MINIRIG 3 Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speaker

Product Information

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.

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If Minirig made the Mini dust and waterproof, it would be the best portable speaker you can buy. Unfortunately, for the time being, the Mini is only “splashproof” so you wouldn’t want to take it to the beach. For nearly half the price, the UE Wonderboom is an excellent alternative. No, it doesn’t sound as good as the Minirig Mini, but it’s good enough for most people and can be submerged in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes without biting the dust. The MiniRig 3 is just one of the many speaker options available today, but with its 100 hours of battery life, it’s become a must-have for many festivals and weekend events.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. 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.

Minirig Mini review | What Hi-Fi? Minirig Mini review | What Hi-Fi?

As mentioned above, the MiniRig 3 is intended to be a little more tech-friendly than its predecessors. You might notice audio occasionally cutting off from one unit if you have multiple devices connected.Keep in mind that there are also a host of additional peripherals that you can link to the MiniRig 3 from the same brand. Used in low gain, the device gets adequately loud when used in combination with my Huawei P9 and iPhone 7, but when I pressed the single all-purpose button, it switches over to the high gain mode the Minirig begins to roar. 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. 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.

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There is a single button that controls power, pairing, and gain output. The sides have points of connection for daisy-chaining the speaker with other Minirigs products such as the bass cannon and Minirig 2 or just another Mini to make a 2.1 style mini hi-fi system. 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. For instance, it’s nice to know that you can link multiple speakers to the same system and create a stereo surround sound effect. However, you can use a wiring option instead if you prefer more stability. The wiring connections mean that you can chain as many speakers as you like, without having to rely on Bluetooth.Minirigs is a UK-based company that has taken a completely different approach to designing a portable Bluetooth speaker. One of simple design and outstanding build. The simplicity and attention to detail and performance are what sets them apart. A couple of years ago, they released their Minirig System of Bluetooth speakers. You can read our original Minirig speaker review here, but the short version is that I was blown away and declared it my favorite Bluetooth speaker.2 years later, do I still feel the same? Yes. Have I found anything better? No. Not in a direct comparison of sound and performance with its competitors. 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. This little device can deliver some sensational power, with 40w of RMS to ensure you fill a whole room in seconds. So many other companies try and stuff multiple small diaphragms (tweeters, bass ports, etc.) into their small speakers that they end up with that weak and tiny sound. Minirigs solution of just putting in one single, high-quality unit inside. This seems so simple, but it provides the fullest, richest, deepest listening experience in this kind of form factor. Now, as I mentioned right at the start, I get a ridiculous number of Bluetooth speakers sent to me each year, so I think I have a good basis for comparison.

Minirig Mini Review - The Ultimate Travel Speaker Minirig Mini Review - The Ultimate Travel Speaker

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. As a speaker with a single driver, the MiniRig 3 goes above and beyond to deliver an unforgettable stereo sound experience. Although Bluetooth is available on these speakers, getting everything set up and working properly can be a real headache. There may be issues with lag and dropped connections to consider. Connectivity Credit: MinirigsThe 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. There are many things that make the MiniRig 3 well-worth your attention if you’re looking for something compact, durable, and brimming with power. This is handy if you’re going to be working in a booth with limited space. Build Quality and Design Credit: Minirigs 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. Best known for colorful, resilient, and durable speaker functionality, MiniRig gives you the kind of peripherals you need to perform in any environment.