Saturday, August 22, 2009

X-Mini II - A Mini review

No points for guessing what I just bought to relieve my audio agony in hall.

In-built laptop speakers, no matter how branded (mine's an Altec Lansing), can never hope to match the quality and volume of external speakers. One exception used to be those portable mini speakers, tiny little things with small drivers and as a whole, sound rather tinny and not much better than laptop speakers.

Until the X-Mini portable speakers came about.

Designed and made by a local Singapore company Xm-i (no, not Creative for once), the 2nd generation X-mini II is absolutely stunning.



It weighs less than a 100 grams, fits nicely into a palm and is coated with a nice smooth rubbery matte finish. A twist counter-clockwise reveals the much hyped-about vacuum base tube. A small blue LED at the bottom indicates the power, and comes with its own 3.5mm audio cable jack, and a separate USB charging cable + 3.5mm audio cable extension. It does have its own volume dial, instead of controlling volume from the player itself.

The design won the company 2 prestigious Red Dot Product Design awards in 2008. I wonder if the red "dot" in the middle of the speaker driver refers to that :P

After reading more than several positive reviews about it, I decided to get it:

Hardwarezone Review

Cnet Review

I went out to buy a couple of those (at a very attractive price, don't ask me where I got it from) and tested it out with both my Creative Zen vision mp3 player, and my desktop Creative Audigy Value sound card (my laptop's in hall doh).

The audible results:

Audio is VERY clear for a speaker that size, comparable to full size computer speakers. With the bass tube revealed, the sound becomes warmer and fuller, compared to tinny and "begging to be let out" kind of sound when the capsule is closed. Volume is also surprising loud, at mp3 max volume I could almost imagine my neighbours preparing to complain about the noise. Sound gets a little distorted at high levels, but who listens at such levels anyway? Bass is present, though not as thumping and solid as I'd like. It does resonate with the surface (table), and so improves the bass effect as compared to being held up in the air.

Bunch of songs I always use to test speakers with (mostly due to the bass :D)

Bugy Craxone's Come On - The opening basslines shine remarkably well, though minus the oomph

Mika Nakashima's Love Addict - Opening strings are clear and warm, can hear the low cellos and subsequently the faint tinge of the basslines

Michael Jackson's Billy Jean - Vocals are crystal clear, so are the basslines

Ayumi Hamasaki's Evolution - Sounds slightly messy during the chorus due to the nature of the song (distortion, synth, wah) but can still hear the individual tracks.

Tomiko Van's Hold me.. - A simple, clean song. The X-mini II brings out the individual instruments, especially the piano and Tomiko's voice very well. Drums and cymbals are also brought out well.

Conclusion - Not the cheapest of porta-speakers (you can find plenty of cheap ones out there), but if you, like me, are a discerning music lover and enjoy crisp, clear music, the X-mini II is a perfect combo of power, portability and unique design all rolled into one tiny ball.

If you wanna get, I'd say wait for the upcoming IT show. Why did I get it now then? Well... Lets just say the price was too irresistible.

No comments:

Post a Comment