Gadgetory

hey I'm Matthew moscovia from CNET and we're gonna take a look at the Cambridge Audio minx err 100 this is a wireless speaker that supports both bluetooth and airplay and it's currently selling for four hundred and fifty dollars the mix err 100 is one of the nicest looking wireless speakers to enter the scene head offices a lot of these speakers go for a real eye catching design but the minx has an understated look with a white plastic cabinet and gray speaker grille that looks pretty good almost anywhere you place it the top has two sets of rubber mushy buttons and the number of buttons on the Left offer the neat ability to stream internet radio directly to the minx without needing to deal with a smartphone or a tablet there's also a remote included but it's one of these cheap thin remotes that are common on speakers like this luckily you're mostly controlling the speaker with a mobile device so you don't use the included remote that much now the minx offers both bluetooth and airplay which gives you some nice flexibility to wirelessly stream audio from a wide range of devices airplay does offer theoretically better sound quality with Apple devices but it also requires a Wi-Fi network so luckily you can always fall back to bluetooth if you're using it outside your home network on the back there are a few ports including Ethernet a mini Jack input and an analog input there's also a convenient handle but that doesn't mean the Minx is portable because there's no built-in battery so you're always gonna need to have it plugged in for listening tests I had the Minx err 100 setup directly next to the clips KMC 3 and the Peachtree audio deep blue and it was quickly clear that the minx was the lightweight of the bunch the mixture sounded flat comparatively no matter what kind of music I threw at it and it didn't help that it was also the least loud classic rock tunes sounded noticeably less rich and the minks always had a tinny quality that it reminded you of its limitations it also couldn't produce as much bass as other speakers even with the bass control turned all the way up and that really was apparent when I was listening to any kind of heavy music the mix of shortcomings are less noticeable on softer Tunes but even then I preferred the richer sound from competing speakers and that's pretty much the story with the mink ser 100 it's not gonna win over anyone picky about sound quality but it does have a really nice look and a convenient feature set that makes it worth considering for less critical listeners I'm Matthew moscovia and this is the Cambridge audio mix air 100