| | | | Description
X-MI, the inventors of the Capsule Speaker genre, herald the arrival of their latest musical innovation. X-Mini™ Max II Speakers. This highly sought-after next generation of the insanely popular X-Mini™ Max Speaker features many reinvigorated features. From the moment you look at this player you know it is something special. With improvements in all areas the X-Mini Max II retains and expands upon the hallmark of “Minimum size. Maximum sound”.
Defying the conventional notion that size does matter, the X-mini™ Max II, is a moveable feast of sounds. With its brand new sleek matte design, incorporating two separate speakers in a clever pop together magnetic pod, the X Mini Max 2 is also available in three new colours. So no matter what your style, when you pull these speakers out, you’ll always match! Sound Developed in Singapore, the X-Mini™ Max II is expertly designed to be ultraportable and precisely engineered to deliver a superior sound. These stylish speakers, which can also be used individually, pop open to reveal the patented accordion-like Bass Xpansion System™ (BXS™) which successfully mimics the resonance of a sub woofer. Its new 40 mm driver, expanded BXS™, extended playback time and modular “Buddy-Jack” design, enables it to effectively generate high-quality, beautifully dynamic sound - be it the rich timbres of a soprano or the pulsating electronic beats of the latest dance track.
Battery This is all of no use if you’re tied to the mains, or constantly buying new batteries. When you have the X Mini Max II, this is no concern! With a short 2 hour charge time and a whopping 12 hours playback on a single charge, by now you’ll see that this really is the ultimate portable sound solution! “Buddy Jack?” What’s that? It’s a simple way of connecting multiple units together and multiplying the sound! Say you feel like a party – get your mates with their X Mini Max IIs and plug them together, it multiplies the sound and gives you a thumping output from your mini-array!
Portability
People buy the X Mini Max II for travel, for office use and for anywhere you need high quality sound in a small, convenient package. They’re light, they’re tough, they’re compact – click them shut, pop them together, throw them in your bag and you’re good to go. Given how highly we rate these speakers, you’d think they might cost a significant amount – in fact, we’re delighted that they are actually some of the most affordable speakers we sell! They comfortably outperform most iPod docks or laptop speakers people buy for under £100 and when you’ve got them playing on your desk, we’re sure you’ll agree that these really are the ultimate portable sound solution! 
Features
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What do customers choose?
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| | | | Customers ReviewsAverage customers review  (59 customer reviews)  | Helena Luis(Date Added: Friday 06 January, 2012) A brilliant Christmas buy for my boyfriend. Reasonably, priced, arrived on time and does what it says on the tin! |
| Phil White(Date Added: Wednesday 31 August, 2011) Eventually bought these speakers instead of the x Mini II as I wanted stereo. So pleased I did, not exceptionally loud but great for what we wanted when camping to go with Cowon i9. Well designed, compact but open up to give a nice full sound, battery life very good and we recharge in the car with a double cigar lighter plug-in for the player and speakers, which meant we never ran out of music. |
| 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: | | John Calderbank(Date Added: Thursday 07 July, 2011)These are pretty good.
Not as amazing as some of the reviews may have you believing, but pretty good nonetheless, and if you need a pair of ultra-portable speakers, then these ARE worth the purchase price. Just don't expect 40mm drivers to bend the laws of physics, that's all! ;-)
(To give you some background, I'm not a hi-fi nut but I do know good hi-fi when I hear it. I have Dynaudio speakers, Arcam CD player etc.)
Some thoughts on the Pros and Cons of these pocket rockets:
* CONS:
- no volume control on the units - you must control volume using your mp3 player or headphone amp. However, the speakers do seem pretty evenly balanced, volume-wise, with each other, thankfully.
- speaker cones are somewhat vulnerable whilst in your pocket/bag, in spite of the partial shielding.
- music distortion increases as battery gets flatter - to be expected, I suppose, but it's important to understand, so you don't 'clip' the voice coils by leaving them running at high volume whilst the batteries are going flat. I'd like to see later versions incorporate a cut-off or a flashing LED warning if clipping is occurring / battery is going flat. Mordaunt Short did this 20 years ago with passive speakers so it surely can't be that hard to do it in these little active units, provided the designers are motivated to implement it.
- I like to listen to music in the dark sometimes and the very bright LEDs are a nuisance in that regard (I've put blu-tack over my LEDs!)
- If you own a Cowon J3, you're really going to need to buy a FiiO E5 (available here at amp3.co.uk) in order to push these speakers to what they're capable of. Obviously, these are tiny speakers so there's only just so far you can push them without overdriving them but I have a Cowon J3 and a Sony D-777 Discman and both sound great through these speakers, as one would expect, but the Sony is able to drive them WAAAY harder than the Cowon J3. Within the limits of their capabilities, the X-Mini MAX IIs deserve to be driven reasonably hard - in fact they cry out for it. I'd say, depending on the normalisation level of the track being played, the J3 generally only pushes these speakers to about 65% of what they're capable of, although that 65% is beautifully clear with a surprisingly decent soundstage. This isn't the fault of the X-minis, of course, but I'd rather tell you now so you can put a FiiO E5 in your shopping cart at the same time as the X-Minis and make the most of them from the outset.
* PROS:
- nice transparent sound
- surprisingly respectable soundstaging - if you own a Cowon S9 or J3, the transparency and imaging of these speakers really responds to the 'BBE+ 3D Surround' function (Sting, Mary Black, Eva Cassidy, Alison Krauss & Union Station all sound superb, for example). You're going to like this, I promise!
- good battery life
- genuinely portable
- nice design aesthetics
- /SLIGHTLY/ nasal sound, only by virtue of lacking lots of low bass, BUT, that aside, these are generally rather neutral-sounding speakers, which is quite an achievement for this price band and for the volume levels to which their diminutive physical statures are driven.
* WAYS IN WHICH THE NEXT VERSION COULD BE IMPROVED:
provision of 'caps' to protect the speaker openings whilst in your pocket or bag (that or a permanent metal grill, but these might get dented)
some way of switching off the rediculously bright LEDs
the X-Mini MAX IIs utilise a 40mm driver. Since these show such promise, I'd really like to see the manufacturer do a version with larger drive units - say 70mm or so.
some way of user-checking battery charge level, like the button on a Mac Powerbook battery (well, I can dream...)
low battery / clipping warning of some sort - e.g. flashing LED
Overall, these are worth the money and stack up well against any competing products in terms of physical portability, usability, design, sound output, and price point.
I may even buy some more... |
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