Gadgetory

the jazz mini is a beautiful and compact aluminum stand for your smartphone that even holds tablets up to eight inches click now to learn more welcome to the first in a series of desktop speaker reviews I've been at work on these for quite some time and your feedback is welcome on how we can continue to improve them so first up is the very famous and a very sexy Bowers & Wilkins n M ones starting off we've got the i/o they've got an integrated DAC which means they'll run off a single mini USB connector to your PC or Mac but if you prefer you can also use a three-and-a-half millimeter analog connector which will override the other audio source the left speaker connects to the right via a hardwired cable that then plugs in to the bottom of the back of the right and routes through the rubber base of the speaker detachable would have been better for me on this side but I guess it's not that big of a deal you would never run the left speaker by itself each speaker has a premium feeling cloth material covering the business stuff aluminum accents and clearly imprinted R and L indicators to show which speaker goes where with simple Bowers & Wilkins branding and a grippy rubber base that isn't going to go anywhere there is no doubt that their stylish I actually didn't appreciate how great they look until I set them up I'm doing all of my listening tests on my XPS 12 two and one altra book and then when you combine one sexy minimalistic piece of hardware with another one it gives you a much better appreciation for the thought that went into the design of these things with style out of the way though I don't feel organ onyx are a very strong point the right speaker contains the DAC amp and controls but while I appreciate its simplicity and clean looks I feel like some of the functionality is compromised I mean the headphone port is actually behind the speaker on the back and the power button which also serves as a mute button and volume control while being sexy and built into the aluminum strip that goes around when you push on the sides you actually physically move the speaker so I found that you'll pretty much have to use be fortunately included handy dandy remote if you're making any changes to you know volume or power or actually you can change tracks and stuff on it as well so that's a fairly nice inclusion now getting into the listening tests a maximum volume is a weak point of the mm one's cranking them past around 70 to 75 percent volume on my PC tanks the sound quality I mean it's not crackling or some other kind of obvious distortion and I'm not sure if it's a power limiter or something else but the mids seem to completely disappear and the effect actually persists if you quickly lower the volume to a more reasonable level it takes a few seconds to recover and then they sound good again they're fine for sitting at your PC listening to music while getting some work done but if you're expecting to bother your neighbors with them then you better sneak into their house tape the emam ones to their unsuspecting heads and then start rocking out if you want it to have that sort of effect more listening tests where I really felt like these Shawn for me was their stereo and a Jing when listening to music coming into this series of reviews my experience has been with mostly computer speakers notably the clips for me to ultra five-point ones Razer Makos of course are SP 2500 and I've just never been able to figure out what the heck people are talking about when they're like oh yeah the singers voice should sound like it's coming out of an imaginary center Channel well now I know they perform incredibly well in that way and it really surprised me that I was getting a sound like that out of something this small speaking of sounds out of something this small the bass performance of the mm once actually surprised me as well it does feel a bit one-dimensional as if a lot of engineering went into reproducing a limited I'll be it well controlled and punchy range of lower frequency sound but that they just couldn't do more than that due to the size and design constraints I mean this was expected though size Trump's all when it comes to making big sounds and low frequency sounds but it just ended up being disappointing sometimes because the highs sounds so clean and detailed that in quieter parts of the track as it builds towards a crescendo yet when the hair start to rise on the back ear neck and you're expecting a wave of immersion in the music and then they fall short in that way it's like a sneeze that's coming and doesn't I mean I don't my news excels less full than I'm used to hearing it and forget about action games and movies there's simply no Rumble to them so I guess this negative point it is a negative point but could also be seen as a positive point though I mean I'm criticizing a product for being dramatically better than I expected in one area which drew my attention to its shortcomings in another where it would have been physically impossible for it to really be much better so it might be unfair but it just doesn't change the listening experience other than the aforementioned power limiter issue mids and highs performed very well and at reasonable levels they really do sound great with a wide variety of different music highs in particular again we're just playing clearer and more accurate sounding than anything else in my upcoming review series female vocalists just sing through these I mean you know they're singing but but they sound a really good as my point males do get lost a little bit by comparison and if you want to get the most out of your rap collection and you might want to grab some bones companion fives instead but that doesn't change that the mm one's really surprised me all right so we're getting close to the end now but before I get into the conclusion I do want to address something I've seen many comments about in user reviews of these speakers earth to the people buying these yes the right speaker gets warm on the top and it's okay who cares I mean what are you doing licking it it is smart design to use a stylish aluminum construction as a heatsink and that's all they're doing here there's an amp in there so anyway there are much more valid complaints to make about the mmm ones the most important of which are they're dated feature set and that bizarre power limiter feature that limits them to about 75 percent volume so I think the real conclusion for this product comes down to how you're going to listen to them whether they live in an apartment or not some people don't itch to turn the volume knob clockwise some people want what looks good next to their MacBook and will pay handsomely for something that does and if it also performs pretty well then great but while I understand I'm not the target customer for the MM ones and dropping 500 dollars on something that doesn't have a subwoofer in the name of getting something that delivers accurate well balanced sound very little cable clutter and admit beautiful ID and a super tiny form-factor is just not my thing I do see why someone would want the mmm ones and actually be very happy with them for those folks I will say this though the simple audio listens are also worth a look they are bigger and subjectively not as good looking but they performed similarly in the mid-range deliver stronger and more detailed bass and while they and everything else in this roundup lack the same crystal clear detail in the highs they sound fuller though much louder without strange behavior and are a more modern design with their touch sensitive controls and built-in Bluetooth connectivity with that out of the way there are other combinations that be bang for the buck crowd will be interested in for about $500 compared to either of those two but I'm going to make you stay tuned for the rest of the series if you want all of the answers speaking of the bang for the buck crowd we have a new sponsor 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