Posts Tagged capsule speaker
X-Mini HAPPY Speaker/Music Player: Pleasing Sounds on the Road
Earlier, I discovered the X-mini portable speakers that can give great sound to a music player or laptop, while taking up little room in the suitcase.
Now, X-mini has come up with another clever device for travelers—the HAPPY, a small capsule speaker that includes its own MP3 player.
That’s right. Just put some of your favorite tunes on an SD/SDHC memory card and the HAPPY will happily play them from its built-in speaker.
The HAPPY sounds every bit as good as the X-Mini Capsule Speaker. And it’s very easy to use.
My Windows computer recognized it as a mass-storage device when connected through a USB port. So I just copied some of my favorite tunes to an SDHC card. The HAPPY can also be used as a card reader.
One control turns the device on and off, controls play and pause, skips tracks forward or back and adjusts the volume.
There’s also a mute button, headphone jack and mini-USB plug for charging. A two-hour charge provides about 10 hours of playback time. And a cable with a standard stereo miniature plug is included to connect it to a laptop or external music player, or chain together a series of the X-Mini II Capsule Speakers for even bigger sound. The capsule expands with a twist for improved bass response.
The only drawback is there’s no way to see a menu of the songs on the card when the player is not connected to a computer. But it’s easy enough to just load the songs you want on the card, and the track control still lets you skip forward or repeat a song. It’s possible to store hundreds or even thousands of songs on a card, depending on the size and recorded bitrate.
The X-mini HAPPY retails for $79, with discounts available at Amazon.
It’s hard to find a device that does so much, sounds so good and still fits in the palm of your hand. When you’re packing light and still want to carry your favorite tunes, the X-mini HAPPY will make you just that.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear, Travel Light on August 30th, 2010
Little Package, Big Sound: X-mini Speakers
Hearing is believing. And one listen to the latest X-mini portable speakers from Xmi convinced me, as the holidays approach, that good things do come in small packages.
Using a standard audio plug, these versatile speakers can plug into MP3 players and many brands of music-ready cell phones. A perfect size for traveling, they are powered by batteries that are recharged through a USB port. And your friends can bring along their X-minis and chain them together for even bigger sound.
In fact, while doing some side-by-side testing with a big-name manufacturer’s larger, powered speakers on one of my computers, my wife told me to switch back to the X-mini because it sounded better.
The smallest in the lineup, the X-mini Capsule Speaker, second generation, is ball-shaped and easily fits into the palm of your hand at less than two-and-a-half inches (60 mm) in diameter. With a slight twist, it expands slightly with a resonator that improves the frequency response.
This mono speaker will easily clobber any built-in speaker I’ve ever heard on an iPod, cell phone or laptop. It holds its own or even surpasses much larger speakers in a well-designed, easy-to-carry package. The built-in audio cable tucks neatly into the base of the speaker, so there’s no worry about dangling or lost wires.
Compared to the first generation X-mini Capsule Speaker, the new version contains a larger driver for better frequency response and triple the battery life. And the $29.99 price is easy on the budget.
This speaker really saved the day while I was making a video presentation recently to a small group. We were watching it on a DVD player but needed to fast forward and could not find the remote control. So I quickly fired up the laptop and played it from there. The built-in speakers on the laptop weren’t loud enough and sounded tinny, anyway—so I plugged in the X-mini and it was perfect!
If you’re looking for stereo separation, X-mini recently introduced the MAX II portable speakers. The MAX II consists of two speakers, each slightly over 2.5 inches in diameter (66 mm) with the resonator closed. The speakers join together magnetically in an egg-shaped package for easy carrying.
Just like the one-speaker version, the MAX II speakers twist and expand, with the resonator works like a sub-woofer for boosting the bass. The results are impressive—much better than I would have expected on speakers this size. If you want even more bass, most music playback programs have equalization settings which can tweak the sound to your preferences.
These mini speakers can easily fill a large room with clean, transparent audio without the distortion and tinny sound that plague other small speakers.
The batteries on the Capsule Speaker and Max II last 11-12 hours between charges. The retail price for the Max II set is $59.
The X-mini products have won international design awards and the manufacturer, Xmi Pte Limited in Singapore, is also hinting about more good things to come. Xmi officials say the company is committed to bringing the “very latest wave” of multimedia products to the world market.
These mini speakers make a mighty sound. And if that’s any indication of what’s to come from Xmi, we have a lot to look forward to in the future.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear, Travel Light on November 16th, 2009
