MINIRIG 3 Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speaker

Product Information

You can access up to 100 hours of battery from this device, although it’s worth mentioning that the way you use your speaker will have an impact on the sound signature. While we intend to look at a full Minirigs 2.1 portable Hifi system later, this review will concentrate on a single Minirig Bluetooth speaker. We will take a look at its design and how it performed under our various tests and comparisons. Audiophile On doesn't usually cover Bluetooth Speakers. Available for both Android and Apple devices, the app gives you a 5-band equalizer that you can experiment with. There’s also more control over your music through the app. A. Yes. The Minirig 1 and 2 use a unique analog adaptable eq which has a cleaner sound and zero latency compared with digital DSP in aux mode. The downside of this is that when it adapts to the music (reduces bass at higher volumes) it will "switch" to a different eq setting which can be audible as a quiet "pop". It is not normally noticeable but in high gain and with very dynamic music, it can become apparent.

Clearly the long and thin stereo approach is more desirable for enhancing the audio when watching video on a laptop or any other occasion where you’ll be sat directly in front of the speaker/s but for just blasting out music while camping, gardening, cooking, partying in your hotel room, a single loudspeaker does the job just fine. To fully charge a Minirig 3 or Sub 3 from a power bank we would recommend using one rated to at least 9500mAh

The New Powerhouse

Though small enough to take wherever you go, the MiniRig 3 delivers a sensational sound quality that’s wonderfully clean and balanced. Although you won’t get the same crispness as you’d get from a speaker with a dedicated tweeter, you get much more than you’d expect. It's much more robust, reliable and longer lasting than micro USB as the connector pins are larger and less delicate At high volumes, there is a bit of distortion, especially in the bass as the single woofer struggles to provide enough impact, leading to a hollow and wooden sounding beat. Highs at max volume are slightly harsh but still very controlled. Various additions and changes make this speaker more impressive than ever, including a new custom-built 70mm driver with wonderfully deep bass, and a fantastic 100-hour battery life. For full details on how to connect the subwoofer to your Minirig or phone and for the best ways to use it, please read the subwoofer user manual AND the Minirig user manual.

A. The new MRBT-2 Minirig comes with the latest Bluetooth 4.2 software with improved stability. Unfortunately, this means the MRBT-2 will not pair with the original Bluetooth Minirig (pre-March 2017) in wireless stereo. If this is relevant to you, visit our support section for more information. They are still 100% compatible via aux (cable) mode and will work together as a wired stereo 2.1 system with the Minirig subwoofer. With some of these competitors coming in at an equivalent or even lower price, it means that, in terms of performance for pound, we are left wanting more for a little less. Keep in mind that there are also a host of additional peripherals that you can link to the MiniRig 3 from the same brand. 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. Even though it has been a few years since the Minirigs came out still regard it as the best-sounding Bluetooth speaker on the market also edging out Bang & Olufsen's A1. The Minirig 3 is on an entirely different level.With our other products, Minirig wired, Minirig Bluetooth, Minirig 2 and the Minirig subwoofer there is no DSP and the EQ/limiter is entirely analog. This means there is no delay. 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). 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.

MiniRig is one of the best-known brands on the market for customers in search of a compact, powerful speaker tech. 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 need a good level of medium high volume, this will significantly reduce the battery performance. 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). Sound quality. Quite frankly this is the biggie. Pasce has managed to cram a three-inch neodymium motor system inside the Minirig's 72 x 101.6 mm dimensions (height x diameter). Frequency response is consequently an impressive 100-20,000Hz (+/- 3db within this range), but most surprising is a 15-watt digital amplifier in a speaker that weighs just 424g. This is roughly five times the circa three-watt amplifier we have come to expect from portable speakers of a similar size.For the rest of this review, as mentioned, we will be talking about the use of 1 single Minirig speaker being used on its own, without being daisy-chained to other units. Essentially we want to look at how the Minirigs perform as a stand-alone portable travel speaker.

For instance, it’s nice to know that you can link multiple speakers to the same system and create a stereo surround sound effect. A. It is fine to use the Minirig while it is on charge however we do not recommend leaving it permanently connected to a power supply. (Please see below) Other than the single control button that powers the speaker on and off and, as mentioned, switches the gain modes, there are no other physical buttons or controls. There are no pause, play, skip, or volume controls, so everything will have to be monitored from your source device. This may be a deal-breaker to some, but since I tend to control my music from my phone, I never found it an issue. There’s also an app for Android and iPhone that enables you to play and pause your media, pair up Minirigs, switch between stereo and mono modes and even turn them off remotely. It’s a great little addition to the whole setup.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. 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 There is no volume button on the device, but they have two power settings that will instantly give more loudness and increase the fullness of the sound. You can switch between these modes via a single power button press. A testament to how well the Minirig holds up through punishment is that it has been on three long-distance motorbike and camping trips with me. The first is from Deli to Shimla in the Himalayas, the second is the full length of Vietnam, and the latest the up the spine of the Peruvian Andes and through Colombia. This little device can deliver some sensational power, with 40w of RMS to ensure you fill a whole room in seconds.