play the guitar solo from Dream Theater’s As I Am at the same time.
Charging is done via USB. The cables the speakers use all have a USB connector attached. It’s a shame they can’t be charged via a wall connection.
The Capsule Speaker offers up to 11 hours battery life – in my test it lasted 10 hours 18 minutes.
The Max II offers up to 12 hours battery life – in my testing it lasted 12 hours 2 minutes.
Photos
Testing
I mentioned the battery life, and I think you’ll agree the results are pretty impressive. Now it’s time to see how the speakers handle different tasks. I played The Gathering – Treasure as a ‘standard’ track, Muse – Supermassive Black Hole as a ‘bass heavy’ track, and Anathema – Temporary Peace (Acoustic) as the ‘light’ track.
The Capsule Speaker handled ‘Treasure’ very well, although the bass was a little too loud in comparison to the treble. It also did well on Muse until I turned the volume way up, at which point the speaker actually began to jump around. But it has to be obscenely loud for that to happen. Finally Anathema was OK – if you twist the speaker so the bass section is hidden this sounds much better.
The Max II did sound better overall, although the bass to treble ratio on ‘Treasure’ was worse. Again Anathema sounded better with the bass sections closed. Muse sounded fantastic, possibly because that song’s bass is totally awesome.
Update: As Mark points out in the comments, if your device handles EQ settings, it more or less solves the problem. I used the ‘rock’ setting on Muse and everything worked nicely.
Conclusion
I’m aware this review is pretty long, so here is a quick breakdown of what is so great and not so good about the speakers;
+ They’re tiny, and they come with carrying pouches.
+ The bass is amazing considering how small they are.
+ They are pretty damn loud.
+ They work with anything (Computers, Mp3 Players, Games Consoles…)
+ They’re pretty tough, with no parts that look easily broken.
+ The ‘buddy jack’ sharing system is great – it boosts the volume rather than splitting it.
- There are so many wires. I guess this can’t be avoided but it is a bit messy.
- If it’s too loud, the speakers will begin to jump around.
- They do make the bass too loud. Closing the bass part is a solution, except you then up with no bass at all.
- As we’re using a headphone jack, the Max II cannot function as a left and right speaker. They are simply two speakers instead of one.
Overall, they are a great solution. They’re really nice looking and, despite turning your desk or whatever into spaghetti junction, are super easy to use. If you’re obsessed with musical quality and only listen to music in a soundless bubble suspended in space, they may not be for you.
If you’re interested, check out the x-Mini website.
