Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/09/review_xm_i_x_minimax_travel_speakers/
XM-I X-Mini capsule travel speakers
Small, cheap and the sound's not at all bad
9th June 2008 11:02 GMT
Review Ask most people what they look for in a pair of travel speakers and they are likely to say they want something small and cheap but which nonetheless sounds like the stacks at Donnington.
Once you take them out of the plastic tube they come in, it's hard not to be more than a little impressed with XM-I's X-Minimax active “capsule speakers”. What you get are two small dome speakers each weighing 52g and measuring 52 x 52 x 35mm. Give the top half of either speaker a twist and it springs up to 46mm tall due to the patented "Bass Expansion System" - basically a plastic concertina-like affair that when open apparently “mimics the resonance of a sub-woofer”.
XM-I's X-Minimax: giant ear plugs for your desk
The two speakers are tethered together by a mini-USB cable with a second cable branching off from one end of the tether with both a USB and 3.5mm audio jack at the end. This second cable has a rather ferocious spring loaded coil in the middle. On the plus side, this gives 70cm of easily stored cable; on the downside, on a couple of occasions we inadvertently nudged it and it coiled shut sending speakers shooting across our desk in a rather disconcerting manner.
The USB cable only acts as a power source for the rechargeable batteries in each speaker so if your computer's USB port and headphones jack are too far away from each other, as they are on our Dell Inspiron (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/08/21/review_dell_inspiron_1720/), you can't charge them up and use them with your PC at the same time without a 3.5mm extension cable of some sort.
So, how do the X-Minimax speakers match up to the travel speaker Holy Trinity of small, cheap and LOUD?
To start with they're not going to break the bank. At £30 a pair, we're talking about a pretty disposable item, nothing that's going to bring your world crashing down if you leave them in a hotel room. An 'oh, bugger' moment, sure, but nothing disastrous.
When it comes down to matters of size and convenience of packing, the X-Minimaxes really bring home the bacon. The bases of both speakers are magnetized so they stick together, the three off-set rubber pads on the base of each speaker fitting into recesses in the base of the other ensuring the two units fit together squarely - or, rather, roundly. You end up with bouncing-bomb shaped unit about the size of a bundled pair of sports socks. Having no sharp edges or protuberances you can chuck the things into your luggage with abandon.
What the airport's X-Ray operatives will make of them is another matter...
Having ticked the 'small' and 'cheap' boxes, it wouldn't be much of a shock if the sound pumped out by the X-Minimax set turned out to be utterly terrible, but truth to tell it's not at all bad.
Extend for bass expansion
In fact, if used with a PMP to watch video they do a pretty amazing job. We plugged ours into a Cowon A3 (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/19/review_cowon_a3/) and watched a couple of feature films, including Downfall, with all its German dialogue and exploding Russian artillery shells, and Revenge of the Sith with all it's incomprehensible dialogue and swishing Jedi lightsabres. The dialogue in Downfall, including Bruno Ganz's superb Hitler-rants, came across very clearly while even the loudest explosive sound effects didn't cause anything in the way of overload distortion.
Even more surprising was the composure they showed during the lightsabre duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin towards the end of Star Wars Episode III. Not only do these scenes have John Williams' powerful and inspired score hammering away in the background, but also all the sound effects generally associated with hanging about on a planet that is a vulcanologist's idea of heaven.
When it comes to music, matters are not quite so successful, the lack of bass being harder to overlook though they do still pump out a reasonable amount for something no bigger than a fat dormouse. If your listening interests lean more towards classical or jazz rather than rock and pop you'll be less likely to raise an eyebrow at the rather bass-lite sound.
By way of example, we found that listening to Schubert's D 810 string quartet on an iPod Nano (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/09/28/review_apple_ipod_nano/) proved to be a surprisingly pleasant experience while an immediate switch to Jethro Tull's Broadsword & the Beast certainly didn't have us reaching for the “off” switch either.
One slight limitation with the X-Minimax is that the speakers have no volume control of their own, so they are entirely dependent on the amount of oomph coming out of the headphones jack of the driving device.
Highly portable form-factor
While build quality is generally fine - the plastics used feeling both robust and scratch resistant - the little blue 'on' LED on the left-hand speaker packed up during our test, and two of the little rubber knobs on the bottom of one unit fell off. A dab of Super Glue fixed them right back though, and even if all three drop off the plastic ridges that surround them will still locate the two units together and provide a stable base for them on your desk.
XM-I quotes between four and six hours of battery life, which seems to be spot on - ours gave up the ghost just shy of five hours of use.
Verdict
Drawbacks? The USB-only charge facility may become an issue if you don't have your laptop to hand, and the rather short length of the tether cable linking the two speakers means you can't set them more than 40cm apart.
But, for £30, what's not to like? The design is clever, they pack down small and the sound quality isn't at all bad, especially when compared with even the best built-in laptop speakers. We think we'll keep them.
XM-I X-Mini
Small, cheap, clever and not half bad in the sound stakes.
- Suggested Price:
- £30 / $60
- More info:
- XM-I's X-Mini website (http://www.x-mini.com/XminiHome.html)
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