Minirig Bluetooth Review: Small Stature, Massive Sound

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Techaeris Rated 9.8/10

We’ve had a fair amount of Bluetooth speakers come in for review–all shapes and sizes–but the Minirig Bluetooth is in a class all its own. Minirig is a UK company just getting a leg into the US market, and they sent along their Minirig Bluetooth for us to take a look at. Check out our full review below and find out why the Minirig Bluetooth took one of our coveted Techaeris Top Picks of 2016!

Minirig Bluetooth Specifications

[graphiq id=”3tQ5sWF54e9″ title=”MinirigBluetooth” width=”1085″ height=”759″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/3tQ5sWF54e9″ link=”http://wireless-speakers.specout.com/l/1501/Minirig-Bluetooth-Portable-Speaker” link_text=”MinirigBluetooth | SpecOut” ]

What’s In The Box

  • Nylon carrying case
  • Speaker
  • AUX cable 3.5mm
  • Barrel to USB power cable

Design

Made from high quality aluminium and some plastics, this little speaker is made tough. It’s like a little tank, and it feels like it could take a good beating; although, we didn’t put that to the test. On the top you’ll find one button which serves as the power, Bluetooth pairing and gain button. On the side you’ll find two AUX inputs and a barrel power connector. You’ll have to plug into a smartphone wall charger to charge up the internal battery as there is not one included. Overall this is a nicely designed and well built speaker.

Ease Of  Use

For such a small little speaker there are a load of features here…so many that it’s hard to pick where to start. First off, the Minirig can be paired with other Minirigs beefing up your sound even more than what one speaker offers. Daisy chaining these puppies together is something I didn’t get a chance to do, but I can imagine that the sound is, as the British would say, mental! Not only can you daisy chain the Minirigs together, but the company also offers a sub-woofer that can be added to the chain, providing an even more massive low end. Again, we didn’t have the sub-woofer for testing.

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Moving on to the Android and brand new iOS apps. You don’t need the apps to control your speaker, but they do give you quick access to the speaker if you chose to place it out of hands reach. With the app you can control the gain, mute, play, pause, FFW, REV, switch sources, dim the power button, pair speakers and power off the unit. See the gallery below for screenshots of the app. The app is useful and it is easy to use but not a necessity.

Pairing the Minirig to your device is simple, if you’ve paired any Bluetooth device you will be able to pair with the Minirig. The power button/Bluetooth button also acts as the gain button. Now this is where things get interesting. The Minirig ships with the gain button on low. At first I felt that the sound coming from the Minirig was nice but not as loud as the company had told me it would be. Even with my phone at full volume, I wasn’t very impressed. It wasn’t until I double checked the users guide that I noticed the power/Bluetooth button was a gain button. Let’s move on to sound for more about the gain and volume of this device.

Sound

The volume is exclusively controlled by your device but that little button…that little button controls the gain and oh my….what gain it is. I didn’t bother turning the volume down when I pressed that gain button and that my friends, just about blew me away. When you have the Minirig on high gain it is massively loud. For the size of this thing it screams! Furthermore, I was shocked that I was hearing no distortion at all coming from this speaker. Just as the company had promised, there was no cracking and no distortion whatsoever.

The sound is rich and vibrant and well balanced. Nothing overpowers anything else, the bass is in check and the mids and highs all work in harmony. Even at high gain with my Nextbit Robin volume cranked, everything was crispy and sounding great. I usually wouldn’t promote such a small speaker for parties but the sound coming from this speaker would suit a small party just fine. The Minirig’s sound is absolutely stellar and as crisp as you can get from such a small package!

Battery Life

The company advertises 50 hours of battery life and we managed just over that with volume around 60%. Minirig is proud of the battery on this device and they should be, considering how small the device is and how much power of sound it is pushing.

Price/Value

You can pick this up on Amazon for $189.95 which is on the high end for Bluetooth speakers in this size range. But frankly, I’m not sure you’ll find another Bluetooth speaker this small with this much quality sound and this well built.

Wrap Up

While the price tag is high, Minirig brings its A game, and with Amazon’s return policy you might just want to check them out. You likely won’t ever return it.

*We were sent a review sample of the Minirig Bluetooth for the purposes of this review.

Last Updated on June 23, 2021.

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