The London-based Cambridge Audio isn't a household name here in the states, but it's well-regarded among high-end audio enthusiasts familiar with the company's beautiful-sounding stereo components. Now Cambridge Audio is moving into the ever-popular wireless speaker realmand with a bang. The Minx Air 200 ($599 direct), the larger of the company's new wireless speakers, works over both Bluetooth and AirPlay, and also streams Internet radio over a home network. It's designed to work in large living rooms, thanks to its 200-watt amp, built-in subwoofer, and digital signal processing. It's not flawless, but it's a solid competitor that's well worth its admittedly high price.
Design, Controls, and Remote
The Minx Air 200 measures 8.7 by 17.7 by 6.9 inches (HWD) and weighs 11.2 pounds. The overall design errs on the side of understateda bit too much sobut it'll look fine in just about any modern décor. If there's any real problem with the styling, it's that it doesn't look like it costs as much as it does, the way Bowers & Wilkins or Bang & Olufsen products tend to. The acoustically-damped enclosure is finished in a white gloss plastic, with a silver plastic accent band around the front panel edge and a gray cloth grille. Behind the unit, there's a nifty handle built into the injection molded plastic; carrying the Minx Air 200 is a cinch as a result, even despite its somewhat large size.
The top panel features two sets of five gray rubber buttons, on the left side and right. The left side contains five number presets, while the right side contains Bluetooth, Analog Input, Volume Up/Down, and Power buttons. The back panel includes a power input, a hardware bass level control, a WPS button, an Ethernet port, a micro USB jack for servicing the unit, a 3.5mm auxiliary input, and a pair of stereo RCA inputs. The power supply is built into the unit, so you only need the included white two-prong AC power cord. That's a relief, since most speakers like this require a semi-proprietary cable and an in-line power brick.
The remote is a small, thin, black plastic slab with six rows of three buttons, including Volume Up/Down, Mute, Bluetooth, Bass Up/Down, and 10 Radio Preset buttons. The buttons are bubbled plastic membrane keys that are easy to press one-handed, but they're not backlit, and the speaker responds quickly to button presses.
When you power on the Minx Air, an LED on the back flashes orange and green. To set up AirPlay, you have to connect to the Minx Air's adhoc Wi-Fi hotspot. Once you do, you type 192.168.1.1 into your PC or Mac's browser, select your Wi-Fi network's SSID from the list, and type in your password and click Apply. The Minx Air will save the configuration, and your own PC will see the Minx Air hotspot disappear, meaning that it should automatically reconnect to your existing home network. If all is well, you'll be able to select the Minx Air from your iOS device. It's a functional setup process, but the Bowers & Wilkins A7 has a much more streamlined system.
Cambridge Audio also makes available a free Minx Air iOS app, which I tested using an iPhone 5. The app lets you control the device as if it were a remote, as well as find and store Internet radio stations from a selection of over 20,000. It also includes something you can't get via the front panel or hardware remote: 10 DSP presets for modifying the speaker's frequency response curve. Unfortunately, you can't actually set up the Minx Air with the app, so you're stuck with using the desktop router-like interface on a PC or Mac.
Performance and Conclusions
Inside is a 200-watt class-D amplifier driving two 2.25-inch balance mode radiator drivers and a 6.5-inch subwoofer. At idle, the Minx Air 200 consumes less than half a watt of power from the wall. Unfortunately, I heard some low-level background hiss at idle when powered up, just as I heard with the smaller Minx Air 100. It's not a problem if you sit far away from the speaker, but if it's on your desk or on a nearby side table, you'll notice it.
Audiophiles may have sneered at the first round of iPod speaker docks that began to hit the market a decade ago, but that's ancient history. The Minx Air 200 delivers thunderous bass extension and punch, easily the most I've heard from any similar wireless speaker. On Flunk's "Indian Rope Trick," the Minx Air 200 shook the room rendering the track's extended synth bass notes, all while delivering just the right amount of mid-bass emphasis on each kick drum hit.
Queen of the Stone Age's "Little Sister" had plenty of energy, with smooth effected vocals, crisp guitars, and a wooden block on the quarter notes that sat nicely in the mix. Rage Against The Machine's "Fistful of Steel" delivered plenty of aggressive guitar crunch, although the subwoofer driver was a little sluggish in pounding out the kick drum notes; a little more tightness here would have been welcome.
On Bill Callahan's "Drover," his baritone voice came through with a nice sense of weight and clarity. Unlike with the Minx Air 100, I easily heard the eighth-note kick drum backbeat when it kicked in, and the acoustic guitar sparkled and sounded full bodied.
The speaker also doesn't distort, even when playing deep bass tracks at top volumes, such as our standard torture test track, The Knife's "Silent Shout." And unlike the smaller Minx Air 100, I didn't hear any compression artifacts even at higher volumes, most likely thanks to the Minx Air 200's separate subwoofer driver that can be worked hard without affecting the midrange and high-end response. I also tested the Minx Air 200 on a table far away from a wall, turning up the subwoofer level dial to compensate. I still thought the speaker could use slightly faster and tighter bass punch.
This is nitpicking, thoughand I'll argue it's justified considering the sticker price. At $599.99, the Minx Air 200 isn't inexpensive, but it's very well designed and delivers powerful, transparent sound. Its primary competition is from Bowers & Wilkins, which offers three separate products in a similar price range. The Zeppelin Air costs the same and offers a lot more stylesome might say too muchand it's an actual speaker dock that comes in both 30-pin and Lightning Connector versions. It also supports AirPlay, but not Bluetooth. Bowers & Wilkins also sells two fully wireless speakers; the Minx Air 200 is $100 less than the Bowers & Wilkins A7, and $100 more than the Bowers & Wilkins A5. Both of those models also support AirPlay and not Bluetooth, but both sound fantastic and look classier to boot.
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