MINIRIG 3 Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speaker

Product Information

A key feature of the Minirig’s design is that it only uses a single speaker. This allows the company to fit in a 3-inch driver in a device that’s only 4 inches across by 3.75 inches deep. Devices that use two speakers, such as the Beats Pill, may be able to offer stereo sound, but from much smaller drivers and a much larger unit. Just a single speaker will be more than enough to really get people gathering together in an open space, or even encourage some complaints from the neighbors.

In fact our existing Minirig has even survived a few rain showers and the new Minirig is specifically IPX4 rated for resistance to splashing water – Minirigs also claims it has an “air tight enclosure”. It won’t survive a trip to the bottom of a pool, but the general abuse you’d expect from a camping trip or being left at the bottom of the garden is something it will brush aside. I don't tend to cover Bluetooth speakers here at Audiophile On, but companies send a lot to our offices. By that, I mean a lot of very average or outright crappy Bluetooth speakers. I won't bother covering them most of the time as nothing about them really stands out. When we decide to write about one, it means that we think highly enough for us to recommend it to our readers. This is handy if you’re going to be working in a booth with limited space. Build Quality and Design Credit: Minirigs

To just get music playing, you hold down the single button on the top of the speaker, pair with it via Bluetooth from your music device (such as your phone), and play music. There is very little you can do from the speaker itself regarding controlling the music – not even volume control, other than toggle between low and high gain modes. All that happens from the music source, or from the Minirig app (more about that later). There is no “pairing” mode as such, as they are always pairable when switched on, and they can remember up to eight devices. In this respect I actually found them harder to use than other Bluetooth speakers, in that I sometimes had to actively pair them to my phone when I wanted to use them – turning them on wasn’t enough. I didn’t always need to and I suspect maybe I’m missing something, although I can’t figure out what! If you walked by the Minirig Bluetooth speakers on the high street, you probably wouldn't have given them a second look. The outer housing is pretty bland, industrial, and to the point. It doesn't come across as funky and unique as the UE Flip or as classy and elegant as the Beoplay A1 from Bang & Olufsen. Micro USB is the standard right now, but every few years the standard changes and the old connectors become obsolete. Mini USB was replaced by Micro USB and now reversible USB micro C will be replacing the micro connector soon.

A final quibble is the battery LED which is almost too clever for its own good. Shifting from green (100-90 percent) to blue-green (100-25 percent) to blue (30-25 percent), to purple (25-0 percent) to red (dead) looks great, but we can't help thinking a simple green LED transitioning to red would be simpler at a glance. Is it crucial? With the enormous capacity of the Minirig, no. The MiniRig Linkup function is also a new feature, which ensures you can connect your devices without having to worry about extra wires. Up to a really decent volume, these sound just great. Clear, full frequency, just really special for the size. Now, when DJing, we all know the tendency is to push things louder and louder. These are small speakers, and so past a certain level, they do struggle. It’s important to point out that they reach this level at quite some volume, but eventually you get there. At that point, the audio gets harsher and the bass is severely curtailed – but there is no real distortion, and the compromises the DSP makes are the right ones. In short, they are the best you are going to get at this size for DJing. With Bluetooth A. We would advise NEVER to unscrew the top of the Minirig to avoid damaging the speaker inside. If there is a little bit of sand inside the best thing to do is to make sure it is completely dried out and then CAREFULLY hoover it up with the small nozzle on the vacuum cleaner. It shouldn't affect the sound. It's much more adaptable. For example, we can use it to take power out and put power in with a variety of voltages and currents.

General

Although there are slightly more attractive great speakers out there, you’ll struggle to find anything as simultaneously strong and compact as the MiniRig 3.

With Bluetooth, the delay is around 150mS (0.15 seconds) for 1 speaker) or 500ms (0.5 seconds) for 2 speakers in stereo which is standard across most Bluetooth devices. You will notice this delay when watching a video with the 150mS delay being just about acceptable. Some video players allow you to delay the video to synchronise the sound.

Worlds smallest portable subwoofer

The “3” in the speaker’s name refers to the 3 stages of evolution the MiniRig has moved through during the last few years. In conclusion, if you want something portable and battery-powered for DJing that looks, feels and sounds professional, the Minirigs have stand alone – and the current Minirig 3 plus subwoofer combination is the company’s best yet. Despite its (mainly software) limitations, it is still our favourite such speaker system for DJing and overall use. To power on, there is a small bump of a button that, when pressed, will start glowing. You turn the unit on and search for the Bluetooth device, and you are connected and ready to play music from the go. Consequently, the Minirig is loud (startlingly so). Though a smart limiter circuit automatically stops the Minirig from damaging itself. That said the real achievement is the audio quality.

That said, an individual Minirig, used on its own, is a mono speaker. This is as opposed to a stereo unit that other small portable units aspire to be. This is important because, by making a single unit mono only, Minirigs can fit a larger 3-inch speaker into this device. Other companies try to cram multiple speakers of inferior quality into their units. Here, the 3-inch diaphragm can move more air and produce a way better sound and a much fuller and deeper bass response. Keep in mind that there are also a host of additional peripherals that you can link to the MiniRig 3 from the same brand. The Aesthetic is straightforward and industrial-looking. I like it, and it is available in several different colors for you to choose from. It's a case of them trying to build the most compact and best-sounding speaker and then trying to make a housing around that that is exceptionally robust while adding minimal bulk to the design. A. Whilst we ship to most countries around the world there are a few exceptions mainly due to cost. We can provide a quote for you, please send a message with the details and we will do our best!Hooking together 2 Minirigs and the subunit makes a stand-alone 2.1 sound system that remains portable enough to take with you to parties and camping trips. It is an incredibly versatile, well-thought-out system and one that we think has been grossly overlooked by the audio community thus far. But worse than that, it just didn’t work very well for me. Renaming speakers so you can tell them apart more easily on Bluetooth was hit and miss; sometimes the app didn’t “find” a speaker at all, even though it was connected and playing via Bluetooth; the EQ didn’t seem to work for me with a stereo pairing (or you couldn’t access the pairing at all). The sound on a single Minirig speaker was matched only by the Beoplay A1 in my side-by-side testing. It managed to get louder and maintain a high level of detail before any JBL, Gear4, or Taotronics units started to distort. Even when pushed way past the comfortable listening point, the sound doesn't degrade as sharply as any of those units. The clarity and detail retrieved at normal levels are remarkable for something so small.